In my previous post I talked about “knowledge bombs” and the constant flow of A-HA moments that I’m having from learning something new so quickly. Couple those bombs and a-ha moments with the other part of Code Academy, which is business development and how to build our startup ideas, and for me the ability to focus becomes a challenge.

I have my own idea or two for an app but I also know what most of my classmates are working on and would like to help them, so sometimes my A-HA moments are the result of recognizing a connection between a programming concept or a lean startup principle that I’m hearing about and can be directly applied to an app idea… and then my brain is off and running. Most of us love those “off and running” moments, but when they happen during a quickly moving four hour programming class I’ve discovered that I may miss out on an important concept that it will then take me a half hour or more to re-learn.

Since learning the fundamentals of programming is more important to me at this point in the class than launching my app, I’ve come up with a few tactics to help maintain focus. Fortunately Neal, Jeff and Mike have also been molding the class to help us focus more because I’m definitely not the only one who’s mind goes off and running. I keep both my computer and a notebook handy to jot down quick notes during class and this past week we’ve settled into four or five cycles of 30-45 minute lectures followed by a lab on what we just learned. It seems to be working really well as I don’t feel quite as in the weeds as I did last week. Although, in mine and my classmates defense, we spent two weeks learning about the intricacies of rails routing and building out our core controllers- which are complex enough that the geniuses behind rails created a command that does the whole thing in one fell swoop. Two weeks of learning is now accomplished by entering

rails g scaffold model name:string number:integer …

When I think of all the tiny little errors I had to tackle before learning that one line of code it makes me weep with sadness for my frustration and joy that I don’t have to tackle it again (until I’m ready to).

There are a couple of other things that have really helped with my focus and the first is that I started reading a book right before class started called Mindfulness in Plain English. I’m a big fan of the Back to Work podcast with Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann and they’ve mentioned this book once or twice. It’s pretty tough to sum up what their podcast is about but I highly recommend it. I’d give it a shot by saying it’s about being productive by learning to do what you love, or maybe learning what you love to do and being productive at it. You can really switch up the words love, do, productive, work and learn and you’ll be safe. Any way you put it, it’s a great show and it just so happens that Dan was a Ruby developer in his previous life (the language we’re learning at Code Academy). Anyway, Dan and Merlin talk about meditation. Dan practices it daily and Merlin has said , “meditation is realizing how much you suck.” Starting the book before Code Academy allowed me to internalize a couple of key concepts that have really helped me focus, clear out my mind and accept being a beginner. It’s amazing how something as simple as focusing on your breathing can help with being present and recognizing where you are (literally and figuratively). It’s also helped me to enjoy wearing “the white belt” as it’s referred to in Apprenticeship Patterns.

The final thing that’s really helped me focus has been learning to say no— and not in a negative way but because there are only so many hours in a day. In a previous entry I mentioned clearing my plate to prepare for Code Academy and a huge part of that was learning to say no. It sounds like a such a simple concept that guys like Jason Fried and DHH, Steve Jobs and even Dan and Merlin have all talked about- but I didn’t really get it until I had to do it. The Jobs quote is a good one but Merlin had the best analogy, and I’m paraphrasing here, but he says that if you get three invitations to Christmas parties happening on the same day at the same time in three different states and three different time zones— no matter how badly you want to go to all three of them you’re going to have to say no to two. And that’s exactly how I felt learning to say no. I love ABD, I love PPC, I love the riders I coach and I love the teams I’ve helped run, but my gut told me it’s time for something new and if I’m going to do it right that means saying no to most of the things I’ve done for the last eight years. I’ll always be a cyclist and I’m going to help riders however I can (one of my app ideas is a training app), but it’s important that I finally recognized the limits of “help however I can”. It’s focus and awareness that ultimately helped me realize what those limits are, and while the realization is sometimes painful because I really do want to attend all of those parties in all of those timezones, I have to accept that it’s just not possible.

It seems like this is a lesson I should have learned before the age of 32, but better late than never.