
Imagine someone points a gun to your head right now and says, _'Achieve your goal by next month or die.'_

What would you do first?

Would you still do what you're doing today?

Would you still make the same decisions as before?

> "A simple question that can deliver powerful results if taken seriously: What is the highest leverage action I can execute on right now?" — [James Clear](https://twitter.com/JamesClear/status/1330523876099493888?s=20)

If you want to be an entrepreneur, instead of reading endless books and over-strategizing business plans, go ship something and learn in the process of making it happen. _Or you'll die._

When you're overwhelmed and need to prioritize, ask yourself this simple question: **'What's the highest leverage action I can do now?'**

Maybe checking everything on your to-do list is not one of them. Maybe taking yet another online course will not help you get closer to where you need to be. Maybe... you've already done enough research.

You're ready. You simply need to execute the highest leverage action. Now, go execute. _Or you'll die._

Love,

**Rachel**

A simple hack to prioritization and doing what matters.

Execute on your highest leverage action


Procrastination comes in many forms. Examples of disguised procrastination include:

- Taking multiple online courses
- Reading way too many books/articles
- Setting up the perfect productivity workflow
- Excessive note-taking
- Attending conferences/events
- Joining multiple communities

When you find yourself doing the above, ask yourself, are you avoiding real work?

Say your goal is to make music. You take multiple music courses, read articles on how to get better at making music, analyze great songs. But the real work is: make music.

Jakob Greenfeld tweeted: "Taking a course is oftentimes a form of procrastination because people feel like they need to take a course before they're 'allowed' or ready to start/create something."

Learn by doing. Practice just-in-time learning. Doing real work is hard, but it will help you reach your goal sooner than fake work could. Fake work gives us an illusion that we're making progress, without knowing we're further away from getting real results.

The next time we catch ourselves in disguised procrastination, let's remind ourselves to do the real work instead. If you're wondering, I spent days researching before writing this article. This morning I woke up and forced myself to simply just write. Guess what? It worked.

**Now, go do the real work.**

Love,

**Rachel**

Anti-Procrastination


The COVID-19 pandemic has made me reflect on life, as I'm sure it did to you. This year, I decided to design a lifestyle that aligns with my values and purpose. I want to give myself permission to try new things. I'll be sharing my intentions this year, so you can design your very own lifestyle for 2021.

---

### Setting personal OKRs  

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/5-1.png"
  width={800}
  height={638}
/>

I split my intentions into six pillars—Relationships, health & fitness, personal growth, hobby, career & business, finances, with key results assigned to each pillar. The things I do every day should align with the end goal so I don't lose track of the goal that matters most to me. My personal OKR is inspired by [Zoe Chew](https://whizzoe.com/).

### Track habits in 2-week cycles

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/5-2.png"
  width={800}
  height={605}
/>

I track my habits daily on this Google Sheet, inspired by [Martin](https://collegeinfogeek.com/paper-habit-tracker/). At the end of each cycle, I review and reflect on my progress. When I fail to stick to a habit, I focus on what I can do better in the next cycle instead of beating myself up. The beauty of this habit tracker is each cycle we start on a clean slate. Sometimes, a habit doesn't stick and that's okay! It takes time to find what works for us.

Quoting the great [James Clear](https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems): 'Forget about setting goals. Focus on systems instead. The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.'

This tracker has helped me set the right intentions for each cycle and it's super easy to implement. Whip up a Google Sheet and you're good to go!

### Mindful content consumption and creation

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/5-3.png"
  width={800}
  height={558}
/>

We often consume more than we create. All the ideas we consume go to waste if we don't give meaningful output. So last year, I joined the [Ness Labs community](https://nesslabs.com) to learn content creation and personal knowledge management.

To go from collector to creator, I process my content diet and curate meaningful notes on my [Digital Garden](https://rachelhow.com/notes), a public notebook where I learn in public and share ideas with like-minded people. I had so much fun building it. It's also a great way to give back to the community! If you like to take notes, consider sharing them in public.

