I Planned My Career Overhaul Perfectly on Paper. Then Real Life Happened.

From "foolproof" 15-hour days to power outages and YouTube drama; here's what I learned when my master plan met the real world.

For those who read my first article: you absolutely demolished my "perfect" plan. For newcomers: welcome to my career restructuring chaos.

Turns out, mapping out a 6-month career overhaul on paper is wildly different from executing it in real life. Who would've thought that power outages, laggy laptops, and YouTube violations weren't part of my original strategy? 😅

Your feedback completely flipped my approach; and honestly, some comments and suggestions caught me so off guard I had to do actual research to realize they were legit. I literally went, "Wait, that's actually a thing?"

So here's the deal: I'm investing six months restructuring my career, and I better make sure I don't mess this up. Failure means starting over again sooner or later, and time is way too valuable to waste, even though I'm really good at wasting it, I admit.

My previous article struck up some serious debate and questioning between me and my readers. Some had really nice suggestions that I had to consider before moving forward. To be honest, I didn't know some of these suggestions were actually valid until I did my own research. I was like, "I didn't know that was actually a thing!"

The 15-Hour Daily Madness Everyone's Freaking Out About

The biggest concern in my whole plan is clearly time. I don't know what, why, or how, but somehow 15 hours seems like way too much to speak of or allocate to doing anything. The whole program is 15 hours daily; 5 hours coding, 5 hours Twitter, 5 hours job applications for six straight months.

Yeah, I know everyone has a breaking point, and I'm no exception. But this doesn't mean I or you shouldn't try it out before having your own conclusion based on someone else's opinion. Just set a goal, break it down into actionable steps you can follow for a period of time. Then give it a shot; say a day, two, or three, and see if it works for you. You might be surprised how much you can actually pull off.

This is what I'm in for, nothing else really. Even though 15 hours is a lot of time, I'm considering this a little experiment to determine how much and how long I can go before I breakdown.

Mandatory Rests (Well well, I ain’t a Robot)

Something that doesn't seem to be mentioned often by most readers is the mandatory rest and breaks I'll be having. I wonder why it's not coming up as a topic on its own. But hey, keep in mind there's always 10-15 minute mandatory rest every hour and 30-60 minute rest every transition. With this, I believe the intensity will ease up a little.

Besides, I need breaks to maximize productivity. I'm pretty sure some people can work for way longer with little to no rest than me, how I wish I was one of those folks, but meh, I'm not. So as a caution measure, I'm adjusting rest times until I find that optimum region where I maximize output rather than taking long hours doodling around.

My plan: start with 30 minutes after every hour of deep work, then reduce it to 15-20 minutes, and over time aim to make it 10-15 minutes.

When Life Hits You with Curveballs

Oh! A reader asked a really nice question about how I plan to handle power blackouts, internet lags, and other unprepared and unpreventable events. Damn, how come I never thought of this before? They happen all the time, especially in African countries.

My plan seemed to have everything working out perfectly. The reality? This only happens on paper. There are lots of unknowns waiting to go wrong anytime, and just wreck everything up.

Here's the thing: I'm personally in for iteration and NOT perfection. What this means is these events are inevitable and will happen, so the plan is just to pick up and move forward after any unknown pops up. Basically, divide the tasks based on the time at hand. Say if I have 3 hours left in a day, an hour each task makes sense. If I only have an hour left, 20 minutes each task will do it.

The key is doing something consistently every single day. This ensures I always move forward rather than beating myself up over what I couldn't control.

Simple rule: control what you can control, and don't let what you can't control control what you can control. Read that again, slower; it will make sense. I don't promise though! 😂

Solid Projects First (Thanks, Old Buddy!)

Got a solid piece of advice from one of my readers and old friend: I should make fewer job applications at the start and instead double down on coding. Aim for professional projects with quality code structure, to be precise. When I think about it, it makes real sense.

Real talk; I currently don't have much skills to show or talk about, which kinda makes me nervous and uncomfortable. After our talk, I told myself, "Wouldn't it be good to have even a single project to showcase my updated skills, then add more over time?"

