When I was getting into coding, I first started to just scamble together some PHP stuff because I had no mentor. Later, I learned to at least write a short document describing what you want to achieve: Set goals, estimate usages (of libraries, dependencies, technologies) and annotate a few "I could implement X via Y". Doesnt need to be pretty, nor long, just blurting out your thoughts into text, so you can re-read it and consider the choices.

And the form of the doc? Well, it could be a NIP, it could also be a Word document with a full blown TOC. Doesnt matter - just... write stuff, read it, and eventually you like what you see, and thus it helps you build a road you can walk on.

Not the perfect'est solution in the world and definitively also something very individual but... it's worked for me so far o.o