Squishy goals are bad. When you set a goal, like a New Year’s resolution, it should be concrete. Instead of “I’m going to eat healthier” your goal should be something like “I’m going to eat under 2000 calories six days per week.”
My resolutions from 2015 concrete; does that mean I got everything done? Let’s see how I did:
1. Work on to do list before work in the mornings
I was doing well here until Lydia was born. Since then I’ve been getting to bed later and haven’t been getting up early enough to do anything before work.
2. Exercise 5 days every week
Same as above. I was exercising in the morning a couple days a week, but haven’t even once since Lydia arrived. I did play racquetball on weekends, but not as much as I’d like (my goal is twice a month).
3. Daily Family Meetings
I purposely delayed this one. Keep reading.
4. Make dent in To Do items
I have a Trello board where I keep track of items I need to do. At the beginning of the week I’ll choose several to get done that week. I did make a dent, but I’m always coming up with more things I want to do. (I have too many hobbies.)
5. 5 hours a week on websites
Did I really want to do 5 hours a week? I didn’t spend that much time, but I did:
- complete a small redesign of briankoser.com
- completely re-write koser.us with a new back- and front-end
- make Antonio, a small project for a few BGG users (No longer maintained. Move along.)
- start making Thomas, a board game ranking tool
So I’m going to count this as a success.
So apparently I’m not great at keeping New Year’s resolutions. Let’s see if I can do better this year. Keep me accountable! Since I had five resolutions in 2015, I have six for 2016:
1. Read 20 books (including at least 2 audio books)
I read 9 books in 2015, and some of those were graphic novels. Lately I’ve been reading more online: technical blogs, political and sports news, board game forums, reddit. I also didn’t finish listening to the audio book I started, favoring podcasts instead. In 2016, I’d like to cut back on the online reading. Until I’ve listened to a couple audiobooks I’ll slow down the podcast pace. That way I can finish half the books that I’ve started, read some more that are sitting on the bookshelf, and listen to those I have on my phone.
2. Finish 9 epics
Scrum is a project planning system that I’ve used at work. I’ve borrowed some of the scrum terminology for my to-do lists. Quick items (done in a week or less) I call “stories”. A project made up of multiple stories I call an “epic”. I currently have 18 epics on my to do list, and I’d like to finish 9 in 2016.
3. 30 minutes a day, 21 days a month on to do list
To work on those epics and other stories, I’m going to set aside a half hour per day for three weeks out of the month.
4. Blog once per month at briankoser.com and koser.us
I’m going to start posting my non-programming writing on koser.us, which is probably where you’re reading this.
5. Family Meetings
I had this as a goal last year and decided to postpone it until after Lydia was born. When she starts eating solid food and we start eating at the table again, we’re going to start having family meetings. We’ll be able to keep up with what’s getting done and what still needs to be done. We can keep each other accountable so we don’t keep putting off important things like getting our wills signed (oops!).
6. Start a podcast
I really enjoy the medium of podcasting. The switch from the “push” model of radio and television to the “pull” model of podcasts and web video is a huge improvement. In 2016 I’d like to start a podcast. I’ve got a few different ideas but haven’t decided which to follow through on yet.
I want 2016 to be a year of getting things done, and the best way for me to make sure it happens is concrete goals and accountability. Let’s do it!