Weekly report week 17 (2025) | Gitgotchi's Blog

21.04 - 25.04

New structure

I’ve realized that planning my week helps me maintain a clear overview of my tasks and manage my time more effectively. This led me to create a new structure for my weekly blog posts. The blog will be divided into three main sections:

Planning phase
Achieved goals
Thoughts

Why?

The goal is to provide myself with better transparency regarding what I need to accomplish and what I’ve actually achieved. The Planning Phase will outline the tasks I aim to complete during the current week. In this section, I intend to analyze what needs to be done and ideally using the SMART framework.

I’d rather spend 30 extra minutes planning and writing things down properly than constantly re-evaluating my tasks or blindly pushing forward without a strategy. This helps avoid the feeling of running into a wall during the week.

The Achieved Goals section will serve to review what I actually accomplished, what I didn’t, and why. This part should be more factual and less reflective.

Lastly, the Thoughts section will provide space for more personal insights of what went well, what didn’t, any discoveries or general thoughts that don’t necessarily fall under technical or task-based analysis.

Planning phase

Let’s begin with my first week using this method. What are my goals, plans, or tasks for this week?

Here’s what I have in mind:

Continue working on the final PC module
Re-register for the NCP-MCI exam
Prepare the Certicopter repository for public release
Begin new ISO-27001 tasks, which include:
- Automating password manager backups
- Implementing antivirus for Mac
- Expanding the Business Continuity Management (BCM) section
Preparing talk for Loop

To follow the SMART framework, I need to define what’s realistically achievable this week and specify my goals in a measurable way:

Recap for SMART

S = Specific, What will be accomplished? What actions will you take?
M = Measurable, What data will measure the goal? How much? How well?
A = Achievable, Is the goal doable? Do you have the necessary skills and resources?
R = Relevant, How does the goal align with broader goals? Why is the result important?
T = Time-Bound, What is the time frame for accomplishing the goal?

I’ve slightly reordered the SMART criteria in a way that makes more sense to me when applying them.

Time

This week only
3 working days available
Effectively 2 workdays without meetings

Relevant (Priority ranking)

Certicopter
PC module
ISO-27001
Exan registration
Loop talk

However, priority alone doesn’t determine the order of tasks. Other factors like time required, partial task completion, and specific use cases also play a role.

Achievability

I estimate that most of my time will go into the PC module and Certicopter-related tasks. I want to wrap up the PC work and make progress on Certicopter because it’s important to make it public soon. Loop preparation is also essential since I’ll be presenting it. Exam registration shouldn’t take long, so it should be manageable this week. I’ve decided to postpone the ISO-27001 tasks.

Concrete goals for the week:

Finish the README.md for Certicopter
Make significant progress on Certicopter documentation and the shell script
Register for the exam
Prepare materials for Loop
Complete at least 2 tasks for the PC module

Task specification

Certicopter:
- Write the documentation
- Complete the README.md
- Develop a functional shell script that runs independently of OpenShift
PC Module:
- Continue from where I left off
- Adding a cluster to my Prism Central instance
Loop (for Friday’s meeting):
- Prepare notes for explaining key features and updates about Loop
Exam Registration:
- Choose a suitable exam date
- Define the exam scope to understand what topics need preparation

Measurements

Certicopter

Is the README.md completed?
How much of the documentation is finished (percentage)?
Is the shell script functional?

PC Modul

Number of tasks completed?

Loop

Is the presentation/preparation complete?

Registration

Has a date been selected?

Achieved goals

Now it’s time to reflect once again on what went well and what didn’t. Let’s start with the two less time-consuming tasks: the registration and the short presentation on relevant aspects of Loop.

Regarding the first point, I’ve already registered for a new exam date and outlined the specific topics I need to study in order to pass. For the second point, I prepared a brief overview covering the most important aspects users are likely to encounter, especially those that might not be immediately intuitive. Most of the questions could be answered, though there are still a few teething issues that need to be addressed. This is understandable, given that Loop is still somewhat in a beta phase and not all features are fully implemented yet. That said, collaborative and interactive work is already much easier with Loop compared to other solutions.

Now, a quick breakdown of the other two tasks:

Certicopter

I’ve completed most of the documentation, including code architecture, endpoints, and coding guidelines, and also finalized the majority of the README file. In terms of process improvements, I created a guided setup using two shell scripts, which significantly simplifies installation. Users can now configure the system interactively rather than editing files and code manually.

Additionally, I expanded Certicopters functionality with a new plugin implementation. However, I had to shift responsibility for two components to the user and separate them clearly from the core application:

Secrets management (i.e., the environment/software responsible for resolving environment variables)
Hosting provider setup, which handles the ACME challenge Certbot requires.

Not everything is fully functional in the code yet, but I’m currently getting a review from one of our engineers to gather feedback on the new implementations.

Private Cloud Module

With support from one of our engineers, I was able to create a suitable VLAN and successfully instantiated a Prism Central VM. I then connected it to my Prism Element instance. I’m now working on the second task, which involves configuring RBAC and multi-tenancy.

Final Thoughts

Overall, comparing this progress with the SMART goals I initially set, I believe I was able to complete most of what I aimed for. The goal-setting really helped me structure my week more effectively, allowing me to stay focused and avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many tasks. It was also a good decision to postpone the ISO-27001 topic for this week, as it gave me more dedicated time for Certicopter and the private cloud module.

Thoughts

Quicknotes:

Desk setup efficiency
Planning -> brain resource
Keep things short for planning -> structure and thought good but shouldn’t need over 30 min -> use template

Desk Setup Efficiency

Some of you may have already noticed that I upgraded parts of my desk setup during my holidays. The goal was to create a workspace that helps me work more efficiently with regular desktop tasks. The new setup also makes it easier to work from anywhere, now that I have my own mouse, keyboard, and a laptop stand.

Planning

In my opinion, planning ahead has helped me free up mental resources by eliminating the daily need to rethink which tasks I should tackle and what still needs to be done. By setting realistic goals in advance, I become more flexible, as I have a clear overview of whether everything still fits into my workweek. It also allows me to focus better on one task at a time, without constantly having other tasks in the back of my mind.

Keeping Planning Short

However, I noticed that this time, my SMART planning felt a bit too lengthy for my personal taste. I think I should shorten it slightly and make it more concise, without leaving out important information. One possible solution could be to create a template where I can simply fill in new tasks each week.