#3 Making your bare-maximum into your bare-minimum when it comes to assignments

I've wanted to take multiple risks so far with my uni assignments, not only to stand out from the crowd but to also develop the skills I will need if I want to be successful with app development in the future. One example was quite recent, where I had to create a website. How fun!? NOT! I've never really enjoyed making websites. However, me being me, I decided to do something that was more than the "bare-minimum" and learn more than I actually needed to from the assignment. I won't get all technical in this post, but I essentially challenged myself to create an 'app landing page', a website that helps market a mobile application that has already been developed or still in the idea stage. Simply because I’m into mobile app development and I think if you want to succeed in that one hobby of yours and make it a career, one should also teach themself the 'marketing' side of things.

As much as I would love to tell you all my idea, there are two rules for success: 1) never tell everything you know. Haha sorry guys... you will know my idea once I develop the app.

The idea was way out of my depth and I had no clue how to do it. The only thing I knew, the stress of not knowing how to make my idea a reality motivated me to make it happen even more. It took me three whole days to figure out one line of code that made something complex look embarrassingly simple, and then the rest came easily after that. Every time I got something to work, it was time for me to make a copy of the project folder on my USB, edit the copy and keep the other as a backup. In the end, I found the assignment pretty fun although I wouldn't want to do it again unless I really had to.

(Image licensed under Creative Commons by Celestine Chua - https://www.flickr.com/photos/celestinechua/11583890763/)

Most importantly when it comes to assignments, decide whether doing more than the bare minimum is worth losing a few marks over the new skills you can gain - the more you have of one thing, the less you have of another. Oh and that reminds me, doing more than expected might even present you with some incredible designs and proof-of-concepts you can show off in a portfolio in the future.

Here are a few tips for thinking about ideas for upcoming assignments:
1) A pretty obvious one, relate your assignment to something that INTERESTS YOU!
2) Make your assignment RELATE to what you want to do in the future
3) If you are an ambitious person, CHALLENGE YOURSELF
4) BE ORIGINAL, otherwise IMPROVE ON SOMETHING THAT ALREADY EXISTS
5) Before you start, VISUALISE doing the assignment in your mind. This helps you identify problems before you even start the assignment (yes, it really works)

- Aaron S