I’ve been MIA for nearly a year, and it is all because of this major shift in my professional life. Before you all get too excited, the shift is merely a change of time zone but to me it was more like the ground shifted beneath my feet. Between balancing work and family time, personal projects, additional learning, and even my blog got pushed to the side. And I’ve no one to blame but myself.
I’d like to believe, it was a struggle adapting to a new sleep-cycle (which it was) but it was more of me being the lazy cow that my brother (aptly) calls me. I genuinely wanted to fight the urge to leave the couch but add a Kindle to the mix, and what you’ve is 1 Ifrah, and a dozen alibis against everything I stand for — productivity, productivity & productivity. And I promise you, FRIENDS or THE IT CROWD in the background aren’t accountable for my 6 months of ‘Moo-ing Weekends’.
It hasn’t been a complete loss, I completed quite a few home projects; discovered my first gray hair; freaked about my age for the first time in my life; said goodbye to a couple of toxic relationships; overcame 3 very suspicious viral infections; purchased a new phone (Thank God before the recent economy crisis); got rejected by a suitor who was planning to leave Facebook and move back to Pakistan because hired help is cheaper here); and purchased my-very-own Netflix. So, technically, I’ve not been a couch-potato – entirely. At the risk of over-using the term ‘Burnout’, which at the same time, I think isn’t said enough, I think I also reached a saturation point after 11 years in the workforce. Ideally, I would’ve wanted to take a break, take a family vacation but who has that kind of passive income?!
Having said that, there is but one domain that I feel terrible about ignoring this past year. And that is ‘Learning’. My personal growth with respect to my field has always been extremely important to me. I feel my skills in 2022 are just about the same as they were in 2021. Work thankfully has been good, well at least that’s what I’m assuming, given they added a whole new department to my unit. But what about learning a new language? Or learning a new Stack? Or simply indulge in a Feature, I’ve never shipped before. I’ve been too occupied in delivering what I know best that I’ve managed to overlook what I don’t. And that has been bothering me lately. But fret not folks, I’m here to overhaul this situation, and of course the first, logical step is to revamp my website (for no particular reason). What do you guys think? It still needs a couple of bug fixes, and every website design I pick looks about the same but I love it. Furthermore, I’m going to enroll in a certification course to get myself out of this rut (for crying out loud, stupid SEO, stop with the red emoji, I don’t need sub-heading distribution in a personal rant, and I’ve no intentions of improving my SEO score).
Where was I. Ahhh, yes, getting out of a rut, and spending less time on my Kindle. Wait strike that. Getting out of a rut, and focusing on personal + professional development. So, here’s to a mid-year adjustment, saying yes to experiences, no to cold drinks and expanding my portfoilo. On that note, need a web solution, a mobile application or digital content? Hit me up. Maybe your project can motivate me to leave my reading couch — often.
Hope to see you on the other side of these terrible times and failing economy. Ciao!