### Write often
Writing is a serendipity engine—I often discover new ideas when I start typing words on a blank canvas. I've been writing inconsistently over the years. I'd like to change that starting now. I now track my writing habits and practice time blocking.

### Minimal living
Minimalism has a different meaning to different people. That's okay. For me, I try to minimize my belongings and avoid buying things I don't use/need. I've set a system to declutter once a month on my habit tracker and it's working great for me so far. Owning less helps declutter the mind!

### Mindful meals and intermittent fasting
This year, I'd like to be more mindful of the food I eat. I now track my habit of consuming clean meals on weekdays. As a result, I've learned how to cook, lost weight, gained mental clarity, and saved lots of money.

I've also been on intermittent fasting for nearly 3 years. Paired with clean meals, proper sleep habits, and a daily skincare routine, I'm now living a healthier lifestyle than in the past years.

### Grow investments
This year, I decided to stop being ignorant and learn more about investing. To discover what works for me, I've invested in a few funds. The goal is to grow my investments steadily and diversify my income in the coming years. Since I'm based in Malaysia, I use StashAway and Luno for a start.

### Building community
In May 2020, I built a local creator community called [Malaysians Who Make](https://malaysianswhomake.com). It started as a side project that grew into a [community](https://t.me/malaysianswhomake). If you'd like to help grow this community together, let's [chat](https://twitter.com/rachelhxw).

### Music production + further explorations
As I start to explore and experiment with new things, I'm reigniting an old hobby—music. I look forward to having a great time with my new Rode NT-USB microphone. I'll also take 4 hobby classes this year on one rule: It has to be something I've never learned before. It could be painting, swimming, or something out of my comfort zone.

### Key mindsets moving forward
1.  Avoid pretend work
2.  Apply [mental models](/notes/mental-models) in daily life
3.  My work does not define my worth
4.  Be open to try new things
5.  Embrace failure

That's it! I hope this gives you ideas to start designing your very own lifestyle in 2021. **There'll be hardships and uncertainties. What matters is how you make the most of your life.**

### My question for you:
What would you do this year to design the lifestyle that works best for you?  

Love,

**Rachel**

_Wrote this from my dining table with my cat curled up beside my laptop._

Sharing my intentions this year, so you can design your very own lifestyle for 2021.

My Lifestyle Design for 2021


### This is a story of how a small side project turned into something greater, and how I bought yet another domain.

Except this time, I made sure I finished coding the site before committing to buy the domain. It's called Malaysians Who Make 🇲🇾

This project is inspired by Women Who Design, People of Craft, Latinxs Who Design. Do also check out Amazing Design People List!

How it all started.

COVID-19 happened. I was stuck at home and had a lot of free time. So I thought to myself, why not do something that I've always wanted to, but too afraid to?

Malaysians Who Make is a living directory of talented, passionate Malaysians who strive to build and create things. Here we have artists, comic artists, designers, data scientists, photographers, speakers, writers and more! For Makers, find like-minded people to connect with. Recruiters could find potential candidates for their next company. Event Organisers, Youtubers & Podcasters can use this to find the next guest/speaker! 😄

## Week 1: Ideation 💡

I started off by brainstorming ideas. Inspired by Pieter Levels, I store these ideas in a Notion Board sorted by Ideas, Promising, Building, Completed.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-1"
  src="/images/blog/4-1.png"
  width={800}
  height={563}
/>

Whenever I have a random idea (the best ideas come in the shower, during the commute to work and middle of the night), I note them down and asked myself this: 'What user problems does this idea solve?'. If I struggle to answer that question, it means I'm inventing a solution to a problem that does not exist. And we want to avoid that.

I focused on quantity over quality at this stage. I didn't care if the idea sucked or felt too far-fetched --- It's more fun this way. The more we enjoy something, the more we start to think creatively! 💭

## Week 2: Make a PRD 📄 + Design 🎨 + Code 💻

I gave myself a time limit of 1 month to launch this side project. This is my amateur attempt to come up with a Product Requirement Document (PRD). Honestly, it was just to entertain myself so I didn't dwell too long on this.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-2"
  src="/images/blog/4-2.png"
  width={800}
  height={353}
/>

Well, what's a product without a PRD, right?

