Hello there, all budding Salesforce Devs! Summer beckons, and so does the June 2025 edition of Apex Insider.
Warren’s Wisdom: How to Improve Your Coding….without Coding
While practicing coding is the best way to directly improve your coding skills, there are also indirect ways to improve your skills.
Here are some habits to adopt that will improve not only your coding, but your life overall:
- Exercise regularly. The ancients had a saying: “Mens sana in corpore sano”, or “A sound mind in a sound body.” I work out at the gym 3-4 times a week and starting doing mixed martial arts (MMA) and running. Exercising regularly helps you code better by improving your brain’s overall performance. Regular exercise stimulates the development of new brain cells, improves memory, and boosts creativity and mental energy. If you get stuck on a coding problem, try taking some time away from the problem and go for a workout or a brisk walk. The solution may come to you suddenly while you’re working out.
- Socialize with others. Socializing is good for mental health also, and better mental health translates to more creativity and better problem solving. I always make time to hang out with friends and family on weekends. And I attend various Salesforce or other tech-related conferences during the year to meet my online friends in person and to connect with other industry professionals. Socialize with people who have skills in the area you want to build; if you want to learn Apex, join your local Salesforce Developer group and make sure to introduce yourself and chat with the other members. This also helps you build your professional network.
- Get enough sleep. No matter your age, getting enough sleep improves your problem-solving skills, concentration, and your productivity. I at least need 7 to 8 hours of sleep to avoid being grumpy and groggy the next day. Seven hours of sleep per night is the minimum needed to maximize not only the brain’s performance, but the body’s performance too. Getting enough sleep helps you maintain a good body weight, lowers your risk of heart disease, maximizes your brain power, makes you a nicer person, and keeps you at peak coding performance.
- Read (or listen to) books for pleasure. Reading trains your brain to remember ideas and facts. Reading fiction increases your creativity, empathy, and emotional intelligence, all great skills to have in the workplace. I get my reading done by listening to audiobooks while I take walks or work out. And just like exercising regularly, reading regularly improves your cognitive engagement and memory, two skills that come in handy when learning how to code. And finally, reading helps to round you out as a person by exposing you to new ideas and information.
I do all these things to keep sharp and decompress from long days coding/working.
Coding every day is always going to be the best way to accelerate your development skills. But don’t forget to stretch yourself in other ways, too. Follow the suggestions listed here to develop yourself as a whole person both personally and professionally.
Have You Tried Salesforce Freelancing?
Freelancing as a Salesforce professional is a great way to build both income and experience. I’ve done freelancing on and off many time through my Salesforce career. Mostly through referral but I’ve also found success on sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
To better understand the current Salesforce ecosystem, I’m going to be jumping back on the saddle and finding some freelance clients. I’m also using this as an opportunity to evaluate the new Talent Stacker Program.
Talent Stacker is offering an online Freelance Bootcamp from June 6 through 16th, 2025.
Here’s why you should sign up:
- We have a discount code for you to use to get 10% off: "FreelanceWalters10”!
- You get five live learning sessions and access to all bootcamp materials for six months.
- The bootcamp covers starting and growing your freelancing business, including how to market it, sell it, and make your clients satisfied.
- It provides you with a series of reusable templates for important business documents for your freelancing business.
For more information, check out this link: https://talentstacker.com/freelance-bootcamp-enrollment/
Win a Salesforce Certification Voucher!
Join the daily Apex coding contest at Lightning Challenges for your chance to win free Salesforce certification vouchers! We're running TWO contests in June:
- First Contest: June 1-15, 2025
- Second Contest: June 16-30, 2025
There Are Two Ways to Win Each Contest:
- Top Performer: The #1 ranked player on our #CodeEveryDay leaderboard receives a voucher worth up to $400 USD for any Salesforce certificate exam.
- Random Drawing: Each challenge you complete gives you another entry in the raffle! The more challenges you complete = the better odds you have of winning.
Cloud Coder Wins in May
We Cloud Coders are a talented group and are always pushing ourselves to achieve. Check out what some us accomplished last month:
- Dana Koglin earned the Platform Developer I certification and achieved the Application Architect certification too.
- Cat Hancock started a new position as a Salesforce Administrator.
- Riley Meyer earned the Advanced Administrator certification.
- Fahmeeda Begum earned the Platform Developer I certification.
- Frank L started a new position as a Salesforce Engineer.
- Tara Fullerton, Brandon Tyler Edoria, and Nathaniel C Allen completed their Developer Kickstart capstone project.
- Jeremy Shull and Aleksandra Gonta were the leaders of the Lightning Challenges Coding Contest for the period May 1-15 and won certification vouchers.
- Terrence Gonsalves completed the Developer Kickstart capstone project.
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