098 How Do I Set Goals As A Software Developer?

How do I set a 5-year goal as a developer? What should my goals be? What should I plan to do as a developer and how long should I plan out? Should I do just short-term goals? These are the questions we are going to answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey. Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology. If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered. Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.

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How do I set goals as a software developer? Should I be setting five-year goals? How about three-year goals or one-year goals? Should I be setting goals at all? What type of goals should I set and how do I make sure that I accomplish my goals? These are some great questions we're going to answer on today's episode of DevQuestions. Now, this question comes from a suggestion site. So if you have a question, go to suggestions.iamtimcorey.com, and hopefully you'll see your question answered in a future episode of DevQuesti. Now, what makes a good goal? Well, goals can either be motivating or they can be discouraging. So it's important to set good goals. So let's talk first about what makes up a good goal. Well, in software development, a good goal should focus on the progress, not the destination. For instance, I want to study C sharp 15 times this month rather than I want to learn these five topics this month. You see the difference? One focuses on me putting in the work, and the other focuses in on me accomplishing something. Now, hopefully, I will accomplish those five things. However, you can't always predict that. And because it's outside your control, that can be discouraging. What if you only accomplished three of those things, but you studied 18 times this month? Well, if you had focused on learning five things, well, then you failed. But if you focused on I'm going to study 15 times, you not only succeeded, you went beyond your goal. So that's how you can focus in on the progress you make rather than on the end goal. Okay, so progress over destination. Next up, focus on flexibility over specifics. So instead of saying, I'm gonna study C sharp every weekday this month, well, what happens if you have a flat tire on the way home from work? You might not get a study that day. Well, now you're discouraged because you didn't make it. You didn't accomplish your goal. Was it inside your ability? No, not really, but you didn't accomplish your goal. Well, what if you didn't have a flat tire, but you're just drained after a long week and you just don't feel like doing it that day? You don't have a choice. You have to accomplish it on that day. Instead, if you say, I want to study 15 times this month, maybe you're real motivated in the beginning and you do five study periods in five days. That's great. And then maybe you have a rough week and you only do two. That's okay. You're still at seven out of 15. You only have to do eight more in the month. So you see how that flexibility allows life to happen and it doesn't discourage you. Instead, it still pushes you forward, it still motivates you to say, hey, yeah, I slacked off a bit this week, not a problem. But now I have eight to do in the next two weeks. So I'll make sure that I get at least four in the next week. So it still allows that flexibility, but it also still motivates you to push forward. Also, goal should focus on accomplishments rather than failures. So when you do study, let's say you said, I want to study 15 times in a month, and you get to 14. Focus in on, yeah, I didn't make my goal, but I did study 14 times this month. That's a big deal. Rather than I failed, I came one short, I missed it. Because focusing in on the one just drags you down. It doesn't help you, it doesn't encourage you. Instead, if you focus on, yes, but I made progress. Sure, you don't want to lose sight of the fact that you want to do better, but that should be the minor part of it. The major part should be, but I made progress. So focus in on what you did accomplish rather than on how you failed. Because failure can seem like a great motivation tool, but really what it does is it drags you down. The more you fail, the more you think about the fact that you failed, the more it discourages you from continuing. You start to think, I can't do this. I just can't accomplish these goals. I'm too busy, I'm too tired, it's just not worth it. And so that's that means you're not going to accomplish anything. If you instead focus on, man, I'm really busy, I'm really tired, I missed my goal, but even through all of that, I did this much. Maybe you say, you know what, my goals were too big. I can't do 15 times in a month. I have kids, I have a job, I have all this stuff going on. I need to say that 10 times is what else we all focus on. Because studying 10 times a month is better than studying zero times a month. So you adjust your goal to fit your lifestyle, what you can do. Just making crazy goals isn't helpful. It's actually discouraging. Focus on what you can do. In the book Finish, John Acuff says the first thing you should do is cut your goal in half. Because we have big eyes and small stomachs. When you are really hungry, you look at food and say, I can eat all of this. When you actually start eating, you realize, no, I can't. And that's the same way with goals. If you're going into a goal and you're all enthusiastic, you may make this huge goal. I'm going to run a marathon next month. Well, cut that in half. Cut that in a quarter because that's too much to do. The same is true with C sharp. If you want to say, I'm going to learn all of C sharp in a year, that's a big goal. Instead, focus on, I'm going to study 180 times this year. That's roughly once every two days. Or maybe I'm going to cut that in half again and study 90 times this year. That's only once every four days, twice a week. You can do that. So if you cut your goal in half, you can exceed your goal. And then you can feel the positive motivation of moving forward rather than the negative discouragement of not meeting the standard. Okay? So that has set good goals. Let's talk next about what a good time span is for goals as a developer. I like to set four different types of goals. I recommend these four types of goals for developers. Now, not every developer needs to have these four goals. In fact, right now I don't. Because my goals are more short-term than this. But the four goals that are the four good categories are one month, three month, six month, and one year. I think those are the four good categories of goals. Because if you go beyond a year as a developer, things will have changed. Software will change, the entire world will probably change, what you want to accomplish will change, what you know will have changed, therefore what you want to do next will change. So I wouldn't go beyond the one year limit, but maybe set those four goals. Set a goal for what you're planning on doing this month. Maybe it's 15 times this month. Because if you set just a one-year goal and say, I'm gonna study 90 times, well, you don't really accomplish that very quickly. It takes a year to find out if you're gonna meet your goal. Instead, set a one-month goal 15 times in a month. Well, now you have the opportunity to meet that and see if you met it in one month's time. And then set another one-month goal and another. And maybe you have three-month goal or six-month goals that are just the cumulative, where you say, Hey, I'm gonna try and do 15 study sessions per month, which means 15 times six is 90 study sessions. Therefore, my six-month goal is 90 study sessions. Then if you miss one month, not a problem. I'm going to get one extra or whatever many it was the next month or the next few months. And so that way you can continue to adjust those goals and meet the larger goals, but still focus in on that one month time frame. The one-year goal is probably the biggest one I'd ever recommend. And it's a pretty aggressive one. So focus in on big picture stuff, but again, focus on the journey, not a specific destination. Hopefully that's helpful. Hopefully that sets you up for success in your goal setting. Don't worry about the long-term five-year plan because really none of us know where we're going to be in five years. So trying to plan that far out is just not really practical. Okay? Thanks for listening. And as always, I am Tim Corey.

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Thank you for joining us for this episode of Deaf Questions. Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer. If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions. You can also send your questions to questions at IamTimcore.com. Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did. When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcore.com and enroll in a course.