Hi 👋🏼 I'm Rach. A developer building software for CodePen, wife, mother of two, productivity nerd and recovering screen addict. This is my blog.
My word for the year in 2021 is self. Self is a loaded word because people can take it to mean “self-absorbed” or “selfish”, so I first hesitated to choose it.In Nat Eliason’s post “Be Yourself, Not a Niche" he encourages us to blog about whatever we are interested in, instead of fitting a specific niche.My firstborn spent months in the first year of their life only taking 30 minute naps, while attached to me. After trying every strategy and suggestion to get them to sleep longer or alone, and driving myself to the brink of insanity in doing so, I knew that something had to change.My productivity doesn’t determine my worth.I first read Atomic Habits by James Clear in December 2012. I thought it was a good book and had helpful advice. Still, I didn’t really implement it because I wasn’t convinced that little daily habits would really amount to anything impressive.Today I was listening to an episode of the Productivityist Podcast, an interview with Annie Duke. Annie talked about a mental model/cognitive bias where people think the result of a decision is an indicator of that decision’s quality.Back in the days when I was making CodePens rather than making CodePen, speaking at conferences and building a Twitter following, I would get many emails from strangers asking me for things.I have been working for CodePen for 5 years, a long time for a millennial developer to stay in the same job. I thought I would take a minute to reflect on my time with the company.I really enjoyed this book. It was short and to the point. Kleon said what he needed to say and moved on - rare in the personal development/business book genre. I don’t need to publish another lengthy essay about quitting social media, the internet has enough of those. In bullet points:I can’t review 2020 without first acknowledging the immense amount of privilege I have benefitted from, in this year that has been challenging for so many. I am experiencing the postpartum/newborn experience for the second time. Things feel different this time around. 