Vanessa’s Capstone Blog

The goal I had for my capstone was to get some experience in React. All of my web dev experience is limited to school. I feel like I am in the middle of my breakthrough at this exact moment. I am at the point now in the process where things are starting to click in place. It matters a lot now because we are coming to the tail end of the project and a lot of work needs to be finished up. I also feel like getting to work on a web dev project has reaffirmed that I do enjoy doing iOS development more. As I embark on a new career, it helps to know where my preferences are.

One success I had was learning that I desire to learn more about UI/UX. I enjoyed making logos, choosing color palettes, and figuring out which design direction to take. I am excited to see what our final product will look like and excited that I played a big part in that.

A struggle I had during this course a lot was time management. I was working full-time and also had a business trip in the middle of the course. I definitely struggled to find a balance. Although I am finishing up at OSU this quarter, I do not foresee never having to balance learning time and work again in the future. I need to learn to be more disciplined with my time in the future. Time is not an infinite resource and striving for better time management in work, school, and life is important to me.

As with any project, I have learned more about myself and more about technology. I will take these lessons and as they do in agile make changes based on these lessons and improve on the next iteration.

I think we are using several technologies in our project that a lot of people would probably find more interesting than React. The rest of my team was pretty excited to work on the backend, that’s for sure.

When I took web development it was still teaching only vanilla javascript so I missed learning React during class. I honestly did not enjoy the class that much and was surprised by that fact. My first degree was in Art, and I thought I would be drawn to web development. Later in my degree here at OSU, I took mobile development. The class was teaching Flutter at the time. Flutter is a widget-based framework. I loved it!

Using Flutter, I discovered a joy for mobile development. Building and using widgets just clicked in the artist side of my brain. I have since learned iOS development and even completed an internship in it.
When I learned about React and its component-based architecture, I felt like it would trigger the same joy I got from mobile that escaped me the first time I tried to learn web development. React and Flutter seemed to have a lot of similarities that I liked.

So far, so good. I feel like I am still at the beginning of my React journey but it has made me not hate web development! That alone makes it pretty cool. As for improving React, at this point, I feel like I do not know enough to make those cases yet. I am sure they will come. I can agree with the fact that the learning curve has been steep. The jury is out if I like JSX or not yet.

I am excited to keep learning, and seeing if React can make web development replace mobile development in my heart!

Like many students, this semester I am trying to figure out the best way to manage my time, and be successful in it.

This is my final quarter at OSU, and although I am excited to graduate there is a lot to juggle before that time. I am balancing a full time job, studying and applying for new grad jobs in software engineering (during what is shaping up to be a very competitive season), and of course doing my best to finish my last course with hopefully an A. There are also the normal life things that have to get done as well: grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, taking care of my dog, sleep and also things like exercise and some down time to prevent burn out.

This full plate I believe would be daunting to anyone, but I happen to historically be a procrastinator. I’ve realized that while procrastination hasn’t been the best use of my time, it’s been manageable for me in the past. I find I need the pressure of a looming deadline to get me started, and a sleepless night here and there would keep me on track. This quarter though, the full plate makes everything feel like a looming deadline. I am now managing a myriad of deadlines, which mean my life as a procrastinator needs to come to an end this quarter or I won’t make it. Procrastination is not for people with full plates.

After looking at some options I have decided to beat the procrastinator in me, I will utilize two popular time management techniques this quarter.

The first technique I will implement will be a personal kanban board as my to do list. This will help me visualize all the tasks that need to be accomplished that week. I’ve heard that marking things off a to do list releases dopamine, which helps to motivate us and keep us happy. This way I can give myself little hits of dopamine as I finish school and work tasks, as well as life tasks, like grocery shopping. Hopefully this will also prevent me from letting normal life tasks fall to the wayside.

The second technique I will implement will be the Pomodoro Technique. For those unfamiliar, the Pomodoro Technique is when you do sprints of time working (traditionally 25 minutes), take a small break between sprints (traditionally 5 minutes) and after a few sprints (traditionally 4) take a longer break, something like 30 minutes. I like this technique because it allows me to break up my tasks and get away from the computer. For instance, completing two sprints of homework followed by a sprint of cleaning the kitchen will help keep me moving. The longer break in between I hope will make sure I get enough down time that I don’t feel to stressed or burnt out.

I am curious if anyone else has tried this or any other time management technique in their life tasks! Let me know what worked for you! Here is to a great quarter!

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