Monthly overview - November 2021

Things I achieved in november 2021

Last day of november, hence the perfect time to make an overview of the month. This month I wanted to build things by myself so that I could "mettre la théorie en pratique". Let see how I did!

See: Monthly objectives - November 2021

Courses and tutorials

    I can't stress how helpful Ania Kubow's YouTube coding bootcamp was, especially the JavaScript part. I had already followed two courses on OpenClassrooms and, while I understood how it was supposed to work, coding along short exercices with Ania helped me remember the different syntaxes better. However, I realised when trying the FAQ accordion challenge, that I still have plenty of work to do to be fully comfortable using JavaScript.

    Regarding courses, I finished "Concevez un contenu web accessible". It truly was insightful; I learned about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines when creating a website and how to make it accessible for people using assistive technologies. In december I plan on following another course on this topic.

This month I also tried two tutorials with a glassmorphism effect:

 

Building projects

Now, following courses and tutorials is nice, but building things by ourselves is fundamental to improve.

    I used GitHub Pages for the first time this month, because you need a live site when submitting a solution on Frontend Mentor. It was a bit nerve-wrecking to set up the first time (as I feared I would do a bad step and break down my entire GitHub), but I managed! Now it's a natural step when I start a challenge.

I completed four Frontend Mentor challenges, all of them with the "Newbie" difficulty level:

The stats preview card: Stats preview card challenge (ax-cd.github.io)

The 3-columns preview card: Frontend Mentor | 3-column preview card (ax-cd.github.io)

The profile card: Frontend Mentor Challenge | Profile card (ax-cd.github.io)

The single price grid: Single price grid | Frontend Mentor Challenge (ax-cd.github.io)

I enjoyed doing each of these challenges. Coding is great because you can see yourself improve project after project.

    Earlier in the article I said that I realised I still had work to do to master JavaScript when doing the FAQ accordion challenge. This challenge was the fourth I intended to do, because it had JavaScript (unlike the single price grid challenge). However, when I tried doing the accordion effect in JS I struggled a lot, and succeded only upon looking at articles on how to do so.

Now, I've gathered that it's part of a web developer's job to be able to find solutions. But I also want to use JavaScript and make it work without the help of a step-by-step solution. This is something I will work on in december.

As per the FAQ accordion challenge, I decided to put it on hold. I would like to complete it, eventually, as I don't like to leave things unfinished; but I don't want to stagnate in my progress by obsessing over it.

Other things I did this month

    I started a "daily.log notebook" on the first of november. It is a handsize notebook in which I write the date and the tasks I accomplish as the day goes by. It turned out to be useful to keep track of my progress, as well as a source of motivation.

For one, doing some tasks every day (following courses/coding) can be repetitive, thus giving the impression of going into circles. And so, writing down in a few words what chapter I've reached in the course or what issue I tackled in a coding challenge show that I am in fact making progress.

Also, even on days I hadn't much energy, I would follow at least a few minutes of the bootcamp, or read and take notes of at least one chapter in the course on accessibility. After all I chose the name "daily.log" for a reason. The end result: some days were much more productive than others, but I haven't missed a single day. I have the written proof that I've worked toward my goal of becoming a frontend web developer every single day of november and this makes me proud.

Verdict for november 2021

This month's objectives were:

Finishing the bootcamp I started in october. Done!

Following the course on building accessible websites. Done!

Doing four challenges (minimum) from Frontend Mentor. Done!

November was a success!

I will see you very soon for the monthly objectives of december!