Friday, August 9, 2013

CodeAcademy Cutie

I first learned  HTML (hypertext mark-up language, for those of you who have always wondered) in high school in a computer class. It was easy enough and we used a program called Dreamweaver to make it even easier. Previously I had messed around with HTML on my MySpace page, mostly copying and pasting code from other templates. I had done a little bit of linking and formatting on LiveJournal. But I never coded consistently over long periods of time. Whenever I did pick it back up, it wasn't too hard to re-learn, though I wouldn't say it was like riding a bike.

This year I decided to try again and try harder. I started using a website called CodeAcademy to refresh on HTML and learn the new formatting for HTML5. For several weeks, I hesitated to start learning CSS. I had seen CSS coding in the past and my boyfriend insisted it was really easy, but the number of brackets and semi-colons scared me a bit.

In my sophomore year of college, I took a Java programming class to fulfill my math credit. I did well enough but it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Maybe this is because I think more abstractly than concretely. It took a lot of effort to do well, which is not something I'm used to.

Somehow, I managed to get through it. But when I saw CSS and saw how similar, on the surface, it looked to Java. So I waited and waited and waited.

Two weeks ago, I was tasked with designing (just on PowerPoint -- so, just design, not program) a website for my internship. Although the programming was being contracted out, I decided to mess around with the HTML the site would theoretically use once I'd designed it in my free time. I realized before starting to mess around with the coding, however, that I would need to learn CSS.

So I trudged back to CodeAcademy, feeling less than confident, and began the lessons.

I don't know what it is about CodeAcademy that works so well for me (maybe the repetition?) but it worked. I now feel very confident with my HTML and CSS coding skills and know where to find help/resources if I need it. I can create some really cool stuff and it only took me about a week to get to the level of skill I currently am. I think that's pretty cool.

I was able to code the homepage of the website I designed. Also very cool.

I recognize that this is a valuable skill. While I can't (yet) program a library catalog or anything, I could certainly design and program an About Us or Events or Resources page.
 
I found the CSS and HTML programming to be relatively simple. CodeAcademy explained it in a way that I understood and the exercises were relevant and well-written.
 
Meanwhile, when I started up JavaScript again (nudged into it by my boyfriend who insisted it wasn't so bad), I struggled. I'm still in the JavaScript lessons and, because there are so many more little details to be aware of in JavaScript than there are in HTML or CSS, I get lost. Frequently, I just type what they tell me to and go on without truly understanding what it is I just did. While this happened sometimes with HTML and CSS, I managed to play around with it until I really understood what it is I had accomplished. This isn't the case with JavaScript. This may be my own failing, or it could be a shortcoming of this particular section on CodeAcademy. I'll leave that up to others who haven't learned JavaScript before. I sometimes wonder if it's that I've already learned JavaScript in a different order than its being taught to me now. If one of you try it out, I'd love to hear your take on it and what section you prefer.
"I can code like a boss."
"You're hired." 
 
Still, I'll keep at it because it's valuable and important and, honestly, I imagine it will help me write the novel I'm currently working on for my senior honors thesis.
 
Even if you're not interested in coding or afraid of it, try CodeAcademy out. Start with HTML. It becomes addictive, once you start building things out of nothing. Once you see that you could recreate your favorite website (though maybe not so much in functional terms, because that would include more advanced code, but in its visual aspect). If nothing else, it's great for professional development. If you want to be hirable or even more mobile in your current position (assuming you work in an office of some sort), take up coding. You'll instantly become more valuable.
 
Codeacademy image courtesy of uwbnext.
Interview image courtesy of GlassDoor.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Faster than a Speeding Bullet or, #ProductivityProbz

At my internship this summer, one of the biggest "complaints" I've received regarding my work from my supervisors is that I work too quickly. This is a problem for them because they can't always come up with stuff for me to do (that isn't just busy work or has no actual meaning) quickly enough. To be fair, I'm working for a government agency and we all know the government is notorious for their sluggish pace.
I accomplish more in an hour than Congress accomplishes
in a whole year.

It's funny because, in the dozen or so interviews I've ever been questioned in, I'm frequently asked
how I work under pressure. As someone whose first job was at McDonald's (with a double drive-through which I frequently manned independently, even during rush hours when we'd serve up to a hundred or so cars within an hour), working under pressure is one of my fortes.

Additionally, I've always just been someone who works quickly. I was often the first person in class from elementary school on to finish an assignment. Teachers chided me and reminded me that it wasn't a race. But I wasn't working fast to finish first or even just to "get it over with." I am just naturally a fast worker. I type fast (typically I type around ninety words a minute, but I can do more without much strain or effort), I eat relatively fast (maybe because lunches were twenty-three minutes in high school), I get ready to go out quickly (no, you don't understand -- in high school, I woke up at 6:25 and be outside for the bus by 6:32), and I talk fast (maybe this is a New England thing, because it's certainly not this way in the South).

My current supervisors say to me, "Slow down. It's fine."

But why would I slow down if I can comfortably (perhaps more comfortably than if I slowed down) complete a task that takes someone else an hour in half-an-hour? Productivity, in my mind, is a good thing. And I don't believe my work suffers for my speed. I make just as many (or as few) mistakes as anyone else, sometimes even less. Believe me, if my speed was hurting the quality of my work, I would force myself to slow down. I have a thing for doing the best I can at everything -- it's how I enjoy work; even if I don't enjoy the work itself, I like to do things well. But that's another topic for another day.

