This meme has actually caught fire with me, so here's the plan:
- Get certified - I've toyed with certification for a long, long time. In six months, I will be a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer. I'm taking the steps right now to be a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist, and the insight I'm gaining into the CLR and the classes in the .Net Framework is really beneficial. I'm giving myself two months to MCTS Exam 1, two months to MCTS Exam 2, and 2 months to the MCPD exam.
- Read more: The certification goal is going to have me finishing up any and all C#/ASP.Net books in the house, so those are covered. I'd like to clear out the rest of the "Pile of Shame", so I'll start cutting through those books, adding in some necessary titles as needed.
- Week 1 - "Getting Things Done" - David Allen
- Week 2 - "The 4-Hour Work Week" - Timothy Ferriss (so I can keep up with last week's meme)
- Week 3-4 - "Refactoring" - Martin Fowler
- Week 5-6 - "Design Patterns" - GoF
- Week 7 - "Test Driven Development in Microsoft.Net" - James W. Newkirk & Alexei A. Vorontsov
- Week 8 - "Software Estimation: Demistifying the Black Art" - McConnell
- Week 9-10 - "Rapid Development" - McConnell
- Week 11 - "Framework Design Guidelines" - Krzysztof Cwalina & Brad Abrams
For now, I think that will do. I feel like the set of goals here is slightly aggressive, but still very doable.