6 things that I’ll be doing in the forthcoming year — and you could too

This is my last post of the year. And I’m making a wish list of sorts. A new year resolution, if I may. Staying true to the theme of the publication, this is a plan for the journey ahead in the forthcoming year.

Write code daily

Work-related code doesn’t count. Does not need to be open source.

Part of my work involves writing code, and even aside from that, I enjoy writing code. And I want to get better at it. And what better way to improve, than to do it daily? Every day, apart from work, I will write some code. And this will be to solve problems, to learn a new technology/language, or to improve a particular aspect of writing quality code.

Read code daily

Again, work-related code doesn’t count.

A woodcutter who chops wood daily, without spending time to sharpen his axe, will eventually become less efficient at what he does, and will start seeing sub-par results (will start bringing home lesser wood than the previous day continually, over a course of time). Similarly, merely writing code everyday will not guarantee improvement in the code that I write. I will take the time to read good code that I can follow, in order to improve at the same craft.

Read articles daily

The best way to accumulate bits of information over time.

In addition to writing and reading code, I will spend time reading articles I find to be interesting, at least an hour a day. Reading is also an important art that I wish to learn well by doing daily. I have implemented this since last year, and it has helped me greatly — I’ve had the opportunity to notice that I’ve recently grown comfortable with several concepts that a few people find to be novelties.

Write articles monthly

A month should provide enough time to make a good article.

I have already tried to incorporate this, and this post in itself is a last-ditch attempt at keeping this up (this is my first post of this month). I will take the time to (learn to) properly express myself, in a manner that understanding what I write becomes less of an effort and more of a consequence to the reader. And I will put in the effort to write good articles at least once a month. By taking this up, I automatically take on the challenge to articulate my thoughts regarding the content of the article, which in turn will help me get a better understanding of whatever I wanted to write about in the first place. Win-win!

Solve problems daily

A problem a day keeps the brain sharp. And I want mine sharp.

This is something that I can never stop stressing. I’ve loved solving problems from a young age, and I’m happy that solving problems is part of what I do at work. I’ve already been doing it, and will continue to do it— I have a blog post lined up on its merits, for a later time. The problems can range from random puzzles found in the local newspaper, to those in sites like hackerrank, or ProjectEuler which require writing code. Doing the former helps in the latter, and vice versa, in my experience.

Read books monthly

Finding time for books keeps getting harder. But I need to make time.

The last year (the year I bought my kindle) I was able to read 40 books in a matter of 3 months, but this year I have hardly made time for 2 books. I will be correcting this, as I see value in reading books, in addition to reading articles daily. Due to my uncertainty in the amount of time that I will have available for this, I’m setting a modest goal of reading a book a month, or 12 books for the forthcoming year.

Those are the 6 things that I will be doing.

So, what do you think?
Is there something else you think I should be doing?
What will you be doing this new year?
Let me know in the comments.

If you like this post, please be sure to share it in your social media and/or recommend it on medium by clicking the little heart icon.

Cheers,
and a happy new year!