Did I become a better programmer in 2022?

#webdev #productivity #motivation #career

In January 2022, I wrote a post about how I wanted to become a better programmer by the end of the year.

I set goals, adjusted my plan after a few months, and published an update on it after 3 to 4 months.

Now the end of the year has come and it's time to recap all my achievements from 2022 and see if I got better and made progress.

Accessibility

Accessibility didn't seem to be part of my plan when I started it, but that has completely changed after a few months and has become my main goal.

Even though I can't call myself an accessibility expert (which would be pretty unrealistic since I've only been working on this topic for a few months), focusing on this topic has given me clear professional goals for the future, introduced me to a great community, and even allowed me to give my first talk.

I also started my own organization in order to spread the word, called Accessibility First.

Accessibility will continue to be my main focus in 2023.

Open Source

During Hacktoberfest, I started an organization called Yuri's Coding Club, which aims to help career changers get started in technology by gaining real-world experience that they can put on their resume.

It is an ongoing project that is still in its baby shoes. I hope the community will have grown by the end of 2023 and that it will help many developers find a job in tech.

Soft Skills

Consistency is still one of my best and most important skills. For more than 20 weeks I wrote 2 blog posts a week on dev.to and I don't plan to stop. I have a lot of content I want to share and so many more ideas.

Failures

What I couldn't focus on enough was filling in my gaps when it comes to programming itself. Focusing on the above is so much fun, I didn't want to waste time on anything else.

Conclusion

I am a community person. I like to share, help others and want to improve in these areas. I want to focus on myself and my soft skills and be a role model in combining good soft and tech skills, having good time management, staying healthy and avoiding burnout.