At the beginning of the new year, many people build a list of goals that they have for that year. Some of them are personal goals, and some of them are professional. This year, one thing I’d like to do is make large strides in my professional career. Throughout the workday, there isn’t much time to develop these skills due to time restraints, so it’s important that I focus on going the extra mile outside of the office. In order to do so, I plan on devoting some of my personal time to achieving these ambitions of mine. Now, I have thought about everything I want to do, but haven’t put together a list so now’s the time to buckle down.
Here’s the list of my 5 improvements of 2017:
Go Through Codecademy Again
In 2013, I took a course on Codecademy for the first time. I learned a lot and have really put those skills to use a lot in my day to day, however, I feel like I have lost a good part of my website development foundation. Every day I find myself altering and adjusting different lines of code. I try new things and, eventually, something works but I have really lost the knowledge of why something does what it does. I would like to gain a clearer understanding of the basics of code and also see what else Codecademy has to offer. Since it has been 3 years, I know there are more lessons that can bring me a new skill set including classes on Command-Line, JavaScript, and SQL.
Enhance My Knowledge of Google Products
Working at a website design company, Google is at the core of everything we do. From Google Analytics to Webmasters and even AdWords, we are utilizing Google products day to day. I have taken a few Lynda courses on the foundation of these platforms, but I feel that it is imperative for me to start diving in to gain a deeper knowledge of the Google products and how they serve to better assist our clients’ website goals in 2017.
Build a Code Database
There are many different lines of code that you utilize over and over again working with a WordPress Content Management System. I would like to build a tool kit for myself and the development team that we can reference on a regular basis in order to make our development process streamlined and more efficient.
Read More
Working in a digital world, it’s often easy to look past the paper. However, this year I find it important to increase my knowledge not just through Google searches, but through books. There are plenty of books out there written for website developers and marketers that I would love to dive into. Books are a great way to gain knowledge on how to be better at a specific job skill, but also be a better work professional and, generally, a better person! In my next blog, I am going to find and list 5 books that I plan on reading this year in order to make progress on that goal and establish accountability in myself.
Find a Home and Work-life Balance
Although it’s important to have professional goals, I will not become successful in any of these accomplishments without having a good home and work-life balance. I believe in order to be happy and successful in the office, it’s also important to have a happy and successful personal life. I understand after years of failing to take vacation days until the last minute that it’s important to schedule time for myself and the ones I love most in this world. Due to that, I am going to line up a few vacation days and etch out some time for me to just randomly take a day to relax and regroup. That way, I can take a step back from the computer and continue to focus on the bigger picture.
There you have it. There is my list of goals for 2017. Although I would love to lie and say I have already gotten a pretty good head start on these, it would not be the truth. I’m glad I have taken the time to type everything out in order to establish accountability in this year’s objectives. Who knows – maybe in a few weeks I’ll have an update for you with where I am at this year surprise myself. For now, it’s time to focus and get going!
Here’s to making 2017 an awesome year for me here at Nextfly! Wish me luck.