Posted by I believe that our spare time has a lot of value. How we spend our spare time can determine our future success. I believe that we can harness our spare time to create added value in our lives by dedicating some of our spare time to working on personal projects that challenge us to learn new skills and to further develop skills we already possess.
Personal Software Projects
One thing that I like to do with my spare time is to practice my software development skills. I do this by working on personal software projects. By creating and working on these projects I am free to experiment with the code and to try things that I cannot do at work. For example, I can make changes to software features without fear because if I introduce a bug in the software I am not affecting any clients or customers. I am just experimenting with software that I created for myself.
One of the applications that I created for myself is a 2D role playing game. I wanted to experiment with creating randomly generated dungeons for my game world, and I was able to successfully experiment with different coding approaches until I got it working. I did not succeed on my first try. Sometimes the dungeons would be created with unreachable locations that the player could not access. Despite this setback I persevered and kept trying new approaches until I created random dungeon generation code that always created dungeons where all rooms in the dungeon were reachable by the player.
In addition to learning, my personal software projects have also provided me with tools I use on a regular basis. For example, as Vice President of Education for my Toastmasters club I needed a way to keep track of meeting role assignments so I can assign different meeting roles to my fellow club members each week. I ended up leveraging my software development skills by creating a Meeting Planner application that I use to track and schedule meeting role assignments. This software application has proven to be an invaluable tool for me and has made my job as Vice President of Education easier.
Another software tool that I created for myself is a Budget Tracker application. I use this application to track my income and expenses. I even used it to track my income and expenses for my business and this gave me the information I needed when reporting my self-employment income and expenses on my income taxes.
Learning New Skills
In addition to practicing my software development skills to create games and tools, I have also used my spare time to learn a new programming language. Which programming language was this? It was the Swift programming language, which is used to develop apps for iPhones and iPads.
I learned how to use the Swift programming language by taking a training course provided through my LinkedIn Learning subscription. I took the course on LinkedIn Learning, then I went a step further and created my own iPhone application called Budget Tracker Mobile. Not only did I create this application, I also published it on the Apple App store and I have even sold a few copies of it. This means I used my spare time profitably. I doubt I’ll get rich by selling this app, but I have successfully published this app on the Apple App Store and it has sold a few copies.
Another way I used my LinkedIn Learning subscription was to learn how to code websites by taking training courses on HTML, CSS, Java Script, and ASP.NET. My programming experience up to this point had been in developing desktop applications only, not web applications, so taking these training courses has expanded my capabilities as a software developer and I now understand web development as well as desktop development.
Mastery is a Journey
I have taken courses on LinkedIn Learning. I have also practiced my existing programming skills by working on personal software projects. Does this make me a master of these skills?
My answer to that question is that I am experienced software developer, but there is always something new to learn. As a computer programmer I need to continue learning and practicing my skills because mastering my skills is a journey. My experience to date is developing desktop applications and in my journey as a developer I now working on learning how to develop web applications.
Having the ability to develop both desktop applications and web applications will make me a more versatile programmer. It will create more opportunities for me and for my business. It means I will be able to reach out to a larger audience when searching for new clients because of my expanded skillset.
What does this mean for you?
So what does this mean for you? Does it mean you should start writing code in your spare time? If you are a computer programmer or you want to learn how to create software applications, then go for it. However, the point of this article was not to encourage you to become a computer programmer. Instead, my reason for writing this article was to show how I use personal projects to develop my own skills and to inspire you to start using your own skills to work on projects to strengthen those skills and to develop new skills.
Think of something you do at work or something you enjoy doing in your free time. Why not dedicate some of your free time and create a project for yourself to work on? If you like writing, why not start a blog or write a book? If you have artistic talent or want to develop skills as an artist, start a hobby where you actively use and develop your artistic skills.
One of my family members likes to research his family history. He even took on the challenge of creating a website to publish his research. This gave him new skills and also gave him a place to share the results of his research efforts.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my recommendation is to find time to work on personal projects. This can be time to work on hobbies. It can also be time to sharpen your skills. You may even be able to use your skills to create something you can use yourself or maybe even something you can sell for extra income.
The most important thing you can gain from working on personal projects is to work toward mastering your skills. Mastery is a journey and we should always be striving to strengthen our skills and to develop new skills.
I challenge you to use your your spare time for more than just entertainment. Harness the power of personal projects and use you spare time to learn and grow. You never know what you can accomplish until you give it a try.