New Year, New Focus
With a new year around the corner, it’s the perfect time for reflecting on lessons from 2017. Some goals were hit, some were missed, but something was learned from all of them. While I haven’t written as much as I originally intended at the outset of the site’s creation, I’d like to use the turning over of a new year as a springboard for reinvigoration, renewed focus, and commitment to follow through.
First, I’d like to think about accomplishments from 2017, the most prominent being the completion of my Associates degree. It took me a long time to earn that piece of paper, but I finally did.
My other accomplishment was developing a small application as a companion to an educational game. I still have some updates to make, and the code is spaghetti, but it’s on my GitHub in the KQ repository. I made it using HTML/CSS/JavaScript, specifically utilizing Electron. I also made custom graphical assets in Photoshop as a bonus!
Those were my biggest accomplishments in 2017. I have a few other things under my belt, but rather than an exhaustive level of detail, I’ll switch focus to what I can do better in the coming year.
I’d rather not think about how I can improve in terms of New Year’s resolutions. Those are notoriously difficult to accomplish. Rather, I’d like to think about the systems I’d like to put in place, as well as the why and how, to give them a more concrete reason for existing.
Write
Specifically, write a new (focused) blog post once per week, on Saturday morning (when I wake up and don’t do anything) and give myself a reasonable weekly word count for all other forms of writing. I love writing. I’m out of practice because I don’t do it nearly enough. It exercises a vital muscle and in 2018, I’m getting back into it.
Read
For the past two years I’ve missed my reading goal on Goodreads. This tells me a few things - either my goal is too high, I’m getting too distracted, or both. This year, I’ll start with a very reasonable goal: 12 books, which is 1 book/month. Managing distractions is tougher, but doable with apps, willpower and a burning desire to read the books I pick.
Practice
Outside of my intentions to go back to school in February or March, I realize it’s necessary to further buckle down and formalize my knowledge. How can I do this? Even as little as an hour or two of focused practice per day can show dramatic improvements. Cutting out some unnecessary cruft should make room for studying. What to study? I’d like to spend quality time on mathematics, algorithms and subsequently programming. I can further drill down to specific concepts or problems and approach the art of practicing in a methodical, concentrated way.
Finally, I don’t plan to lose a certain amount of weight - that will be a byproduct of eating better (less junk, fewer calories), like I was doing earlier in 2017.
If I had to pick a theme for my plans this year, it would be focus. I want to look back this time in 2018 and see marked progress, and I believe the path towards that is focus.
Not very technical, but that’s my last post for the year. If you’re reading this, have a safe and happy New Year. To 2018!
- reading: Failure to Adjust
- listening to: Dua Lipa - Be The One / ProgrammingThrowdown