When people try to learn JavaScript or other programming languages, they often encounter the following challenges.
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Some concepts confuse them, especially if they’ve learned other types of languages before.
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It’s hard to find the time (or motivation) to study.
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It’s easy to forget what you’ve learned before.
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JavaScript tools are so numerous and constantly updated that it’s hard to find a place to learn.
Fortunately, these problems can eventually be overcome. In this article, I’ll show you six thinking tricks that can help you learn JavaScript faster, happier, and more efficiently.
1 Don’t let worries about the future interfere with your present study
Some JavaScript beginners will ask which framework to start with, but if you’re not already proficient with native JavaScript, you shouldn’t ask this question. Because you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at frameworks and not making progress.
One way out of this trap is to develop a learning path map. For example, to be a front-end developer, your path diagram might look like the following. In the future you will be able to create dynamic pages using HTML and CSS.
Break out the steps above and focus on improving one skill at a time. You won’t waste time worrying about what comes next.
2 Don’t let confidence trick you into a trap of constant forgetting
Understanding a concept quickly can be one of the biggest obstacles to JavaScript progress, as I’ll explain below.
When you come across a puzzle and you seem to understand it, you can’t resist the urge to move on to the next puzzle. The reality might be that you get to the next point and move on to the next point. Soon, however, you reach a point where you realize you’ve forgotten what you learned, so you need to go back and review. You quickly glance at what you learned before and then move on to learn something new. But right now, you forget something else. You keep repeating this pattern of continue, review, continue, review until you find yourself completely lost. You get depressed, you want to rest, and then when you start to pick yourself up, you realize you’ve forgotten all about it.
Fortunately, there are two ways to deal with this:
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Learn one thing at a time
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Do exercises – actually code
When you learn a new concept, you have to practice it, practice it, get along with it, even be able to relate it to other concepts. When you learn an example, the most important thing is to type out the code yourself. This will help you absorb it. Plus, learning one thing at a time can help you consolidate what you’ve learned because it’s easier to remember fewer things.
This process may seem like it takes longer than reading and then quickly jumping to the next point, but it actually takes less time because you don’t have to review what you’ve learned as often as possible. I learned this the hard way on several occasions.
3 Practice using the right way of thinking
Many people think that typing code is an annoying repetitive task, so they usually skip it and try to find a shortcut. If you try to find shortcuts to your JavaScript exercises, you’ll end up spending more time doing them. But how can we make it so much more fun that we want to do it?
Try changing to the following mindset:
If you’ve just learned a JavaScript concept and you’re told you can’t use it, how do you feel? Personally, I’m a little annoyed, especially since I spent precious time trying to figure it out. It’s like a child being given a new toy but being restricted from playing with it.
When you learn something new about JavaScript, try to treat it like a new toy, like a new car, a new pair of shoes, or whatever you find interesting. Then, don’t think of coding as work, think of coding as playing a game. You’re doing something cool with your new skills. Surprise yourself and show your friends the results.
With a game mindset you’ll learn faster, you’ll remember better, and you’ll have more fun.
4 Use Facebook tricks to make time for programming
A common problem people have is that they often don’t find the time to type code.
Often, these people spend hours browsing sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia or Reddit. Whether or not you fit that description, there’s something to be learned.
I certainly have time to surf Facebook for a while, but I usually spend hours surfing back and forth. How did this happen? I think the reason is that I didn’t intend to spend that much time on it at first. Getting started is the hardest part of doing something, so setting goals small enough can help us get started. If someone asks me if I’m going to spend a few hours on Facebook, I’ll say no because I don’t have the time. However, I’m fine with just trying it out, and that’s how I get immersed in it.
The good news is that you can apply the same mental skills to coding. Don’t plan to spend hours typing code, because you’ll find you don’t have the time. Instead, tell yourself to code for three minutes. That way you don’t have to worry about finding time to type code.
5 Think slower and you’ll learn faster
This one sounds counterintuitive, so I’ll explain it with a story.
Once again, a friend of mine was confused by a feature of JavaScript. I asked him to explain to me what he knew, and then to tell me what puzzled him. When he explained the code to me, I caught him skipping.
“Wait a minute! I said. “Take your time and explain it to me step by step.”
My friend simply summed up the whole code for me.
I asked him to pause again. “You’re still skipping. Explain again, this time I need you to explain to me what’s going on in each line of code step by step.”
This time, my friend was better able to explain how the code worked. The key is that he takes the time to understand each line of code rather than trying to understand everything at once.
In cases like this, thinking more slowly actually makes you learn faster.
6 Write in simple language before writing complex code
If the code you’re writing is complex and unusual, write it in a simple language first. That way, you can know what you’re doing before you actually write it. Here are two benefits of using this approach:
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It’s easier and faster to code because you don’t have to stop and think about what you’re going to do.
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Because you know what the code does, you are better able to troubleshoot errors.
7 conclusion
We’ve covered several faster ways to learn JavaScript, but you can apply the above methods to other things as well. Here is a summary of the above methods:
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Stop thinking about what you’re going to learn and focus on the present
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Make practice more fun by treating new skills like toys
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Just like browsing Facebook, YouTube, etc., tell yourself you’ll only be typing for a few minutes before you start typing so you have time to type
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Slow down, take small steps, and you’ll learn faster
Show me, show me, show me, show me
Wen: Yaphi Berhanu | http://www.zcfy.cc/article/six-simple-mind-tricks-to-help-you-learn-javascript-faster-436.html
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