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Today i wanted to share my story on how I learned JavaScript in 30 Days. While I am obviously not an expert in this domain, I believe I still may be able to give some tips on how I managed to get the most out of my learning.

Learning can sometimes be frustrating and not always easy. Some people learn visually, others by oral, more by reading and a lot by getting their hands dirty and writing code. At the end of the day everyone learns differently and everyone learns at their own pace.

Take it from someone who has tried all of these methods at least twice…

… What works for you, works for you! Do not let others tell you otherwise as this may only prologue the time learning a certain skill will take you. So for those of you who are not to sure what your best way of learning is let me give a few tips that I found helpful for me.

Learn and fully understand the basics first:

As once said by Elon musk, think of learning like a tree. You first want to learn about the roots, trunk, and then the branches to build your foundation. Once you have the foundation for your learning you can then go on by learning all the leaves (the more complex stuff). I used this myself and found it very helpful.

So in the context where you are learning about a language like JavaScript, learn how to make and use variables, arrays, objects, functions before starting to get into much more complex discussions such as fetching API's, prototype, closures etc…

I know it may seem annoying to go over the easy stuff but trust me it will pay in the long run and make it much easier when you do finally get to the others subjects.

Download apps or use online resources:

For those of you who like to get your hands dirty while learning, simply search around and you will find plenty apps out there that give you exercises to learn while building. I find this approach great as there is no better way to learn something then by doing it. If you look around you will find so many great resources out there to help you learn JavaScript. I thought I would list a few for you to take a look at and try out :

  • Codepen
  • Codewars
  • Mimo
  • W3schools
  • Open source projects
  • Stack overflow

I mean this list could go on and on. So if you would rather learn by doing take a look at some of these, find your own, look at others code, build apps and keep practicing. Trust me you will learn much more than any other way doing this.

Read code or books about code:

While this may seem boring, you can learn a lot from reading other people's great code. A tutorial I recently did actually had us go into the open source of famous frameworks/library's, read the code and try and understand what makes what work. While you may be intimated by everything happening and may not comprehend it all, do not worry! Reading and trying to understand will get your brain working and you will find yourself in awe and amazement when you start to understand how beautifully complex some of them are. If you learn by lecture this is highly recommended.

Another way you can learn would be by buying JavaScript books. There are 100s of books out there nowadays and some of them offer amazing value. Take a look browse around and find one that interests you! Also do not just read it… once you have read it I want you to try out the things you have learnt, build apps, take notes etc…

Listen to podcasts or watch videos:

For those of you who like to watch while learning this is what I can recommend from making the error myself. Make sure you take notes and practice what you learn!! I say this because I had watched a 72hours course and by the end I had not taken time to stop and practice what I was learning. Guess what happened? Well I forgot half of it and had to watch it all again. It is not just as simple as watching a video and you will know how to do it. You need to put this to practice. Trial and error is the way. Remember, you are learning and it is alright to make mistakes. So instead of jut watching next time, take notes and at the end build something with what you have learned!

Build build build:

While I have already said this above, I think it is worth mentioning again. Getting your hands dirty is the best way to learn! I don't mea. You have to make the next amazon but try and build small apps as often as you can to build that knowledge and muscle memory. Build a speech app, meditation app, calculator, booking app, a form etc… if you just do not know what to build or are stuck with creativity the simply look it up! I mean there are tons of sites out there that give you challenges.

Simply look up 30 JavaScript projects or anything like that and you will be flooded with ideas, trust me, I could not think of anything and found a site with 100+ projects. From there I just kept building and managed to learn so many things!

Conclusion

While I hope these tips may have helped you, I understand everyone learns differently or has there own way of learning. But trust me, if it is not working for you then change! Have you read 3 books and still don't get it? Watch a video. Built 100 project but still don't get it? Read a book. You get the point! Find what make you happy and what get you to retain the most of what you learned. Once you find this you will now have created a highly valuable advantage for yourself which will help you with all your future learning!

Thank you for reading and have a great day! Keep learning! Remember, knowledge is power.