No More Zero Days

Published in Wellbeing - 2 mins to read

Continuing this week's theme of shitty life advice, today's is something I saw on Reddit a while back, which says it all really. Given you've read the title, you know what it is - no more zero days.

Given my propensity for both feeling overwhelmed and setting myself lofty (or unrealistic) goals, the mantra serves me well. In the past it has benefitted my mental health - rather than beating myself up for failure to reach the insurmountable heights of 'being happy', I would try and do something only slightly better than the previous day - some days this might've only been take a shower, clean my teeth, or get out of bed.

While I am temporarily on top of that, it seems like a good chance to apply it to two other areas of my life - health and career development/programming.

Becoming a better programmer is an intimidating task - the amount to learn is near infinite, and far more than one could comprehend in a lifetime, so it is easy to give up before I've even started. I also want to learn pretty much everything, from low level computer science concepts like algorithms and assembly languages, to containerisation, modern JavaScript libraries, machine learning in Python, DevOps, CI and (proper) unit testing, scalable infrastructure... and probably a hundred other things that could be an entire career all on their own. I feel overwhelmed just writing that - but I know that if I have no more zero days, even if all I do is refactor one line of code or watch a 5 minute Docker tutorial, eventually I will make meaningful progress, and possibly sooner than I think.

My health goal is obviously to be a super jacked marathon running powerlifter/bodybuilder with a bodyfat of 8% who can bench press a car. But that's a long way off, because right now I'm still rocking the 'chubby nerd' chic. If I take the NMZD approach - eat an apple, go for a 2 minute jog down the street, drive to the gym and then turn right back round and go home - once again, I'll make progress towards my goals without them seeming so terrifyingly distant.

Wish me luck.