Twenty-Two

Another grand year has gone by since my last birthday. Here’s my look back on the year as I turn 22 today. I’m on the edge of finishing my Computer Science degree (yay!), had a blast spending time vacationing with my family, and succeeded at completing a few personal goals, to name a few.

I have accomplished my goal of biking to Gatineau’s Champlain Lookout – a hefty 60km ride on a franken-road bike that safely got me there. Getting hooked on the Strava app has helped gamify my cycling fitness. When my Grandmother passed away this summer we spent five days in Owen Sound, a quiet town on Georgian Bay. I had the itch to go biking one day and ended up renting a proper road bike compared to what I have. Two hours later and I’ve cycled 42km, swam in the water and enjoyed the scenery pass by, completely satisfied.

This time last year ZDirect, the previous name of the company I work at, got acquired by TravelClick. Over the year we’ve hit home run after home run at delivering on making changes, namely a successful datacentre migration, rebranding of the UI, new profile screen and plenty of features to boot. We’re expanding rapidly: acquiring new office space, hiring more developers, account managers and support people. An incremental integration into TravelClick has been happening, involving processes, infrastructure and software. The sales figures show we’re doing something right. Not a few weeks from now I’ll be in New York for a short vacation. During this time I’ll stop by TravelClick headquarters in Times Square to say Hi and see if I can grab some swag.

My main achievement during this summer of working at TravelClick has been implementing a weekly Continuous Improvement meeting for my team where we improve our processes and software by discussing and planning items of action. Seeing the entire team engage and drive the discussion, including planning on what should be done is the truest sign of having succeeded, not to mention the improvements that are being made.

I have started listening to a lot more software-related podcasts. Learning FTW! It’s crazy the amount of information you can learn just by listening when you’re not doing any brain-intensive tasks.

Continuing to experiment with new recipes, I have begun making sourdough bread as it’s much healthier than your regular white loaf. Vegetables and fruits have become more prominent in my meals, as well as Thai coconut soups every once in a while. I’ve reduced the number of unhealthy foods I eat such as bucket-loads of homemade pizza and frozen foods like perogies.

On the topic of health, I was disciplined for the first half of the year when it came to performing workouts five to six nights a week. Freeletics is an excellent social exercise app that only requires your body, a pull-up bar and a small amount of space to do short but intense exercises. Besides the pre-programmed workouts, performing 250 sit-ups a night definitely helped get that six-pack ready for the February trip to the Dominican Republic. (On a related note, Long Island Iced Teas became my new favourite drink).

When the summer started it was an abrupt transition from school-life to work-life. I eventually stopped using the Freeletics workout app and instead went for hour-plus bike rides a couple of times a week, using Strava to track my distance. I miss the disciplined workout. I want to get back into the routine again when my joints aren’t complaining.

Having a second (but small) source of income as well as keeping my other skills sharp was prominent this past year. I performed some freelance logo design and web development with a great friend of mine. At the moment I feel like the work I’m doing is valued at less than what it should be. I plan on being actionable for future jobs by valuing my time more.

Here’s some raw metrics that represent part of what I have been up to over the past year:

• 3.1 Million keys typed, 0.7 Million clicks
• 279 Github contributions
• 5 books read with 14 on the go (I should really finish some of these)
• 8 blog posts were published and 6 are a work in progress
• 569 km of recorded cycling
• 57 km of recorded running

A bad practice that I want to take control over is the number of hours of YouTube videos that I consume per week. I could easily spend that time reading, sleeping or getting things done. I feel that if I visualize my video consumption and set a goal of reducing the hours watched per week I will gain back valuable time.

Some good practices that I want to continue with this year is getting good sleep, writing every day, practicing mindfulness, taking notes while reading books, being fit and listening to podcasts and conference talks.

Reading about and using the Getting Things Done method is another goal of mine that I think would help me perform better and achieve more given all my work and personal tasks. Being able to organize better and be disciplined about getting things done will enable me to feel more fulfilled day-to-day.

Well time to publish this and pack it up for the night as it’s just past midnight. Today my friends and I are attending the Panda Games, an annual football game with a decades-old rivalry between Ottawa’s two big universities: Carleton and Ottawa U. It’s a big party and it’ll be a write-off for all of us.