So I can slow down by taking five minutes here and there to check Facebook or pick a new Pandora station or take a walk around the office to stretch my legs. And I do, but I still work too quickly. Maybe if I'm accomplishing twice as much work as anyone else is, then I should get paid twice as much. (Hint, hint, future employers -- just kidding, of course. Kind of.)

I spoke with my mother about this and put it this way: I work as quickly as my brain allows me to. But my brain thinks as fast as it thinks -- I can't go all meta on it and make it slow down. If there's a way to do this, then I am not aware of it. I don't think meditation qualifies. In fact, meditation, like defragging a computer, probably frees up those jammed neuron paths to make your thought processes outside of meditation even faster. I'm typically not hopped up on caffeine (although I had more coffee yesterday than I've ever had in one day before -- I was desperate and even put a note up facing out on my cubicle that said I was now accepting coffee donations).

I don't have a solution for this problem with the speed at which I work. I don't know that I want to "fix" it. I'm not sure it's really a problem. It's only a problem for me in that I don't always have something to do because I eat up all of the assignments before anyone can make any more for me. I'm not even entirely sure of the source of my fast-moving work style. Maybe it's my fear of death and mortality. Maybe I want to accomplish as much as I can before I die (which I recognize at a conscious level, but perhaps it effects my working style at a more subconscious level). It's not that I can't concentrate on one thing for extended periods of time. I definitely can, but if I don't have to, why would I?

Even this blog post, now at 760 words according to 750words.com, took me approximately ten minutes to write. I began with no plan except for the general topic of how quickly I work. No outline, no phrases in mind, just a topic. And here it is.

Did the quality suffer for the speed?  You tell me.


Congress image courtesy of thinkprogress.org.
Speedometer image courtesy of wallgc.com

Thursday, August 1, 2013

What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

"Be good and you can have a cookie."

"If you can be quiet for half an hour, I'll give you a candy bar."

"If you come to the bank with me, you will get a lollipop."

Gummy bear studying incentives.
Food incentives are everywhere from the day we are born onward. Once we've become adults, it becomes an easy way to reward ourselves for completing tasks we did not want to do. I've seen study tips online that include leaving a gummy bear on each paragraph on the page. Once you've read that
paragraph, you can eat the gummy bear.

This has been a huge issue for me. I'm sure its contributed to my weight problems (though it's certainly not the only factor). Our evolutionary mapping encourages it, too. We crave McDonald's even though we know it's not good for us because our hunter-gatherer instincts tell us we may not have access to food later, so its best to stock up on calorie rich foods now our bodies can burn later. But this is no longer the reality in modern society. Unfortunately, it takes more than a lifetime to de-program thousands of years of evolutionary advancement.

So how do we control this urge to reward with food?

As you might've guessed, we replace the reward. This isn't easy. Our bodies will -- and thus our hormones and reacting chemicals, which will in turn change our moods -- prefer a food-based reward. So we have to find things we want more. Or, convince ourselves there are things we want more and commit to those things.

What might these things be?

A vacation. A new piece of clothing. A shopping spree. A CD (or mp3 download). A piece of art.
Maybe the thing you need to accomplish isn't a big thing, though. And you can't justify a vacation just because you read a paragraph in your textbook. So instead, you put a dollar in a jar for every page you read. The money adds up and pays for or supplements your vacation costs. You may be tempted to put money in the jar because you can. What's stopping you from just throwing a few bucks in at the end of the day when you empty out your pockets before putting your pants in the laundry basket? Well, nothing. Just you. You can rely on your guilt to keep you in line for that one.
If you're someone (like myself) who can't necessarily monetary rewards to yourself, promise yourself something else. A trip to the library (for every ten minutes you spend reading your textbook, you get five minutes at the library -- write these down on slips of paper and put them in the jar, take out as many five minute slips as you want when you go to the library and only stay for that long). A trip to the park (same principles). A trip to the magical land of the internet. You can trade time for time in pretty much anything. If you like to draw, then promise yourself ten minutes of drawing time for every ten minutes you spend  doing the task that needs to be completed.

Maybe the cute dress reward
works for you.
This is especially important for people who want to reward themselves for working out or losing weight. It's counterproductive to reward yourself with cake. A lot of people like to promise themselves new running shoes or that dress they've always wanted but could never find their size in. These are okay for some people, but personally, I like to separate my rewards from what I'm doing.
That is, I don't like them to be related in anyway. I find it doesn't motivate me as much. If you're like me, brainstorm for other things. Half an hour of biking may equal twenty minutes of  time in the library.

And there's no reason you can't match your time rather than doing fractions of it. Whatever suits your schedule and works for your motivation mindset is what works. There's no right way to do it.
Whether you're trying to finish a chapter for your psychology class, lose fifty pounds, finish writing your NaNoWriMo novel, or clean the kitchen, find a reward that is meaningful to you. Find a reward that isn't food, because food only lasts for so long. The gratification is instant but it doesn't linger. So the next time you're trying to do something that you don't want to do, don't ask yourself "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?" Ask yourself, "What would you do to get a dollar closer to your dream vacation in Italy?"

Gummy bear image courtesy of APSU.
Dress image courtesy of ModCloth.