Last year around this time I wrote a blog called “5 Things I Want to Improve Upon in 2017“. In this blog post I made work-oriented resolutions that I wanted to accomplish throughout the year including the following:
- Go through Codecademy again
- Enhance my knowledge of Google products
- Build a code database
- Read more
- Find a home and work-life balance
Taking a look at these once more, I wanted to share my results and also set goals for 2018 to strive towards.
Go through Codecademy again
Now, I did not do the same lessons I previously did when I got started with Codecademy, but I did take a course that I felt was even more extensive than what that would have been.
The course was titled “Freelance Website Development”. It was an extensive eight weeks of programming that required 3-4 hours a night of classwork and project implementation. This course kicked me in the butt due to the time commitment, but also gave me a better understanding of HTML, CSS, Command Line, Bootstrap, JavaScript, and more. I more than likely would not have learned these programming languages if it weren’t for this course, so I am glad that I took a huge leap in committing to the course.
Enhance my knowledge of Google products
Google is something that I work with every day but did not have as much knowledge of the products as I would have liked heading into 2017. For a good chunk of the year my course with Codecademy took up all of my free time so I was unable to dig into Google until later on in the year. I did, however, take a lot of Google’s Academy for Ads courses including AdWords Fundamentals and Search Advertising. I became certified in both within a two-week span as I devoted all of my spare time to learning the ins and out of Google’s Ad Network.
Build a code database
I’m not even going to lie about this one. My developer and myself did not even get started on this, however, it’s still on my list of things I’d like for us to accomplish. Very soon we will be obtaining a new developer and so my goal would be to work with both developers and get this up and running. I believe this database will streamline our productivity in 2018 and beyond so I’m looking forward to making this a possibility.
Read more
I do believe that I read more in 2017 than I have in the past, however, many of the books I read were just for my own personal enjoyment than for my professional gain. Although I did not read what I had planned, I got into the habit of reading regularly and believe that will help me with my goal of reading work-oriented literature within the next few months or years.
Find a home and work-life balance
Taking a look at my goal of “Read More”, I think I accomplished this a bit. Although I did my Codecademy and Google Ad certification classes outside of the office, I was able to put aside work to sit back and enjoy a good book rather than having my mind constantly focused on what I could accomplish next. I also made the decision throughout the year to turn off notifications on my phone. These phone notifications started creating added stress at home and would start distracting me from living in the moment, so I turned off my email, Slack, and social media alerts. Doing so helped my impulse control and made it so I only was alerted when I had the time in my day to catch back up on things, rather than get distracted while in the middle of a task or conversation. Due to this, my home and work-life balance has definitely taken a leap in the right direction and I’m hoping this improves even more throughout 2018.
I believe I took a step in the right direction in 2017 and am looking to do so even more in 2018. Taking a look at this list, I’d like to still make all 5 from 2017 priorities as I continue to grow in my skills in those areas. Both programming and marketing change on a regular basis and it’s important to continue to pursue consistent growth in these areas but also keep work at an arm’s length while maintaining personal relationships and meaningful experiences with others around.
Here’s to a new year!