Here's a trap I feel I or someone might fall into: fully focusing on building super cool projects and actually never applying to jobs. Then once I realize I've got cool projects (often times never realize it), I have extremely high expectations about what kind of jobs I should apply to in the shortest period; a week, 2, 3, or 4 weeks. Taraahhhh!!! Welcome to the world of reality. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Chances and odds are actually against me unless otherwise.

However good you are, if not enough people are aware that 1) You actually a developer and 2) You looking for gigs/jobs, then it doesn't matter if I come up with the next tech innovation to take over earth or become the next Elon.

So you better market myself and do it while I'm upskilling, never after, because it won't happen. One way; and the best way to do it for free, is building and failing in public. As soon as you start upskilling, be active on socials from a developer's point of view.

The Right Circumstances to Start (Spoiler: They Don't Exist)

In my previous article, I mentioned I was going to take 1-2 weeks or wait for a state-of-the-art laptop to get started 🚀. The reality? The more I've been waiting to get it, the more it seems to be running away from me 😂.

While waiting, I figured I'd prep myself and try live streaming as an accountability partner for my leveling up strategy. Holy moly, the experience has been terrible; lots of issues from no streaming tool, no streaming skills, my persistent laggy laptop, YouTube up my ass for violations I don't even know of, plus you name it issues.

Here's the thing though: I had this vision of streaming becoming one of the best accountability strategies for this entire experiment. Someone somewhere someday might look at how I became what I become and get motivated by my journey. It's also how I planned to connect with more like-minded people, including potential job reference folks. Basically, gain public and real-time feedback on how to make my code structure better and come up with good, more professional projects.

But it's been clearly more than 2 weeks with no clear sign of getting the laptop. I've been holding out for a better machine to help minimize common avoidable situations; good battery life, faster data processing and storage, seamless streaming and multitasking. I had the streaming part in mind when considering a laptop with more content creation capabilities; video editing and whatnot, and maybe even some mobile development for my own apps in the future.

Wild, piped, and unreal dream, huh! Seems like I had it all mapped out in my head, and funny enough, I ain't backing off this horse if anything! 😂

But here's what I've learned: since I know better, I'll follow my own advice and control what I can control. I'm starting this journey right away using what I currently have access to. Everything happening exactly how I want is one superpower I don't have, which means I won't wait for next week or next month.

I'm officially beginning tomorrow, June 27th, 2025.

What I've realized these past days is that waiting to have the right conditions to begin something isn't just a good excuse, it's the BEST excuse to never start something. Because chances of things falling into plan are really, really slim. So the move is to start already while waiting for those other conditions, not waiting for the conditions to start. Period.

Final Thoughts and Backup Plan (Just Kidding, There Isn't One)

Will any of this ever pay off? Mmmmhh??? That's a mystery I need to solve and find out myself. Maybe it will, maybe it will be even better. I don't know for sure, and that's the best part, to unwrap it over time. Maybe after 2 months, maybe after 4 months into the challenge, maybe not even after the 6.

What I'll do for sure is what's needed of me: building catchy projects, looking for and applying to opportunities I spot, then being prepared for interviews, both technical and soft skills.

I’ve no backup plan. It just has to work. It might take longer or shorter than planned, but it working out eventually is what I believe in. Maybe it's stupid, but yeah. If it doesn't work within 6 months of putting in the work, then I'll extend the timeframe to one year. If it doesn't work then, I'll add 6 more months.

I'm willing to trade 6, 12, 18, or even 24 months to get where I want to be for the rest of my life. What I think matters is enjoying the process and learning from 10,000 mistakes, overcoming obstacles that come your way. Now THAT'S actual dream chasing.

What I Need You to Do (Yes, You!)

I'm calling on you to try and implement what you found in this article. I'm pretty sure reading this far gives you an idea of what you can try out; maybe a different approach that unlocks a piece of your puzzle.

Here's exactly what to do:

1. Pick one skill you want to level up over the next six months
2. Break it down into daily tasks you can actually stick to
3. Commit to doing something every single day, even if it's just 30 minutes
4. Share your progress publicly somewhere; create that accountability
5. Start today with whatever resources you currently have

If you have a goal, take action as soon as you have it. Don't wait for perfect conditions, they don't exist!

Trust me, we're all figuring this out together, and there's something oddly comforting about knowing you're not the only one struggling with your dreams.

 

Ready to transform your career in 6 months? The journey starts now. 

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