It is 10:21 pm, January 4, 2023, at the time of starting this article. For some reason, I suddenly feel like writing about how I want my year to go career-wise. I did not plan to, so I will go with the flow of the moment.
Also, kindly forgive any typos in advance. I will not be proof-reading this 🙏
2022 was okay career-wise. It was just there. I got interviewed by my current company and Benjamindada.com. Both opportunities really meant and still mean a lot to me. However, the year itself was just not giving career-wise. At the end of the work year, I did not feel any serious sense of accomplishment. It might be that I have forgotten most of what I did (365 days is long) or that I truly did not do anything worth remembering. It felt basic, which is not a bad thing but it is not what I want at this stage of my career.
So I am trying to do better and be more intentional this year.
I have been watching a couple of Youtube content on productivity, a special shout-out to Ali Abdaal, and how to prepare for 2023 since late last year. To be honest, I did not watch a lot of them to the end, but I was still able to gain something from the clips I did watch. Most of them come with free Notion templates to help track progress or plan better, so I was inspired to be more serious with Notion.
I have also started a course on Brilliant.org. It is part of my attempt to learn more about the basics of computer science and software development. I discovered the website through one of Ali Abdaal's Youtube videos on goal-setting. Thankfully, it comes with a 20% discount offer if you use the link in the description box (this is not an Ad). I am currently in the free trial period, but I will definitely go for the Premium plan. It looks good so far.
I have also resumed the Google Technical Writing One course (for the one-thousandth time). I plan to complete it this week. And I have downloaded a tracker template to help monitor all my online courses for this year. I will update it as I go.
Template link: notion.so/templates/online-learning-tracker
So far, everything feels a little overwhelming. I feel like I am trying to do a lot at the same time. I have a list of topics I want to read more about and write about this year. I have more than 20 tabs open on my browser at the moment. It is quite stressful to look at and think about. But I am determined to make this year count.
One of my (carry-over) goals this year is to move beyond being a junior backend developer. This is not just referring to my job title (I hope that changes soon 😉 💰 ) but also to how I approach tasks at work and the type of personal projects I work on. The former might be more difficult to track but I guess I will somehow notice when it changes.
I want to expand my knowledge base as a software developer. I plan to do this by reading more, starting (and completing) relevant courses, and writing more. The writing part is mostly personal articles. I tried to start a technical writing career last year, but so far, it has been a flop. So the plan is to focus on writing about the things I am learning and personal projects. I also have not given up on my writing career dream so I will take courses to help me improve before I go back to writing for others.
I would like to look back at this article and the one million (just kidding, it's three) notion templates I am currently using to track my progress this year and be content/happy. I hope to be consistent and to see some progress at the end of the year.
It has been a while since I felt any joy from writing, but this felt really good.
Thank you for reading. If you have any book or course recommendations for becoming a better developer, please share!