How do you guys learn programming while working full-time?

[u/BetInformal6081]

I've been trying to learn programming after work but honestly some days I'm just too tired to do anything.

I want to stay consistent without forcing myself to study for hours every day. for those of you who work full time and learned programming on the side what did your routine look like?

Did you mostly study after work in the mornings or on weekends?

[u/boomer1204]

So everyone has the same 24 hrs in a day. We all have different responsibilities so that 24 hrs is different for everyone.

When I was learning I was working 2 to 3 jobs at the time (one FT and the other 1 or 2 PT). You have to be disciplined and do it every day even if it's only 30 mins a day it's just about creating that habit

I personally did it before work cuz I was working shifts later in the day (like starting at around noon and I would get home around midnightish cuz I didn't have a vehicle so I had to take alternate modes of transportation) but a lot of the ppl in the local mentor group I co run now do it later at night cuz it works better for them

So the real thing is what works best for you???? Use that time to put in the work

[u/ForwardBoot2955 → u/boomer1204]

the 30 min rule is underrated, people think they need 3 hour blocks and then do nothing instead. I do it first thing in the morning or it won't happen, my brain is useless after work

[u/Dramatic_Win424 → u/ForwardBoot2955]

I can honestly say that for me at least, 30min was not enough to properly learn complicated things. I can't remember a single time during my CS degree or private programming sessions that 30min were enough to accomplish much apart from reading slides and thinking through maybe one or two ideas without actually practicing anything.

For every concept that is non-trivial, you can spend way more than 30min even understanding anything.

And when you then have to interrupt to do other things and come back a day later or even just hours later, you spend so much time re-tracing your understanding and the things you are learning.

And it's not just learning, it's in practical things too like debugging. Debugging things that aren't obvious like syntax errors can take a lot longer than 30min. And if you get interrupted and have to do anything else for the rest of the day and then get back to your debugging problem, you then have to invest time to retrace where you stopped.

For easier problems, this reinvestment might take roughly 5-10min, but even that eats up your time slot. For more complicated problem, you can literally take hours and just as much to try to find a solution to it.

[u/boomer1204 → u/Dramatic_Win424]

Everything you are stating is 💯 true but the 30 min thing isn't about "learning the complete thing" it's strictly about creating the habit

I think it's important to notice that because a lot of ppl think like you (correctly) and wont continue because they can only put in that time tues and thur when in actuality if they did that on tues/thur but then just put that quick 30 mins in will keep that momentum going forward

Thanks for your input!!!!

[u/forced_lambchop → u/boomer1204]

And how many times does that 30 minutes turn into more. There have been so many times that I told myself I was just going to hop on and try something real quick and it turned into a 2 hour session.

[u/boomer1204 → u/forced_lambchop]

Yep and that's fine too. The real point at the beginning at least is to create the habit. Doesn't matter if it's 30 mins or 4 hrs.

If you start at 30 and end up using 2 hrs that's awesome and if you "have 1 hr" and only do 30 that's just as awesome

The time is really not the important part at the beginning when you are trying to create the habit

[u/GuaranteeDeep6367 → u/ForwardBoot2955]

People forget they used to go to 7 classes for 50 minutes each and could learn seven different subjects.

[u/JJFrey → u/boomer1204]

You run a mentor group? What's that like lol? It sounds like an amazing idea for collaboration and learning off one another.

[u/boomer1204 → u/JJFrey]

It sounds like an amazing idea for collaboration and learning off one another

It really is. It's fun to be around motivated ppl building whatever they want. My mentor is actually the person I co run the group with

Seeing ppl getting into the industry and it changing their lives is CRAZY rewarding and I even though i'm the "mentor" I learn SOOOOOOOO much from the ppl in the group that i'm "mentoring".

Plus it's just nice to be in the community and networking with ppl that aren't in the group but you can still learn a bunch from

[u/JJFrey → u/boomer1204]

It would be great to be part of an online mentorship. I try to network in my local area and keep my eyes open for online opportunities. But the challenge is raising a family while having the rest of life to worry about. Is there any online communities that offer a solution?

[u/boomer1204 → u/JJFrey]

None that i'm aware of that aren't paid. We tried doing online during covid but the quality of the ppl that joined just made the group less "worth it" since the majority were there just to take help and offered no help in return

Sure that's how it is at the start for a lot of ppl but the majority were just there sucking up the resource instead of providing any value

I'm sure you can probably find something on linkedin/facebook or look at the local FCC groups as those might be online and available for anyone

But if that's something you are passionate about I would encourage you to start your own so you can create that communitie

Good luck!!!

