🍀Introduction
The best way to reflect on the activities of a month is to summarize them. This not only helps to give an overall idea of how the month passed but also assists to figure out the unfinished tasks or setting new goals for the next month. This idea is inspired by the monthly report for the tasks that I had done, in my previous workplace. So, here I am presenting a wrap-up for the first month of the year; January 2023.
I will be covering the following topics which I feel, have the most impact on my life.
🟢 Hashnode
🟢 Coding
🟢 Reading
🟢 Writing
🟢 Duolingo
🟢 Personal
🚩Hashnode
After a gap of some months, I resumed writing on this platform and commit to being regular. Thanks to DevRetro2022 for helping me to come out of writer's block. I feel that setting deadlines for goals help to achieve the goal faster. I will try to write at least one article per week on this platform. This idea is inspired by a tweet that urged others to write 52 articles a year and I got so motivated by it.
🔶Articles Written
✅Counting Technical Blessings of 2022 - Dev Retro 2022 -It's about my technical journey of 2022.
✅Article Reviews of Winners of Dev Retro 2022 - It's the compilation of reviews of the top 10 winners of Dev Retro 2022
✅Role of communities in my coding journey - This is about the help and support that I received from the community of Hashnode and Tech Twitter. This is also my entry for the #CoCodeblogs Blog-a-thon contest.
As per my commitment, I fell short of one article this month, I hope that I will be able to compensate for that.
🔶Events and Badges
✅Result of #DevRetro2022 - I was so thrilled to find myself mentioned among note-worthy writers for my article.
✅Word Warrior Badge - I received Word Warrior badge for writing this article with a word count over 2K. This was something I didn't have and I wanted to get this. I hadn't imagined it to receive it in the first month of this year for a review article. This reminds me of a famous Chinese proverb
A bit of fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers.
🔶Engagements
This is how my Hashnode analytics looks like
I gained 6 more followers this month and am thankful to them for sticking with me. I hope that I won't disappoint you and try to provide something meaningful.
Twitter has always been a warehouse of resources. I never miss bookmarking useful tweets for referring them in the future.
✅I won some self-help books in a giveaway by Hasan Toor.
✅I got two books 50DaysOfPython- A Challenge a day and Python Tips and Tricks by Benjamin Bennett Alexander
I've been solving problems day-wise from this book in Visual Studio and Sololearn's compiler. I find them easy and interesting.
I keep posting my progress as a record in form of tweets.
🚩Coding
✅I solved problems from the book 50DaysOfPython- A Challenge a day and LeetCode.
✅I enrolled myself in some courses from Coursera and MOOCs from University which I'm trying to cover.
✅I referred to resources like W3school, sololearn for learning C#.
🚩Reading
Last year , I committed myself to read more by encouraging myself to participate in #100DaysOfReading Challenge as a result of which I not only developed a reading habit but also was able to read 17 books in a year. This year, I no longer need to commit to #100DaysOfReading challenge for reading as reading habit has already got developed in me.
I started this year by picking up Bhagvad Gita As it is , it's a huge book to be covered in a month and I don't intend to set any deadline to cover it. I read 3-4 Shlokas(verses) with their meaning, every day.
🟣Bhagvad Gita As it is (Continuing)
✅It started with a friend request by Sudeep Nagarkar
🟣To love and let go by Rachel Brathen
Apart from these books, I like to follow the blog posts of various writers at Hashnode.
🚩Writing
✅ I wrote a year recap for 2022 and submitted it for a contest at Reflections. I received certificate of encouragement from the team.
✅I wrote Early morning and Sudoku by recalling an incident from my childhood and the excitement of solving Sudoku.
Apart from these articles in published form, I kept customizing my CVs and cover letters as part of applying to different companies as I'm looking for jobs.
🚩Duolingo
I love practicing German and Finnish in DuoLingo App. I'm on Day-551 Strike. It is so entertaining and fulfilling to enjoy the learning process. I've picked up a grammar book for German to supplement my learning.
✅I completed January Challenge and got a badge.
✅For the first time, I ended up grabbing 1st position on the leaderboard in Diamond League.
🚩Personal Development
✅ I attended two sessions of Helsinki Toastmasters and participated as Table Topic speaker. It was a great expereince for me to be able to attend in a non-virtual set up. Last time, I attended a virtual session of Toastmaster when I was in HongKong. I look forward to attend some more sessions too.
✅I attended some seminars on personal development and job fair.
🎯Goal for Feb,2023
✅To complete one course from Coursera.
✅To complete Responsive Web Design by FreeCodecamp.
✅To convert job interview to offer letter
✅To accomplish #WriteAPageADay
✅To keep focusing on the tasks in hand
✅Explore events and places in the locality
✅To grab more opportunities in the field of career and habits
🍀Final Note
🧿It was a great start to the year as I joined the celebration of countdown in Helsinki. The first year of the month went well for me with a lot of excitement and some unfinished tasks. Hoping to embrace February and patiently wait to embrace new opportunities.