Code jam & katas are fine. But they are not deliberate practice. They are just exercises. Deliberate practice is about working on your weak area till you're

Code jam & katas are fine. But they are not deliberate practice. They are just exercises. Deliberate practice is about working on your weak area till you're no longer weak in that area. You MUST perform a retrospective on all your projects. Ask yourself what you struggle with often, what are your pain points? Identify them, then work on them. The mistake I often see is that most developers create more problems for themselves by attacking multiple problems at once. If you have XYZ problem, and you decide to use a new language, a new framework, a new cloud service/API, a new DB and a new design style you have never used before. You will never be sure your pain point. What you must do in this world of too many choices is LEARN TO CONSTRAIN. Pick a language, DB, framework, etc that you know. Nothing should be new to you but the problem. Yes, it's true that your existing tools might not have everything you need. LEARN TO BE RESOURCEFUL. With that said, attack the problem, if you have any issues, it will be obvious and apparent. Let's say you have a great project you understand through and through and you wish to learn a new DB. Keep all things constant, rewrite your old project and the only thing that should be new is the DB. Repeat till you master the DB. You must limit your problem to ONE and ONLY ONE at a time. This allows you to measure and correct faster if on the wrong course.