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February 2024 Review

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A collection of accomplishments, notes, and observations about February 2024.

Work

As shared last month, the big recent work news was not only my new full-time job (which I started in December 2023) but also the Allovue acquisition by PowerSchool. Based on that, February saw continued adjustments at work, and they will continue in March.

I’ve about wrapped up my first 90 days at Allovue. Those were laid out with lots of mini-goals. Now, I’m kind of anxious to define my growth plans and what I should focus on outside of individual contributions and team support. I’ve started tinkering with improving our AppSignal integration, but I need to firm up the deliverables and timeline – AND make it happen when daily chaos is easy to succumb to.

Side Projects

StudyHall is still inactive. Nothing much changed from the last month’s review. I am considering a smaller voting app to work on in its stead so I can build something (and explore my book club lessons).

Tech Education / Books

I’m actively reading Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software for Elixir Book Club. I’m enjoying it and hope to start expressing some of what I’m learning at work and elsewhere soon.

I finished watching the Productive Field Guide by MacSparky. I enjoyed the perspectives and approaches shared. I am now working through the book version and am slowly exploring some of the personal journalism exercises. I consider the course open for me.

I purchased a follow-up course, the Obsidian Field Guide. I want to work through it as I contemplate a move from Notion to Obsidian.

Another recent change is a dedicated attempt to focus on my personal stuff for 1 hour before starting job work. I did this for a few days and really enjoyed the morning brain time to dedicate to my own things. A few of these days was for boring tax stuff, but still glad to get it done, and avoid trying to do it in the evening when I’m exhausted.

Video Games

I’m jumping around MLB: The Show 23 (vs. CPU postseason), Civilization 6, and FF7: Remake.

I bought FF7: Rebirth, but I’m going to try to finish my other playthrough before jumping in. No spoilers!

Looking forward to MLB: The Show 24 and Stardew Valley 1.6, which both come out in March.

Baseball

I am watching a few spring training games. I took off work for opening day, though I’m only watching from home and not going to the park.

Walks and Exercise

I haven’t gone on any walks, but I have been keeping up with Supernatural for some exercise. I hope to start going on morning walks as the weather gets warmer.

What’s Next?

I was supposed to use February as a goal-setting month, and while I did not get there as fully as I wanted, I did enjoy the self-exploration of the Productivity Field Guide, which helped me reflect on who I want to be first. I’m getting there.


Hopefully, these notes are interesting to you (or me in the future). If you have any questions or feedback, let me know.