Year 2020 in Review

We have a couple of days left before 2020 is gone. In this post I want to share some of the things that has happened to me during the year.

Blog

One of the goals I set this year was to create an online presence through a blog. My main motivation was to actually solidify what I already know by sharing, and also learn something new things. By writing tutorials and articles, I am forced to deeply learn about a topic and explain it to others in simple language.

In early February, I started creating my personal website where would be writing my articles. Then in March 11, I published my first article. Yes!! 😎 I was so happy.

I tried to write an article every week, but you know... , as what happens to many new bloggers, after just a month, my motivation kinda dried up. Around April, I paused a bit from writing and rewrote my blog from Next.js to Gatsby. I completely redesigned my site on how it looks and feel (what you are seeing right now). I was trying to learn Gatsby at that time, so why not apply what I learn, right?

After redoing my site, I resumed writing again, writing one article every week. That pace lasted for about two months before I got busy again. But instead of giving up with what I had already started, I decided that I would write an article at least once a month.

Now I have 17 articles (including this one) written this year. Although I initially planned to write 20 articles, having 17 out of 20 is already a great achievement for me, and I will definitely continue to write more in the coming year.

An article ranked number 1 in Google

One of my proudest achievement this year is that one of my articles ranked number 1 in Google search. It is about on how to create an accessible React modal using TypeScript.

I honestly didn't expect this to rank number 1, especially with the number of great articles already written about it. It is also one of my longest article, which was a pain to write. I still remember telling myself (at that time) to just write about something else that is shorter and simpler. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't have made this achievement. But my perseverance paid off 🙂.

Some of my other articles are also ranking well in Google. If there is one skill I truly learned this year, I think that would be SEO. I think I progressed from zero knowledge to a somehow intermediate/advance level.

First times

The Covid-19 pandemic has indeed brought many bad things, but one good thing I got from this pandemic was that I was able to work remotely full time. I had always dreamed of working remotely, and it has finally happened. I enjoyed it, and I felt I was more productive. I had more time because I didn't have to travel to work (which takes at least an hour everyday). Of course I also faced some downsides, like feeling lonely at times and communication was sometimes harder. But overall I liked it and would love to work remotely again.

2020 is the year I blogged for the first time. It was actually a scary thought for me in the beginning. What will I write about? Will people read my articles? What if someone better than me reads my blog? All those questions crossed my mind. I'm not also that great of a writer 😅. But after starting and continually writing, it got easier.

On a personal life, 2020 is also the year in which I attended a wedding for the first time 😲. Hmmm, still thinking how has that happened 🤔

Things I want to learn in 2021

Here are some items I want to learn in 2021.

Design Patterns
Design Systems
Tailwind CSS
Intersection Observer API

Conclusion

2020 is indeed not like any other year before, but it not all bad as most people say. If the pandemic left you the same, then you have missed a big opportunity to level up. I have learned many new things, and I have also tried many things I have never done before.

There is joke I have seen somewhere, saying, "What is one thing that has brought innovation to your company? Covid-19." 😂 I think this is true. The pandemic caused all of us to change in one way or another.

Let us hope 2021 will be better.