Once the PRD is drafted, I moved on to my area of expertise --- Design.

I timed myself to finish the design in 2 hours on [Figma](https://figma.com/), so that I don't get caught up in the details or spend forever to decide on a final design, because I'll never be fully satisfied with the design. There'll always be iterations --- I want to focus on designing the big picture first.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-3"
  src="/images/blog/4-3.png"
  width={800}
  height={586}
/>

As a designer, I'll never be 100% satisfied with my design.

Soon after the V1 designs are ready, I straight up launched Visual Studio Code and created a GitHub Repository for Malaysians Who Make. At this point, I'm still at Week 2, Day 1\.

Yay! I'm soooo ahead of the sprint! --- Me, a happy coder

A great colleague/friend of mine, Vincent Loh, gave me some useful suggestions on tech. I followed his advice and built the frontend with Next.js + TailwindCSS! I have learnt React briefly in the past but it's my first time using this tech stack. I spent a day to familiarise myself with them. I highly recommend this tech stack --- It's blazing fast, lightweight & super easy to maintain! ⚡

With my super limited frontend knowledge, I finally got the site running! Yes, just running. Now, I need some sort of backend to handle data of Malaysian Makers, but I have zero backend knowledge.

I looked up keywords like 'Connect React with Google Sheets', 'Google Sheets as database'. When in doubt, just Google. After hours of trying, I managed to make it work!

The remaining of the week was spent fine-tuning stuff, learning how to improve the frontend code, and researching errors I encountered.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-4"
  src="/images/blog/4-4.png"
  width={800}
  height={435}
/>

I screamed in excitement when the Sheets data reflected on my localhost 🎉

## Week 3: Adding Filters 🔦

This was a real nightmare for an amateur coder like me. I failed after countless attempts to implement Filters. Thankfully Vincent taught me how to use React Hooks and helped refactor the code. It was an eye-opener for me! 👀

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-5"
  src="/images/blog/4-5.png"
  width={800}
  height={485}
/>

Yet another error... and say hi to Detective Pikachu!

## Week 4: Onboarding + Launch 🚀

I forced myself to stick with the 1-month timeline. To overcome the fear of showing my project to the world and the fear of being judged, I drafted a tweet and hit 'Tweet' without giving my brain the time to decide if the tweet is good enough or not.

It was a really uncomfortable thing to do, but it had to be done.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-6"
  src="/images/blog/4-6.png"
  width={800}
  height={631}
/>

I shamelessly tweeted this and it was one of the best decisions ever

Along the way, I started a public thread 🗒️ to update people on my progress, including tiny feature improvements. This kept people engaged and reminds people of what I'm working on, from time to time.

From Twitter alone, I gained 4K+ Impressions and 700+ Engagements at the time of writing this. Heck, I'm not even popular --- I only had 280 followers.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-7"
  src="/images/blog/4-7.png"
  width={800}
  height={403}
/>

I started asking people to be on the site...

To get more people on the directory, I had to onboard people one by one. As an introvert myself, I assure you, this is NOT an easy thing to do. I had to give myself pep talks. To not annoy anyone or sound pushy, I kept the message short and casual.

The response was better than what I expected, people actually liked it! I received DMs where people tell me how much they love the initiative. Some asked if they could create one for their home country! I was like, 'What? Did nobody laugh at this project? Oh okay...'.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-8"
  src="/images/blog/4-8.png"
  width={800}
  height={406}
/>

'Hey, it's not that bad!', I thought to myself.

I started asking people to be on the site...

My team lead at Fave, Archie Tep, suggested that I talk to Felix Lee from Amazing Design People List to explore collaboration opportunities. So I did. Now, the directory features Malaysian adplist candidates too! Thank you Felix for being so helpful 🙏

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-9"
  src="/images/blog/4-9.png"
  width={800}
  height={412}
/>

I was expecting rejection, and got the opposite instead.

