I started writing Django in April 2019, but I wasn't getting the most of it because I just started out my programming life which I never ever thought I would take seriously until this year 2022. There were a lot of things that I didn't get right, There were a lot of things that I found confusing at that time and these things kind of discouraged me. There was no actual person to guide me through the journey nor was there anyone willing to help then. It wasn't until I came back with full determination to get better at Django that I stared discovering some tips and skills which I would like to share with you.
When you are starting out a new programming language, try to build mini scale projects, and then when you figure out that what you would like to build and you do not know how to build it, Please and Please do not google how to build that exact thing you want to build, instead read documentations, read PDFs and books about that programming language. Even if you are following a tutorial, make sure you know why your tutor is writing which ever code that he is writing for you to follow. Always try to understand why each line of code is the way it is.
You should try to understand what that line does and not just go ahead and copy the code into you text editor. If you do this at the end of the day you will just find out that you have completed many projects with the help of the video tutorial,but you cannot create the project from scratch without the video tutorial. I am saying this because I relate to this 100%, there was time I felt like I know the code because I have written it before, but I just don't know it because I couldn't write it without help from google.
Even if you google the project and eventually you get the open source code from the internet, you should also try to understand why that programmer wrote each and every line of code he did. This way you can easily debug the code yourself when it brings an error. This gives you real experience and makes you confident about your skills
Always comment your code. When you eventually figure it all out and even before then, comment your code, this will help you understand what you intended to do when you wrote that code in the first place. And it helps you refresh your memory, this way you do not forget and it also helps other programmers who read your code understand it. When you push your code to Github or and other open source code platform comments makes it easy for other programmers who might be interested in your program understand what you did there too.
And yes set goals for yourself too an d congratulate yourself when you achieve them, From long term goals to short term goals, just have a time based goal you want to achieve. Little drops of water makes a mighty ocean, When you set goals and achieve them little by little you become a pro.
Hi I am Ikwuje Peace, A Software Engineer Follow for more interesting tips and real life hacks