I’m a bit of a worrier, and throughout my career I’ve always been pretty concerned about avoiding mistakes and not upsetting people. Interestingly, to me at least, this has been a bit of a challenge as a developer.

I’ve been in my new role at Cleo for 3 months now, and I’ve found backend development a complete mix of enjoyable and frustrating.

Having been away from full-time coding for a couple of years, I often find that I know what I want to achieve but I’m not totally sure what code to write. That’s been compounded by this being both the first Rails app I’ve worked on, and it being the first established app rather than greenfield project for me professionally.

Wow a lot has happened since my last post! I’ve started a new job and oh yeah, COVID-19 turned into a pandemic changing almost everything about my day-to-day life.

I’m in an extremely fortunate position; my job is secure, so far I haven’t been sick, and I don’t have many day-to-day responsibilities. As a result, I find myself with a lot more free time these days. Initially I took advantage of this to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation. I’ve had a hectic few years so some down time was very much appreciated.

But recently I’ve felt much more energetic, and I’ve started challenging this energy into two side projects.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started some introductory Computer Science courses, in preparation for starting my BSc in April with the University of London online course

As far as I can tell, the introductory courses offered on Coursera, are excerpts from the full degree courses, so give an accurate feel for the workload involved.

This week I’ve been making a big effort to learn something every day - often several things. I have a few different learning projects on the go, but I have a different approach for each of them.

I have a tendency to take on too much (that might be what’s happening right now!) but I definitely find that the busier I am, the more productive I am.

So, the question is how do I stay busy and productive, without getting burnt out?

I’m still going through the process of registering for my BSc in Computer Science. However, as this is one of the first fully online degrees from the University of London, there are three taster courses currently available on Coursera.

I’ve started ‘auditing’ the courses, which means I can work through the material for free, but I won’t receive a mark or certification.