## Week 5: Getting User Feedback 💬

I posted on Indie Hackers to ask for feedback. I tried to be as honest and open as possible. The internet is not the nicest place sometimes but thankfully, the helpful IH community gave really good feedback. (I'm sorry I haven't replied to the comments yet, I still read them!)

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-10"
  src="/images/blog/4-10.png"
  width={800}
  height={448}
/>

I got 18 feedbacks from the helpful IndieHackers community!

So as usual, I updated my Twitter thread. Indie Hackers gave me a retweet (which I totally did not expect) and it blew up. Sign-ups kept coming in.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-11"
  src="/images/blog/4-11.png"
  width={800}
  height={375}
/>

## Great things happen when you step out of your comfort zone.

<Image
  alt="mwm-4-12"
  src="/images/blog/4-12.png"
  width={800}
  height={403}
/>

1,040 page views in the past 7 days, with zero marketing! 🎉

Thanks to the word of mouth of Malaysian Creators, sign-ups kept pouring in. I had to stay up at night to review their details, one by one. It feels really rewarding when people see value in what you do.

## My final thoughts 🤔

Throughout these 30 days, I gained new friends, new knowledge, and overcame fears I initially had. If you have been postponing that little idea of yours, maybe it's time to start. Don't worry, if you put your heart to it, you'll kick ass.

It all started with the decision to build something out of nothing and the will to make things work, no matter how hard it gets.

Shoutout to Makers who helped support the initiative 🔥

Vincent Loh, Kimberly Mak, Farez, Zoe Chew, Felix Lee, Ryzal Yusoff, Kenny Wang, Gaddafi Rusli, Henry Lim and everyone who made the effort to sign up.

This is a story of how a small side project turned into something greater, and how I bought yet another domain.

How I built Malaysians Who Make


##### I hope this inspires and encourages you to be who you've always wanted (yet dared not) to be.

### Here's a confession: I'm really afraid of failure.

The fear of failure has haunted me since I was a kid. We live in a society where we were taught to follow the safest path to success --- Study hard, attend a prestige university, graduate, get a high-paying stable job... Voilá! You're now successful, you make your family proud!

But.. is that it? Is this my destined path? Does it come with a happiness guarantee?

### Some things I've tried and didn't work out:

Studied really hard in my A-Levels, hoping to secure a scholarship in a prestigious university, got mediocre results and got zero offers.

Took a gap year, worked in different corporations, including working in a call centre, sales rep for pharmaceutical products, real estate agent. I tried so hard to search for my 'true calling'. Don't know what should I pursue next. I felt like a failure.

Listened to people's opinions, took the safe route by pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Law (part-time). Dropped out a few months later, decided I'm less of a lawyer, and more of a lawbreaker.

After that, I took risks in hopes to build a career and got cheated --- all of my education funds were gone. I was young and naive.

### Every time I fail, I become a better version of myself.

Learning how to embrace failure is a very important skill that we all need to equip ourselves with. I learned the hard way (don't we all?). I did a lot of self-reflection. I started to embrace failure (Mary Poppins says there's nowhere to go but up!). Truth is, if we don't learn how to handle failures in the beginning stages of life, how are we going to face larger obstacles in future?

### My thoughts on how to be achieve a happy, fulfilled life:

* Own Less, Live More. I love the concept of minimalism. I got rid of things that don't spark joy, or give a negative impact. I'm now trying to minimize my spending and prioritising quality over quantity.
* Share your work and watch things happen. You won't know what'd happen until you start doing.
* Focus on yourself, not others. Stop comparing!
* Don't let social media consume you. Be very mindful of what content influences you daily, because what influences us on a daily basis shapes our subconscious mind. Stop subscribing to emails that don't do you any good. Stop following people who influence you to be materialistic. Seek depth. Get inspiration from people who actually put in the work, who are honest, sincere and real.
* Allow your mind to wander. Smell the roses. It's not necessarily a bad thing. When you lift off your mental stress, you have a clearer mind. Things would just click. You never know what you'd discover.
* Stop stressing out about things that are out of your control. It's not going to do you any good. Move on. Take actions to accomplish your goals, little by little. It's the daily progress that counts. Find a way to de-stress.

