I think there’s a misconception that students in computer science spend every waking hour coding. What actually happens, from my experience, is that I allocate a couple days purely for research and watching tutorials. And about a day or two before the deadline, I’ll actually start writing my code. Here’s what my day sort of looked like:
8:00 AM to 9:00 AM – Get ready for the day. Turn on some Netflix, wash up, eat breakfast, and tidy up my room.
9:00 AM to 10:00 AM – Check Discord for group project updates, check my OSU email, and write a priority list of tasks that need to be done by end of the day.
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Watched more advanced tutorials on creating 3D terrains through the Unity game engine. Ended up creating a basic grassland and ocean terrain.
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM – Break time set aside for gym and lunch
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM – Check Discord for more group project updates, check my OSU email, and reinspect my priority task list
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM – This is where I do a bulk majority of any coding task. I spent an hour looking up tutorials on how to create walls in order to restrict action outside of designated camera limits. Implemented the dice drag-and-roll action to prevent the user from throwing the dice outside of a scene camera’s limit.
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM – Time to unwind from the day. Netflix, dinner, and video games.
9:00 PM to 11:00 PM – Worked on other coursework that’s due this week in my Intro to Cybersecurity class. Check Discord, school email, and priority task list one last time. Check out for the day.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some days when I spend 10-12 hours of unfiltered time just coding. I have days where I just don’t want to think about coding and that’s completely okay. As long as I work in increments every day up to a deadline, I’m able to wrap up any work that needs my attention with plenty of time to spare. There are days when I seem to just get it and there days when I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. But those feelings pass with proper maintenance, and keeping myself consistently committed to a schedule really helps me stay focused on my path to a coding career.
