Coding is a very attractive industry right now. Freelance developers earn six figures with hourly rates that can easily reach $50 to $100. Demand soars—so naturally, supply is also on the rise:
More and more people want to start to code.
Here’s a simple strategy I have developed for my Python freelance course students that helps you to get started:
- Decide on a certain time frame you are giving yourself to learn to code. A reasonable daily time investment of 90 minutes will go a long way.
- Divide your coding time into two blocks:
- The first “theory block” consists of 30% of your time. If Python is your main programming language, you can solve Python puzzles, read coding textbooks, finish Python courses, and study the official Python documentation.
- The second “practice block” consists of 70% of your time. This is where you select a practical code project and finish it. By using this practice-heavy approach, you’ll ensure that your theory part does not focus on useless stuff: you will study the things you need to know to finish the practice tasks. That will keep you motivated and the learning material stays highly relevant. At the same time, you are making progress and gain real-world progress. Once you get real-world feedback, you are hooked! As practical code projects, you can visit my article where I selected 10 practical projects with which Python freelancers have earned money (they are as practical as they can get), or you just select your own dream project and study everything you need to finish them.
Focus on one problem at a time. But don’t focus too much on a single technology or programming language. When solving practical projects, you’ll quickly realize that they become “dirty”. You need to know about multiple technologies and programming languages. For example, when creating a web application with Django, you need to know Python, Django, Apache servers, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Shell scripting, and databases. The synergies of those technologies are where the real value is created.
Here’s a video I did that addresses this topic of an interdisciplinary approach to learn to code:
In the video, I refer to the Python learning app Finxter.com. Here‘s an interesting follow-up article on the topic “How to start to code”.
If you want to improve your Python skills continuously, check out my free cheat sheets: