Week starting: 26th January
This week ended up being very busy, which meant I couldn’t find the time to sit the CBTeamer exam as planned. That said, it was still a productive week overall, just in a different way than expected.
What I worked on
The biggest win this week was that my routine finally fell into place. I managed to carve out dedicated, repeatable time for authoring challenges, which made a noticeable difference.
During that time, I authored two OSINT challenges for an upcoming CTF. They were genuinely fun to build and felt good from a design and learning perspective.
I also continued making progress on the Active Directory course, going deeper into the fundamentals of AD authentication. This pass was much more detailed than surface-level coverage, and it helped connect a lot of concepts that are easy to gloss over.
Key takeaways
Having a stable routine matters more than trying to force individual goals into a chaotic week. Even without sitting the exam, meaningful progress happened once time was intentionally blocked out.
The AD content is also shaping up to be something worth writing about — I might put together a separate blog post on it later.
Challenges and friction
The main challenge this week was time. Between work and other commitments, there wasn’t enough uninterrupted space to fit in an exam on top of everything else.
Looking ahead
With the routine now feeling more natural, next week will be about sticking to it and building on the momentum.
Focus for next week:
- Continue the AD course
- Keep authoring and refining CTF challenges
- Revisit the CBTeamer exam when time allows
Settling back into a rhythm — more progress to come.