To report on January 2024

January 31, 2024

"Eh?"

Table of Contents

Focus of the month

January, a special month which encourages me to give myself some New Year's resolutions. I was thinking about not doing so because I have a problem sticking to the 'focus of the month,' but that led me to some resolutions, so here they are:

  • Try to set the 'focus of the month' in a way that I am going to be able to stick with it.
  • I have to relax more due to my health. But I was thinking instead of relaxing to be actively bored. Like sitting and just staring to the wall and let the thoughts flow.

Last year I was trying to hit the goal of learning 3 hours per day, but I was nowhere near. It is just too much time. This was all because I wanted to learn a lot of stuff, some work-related, some for my game development hobby. Both consist of small parts that I have to learn in order to be good at them. So I am going to start with simple goal. One hour of learning per day.

For january, february and march it is going to be quite simple - I signed myself to c# course at work and for each month there are task to be done, so I am going to start with that.

I also promised my friend I am going to learn japanese with him, so this is somehthing I can skip either.

Well, this is it, simple as that.

Reflection

January wasn't as productive in pursuing my personal goals; rather, it had a heavy focus on work-related tasks. I spent around 19 hours on learning, of which only two hours were related to my hobbies. In the first part of the month, I dedicated my time to a technical analysis for a microservice related to the "accounting office" where people submit requests for accountants. Given our commitment to domain-driven development in the new services, I needed to familiarize myself with it. In total, I read around three books:

  • Domain-Driven Design Distilled: bu Vernon, Vaughn
  • Domain-Driven Design: by Evans, Chris
  • Implementing Domain-Driven Design: by Vernon, Vaughn

If I may make a suggestion, start with Evans' book, and after each chapter, explore the same concept in Vernon's Distilled, then move on to the book about implementing domain-driven design.

Another work-related task was a course introducing C#, culminating in certification. While it didn't consume much time, it was a goal for January, and it's now accomplished — success.

However, after completing these tasks, I had to dedicate a substantial number of hours to work. Working in the financial department, we faced an audit, requiring extensive document correction for compliance. This is a topic I plan to discuss during our retrospective. Many of these tasks were created almost two months before the audit, and with better planning, I could have prepared in advance, reducing the workload during the audit period. This was a risk, considering my experiences in December where I needed to prioritize relaxation due to health concerns. Nonetheless, I chose not to compromise the team, and it was the first time I had to put in such strenuous effort.


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Written by Robin Till who walks on the way to anywhere it leads. No question asked. Take a peak on my way on github