A Committed Year

I subscribe to a similar sentiment about the best way of getting good at something, simply doing it every day as consistently as possible, because of my experience in sport. I ran competitively for many years and my working model of growth and improvement largely mirrors my experiences doing that. Obviously there are differences between becoming a faster runner and becoming a better developer, but the structure of "getting good at running", as my teammates would often joke, applies more than one might think to unrelated tasks. I would note that for this framework to be effective, you do, of course, have to enjoy the task you're practicing so much. Not at every possible moment, but generally if you don't like what you're doing, you're not going to stick to your commitment.

I do struggle sometimes to let hobbies be hobbies as a result of having such a clear path for general improvement, but just like you express in your writing here, the daily practice/routine is immensely useful. Congrats on a great year!

I've done this with computer science, cycling, and am currently doing it with learning Spanish and the most important thing I've learned is to be proud of the empty squares.

The empty squares are a visual reminder listening to yourself, to your body, and realizing you are going to make negative progress in terms of morale or burnout by pushing for the square that day.

The simple act of giving yourself permission to not fill the square also seems to mean less unfilled squares for me. By checking in, something clicks that reminds me that this IS a goal I want to achieve and that you want to buy in for another day.

I'm doing something similar -- taking a sabbatical to focus on learning and doing projects I didn't have time to do while working -- but I treat it like a job: I read/write/code roughly 8h a day, 5 days a week. Just like in a real job there are some days I'm more productive than others, but I carry on. I still leave time off for family, friends and other persuits; on weekends and holidays I don't do as much reading, or none at all.

I know if I'd do it every day I'd eventually burn out or allienate people around me. I can get pretty caught up in something when I'm interested in it and forget the world around me.

So I'd just say daily consistency is not necessarily everything, it's not like a physical activity. You have to think a bit longer term and ask: do I know more today than a month ago? Am I still enjoying it?

with Cursor and AI, it's a lot easier to stay committed.