30 Days of Data - and what I learned
For the month of April I searched, found, analysed and visualised a new dataset from Snowflake’s #DataMarketplace every single day. 30 visualisations later, what did I learn from doing this project?
1. Building any skill starts with building a habit.
If you want to become good at something, you have to do it over and over again. Challenging myself to do something every day for 30 days straight left no room for negotiations or excuses. Doing something every day is easier (for me) than doing it every other day, or Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
2. Learning also means unlearning.
I already knew how to use Tableau but had very little experience navigating the Data Marketplace. This meant I had to stop thinking about other tools I used in the past and purely focus on finding information, developing an efficient method for going through the datasets and choosing one. Spoiler: I kept a spreadsheet with the table names and URLs so I could quickly access relevant metadata, while duplicating data connections in Tableau to actually connect to the data.
3. Data is data.
It actually doesn’t matter what data I work with, my approach is ALWAYS the same: Connect to the table, load the data and skim over the first dozen or so entries that are presented to get an idea of what I’m working with. Then build a few different charts using the most relevant fields. This gives me a chance to spot something interesting which I can then pursue further.
Over to you
No matter whether you are committing yourself to a similar challenge every day for a month after just starting a new job, or learning a new programming language, revising your book draft or applying for funding for your research project, I hope you find the above lessons useful for your own progress.
- Chunk your new challenge into smaller pieces and see how you can best create a habit that makes doing it easier.
- Let go of some of your established ideas and open your mind to something new.
- Don’t give new and unknown topics too much power to overwhelm you. Apply an existing process to tackle something unfamiliar until you’ve figured out in which direction to go.
What are YOUR favourite ways of challenging yourself and how do you get over the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure?
Leave a comment down below.
Intelligence Center Director Certified | Solutions Architect | Technology Evangelist | UI/UX Interested
3 年So very true Eva Murray ! Thanks for sharing your learning I’m always 200% to this point specifically “Building any skill starts with building a habit.” - experience matter and it comes with constant learning and implementing in real life use cases.
Data visualisation speaker, author and blogger - 5x Tableau Visionary and now Hall of Famer. First book "Questions in Dataviz: A Design-Driven Process for Data Visualisation" available now!
3 年I agree with your thoughts about a daily commitment to a project - it can work well if you have the right motivation because there's just no room for manoeuvre when a day off isn't an option. Really impressed to see how you've been able to launch into such a varied project so quickly, you've clearly been a very visible ambassador for Snowflake right from the get-go!
IT Infrastructure Operations
3 年After loading the dataset, I try to understand the meaning of each column, especially for the ones that are not self explanatory. Next is to identify the distinct values in the dimensions/columns.
Business Analyst at Kyndryl | Converting Data into Insights | Storytelling with Data
3 年Thanks for sharing your tips Eva Murray. According neuroscience a habit is built within 14 days, so 14 days consistency should be a good option. What works for me is what i call go in 'deep dive mode' with limited number of distractions when learning something new.
Head of Digital Insights at Nordea
3 年It is amazing how you actively push yourself even though you are already so good in data visualization Eva Murray. For me the best approach is to hold myself accountable for showing up rather than performance. When I consistently show up, I end up performing as well but if I focus on performing, I don’t always show up for the challenge.