After being inspired by my good friend Jeff Li, I am embarking on a “month to master” challenge for 2019. For each month, I am honing in on a specific skill and working toward a specific end goal. Some of these skills will stack on each other, connecting goals across months.
To hold myself accountable, I will be posting weekly updates to this site and emailing those who subscribe to me.
Monthly Challenges
January – R Programming Refresher
Goal: Complete one DataCamp R course and Jeff Li’s data science interviewing course. If time, complete one more DataCamp course.
February – R Visualization
Goal: Complete one R-based visualization using Shiny or another tool.
March – R Code in Production
Goal: Publish R-based visualization to a website and update via productionalized code.
April – Combine R Coding Steps Together
Goal: Gather feedback from data science expert and publish new visualization from scratch, demonstrating knowledge of previous months.
May – Machine Learning in R
Goal: Take DataCamp course on ML and build one machine learning model on my own.
June – Introduction to Python
Goal: Complete a Python course, either in DataCamp or another education provider.
July – Neural Network in Python
Goal: Build a Python script that runs a neural network. Understand key terms and attempt to improve performance of model.
August – Data Journalism
Goal: Write one data-infused article and pitch it to 5 publications.
September – Gujarati Writing
Goal: Write a 250-word blog post in Gujarati about a current event.
October – Gujarati Speaking
Goal: Give a 10-minute speech in Gujarati about a current event.
November – Yoga
Goal: After attending yoga classes, be able to demonstrate four yoga poses.
December – Cooking
Goal: Cook 4 Indian recipes obtained from family. If time, repeat the recipe to show understanding.
Weekly Schedule
I plan to commit two weeknights (building in buffer for work hours and social life) as well as one weekend day. If I am travelling on a weekend, I will do three weeknights.
Weekday schedule:
Weekend schedule (subject to change around other events):
Guidelines
- I will not focus on perfection, but will err on the side of creating minimum viable products (MVPs) for each skill.
- I will ask for help when I get stuck to prevent mental spiraling and derailing.
- Goals are subject to change upon realizing that scope is too large or small.
Looking forward to 2019 and the journey ahead.