After Wasting 2017 Year Successfully, Now Looking Forward to Waste 2018 Again

Yet another year in review about more failures and missed opportunities

As days are closing in to the new year, Medium and whole blogging world is filled with articles about new year. Some people like Kimberly Harrington or Hampus Jakobsson are sharing their year in reviews like this and this while some are sharing their favorite books of the year as Matt L.F Smith did with this and Charles Chu did with this. Then there are productivity experts like Benjamin P. Hardy who are telling how to set goals for the new year to achieve better results while on other side are the writers like Teresa Colon who likes to keep the next year simple to achieve your dreams. And then comes a fantastic piece about maintaining focus in the coming year by Taylor Pearson.

Let’s take a moment and thank these awesome writers who fill our days with interesting articles, motivation, and lots of knowledge written with their blood, sweat, and hard work.

I thought that I knew about how I spent my year and what worked and what not, but when I started to write, I literally had to force myself and think about “where is my whole year gone”. I couldn’t remember anything at all. Its like I have never lived this year. And I am very sure that most of you will be going through this same situation.

It’s good to rewind a little and replay the flashback of the year just to see how the whole year went. You’ll be amazed at the results.

So, after refreshing some memories, going through lots of emails, Facebook posts, medium articles, and conversations with friends, I have come up with this little piece of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly format.

The Good

I thought that I have wasted my whole year doing nothing. But rewinding the year flashback, some really good things have come out. I have underestimated these things but I think they are, if not major, the achievements and I’m proud of these.

Finished The Goddamn Book

Oh yes. I still remember about how much heavy weight was gone when I received the final email from the publisher about the book going to printing pipeline. I shared my experience about it as well.

What it takes to write a book, actually tech book?_Ever wondered about writing a tech book but don’t know how? Read it here!_writingcooperative.com

Started Open Source Coding

After like 6 years of coding and programming, I got involved in open source world and started creating libraries and contributing in other libraries as well. Luckily, I got some success with it and still doing open source work.

Inside The First-timer’s Journey from 0 to 500 Stars on Github_How my first Android library got 500+ stars on GitHub_android.jlelse.eu

Became Editor of AndroidPub

Being an editor is truly a great thing. Specially when the publication have like 28000 followers with over 10,000 visitors per day. It’s really great honor to be part of such a good publication. A big thanks to jlelse to put the trust and making me an editor :)

AndroidPub_The Pub(lication) for Android & Tech, focused on Development_android.jlelse.eu

Got New Laptop. Yay!!!

Using my old Dell laptop for like 5 years, it was become almost impossible to continue work on it. So, being in a tough spot with financial condition, I managed to purchase a new laptop (Dell XPS 15) on a 24-hour deal with discount of whopping $800. For this, a very big thanks to my WIFE Gul Sanober for her support during that tough time with money and best cooperation :)

Photo by Andri Koolme on Flickr

Farewell Dinner

It might be a very simple or minor thing for lots of people. But, this was huge for me. Getting a farewell dinner from the employer and numerous surprise parties from colleagues and friends was one of the best things of this year. Also, this was my first ever farewell dinner. So, a big big thanks to all the friends Danish, Zeeshan rasool, hamza navaid, Farhan, Aley Raza, and my office colleagues.

The Best of This Year, A House

Yes. We (me and wife) bought a house :) Thank to ALLAH ALMIGHTY, my family (who helped me in last-moment urgency), and specially my wife for her numerous sacrifices and moral, financial, and emotional support.

The Bad

As it happens in normal life, some bad things also happened in the year as well. But, I somehow managed to get through that tough time and am seeing Good Ol’ Days now :)

Yet Another Failed Startup

I failed again in my 3rd startup and re-joined the previous job. Sometimes, it feels like failing in startups has become normal for me and the biggest reason I usually tell when people ask why is “Life Happened, That’s Why”.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. ~Henry Ford

Struggle with Financial Debts and Delayed Salaries

Due to some unfortunate circumstance, I was trapped in some debts and financial troubles. And it had become a lot tougher due to many different issues. Landlord was treating like shit. Salaries were getting delayed. Medical emergencies were happening in house. I was getting exhausted due to over-stress and depression. But, I made it through and brought my life to stable again. The Wife’s amazing support was a huge plus through this time :)

Job Switch

Yes, I switched job due to delayed and late salary issue which wasn’t being resolved there. And now you might be wondering why I have put this in The Bad section. Well, because I never wanted to leave that job. The environment, the friends I got there, the love I got there, and awesome respect I used to get there made me so happy that I used to forget all the troubles I was going through. So, it was bad to leave the job but sometimes, you know, life happens.

The Ugly

Despite having bad things, my life managed to give me some ugly things as well. I think it wouldn’t be fair for the YEAR itself if there’s not a good combination of good, bad, and some ugly things as a whole. Although, these are some ugly events in my life, I am still taking these as positive and learned my lessons from these.

Missed Opportunities

There were some really good opportunities which I missed because of my own stupidity. There was an email from recruitment team of Amazon showing interest in hiring me for their consumer team and offering me a relocation opportunity to all the way to Canada. I saw this email after 4 months and till then, it was already too late.

Then there was this LinkedIn message to join Crossover at its very early entry in Pakistan, which I missed as well. But, now hearing some rumors about Crossover, sometimes it doesn’t feel that guilty or ugly to miss this.

PS: I missed these emails due to huge useless piles of unread emails in my inbox and I never paid attention to any email or even read. Recently, I have managed to achieve Zero-Inbox. Will share about it in some other article someday.

Rented Home

Home is where you hang your heart ❤

But, the home I used to live there was truly a disaster. We were living due to some constrains. The landlord was very strict and not so much cooperative. Financial situation was very tough. So, I was living in all-time stress and over-thinking of problem solutions which was causing mental, spiritual, and physical harm and also caused depression for a short span of time.

I am going into depression and can’t do anything about it!_It’s not problems which hurt more. It’s the depression which is killing me more from inside._byrslf.co

Time Wasted

Ah. My Favorite. To be honest, I was a little confused about what section should I put these points in. So, I created another section dedicated for these. This is my very good time spent and also sometimes I feel I shouldn’t have spent that much time on these. So, these are The Good as well as The Bad.

Entertainment, Movies, Seasons

From House of Cards to Game of Thrones to Silicon Valley to Halt & Catch Fire, I managed to watch every single season of the series multiple times. I don’t know where the hell I got that time and I don’t know where the hell that time went by. But I do know this:

That time, watching these seasons and movies, was fucking awesome. Enjoyed it a lot. Really a lot.

Stumbling Through Void

I don’t know whether this happens with you or not. But most times, I am browsing through void. I mean I don’t know what I am looking for, but I am searching for something on Internet. Stumbling through strange lonely blogs to interesting articles on Medium to sticky posts on Reddit to useless updates on Facebook. Out of all these hours, days, and weeks, I have literally found nothing to be proud of and I’ll try to minimize this in upcoming year.

Re-Focusing the Focusing

I don’t know what that means. Its that I have worked on many different things trying to achieve some goal. I think my biggest mistake is focus. I haven’t been able to focus on one thing at a time. So, I have shifted my focus from writing to freelance to startups to freelance to writing to blogging to God knows whatever I could get my hands on. And this whole time is today in Wasted Time section so you can understand clearly why.

What’s Next

I haven’t set any goals for the next year yet. I might not set as well. But, for now, I am enjoying writing and keeping regular on it. Also, I am focusing on open source contribution and trying to get adjusted in my new job and new home.

I wish you all a very happy new year and wish you a very good luck for the year ahead :) Thank you for taking time to read this article and don’t hesitate to response if you have anything to ask or share :)