How to close the gap between knowing what you need to do and actually doing it

I’m an Android developer, studying for my 3rd google certification (some google stuff here). Sometimes I find myself scrolling through Chambers, knowing what I need to do, but don’t actually start working until an hour later.<br><br>Do you know this feeling?<br><br>The first barrier is actually knowing what you need to do. When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know where to start. It was incredibly frustrating.<br><br>You need to have a clear idea of what you need to do. As amateur devs, we get here by reading the developer guide for android or by googling.<br><br>The second barrier is getting to actually work. Even after we know what we need to do, we don’t move.<br><br>This barrier is more interesting.<br><br>Let’s break it down to a smaller problem. We all know what it means to write a single line of code. When you’re a complete beginner, you need to overcome the barrier of actually opening android studio and starting a new project. Then you need to put a button on the screen and show a Toast when it’s clicked. These problems are easy to solve by opening android studio, dragging a button onto the UI and then using the editor to help you write that single line of code to get the Toast to show.<br><br>If you can write a single line of code, you can google. Google will give you a few lines of code when you search “how to show a toast message in android”.<br><br>If you can google, you can do anything.<br><br>How do you overcome this barrier? When I’m studying for a google certification, I break what I need to do down into the smallest actions. Open up a candidate study guide and just read the first sentence. It’s not a big deal. It takes less than a second.<br><br>I’ll read the first sentence and then maybe stop for a second. I might even scroll through social media. Then I’ll read the second sentence. It’s not a big deal. It’s only a sentence.<br><br>And then the next one.<br><br>And then the next one.<br><br>Before I know it, I’ve read the entire thing. And then I just need to remember 3 key points about it. So I’ll just write those down. And then I’ll take a short break to scroll through social media.<br><br>Sometimes when you’re scrolling through social media, you’ll be influenced by people saying things like “just do it”. I’m definitely influenced by this kind of thing. And sometimes I’ll go from scrolling social media to opening the study guide in just a second. And then I can start working on whatever I need to.<br><br>And if I make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world. I can just try again.<br><br>You don’t need to do much at one time. You don’t need to start working on a problem until you have a clear idea of what you need to do. But you have to take that first step. You have to work on one line of code at a time. You have to read one sentence at a time. And then you have to read the next sentence. And then the next.<br><br>It’s not a big deal. You can do anything as long as you take it one sentence at a time.