Thirty minutes doesn’t seem like much time, especially for programmers. It takes that much time just to get into the “zone”. It takes at least that much time just to research some libraries or problems. You can read a chapter of a book in thirty minutes, but can you imagine working on a project for only thirty minutes a day?
But if thirty minutes a day is the only amount of time you have, the question changes from “can you?” to “do you want to?”.
I get around thirty minutes to myself in the mornings before my family wakes up and I have to get everyone ready for their day. For a long while I used that precious amount of time to read blog posts, twitter, email, or pitter it away in some other manner. I’ve not done that this year.
Since January, I’ve used those thirty minutes to write ten blog posts and read three books. It doesn’t sound like much, but if I were to keep up that pace, I would have forty blog posts written and 12 books read by the end of the year. That’s not too shabby…If I were to keep up the pace.
I’ve been wanting to learn Backbone.js for a while now, but the free time I have during the rest of my day involves my family. The only time I have is my thirty minute window. So I’ve decided to use that time to work on a project using backbone.
I won’t have time to write - although I have found time this Saturday morning - and I won’t have as much time to read, but I really want to learn backbone.js.
I get thirty minutes a day. It’s not much, but it’s mine, and it’s not wasted.