I don't have much time, can I still learn to program?

Last updated: 2007-01-08 00:00:00

Here are a few thoughts on how to deal with things if you don't have much time.

So you don't have much time? Who does?

Well... some of us have a lot less time to devote to study than others. Here are a few tips on making/taking more time

The number one rule: Do the most effective thing at all times

Most of the other ideas are implementations of this rule. The main thing here is to always do the thing that brings the most value...

I'll be filling this out with more details as soon as I get a chance...

Kill two birds with one stone, number one: Learn to automate computer tasks that are taking too much of your time right now.

This is a very important rule, and gets right to the heart of what computer programs are all about. Anything that you are doing "by hand" on your omputer - like making backups of files, for example - you can find a way to automate.

I'll give some examples here soon...

Kill two birds with one stone, number two: Find something that you do without the computer that you could automate with a simple program

You can learn to program and at the same time make more time for yourself to learn more programming. This is like perpetual motion, sort of. Anything that a computer can do as well or better than a human is a good candidate for automating - repetitive things, calculations, keeping track of details, etc. I got this idea from something I read that Peter Norton had written in a book (there was no internet in those days). If you are too young to remember books, you can Google it and find some info about it.

I'll try to add some examples here soon.

Find stuff at work that can be improved with a simple program and talk someone into letting you do it.

This is the classic "Earn as you learn" - and this has a lot of benefits. As you solve problems, your boss or manager might start depending on you to do more and more with the computers.

There will be some examples and ideas on how to go about this at some point in the future... sooner rather than later, I hope.