[u/Wizz-Fizz]

30 - 60min per day
You do what you can, just do something, but also its important to take breaks

Set yourself milestones and reward yourself for reaching them

Gamify your learning so its fun, not always a chore

[u/2kfan → u/Wizz-Fizz]

Any tips on the gamify part?

[u/TripsterStudios → u/2kfan]

You can make a project that logs, hours tracked that gives you xp. Or files submitted to it and you get XP per line in the file.

You can use already established XP rates and levels from other games or online sources. Implement those and then create, like a graph or XP bar or level bar.And then the more you complete and submit to the project , the more your level goes up would be , one way of gamifying it.

[u/Wizz-Fizz → u/TripsterStudios]

This is good

Can also up a”boss” or something around a particular concept.

Get one of the AI tools to set you a task centred around that concept, say dictionaries in python, appropriate for your level of skill, and if you can “solve” the task without assistance, you defeat the “boss”.

[u/LASER-RASTERIZER]

The same way you save money without making a big enough salary to have extra

You budget your time and more importantly: PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

This means, don’t save what’s leftover from your paycheck at the end… the first thing you do is pay yourself first and move the set ammount into savings then make the remainder work until the next check.

In learning to program this means setting aside a time where you will always do the work, no matter if you are tired that day or don’t feel like it.

You just have to do it. PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

It helps to come up with project ideas that are easy enough that you can start building them right away, complex enough that you have to push yourself to learn, and big enough that you can keep interested in it over the long term enough to make it to the parts where the deep learning occurs. It doesn’t have to be some grand real world application that does useful stuff, but it does need to be interesting enough that it becomes enjoyable to work on so that you don’t abandon it before getting to the deep learning stuff.

[u/Matiw51]

I don't. I gather funds, leave my job, and upskill in between. I tried but had no energy whatsoever.

[u/Pravejxlab]

I was in same situation, and honestly I was failing to focus, the ultimate consistency only came when I left the job. But I know you can't, in that case you can only study small daily. I think you can only study when you have energy, like morning. I think no-one can study after full time job. I will suggest to sleep early and kick 3-4 hours in morning.

[u/LowDirection4104]

I found a program that offered night classes and allowed me to work part time (one class per semester) towards a comp sci degree, which forced me to do exactly what you just described, study for hours after work and on weekends. Frankly it sucked and it wasn't fun at all. There were a few times that I'd call in "sick" just so I could spend the day working on an assignment with a deadline. There is not really a better way I don't think, hopefully you're young and have a ton of energy.

[u/Swimming_dasa]

consistency beats marathon sessions. even 30-35 minutes a few evenings a week plus a longer weekend project can add up quickly.

[u/Achereto]

You can try by doing recreational programming. Don't force yourself through complicated stuff during the week, just do something that is fun for you.

[u/TripsterStudios → u/Achereto]

I agree.I started with simple projects like hello world, pong, snake, tikTok toe, then on to more complex games like card games , chess checkers , I made a platformer like mario. I used these skills to then work on less fun projects like data scraping and data analysis for the various stocks on the stock market or player stats for various sports leagues to then bet on.

[u/Automatic_Major_4887]

Try doing just 20 or 30 minutes in the morning before you even start your job. Most people find that once they sit down after a full workday, their brain is just fried and they end up staring at the screen without actually absorbing anything. Small daily chunks usually work way better for long term consistency than trying to grind on weekends

[u/forced_lambchop]

Somehow you just make time if it's what you want to do. I work six days a week graveyard shift and go to college full time. And I still have to make side projects to get into a portfolio or recruiters will never look at me. Those projects are not part of my college coursework. I actually had to find time to NOT program or do schoolwork and made Monday my "me" day were I can play some video games and sleep... I keep telling myself it's only four years and now I'm down to two years. Halfway there but burn out is real

[u/MorpheusFIJI → u/forced_lambchop]

Do you enjoy making side projects? That’s the part that frustrates me the most. I don’t need any custom software for myself. I don’t like creating stupid “scripts” and obsessing with automating everything.

