I often find it difficult to stay consistent with learning every single day. I know what I want to achieve, but there is always this urge in my mind pushing me to avoid the tasks I should be doing. That resistance keeps growing, and honestly, it can get pretty frustrating.
Sometimes even writing down a simple task feels surprisingly difficult.
Because of that, I realized before fixing my productivity, I needed to fix the system behind it. My routine felt messy. There were no clear boundaries for what to do, when to do it, and how to approach it.
So instead of forcing myself to “be more disciplined”, I decided to design a system first.
The System
I tried to make this system as realistic as possible based on my current situation.
At the moment, I have a significant amount of free time since I submitted my resignation in December, and January was my last month working as a Full Stack Developer. Although, to be more precise, the role also involved some elements of AI Engineering, such as working with N8N, building RAG pipelines, and tuning LLM parameters i. e sampling settings, top-p, and top-k.
Despite that experience, I still feel that I’m missing some important fundamentals. Thus, I wanted to create a system that allows me to invest more time in strengthening the basics.
This is why the system includes things like Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) and fundamental mini-projects. The goal is not just to study theory, but to build a strong foundation through continuous practice.
The Action
One thing I’ve always believed is that doing something is always better than overthinking. Documentation is part of that process.
Writing things down helps in two important ways. First, it preserves knowledge so I can revisit what I’ve learned later. Second, it acts as proof of progress that allows me to compare where I am today with where I was before, rather than comparing myself to others.
That’s why I plan to start writing on this platform about my projects and what I learn along the way in both Software Engineering and AI Engineering.
My goal is not just to document theory, but also to explain how those concepts are applied in real use cases.
For example, I’m currently building a shopping receipt OCR system, which is still in the Proof-of-Concept phase. I might share the entire journey of building it — from the early experiments to the improvements and challenges I encounter along the way.
The Expectation
Through this documentation process, I hope to build a habit of learning more consistently while preserving the knowledge I gain during my exploration and development journey.
At the same time, I also hope this work adds more value to my professional profile. My goal is to strengthen my portfolio and improve my CV so that I can pursue roles such as:
- AI Engineer
- Full Stack AI Engineer
- Software Engineer
Another thing I’ve realized is that personal branding is something I haven’t really explored yet. Sharing my learning journey publicly might help increase my chances of being discovered and create opportunities I might not find otherwise.
Closing
This is still an experiment. I don’t know yet how effective it will be in the long run, but it feels like I'm heading towards the right direction.
For now, the goal is simple: keep learning, keep building, and keep documenting the journey.
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