Getting ready to start on year three of the pandemic has been a little overwhelming. I'm not much of a goal setter, but in order to get pandemic/life anxiety under control, I’m going to aim for some largely attainable results this year.
Personal Goals
What I'm hoping to achieve on a personal level in 2022. This isn't exhaustive, but I do feel it's attainable.
1. Increase the number of books I read
from just a few every year to one every other week. I have tended to pick up my phone over picking up a book in the last few years—time to actively change that habit. I figure starting and finishing a book within a two week time period is relatively attainable.
2. Drink less, and drink less often
Prior to the pandemic I didn’t exactly have a healthy mechanism for coping with stress—mainly job related stress at that. When the pandemic started I quit drinking frequently—largely out of fear of going anywhere to buy beer—but that eventually picked back up. This year, it’s time to change that consumption metric and regain those healthier habits I was beginning on in early 2020. Which leads me to...
3. Take that workout habit to the next level
In early 2020, after a few years off from regular gym workouts, I jumped right back into a regular exercise routine—although this time it was at home and isolated. I lost a decent amount of weight. I’ve largely maintained a three to five day a week one hour spin bike routine with various body weight exercises sprinkled in hourly throughout the work day. I want to increase the frequency/intensity of those body weight exercises and combine that with healthier eating/drinking habits so I can get my body feeling healthier again. As I age I realize this is more important than ever.
4. Finish the damn projects
We’ve been in the middle of a kitchen remodel since before the beginning of the pandemic. We got it to a fully functioning state, and hit a motivation plateau. This year is the year of project completion, but this time, I need to chunk them out better, and decrease the size of said project. And then finish them. For the love of God, finish them.
Professional Goals
This category is tougher to get a handle on. I spent years burning out on some of the more technical portions of my career. Right now, these goals are a must attain status.
1. Typescript mastery
Or at least become more proficient. Going from a pure JS existence to one that focuses heavily on Typescript has been one hell of a transition. I’m getting it, and type safety makes sense, but I need to increase that knowledge so that I can do the work a little more naturally. Creating types just doesn’t come naturally to me at this point—although they do help tremendously.
2. Learn and build something with Vue 3 and the composition API
This one is going to be interesting, because I’m going to have to jump into the pool without having learned to swim. I’m so familiar with Vue 2 and the options API, combined with programming almost entirely with pure JavaScript, that this is going to come with some transition costs for me personally.
3. Continue growth at new job
I don’t know what this looks like just yet, but I’ve only been around for about three months. I love the job, the people, and the product I work on is mature and massive. Can’t wait to see where the experience takes me.
End-of-Year Assessment
By the time 2023(?!) rolls around, I want to see how well I’ve done. I’ll try my best to do some kind of quarterly accounting of how I’m doing, but don’t be surprised to see nothing else posted this year, either.