Bro, Code! (Small challenge for you guys)

Disclaimer: I do not own the phrase “Bro, Code”, I just heard it at a hackathon I attended recently :)

Ok, guys, this is not one of my usual blogs where I explain you some technical concept, it’s a little different this time, it’s a challenge to all of you :)

Ok Madhav, I am interested!

Well, thank you, and I bet this one is interesting :)

The “Bro, Code” challenge

So recently I came across this dope extension for my text editor, it’s called “WakaTime”, (https://wakatime.com), which basically tracks the amount of time you code each day, and it has a pretty dope dashboard which looks something like this —

So using this dashboard you can actually check your productivity, and how much time you spend coding. And the best part? It is available for almost every tet editor and IDE out there!

Since I use VS Code, I’ll just tell you simple instructions to add it there

• Open VS Code
• Open the extensions section by clicking that button on the sidebar or by typing F1 on the keyboard, or by typing Ctrl + Shift + P and then type install, (select Extensions: Install Extension)
• Type in Wakatime and press enter
• Restart VS Code
• It will prompt you for an API Key
• Go to wakatime.com and make an account, and grab your API Key
• Enter the API key, and you are done!

Ok Madhav, what’s the point?

So here’s the challenge, we will code daily, as much as our schedule and time permits for the next 94 days (2k19 is about to get over guys), and then we will share the image of our dashboard on 1st Jan 2020, and see how much did we all code, seems interesting right?

But before you go, here are two rules that you must follow!

Rule #1

**Code daily**

This rule is simple, all you have to do is code daily, it might be any domain which you work on, maybe machine learning, maybe development, maybe competitive coding, but the challenge is to do it daily and do as many side projects as possible and learn as many things as we can.

Rule #2

**Follow the first rule**

Yes, rule #2 is to remember Rule #1 always, no matter what, cool? We might get distracted, or after some days lose the excitement and say, “ahh ok, I am taking a day off, it’s ok to take a day off”, it’s not ok to take even a single day off, remember the rule #1, and now let’s begin the challenge :)

Ok Madhav, seems cool, but why tf should I do this?

Here are some benefits that you might get by coding daily…

1. It can help you to get a good job, if you code daily, of course, you’ll build some cool side projects and also get more skilled in whatever domain you are, hence you will get that confidence required to ace that technical interview :)
2. Share your progress daily or weekly on Twitter or Instagram, and in the process, you will get a lot of following and a good personal brand. This might even fetch you some job offers on the way
3. Improve your code quality. Yep, if you start coding daily, of course you’ll explore more and more, improving your skills and the quality of your code in the process
4. You’ll learn to make optimum use of resources. Yes, I agree that all of us are very busy, some might be busy in the job, some might be busy in university classes or exams and so on, so it becomes very difficult to make time for learning new things and coding daily. But here’s the good thing, if you are able to make time to code daily even after these many commitments, you’ll learn to make good use of time by making use of resources available to you.
5. It will improve logical reasoning, especially if you are into competitive programming.
6. Tons of opportunities will come to you. Keep in mind the 2nd point, keep sharing your progress daily or weekly, and you will see how fast you will start attracting opportunities!
7. You will have a lot of fun in the process.

So, are you up for the challenge?

Where to start?

If you are a complete beginner and don’t know where to start, well you can check out my 60 days of code challenge, it will be a good start —

CodeToExpress/dailycodebase

Happy Coding!

“Always aim for the moon. If you miss you’ll land among the stars.”

That’s it, hope you will take up this challenge and share your progress with me, I look forward to hearing from you.

Feel free to reach out to me anytime if you want to discuss something :D

I would be more than happy if you send your feedback, suggestions or ask queries. Moreover, I love to make new friends and we can be friends, just DM me on Insta or LinkedIn.

Here are some places where you can find me —
Email: madhavbahl10@gmail.com
Web: http://madhavbahl.tech/
Github: https://github.com/MadhavBahlMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbahl/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theleanprogrammer/