"What is 100 days of code?🤷🏽" is a question I get asked a lot of times; almost every time I post my progress with the hashtag #100daysofcode. I have decided to write about it today so that, hopefully in very simple terms, I could make it clear enough for people who don't understand it🤔.

The concept behind 100 days of code is consistency. It is about you deciding to code every single day for a hundred days. If you choose to do so for 30 minutes, 1 hour or 5 hours, you just need to code or do something around coding every day for 100 days! When I say 'something around coding', I mean, it could be starting a course, watching videos on a particular programming language, debugging, it could be writing code, contributing to a project, or reading a book about code, something just in line with what you have decided to achieve within the 100 days.

Challenging yourself to code every day is honestly not easy, but it is worth it. It comes with lots of benefits and fulfilment in the end. On my first try, I did not get to day 10 😂. Just like deciding to start a new habit, it takes you being intentional about putting in the effort to make it work.

“The road to success is always under construction” - LILY TOMLIN

What do you need to start? 😀

• The first thing you need to start is your willingness. You need to be mentally prepared to go on this journey. The journey does not come with anyone forcing you or watching you closely to make sure you finish. You must be sincere with yourself to put in the effort and not miss a day. You need to be ready.

• You need a plan📝. Think about what you want to achieve; it could be web development, data analysis, cybersecurity, cloud computing, or anything at all you want to learn or work on in the 100 days. When you know what you want, you don't waste time moving from one side to another. There are so many videos on the internet where people talk about the different learning paths for different tech stacks. It could be a starting point for determining what you want to do and the paths you can take to get there.

“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone” - MICHAEL BOBAK

• When you are certain about what you want to do, you need to gather resources📚 that will help you. Thank God for the internet :)! There are so many resources all over. Youtube, Google, Github, Coursera, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, in fact, anything at all you want to learn, is available at a click of a button. Even now, because of machine learning algorithms across sites, you get recommendations of resources once you start researching, reading and watching videos around a certain topic.

• You can decide to have an accountability partner 👥. Someone you can share your progress with, can be a friend or a sibling, a mentor or anyone at all. You can share progress across social media. The tech community is a community with very cool people across all social media. Once you start sharing progress, you will get people encouraging you to keep up. Even on Twitter, there are bots that people have built that retweet and like tweets with the #100daysofcode hashtag in them. When there is a sense of responsibility, it helps sometimes.

“Strive for progress, not perfection” - Unknown

Along the way, it gets easier to continue and keep up. You will learn so much if you put your mind to it. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
I hope you found this post helpful. Stay safe :) 🌸

My name is Erica. You can check out my website or connect with me on LinkedIn.