I'm in my third year of an IT degree, and I feel like I've wasted much of the last two years. When I started college, I was making good progress with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Node/Express. I built a few projects and wanted to become a developer, but I've been very inconsistent. I've spent too much time on my phone, consuming content instead of creating things, and I've developed unhealthy internet habits that I use to escape boredom or stress.
Now my development knowledge feels fragmented and rusty. I also have no internship experience, so I'm worried that I'm behind my peers. I'm trying to change direction and use the next one or two months productively. My goals are to become as employable as possible for internships, build a couple of worthwhile projects, strengthen my fundamentals and interview skills, and ideally earn my first income from development.
For anyone who has been in a similar position, how would you use 30–60 days to prepare? What would you prioritize learning versus building? Would you stick with one stack, such as React and Node? How would you prepare for technical interviews, and what strategies helped you reduce procrastination and phone use? I'm especially interested in practical advice about what to avoid wasting time on.
3 Answers
Build something you genuinely want to use or would be proud to show someone. A finished, useful project is more valuable than several familiar exercises that don’t challenge you. Try not to hide in tasks you already know how to do while telling yourself you’re learning; deliberately include something new, such as authentication, data modeling, testing, deployment, or handling real user input.
Procrastination often survives because planning feels safer than finishing. At some point you have to accept that an imperfect project in the world is more useful than a perfect idea that never gets completed. Set a small daily deliverable, put the phone away, and keep moving. Also avoid doomscrolling and endless preparation disguised as work.
You probably aren’t as far behind as you think. Pick one stack and go deeper instead of constantly switching; React and Node are perfectly reasonable since you already know them. A useful split for the next 60 days would be roughly 80% building and 20% interview preparation. Make two projects that solve small, concrete problems and polish them enough to explain your decisions, tradeoffs, and implementation details.
For the phone problem, rely less on willpower and create friction: delete the apps you tend to scroll, keep the phone in another room while working, and use focused work blocks. Avoid marathon tutorial sessions and chasing new frameworks. Passive consumption can feel like progress without producing anything you can show employers.
Before adding a huge amount of independent study, make sure you’re keeping up with your degree. Attend classes, complete assignments and exercises, work with classmates, understand the required material, and submit work on time. If you’ve been falling behind academically, catching up there should come first; otherwise, your optional project work may not be the main problem.
Once your coursework is under control, use the remaining time for one focused portfolio project and basic interview practice rather than trying to relearn every technology at once.
That’s exactly the practical direction I needed. I’m going to stay with React and Node, prioritize building over tutorials, and keep my phone physically away from me while I work. Switching constantly has definitely been one of my biggest problems.