This article was originally adapted from a podcast, which you can check out here.

At the beginning of the new year, in Episode #538, I introduced the practice of habit tracking and provided you with a template habit-tracking spreadsheet. Then, we had a series of Five-Minute Fridays that revolved around daily habits I espouse, and that theme continues today. The habits we covered in January and February were related to my morning routine.

Starting last week, we began coverage of habits on intellectual stimulation and productivity. Specifically, last week’s habit was “reading two pages”. This week, we’re moving onward with doing a daily technical exercise; in my case, this is either a mathematics, computer science, or programming exercise.

The reason why I have this daily-technical-exercise habit is that data science is both a limitlessly broad field as well as an ever-evolving field. If we keep learning on a regular basis, we can expand our capabilities and open doors to new professional opportunities. This is one of the driving ideas behind the #66daysofdata hashtag, which — if you haven’t heard of it before — is detailed in episode #555 with Ken Jee, who originated the now-ubiquitous hashtag.