Am I Doing This Right? The Fear We All Face When Building Projects

You’ve started building a project on your own.

Let’s say you’re working on a product catalog and need to apply a 20% discount to all the products. You’ve got the product prices stored in an array.

Now, you have two ways to do this:

const prices = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50];

// Option 1: Traditional for loop
const discountedPrices1 = [];
for (let i = 0; i < prices.length; i++) {
  discountedPrices1.push(prices[i] * 0.8);
}

// Option 2: Array map method
const discountedPrices2 = prices.map((price) => price * 0.8);

Both methods get the job done.

Which one should you use? How do you decide the best approach?

And it’s not just a single task—it happens with almost everything you build in your project. You always fear - “Am I doing this the right way?”

Sound familiar? If you’ve wrestled with feeling like this, you’re not alone!

When deciding what construct is best to use, consider the following:

  • Simplicity: What’s the simplest construct that gets the job done?

  • Clarity: Will your choice make the code easier to read and understand?

  • Reusability: Will this logic be reused elsewhere? If yes, consider encapsulating it in a function.

If you’re still unsure, start with the construct you’re most comfortable with. You can always refactor later. Don’t overthink “correctness” at this stage—prioritize making progress.

Once the task is working, take a moment to review:

  • Could this code be clearer?

  • Is there a better construct for the task?

With practice, you’ll develop an intuition for choosing the right constructs.

So don’t aim for perfection at the start. Focus on building something functional, then refine it as your understanding grows.

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Here’s something to ask yourself…

Why do some developers build amazing projects effortlessly, while others struggle to even start?

The most successful developers out there have 3 things in common:

  • They generate creative project ideas with ease
  • They confidently build projects from start to finish
  • They have a portfolio that impresses and lands them jobs

You’re probably thinking it’s because they’re naturally gifted. They’ve been coding for years, attended prestigious bootcamps, or are just insanely talented.

You’d think that someone who builds stunning projects is in a whole different league — right?

Not so fast.

What’s different is that they know how to approach projects.

I don’t mean that they’re some coding geniuses who write flawless code in their sleep.

Instead, I mean that they know how to break down their ideas into manageable steps, focus on execution, and follow a clear plan to bring their ideas to life.

They don’t feel overwhelmed. They don’t waste hours stuck, wondering what to do next.

“HA! I told you. They’re just smarter than me. That’s why they can do that!”

That’s probably what you’re thinking now, right? I used to think that too.

What took me years of trial and error to figure out:

Most developers don’t have any formal project-building process.

If you’re like me, you studied JavaScript fundamentals — you learned how to write loops, create functions, and use arrays. But when it came time to actually build something from scratch, it hit you like a ton of bricks that coding knowledge alone isn’t enough.

I’m Taha Jiruwala, and I’ve been a developer and educator for years. When I first started coding, I struggled to bridge the gap between learning concepts and building real-world projects. I knew that if I wanted to create impressive projects and showcase my skills, I had to figure out how to approach project-building systematically.

But as someone who felt overwhelmed by large tasks, this wasn’t easy. I wanted to create projects I could be proud of, not just cobble together random bits of code. That’s when I realized the key was having a clear, repeatable process.

I started focusing on how to break down projects into smaller steps. How to go from an idea to a well-structured plan. How to ensure every step was achievable and kept me moving forward.

It wasn’t easy at first. I made plenty of mistakes.

I wasted weeks stuck on projects, gave up halfway through ideas, and felt like I wasn’t making progress.

But once I figured it out — how to come up with ideas, plan each step, and execute confidently — everything changed for me:

  • I built projects I was proud of
  • My portfolio stood out, and I started getting noticed
  • I felt confident tackling new challenges

Rome wasn’t built in a day…

Getting to the point where building projects felt second nature took months of trial and error. But as I started sharing what I learned with others, they kept asking for more details about my process.

This led to an email course, Learn to Build JavaScript Projects.

Thousands of developers have transformed their skills through this course, and I’d love to see you become the next success story.

I was given an assignment by a company in Chennai to set up email notifications using any provider and to switch providers automatically if the emails failed to send three times.

At first, it seemed overwhelming, but after taking this course, I learned how to break down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This made it easier to approach the project, and I completed it successfully.

This course gave me the confidence and clarity to handle real-world projects.

- Thilak Singh Thakur