I've been mulling over this idea for a long time. 100 days of code. The original idea is essentially spend 1 hour a day coding, document the progress and share on code platforms or on social.
On the surface that sounds easy as I spend almost every single day with code in some form or another. Generally it's an hour or more.
The fact is that it's difficult to have 100 consecutive days to work on an idea without interruptions. Even if it's just 1 hour a day – sometimes you might just not have it. There's work and family life to prioritize.
30 days ok, 60 maybe. 100 full days in a row working directly with code and no deviations: That's more of a challenge than I can commit to.
An Outline of a More Forgiving 100 Days of Code Challenge
It's not just about writing code – there is plenty of value to be found in working with code it in other ways.
It is not 100 consecutive days and you never need to commit 7 days a week.
Improving documentation for code or reading and reviewing someone else's code are both high value tasks in some cases.
- It's 100 working days, no minimum per day.
- Code review or other improvements are included and highly encouraged.
- Documentation isn't necessary everyday – once a week is a good target.
- Daily tracking isn't required – track ideas or projects over the space of a week or more.
The 100 days could start from any point. I've decided to start January 1st.
- Between January 1st and June 1st there are a little over 100 working days.
- That's 5 days in a week – or every day minus weekends and major holidays. Spread over around 5 months of time.
I will be documenting some things I work on each week, write some example code and schedule posts to publish throughout the span of the challenge.
Documentation Format Suggestions
Sharing of knowledge in the programming and development world is done in a few formats. Most obviously the sharing of code. That's a great way let someone see the work that's been done or methods that were used.
Another common way to share is via articles, blog posts and books. This is useful for sharing overall process, detailing setup steps or explaining some thought processes behind what's been done.
- Anything that can be shared in a blogpost. Text, screenshots or examples could be included here.
- Links to code sharing platforms like a GitHub repo or a Codepen.
- Social shares like tweets.
Consider helping someone to solve a coding problem as being a valid exercise as well. Working through an issue tracker like in GitHub repo or similar counts. StackOverflow is a great place to offer assistance and to share what you know with someone in need of help.
Important Notes
With an emphasis on working with code there's some things I think will be relatively important to keep in mind throughout the 100 days. It's about working with code not necessarily writing code all the time.
- Looking at and learning from some code is a valid exercise.
- Adding inline docblocks or improving existing comments is valid.
- Participating in an open source project of any kind will be valid.
Remember if it's working with code then it can be considered part of the challenge. Some other things to note throughout the challenge:
- Sharing of example code is always good, sharing of full source when possible is encouraged too.
- Creation of actual code documentation – either external documentation or inline code doc block addition or improvements is a very big part of writing code that is for sharing.