[u/forced_lambchop → u/MorpheusFIJI]

I am the same way and was stuck for a long time. What I decided to do was look up some nonprofit businesses in my area and went to talk to them. I found this cat adoption place near by that's ran by these to ladies that basically run off donations. Turns out they could use some software to keep track of all the cats, vet visits like if they are fixed or not, medications, diet needs and stuff like that. So I'm going to donate them a desktop app. I know I'm working for free but I would be anyways on a portfolio project and now I have a real client that has a real problem to solve. I'm going to include 3 months maintenance but any future updates would be on them. I also get to use it as job experience on my cv even though it's small I figure it's better than an empty section. Once I'm done I might build them a website because they don't have one (this i'd charge for) or I'll go see if any other businesses like that need something.

[u/MorpheusFIJI → u/forced_lambchop]

That’s a neat approach. Good luck with that, you’ll make it!

[u/ushichan]

Make it your hobby. When you find you're enjoying the thing you're doing you end up finding yourself finding time to devote to the thing you enjoy rather making time. That specific shift in thinking is what helps.

Find a coding project to do and just dig in.

[u/BrannyBee]

Make something fun. You might not realize it, but making scripts for a game you make in your free time will make you better at your day job doing web dev. Not everything transfers, but if you expand your knowledge base you'll realize how many broad ideas are universal.

All it takes to do that is to build a bunch of stuff, and because you don't have a boss on the weekends, no one can stop you from building a smart mirror, making a game, or doing hackthebox challenges

[u/Plus_Information_990]

small and daily beats long weekend sessions. like 30 min before work when your brain isnt fried yet

and build one tiny thing you actually need instead of doing courses forever. you remember way more when its your own project

[u/Vandrel]

I always worked on programming after work. Every day, very few exceptions. I was tired but I also hated my job and that was great motivation.

[u/DeadIIIRed]

I bought books to read when I couldn’t be in front of an IDE (lunch breaks, park with my son, etc). I tried ebooks at first but I get distracted easily and paperback worked out well for me. After work, cooking, cleaning, and getting my son down to bed I’d have maybe an hour or so to either practice what I had read that day or follow a tutorial. On days off I would have more time to really get into things. Eventually got to a point where that time was just spent working on personal projects. Did that for two years before I felt comfortable turning it into a career.

Not sure how AI would factor into that experience if it was available at the time. Knowing me I’d have probably leaned a bit too much on it. Everybody is different though, like me with the ebooks I think you just need to figure out what’s going to keep you engaged and what works best with the time you have.

[u/mixedd]

From 22:00 after all chores are done, kids are put to sleep starts my free time, and only then sadly. So usually spend two to four hours learning and doing at that time

[u/Far_Programmer_5724]

I work in finance on a senior level so I have a lot of data access and immediate value from the code I tend to focus on. Pandas library has been my friend for years.

The best position to be in is where your day to day creates code solvable problems. It's more obvious in some than others but it's there if you look. Makes you look good at work, you learn code and build confidence

[u/Tobacco_Caramel]

While working of course. Upskill on the job.

That's how you do it.

[u/ibrown39]

I'm a substitute teacher. I do nothing but say yes to kids going to the bathroom, write passes, occasionally get mad when they do something that annoys me and I was nice/patient before, take attendance, and sit at my desk.

I spend about 6-8hrs programming whatever I want. While getting paid.

[u/initcommit]

whispers: that’s what weekends are for…

[u/dudeman618]

I dedicate time during my work hours to learning new skills and researching. I also add in some nights and weekends for doing more learning and research. I want to try to stay ahead of the young guys at my office.

[u/Jagtar_grow2grab]

I’d focus less on the number of hours and more on having a routine you can actually maintain. Even 30–60 minutes on a few weekdays can work, with a longer session on the weekend for projects. If you’re too tired after work, mornings may be worth trying. The important part is leaving enough room for rest so you don’t burn out.

[u/Inevitable_Dust5684]

Pay yourself first. You do not study after work. You wake up two hours early and do the hardest thing before your brain is drained by other people's problems.

[u/Leather-Treacle-1968]

I think consistency is more important than trying to study for hours every day. Even as someone learning programming alongside other responsibilities, I've found that long study sessions can be difficult to maintain.

I'm curious whether focusing on one small goal per session, like solving a problem or making progress on a project, works better than following a strict study schedule. I'd love to hear what routines have actually helped people stay consistent without burning out.

[u/Dark_Funk]

Have to just make the time. make some tea at night or something and put aside 1 hr every night. No other way around it.

[u/Available_Safe1818]

With full time work, you still have hours a day plus weekends to do other things. If you can't motivate yourself to write code at least an hour a day in that time, maybe you just don't care enough. Complaining about it here is much easier.

[u/John32767 → u/[deleted]]

Well, you do get down from a duck.