### Some resources that might help you:

* Be inspired to share your work with the world: ['Show Your Work!' by Austin Kleon](https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/)
* Highly recommended book for Creators: '[Manage your day-to-day: Build your routine, find your focus and sharpen your creative mind](https://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Day-Day-Creative/dp/1477800670)' by 99U
* My new way of life --- intermittent fasting: '[The Obesity Code](https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight/dp/1536682187)' by Dr. Jason Fung
* On Minimalism: '[Goodbye, Things](https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Things-New-Japanese-Minimalism/dp/0393609030)' by Fumio Sasaki, '[Minimalism](https://www.amazon.com/Minimalism-Meaningful-Joshua-Fields-Millburn/dp/0615648223/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1592274394&sr=1-2)' by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, '[Spark Joy](https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Joy-Illustrated-Organizing-Changing/dp/1607749726/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=spark+joy&qid=1592274436&s=books&sr=1-2)' by Marie Kondo

Having shared this, I hope this inspires and encourages you to be who you've always wanted (yet dared not) to be.

You may not be there yet, but at least you're making progress! So give yourself a pat on the back, celebrate small wins daily.

I hope this inspires and encourages you to be who you’ve always wanted (yet dared not) to be.

My journey of learning, failing and standing back up


I used to think that it takes days to animate icons and illustrations that works with native apps. I was wrong. You can now import Sketch layers into After Effects without redrawing everything in Adobe Illustrator, with the help of Lottie by Airbnb. How awesome is that?!

Here, I will try my best to explain in the simplest way possible to get things done. I'm fairly new to this but I thought I'd share some tips that might help others. 🙌

For this tutorial, I assume you already have Sketch & After Effects running in your computer, and you have basic knowledge of Sketch and After Effects. :)

### Why Lottie?

Before we start diving into the tutorial, I'd like to share the benefits of using Lottie animations. Lottie, built by Airbnb, gives good UX because they are:

* Open-source (free!)
* Super lightweight, loads quickly even on slow devices
* Universal, can be played on different web/mobile devices
* Animation is accurate and high-quality
* Flexible and efficient

Let's get to work!

### 1. You will need: 🛠

* [Sketch](https://www.sketch.com/)
* Adobe [After Effects](http://adobe.com/aftereffects)
* [AEUX](https://aeux.io/) plugin for Sketch (Formerly Sketch2AE)
* Bodymovin plugin for After Effects (download at [Adobe](https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.details.12557.html) or [aescripts](https://aescripts.com/bodymovin/))
* [ZXP Installer](https://aescripts.com/learn/zxp-installer/) to install the plugins in .zxp format

### 2. Install AEUX.zxp & Bodymovin.zxp in After Effects by using ZXP Installer

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-1.png"
  width={800}
  height={397}
/>

* First, download all the above tools.
* Launch ZXP Installer
* Drag 'aeux.zxp' to ZXP Installer
* Drag 'bodymovin.zxp' to ZXP Installer. (You can find the file at: lottie-web-master \> build \> extension \> bodymovin.zxp)
* You should now have both AEUX and Bodymovin plugin in After Effects.

### 3. Install AEUX plugin in Sketch 🔸

* You only need 1 Sketch plugin --- AEUX.sketchplugin.
* Double-click to install.

