The first of every new year comes with many new goals and challenges that people usually focus on accomplishing and then, almost immediately, fail at accomplishing in the first month or so.
Due to that, I figured I would hold myself accountable by writing my first blog of the year on my resolutions and my pursuits to accomplish those goals.
If you’d like, you can view my old blog: https://www.nextflywebdesign.com/new-year-resolution/, however, I figured I would do a quick recap below and let you know if the progress I’ve made for each one as well.
Healthier Me
This year I wanted to focus on eating better and excising more regularly. I used to eat a lot of junk food and spend way too much money on pop. Working out, it has been months since I’ve been in a gym.
Update: I’ve dramatically cut down on eating junk food and have not been to fast-food restaurants since the first of January. I have been cooking regularly recently and have not even touched soda at all this year. With my workouts, I’ve been going to a weight-lifting gym every day for three weeks now. I’m still super sore and have a long way to go until that soreness will go away, but I am making progress and that’s what counts, right?
Learn Javascript / AngularJS
Javascript is a programming language that works with HTML and CSS, which I work in on a regular basis here at Nextfly. My goal is not to have any hesitations when a Javascript conflict occurs and be the go-to person to fix problems so that sites can get up and running promptly. In addition, I’d love to be able to build functionality from the ground up, offering clients a fresh new look and fun functionality to really make their websites pop.
Update: Recently I have been taking classes with our company’s subscription to lynda.com. The subscription just began recently with the initiation of a company-wide coding challenge, so I have some time to go, but I’m putting in a few hours a week to gain a foundation that I feel will only continue to increase and I will continue to grow as the year progresses.
Build a Code Repository
I plan on working together with my associate, Julie, on a CMS code repository for us. I would even remove the homepage. I envision it will be a one-page site build with custom post type and custom taxonomies so we can search for a piece of code faster and easier.
Update: This one I haven’t even brushed upon yet. I do still have plans to get started on it, however, they have been derailed with my main focus being on improving my Javascript skill set. We do still plan on tackling the repo this year but will have to set aside some time to make it happen. Maybe this blog will help us reproach the issue and schedule some time soon to get together to lay the groundwork? Who knows. Stay tuned.
Create a Framework
One of my college friends created his own framework that I love, but I found that it needs to be modified slightly. So I plan on modifying his framework and altering its responsive nature and also adding extra functionality as right now his framework is only a grid.
Update: Again, this is on the back burner for now. Talk to me in a few months and maybe that will change.
Create Two Custom Templates
I would like to design another custom WordPress theme for our repository. I’m going to call this project Yew. Yew will be a dark theme, compared to a lot of the other ones we have. For the second theme, I want to develop the project Redwood which is a light modern theme that I designed almost a year ago, but it’s time for it to see the light of day.
Update: Since this blog, I have put in quite a few hours building out Redwood. Currently, the home page is almost completely built out with the header, slider, main content area, and footer that have already been built out. I still have to work on the interior pages, however, I figure that we’re off to a good start with it only being February. I would love for the website to be live by July so check back for a blog posting on it around that time.
Looking at things, I think I’ve come a long way in a month or so since my initial blog post. I know I have a long way to go, but resolutions are made for a year and it has only been a few months. Keep checking in for continued updates from me on my progress. Hopefully, it will be a great year full of many personal and professional accomplishments, setting the bar for the many years to come.