WDRL 71

Hi, I’m Anselm Hannemann. Freelance webdesigner, frontend engineer, advisor. Curating WDRL, growing vegetables on a market garden farm.

Profile photo of the author, Anselm Hannemann

Hey,

this is the last letter for this year and I hope you had a brilliant Christmas and now are able to enjoy your winter holidays (I woke up today with 15cm of snow outside…). This letter doesn’t contain a summary of the week, it hopefully helps you doing your very own summary of the year and prepare for the next. Don’t worry, the next issue will be full of web development stuff again.

I strongly believe that taking a few days off is really important to every person. It’s important to rest a bit. Can you remember what has happened to you in the past year? Re-create the past 12 months in your mind and think about all the good and bad things that happened. If you have time to think, take the time to plan your next year. Will you travel to somewhere special? Will you do something new? What are your personal goals you want to reach? As dumb or simple this sounds, it helps to get a focus on the really important things of life: Personality.

I know we all love code, I do so much that it’s always hard to take days off and don’t read the latest news on Twitter but I also think that an ongoing streak at GitHub might not be what you want to do. Sometimes in real life you’ll be remembered how important it is to take care of your best friends or family or about people who don’t have such a enlightened, enjoyable and high-level first class life most of us have. And care about yourself. Have you been sick, stressed or felt burnt-out this year? You might have worked too hard (though I tend to say ‘too long’) then. Marie Connelly tells about her experience that busyness isn’t always good.

Now is also the time when you can take time to tidy your home, hold every object you own in your hands and think about how much value it has to you. It could lead to having nothing more than a box and a big suitcase if you’re homeless (and some people are by choice). And there are so many great choices to help other people by getting rid of stuff you don’t need. Don’t throw it away but gift it to people who need or want to have it.

For the next year try something new and care deeply, learn something new and be open-minded.

All the very best to you,
Anselm