I'm a self-taught developer and went from 1 Lynda course to a career in software. I owe most of my learning to tinkering.
Building small little personal projects just for fun. Taking an interest and trying to manifest it in the form of software.
You put something at stake by trying to make this little toy project work so every time you face a problem you're motivated to figure it out just so you can get to the next step. All the while you're learning from experience. This is a lot like how professional software writing is. Learning in real time from experience.
I have this idea I like to think about from time to time.
"Know when to be Achilles and know when to be Odysseus."
When it comes to online distractions and addictions, I've found anything that any tool that doesn't offer precommitment and restrictions of editing/removing the intervention will be ineffective in the long run.
If Odysseus could have untied himself from the mast, he would have.
Apps like these seem to be designed for our best selves, when we need help for our worst selves. My best self would probably be successful using this app. But my worst self, probably will ignore the prompts over time until I get annoyed and uninstall the app
My app of choice has been Freedom, where you can set a schedule and prevent quitting the app. I have had problems where I needed to get work done on a website and couldn't so I understand the use case. A work pass feature is something I'll suggest to the Freedom team. But for me as a customer, having success in not over-consuming distracting/addicting sites/apps is immensely more important than the infrequent inconveniences from having to access sites for business/work purposes.
habits, routines, mindfulness, mantras, mindsets... you're going to hear it all
Maybe it would be first helpful to better understand your problem? Are you?
- Digitally Distracted? You can't stay off HN, Twitter, FB
- A Chronic Procrastinator? You can't will yourself to start work
- Scatterbrained? You jump from thing to thing, never finishing important things?
Assumptions are inherently built into advice, so if you’re looking for some guidance, it may help to be as clear and specific about your problem.