### 4. Export vector assets from Sketch to After Effects, using AEUX

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-2.png"
  width={800}
  height={440}
/>

* Select your vector asset, then go to: Sketch \> Plugins \> AEUX \> Selection to AE
* Launch Sketch.
* Tidy up your vector artwork, rename it (optional) for easy reference later.
* Select entire artboard or select the layers you want to export.
* Then, go to: Sketch \> Plugins \> AEUX \> Selection to AE. The data is transferred in the background to After Effects! 👍 Images (if necessary) will be exported to disk in a location you specify.
* If you're using Figma instead of Sketch, refer [here](https://aeux.io/#workflow).

### 5. Import and Animate them in After Effects

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-3.png"
  width={800}
  height={581}
/>

* After Effects \> Window \> Extensions \> AEUX
* Launch After Effects.
* Go to: After Effects \> Window \> Extensions \> AEUX
* You should see your imported layer data on the plugin pop up window. The blue number shows the number of layers in your composition.
* Set the composition size (I use 3x). "New Comp" is selected by default.
* Click on 'Build Comp'. Sit back and watch the magic happen!
* Now, you can animate the layers. Go crazy with it!

### 6. Render and export your animation using Bodymovin

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-4.jpg"
  width={800}
  height={398}
/>

* Left: Bodymovin Plugin Window | Right: Enable in Preferences
* Launch Bodymovin. Go to: After Effects \> Window \> Extensions \> Bodymovin
* Then, go to: After Effects \> Preferences \> General \> make sure "Allow scripts to Write Files and Access Network" is enabled.
* Now, you will see the Bodymovin pop up window.
* Select the composition that you wish to render. If you want to render the entire artboard as one, select the first one. Specify the render destination and click 'Render'.
* The animations are now rendered as JSON files 😋

### 7. Preview and share your Lottie animation on web or phone:

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-5.gif"
  width={700}
  height={300}
/>
Credits: [Airbnb](https://airbnb.design/the-future-of-lottie/)

* Drag & drop the JSON file to [LottieFiles.com/preview](http://lottiefiles.com/preview)
* It will generate a private link for you to share with others. You can also toggle the animation speed and background color!
* To preview on app, download [LottieFiles App](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lottiefiles/id1231821260) and scan the QR code using your phone.

### 8. This JSON file is ready to be used to build a working prototype.

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/2-6.png"
  width={800}
  height={398}
/>

Your JSON file can be used directly in your favourite IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

This is the stage where developers grab the JSON file, import to Xcode or Android Studio, loop the animation using code, then test it on a phone emulator.

🖊 If you're curious, you can find Lottie's Github repo [here](https://github.com/airbnb/lottie-ios).

Voilà! I hope this helps you. Thank you for taking the time to read this! 🙏

Animate icons and illustrations that works with native apps.

Native Lottie animations with Sketch & AE, the simple way.


A little about me and my journey of learning how to code.

I'm a freelance UI/UX designer with basic knowledge of HTML/CSS (just starting out) from Malaysia. It all begun with [freeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/). They have one of the best (free!) resources. Without FreeCodeCamp, I'd give up on coding already! I've also subscribed to [Mosh Hamedani](http://codewithmosh.com/)'s online courses as his way of teaching is concise and easy for beginners to understand.

2019 is the year of putting myself out there and overcoming my fears! One of my dreams is to join a hackathon, so I did it with only 1.5 months of coding experience (Javascript, React).

For those who're unsure about joining a hackathon, I'd like to share my experience with you. So, here's what I've learned.

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-1.jpg"
  width={720}
  height={405}
/>

Spot our team --- table on the right! | Credits: JomHack

# Don't be afraid. You're not alone.

After the organizer put us in a group chat of individuals who're also looking for teammates, I finally found my teammates (1 coder, 1 data science student). It is mandatory to have 1 coder on the team. Initially, I was so afraid that nobody wants to team up with me because I'm not a coder. I thought my skill set wouldn't help much. I was wrong. Every single one of us, no matter the experience, we made a difference!

Tips:

* List down your skills that could help the team. Even if you think they're not good enough, your teammates might need them. Just put it out there.
* Be honest about your skill set. Avoid overselling yourself. You want your teammates to accept you for who you are now, not the idea of how great you could become after the hackathon.

