Dopamine Fasting with #100DaysOfCode

I'm stuck in a loop of consuming different means of entertainment and I want to alter this behavior, spending this time pursuing fulfilling goals.

The dopamine fast is there to place strict rules on certain activities I believe are not making my life better. As I consume less artificial stimulation, I believe I will get bored and find other, healthier activities to spend my time on.

Rather than video games and movies every day, I will be coding, spending time with loved ones, and going on adventures.

The #100DaysOfCode is there to motivate myself and stay on track, but the goal is that this will be a lifelong change and continue well past the 100 days. I enjoy coding quite a bit and have been coding nearly everyday for years now, but I am taking the initiative to share my code so that it may help others.

Rules

• Code minimum an hour every day for the next 100 days.
• Tweet your progress every day with the #100DaysOfCode hashtag.
• No video games
• No watching live streams
• No movies or shows
  • Occasional movie nights with my wife are allowed
  • I just want to avoid consistently watching movies and shows
• No music
  • Occasional podcasts are allowed
    • I'm thinking a 1-2 hour per day limit
  • Occasional music is allowed
    • I'm thinking a 1-2 hour per day limit
    • I just want to avoid consistently listening to music
• I only can interact with endlessly scrolling apps using their APIs
  • No feed queries - Only post update, and reply
  • This is subject to change depending on the endpoints available. The key is to avoid endlessly scrolling so I will build out my interaction apps with that in mind.
  • Tutorials are allowed

Goals

• Typescript

  • I plan on seriously diving into Typescript over the next 100 days. I know I'm missing out on key features by writing raw Javascript, so this is goal #1. Every personal project moving forward will be in Typescript.

• Learning conversation-level Spanish

  • I just recently got married to my lovely wife Daniela who is from Mexico. While she speaks English at a fluent level, a lot of her family does not. Now that we're married, there's no excuse. I will be reading and studying Spanish daily during this challenge. My study plan:
    • Read Accelerated Spanish - not an affiliate link
    • Build out an Anki deck with the words I learn from the book and study it daily
    • Practice with my wife and her family

• Backend Typescript

  • I've written most of my server-side programs and REST APIs in Python (Django). I've recently begun writing some simple scripts using NodeJS and plan on moving forward with NodeJS to have full-stack apps purely in Typescript.
  • This attracts me for several reasons:
    1. I'm a big fan of web-based applications where Javascript (and Typescript) reign as supreme overlord.
    2. I'm already very comfortable writing frontend Javascript, so I hope picking up backend isn't too complicated.
    3. I'd like to master a programming language.
    4. The community is welcoming and enjoyable to be around.
  • fastify - "Fast and low overhead web framework, for Node.js"
    • I plan on following Jay Wolfe's comprehensive Fastify tutorial and see where it takes me.

• Testing

  • I'd like to become more confident in applying TDD within my applications.
  • Cypress Component Test Runner is extremely exciting and I plan on becoming more comfortable with this for my web components.
  • Testing different states within my components is still challenging to me. By the end of this challenge, I want to be able to replicate different states within my application.

• Component Driven Development

  • Alongside Cypress, I want to be building web components that are interactive, scalable, and flexible.

Why?

I'm finding it hard to focus.

I may start my day with an hour or two of World of Warcraft (WoW), maybe a few Youtube videos, Reddit threads, finally get some work in around 11 am, take a break for lunch, and rinse and repeat with a "quick" session of WoW, YouTube, etc...

This has been going on for months now, and I believe it's time to try something drastic to alter my behavior.

I've tried scheduling my days - work in the morning, a game in the afternoon - but I always feel bad about my decisions by the time I go to bed. I have goals in life and I want to be spending my time outside of work striving to achieve those goals.

Of course, life isn't all about work and achieving goals, but I also want to spend my free time doing things like being with my wife, going on camping trips, and helping my community.

I think cutting the time-consuming, unfulfilling behaviors out of my life will open up the time and energy to live an exciting, fulfilling life.

Join me in this journey,

Cody Bontecou