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-2.jpg"
  width={600}
  height={458}
/>

Credits: Unknown

# Magic happens outside your comfort zone.

We needed to think of innovative, out-of-the-box solutions to solve issues related to Banking. We only thought of an idea after 3 hours has passed. To build the app, we use React Native, Google Cloud's Firebase and DialogFlow. We had to figure out all three within 20 hours. Let the hacking begin!

We learned by doing (we totally winged it) --- we figured out stuff through Googling, YouTube tutorials and seeking help from mentors. Our ability to perform under intense pressure was being put to test!

After the hackathon, we gained skills beyond our expectations. We built an app with intelligent chatbot and beautiful UI/UX to give a fun experience for users, all in less than 20 hours!

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-3.jpg"
  width={600}
  height={424}
/>

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-4.jpg"
  width={800}
  height={557}
/>

After 24 hours of hacking, here comes the nerve-wracking judging session by Hong Leong Bank.

# Teamwork is key.

We couldn't have made it to Top 10 without teamwork. When things didn't seem to go well, none of us played the Blame-Game. We were still figuring things out (we're not super-duper pros), and that's okay. One of the most important lessons in a hackathon is how you work together as a team --- helping one another and not be discouraged when we think we're falling behind. Instead of giving up halfway through the hackathon, we completed the app!

Tip:

* Be a source of positive energy to the team. Be nice. Your teammate may be anxious, self-doubting or going through something you don't know of.

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-5.jpg"
  width={600}
  height={450}
/>

Our team, presenting to the judges on the first round. | Credits: JomHack

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-6.jpg"
  width={600}
  height={450}
/>
<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-7.jpg"
  width={800}
  height={557}
/>
<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-8.png"
  width={600}
  height={476}
/>

We made it into the Top 10! Hurray!

# Overcoming self-doubt, and realizing your worth

Sometimes the little voices in our heads convince us things like 'I'm not good enough'. Before the hackathon, I felt exactly that.

When the hackathon ended, we all demonstrated our final app for judges, mentors, and participants to test it out. We were overwhelmed by everyone's response. It was way better than what we've expected! We didn't do as bad as we thought after all. Of course, many aspects of the app could be improved, but the takeaway is we realized our self-worth. It was a huge confidence boost for us.

<Image
  alt="ZXP Installer"
  src="/images/blog/1-9.jpg"
  width={800}
  height={467}
/>

Fresh, Hot Pizza at 11 PM!

# What you get from joining a hackathon:

* Learn new stuff, exceed your own expectations. You never unleash your true powers until you're in a hackathon. :D
* Get to know like-minded, passionate friends with interesting life experiences. They might change your life.
* Something cool to add into your CV.
* Cool swag like stickers for your laptop. Cool shirts.
* Good food & drinks. Thanks to the sponsors, we had snacks, fruits, jelly, various types of coffee, cup noodles, hot pizza, and ice cream!
* Join the zombie tribe. Since it's a 24-hour hackathon, everyone's pretty much brain dead past midnight. It's funny to watch. Hahaha!
* A fun, memorable experience that you get to share with friends and family.
* If you're outstanding, you might get headhunted by the organizer/sponsors/startups.
* AND... If your team wins, you get to bring home great prizes and a trophy!

If you're hesitating whether to join a hackathon, I highly recommend it.

You will not regret it. Thank you for taking the time to read this! I'm new to this --- If there's something you think I could improve on, feel free to comment below so I could do better next time. :)

About the Hackathon

'[Can You Hack It](https://www.hlb.com.my/en/personal-banking/about-us/careers/can-you-hack-it.html)' Kuala Lumpur is held on 27--28 April 2019, a 24-hour hackathon by [Hong Leong Bank](https://www.facebook.com/HLBMalaysia/) and Hong Leong Islamic Bank in collaboration with [JomHack Malaysia](https://www.facebook.com/jomhackmy/). The environment was awesome and so much food we thought we're in heaven! :P

A little about me and my journey of learning how to code.