I believe in New Year’s Resolutions.
I don’t believe in them because I feel that starting from January has some magical power or that setting resolutions will lead you towards your goals.
I believe in them because the New Year forces me to press reset on my calender and relfect on the past year. This, not only helps me to understand how I spent my last year, but also helps me to learn about me.
So as I sit here and relfect on my journey, here are goals I am setting for the coming year. Here’s what I learnt in 2022 : My learning from 2022
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
Goals for 2023
Shipping every week.
Whenever someone asks me what I want to do with my life, I always deflect the question to something else. But if I had to be honest, the thing I want to do is to build products and solve problems. And to be that person I have to have the habit of shipping every week.
For those of you who do not know what shipping means, it basically means to write code and publish the app I am working on for others to use. So when you ship every week, this means that you have spent a lot of time coding and working to make your app usable and usefull.
I don’t have a set number of apps I want to build, thats stupid. But what I do know is I want to be on the lookout for interesting problems and how I can use my skills to solve these problems.
Google summer of code
I did not go to a very prestigious college nor have I taken a degree in computer science.
So I need some badge of credibility so that people take me seriously in the tech world. Google summer of code is an excellent opportunity where I get to work on a real time open source projects, while making connections with people all around the world.
Google summer of code is one of the big goals that I want to hit this year. It will help me make applications that are actually being used my a lot of people while also connecting with developers around the world.
Work on this blog
Writing is probably the best way to learn something new.
When I try to write about something, I feel like I know what I am writing about and that everything is clear in my head. But as soon as I have to get words on the page, thats when I realise my knowledge gaps and stuff that I don’t know.
Also writing about ideas needs a lot clear thinking and feedback from others. So I want to work on this blog so that I can understand my knowledge gaps, develop clear thinking while also putting my ideas in front of people and learning from them.
Run a half-marathon
I ran a 10K last year. It was fun and exciting, but I need more of a challenge, so I am challenging myself to run a half-marathon this year. Training for a marathon needs a lot of mental strength and this is something I want to improve this year.
Internship at a competent startup
Today Fadel, the inventor of IPhone and IPod often says that if you want to build something of your own, you need to learn from people who are doing the same or have done the same before.
Joining a competent startup would help me learn how good teams approach and solve problems fast.
Monetise my creations
I have this very ambitious goal of paying college fees from my own money. I am planning to pay the fees of winter semester 2024 with the funds I have saved and earned. So when I say that I want to ship fast, hopefully I want to be able to build products that make me some money too.
Skills to learn
There is always one more thing to learn, but this year I am planning to go deep on these three skills : Full stack web development, machine learning and design.
Systems I am seeting in place
It is important to set goals, it gives you the sense of direction. But without solid systems in place, your goals are just random milestones which you hope to hit in this year. To make sure I hit all my mile-stones this year, here are the systems I am setting to achieve my goals.
weekly and monthly updates
To make sure I ship every week, and that I am working towards my goals, I am starting a system to writing weekly and monthly updates. The trick is to think of yourself as an organisation and every week you have to put out a statement revealing what you have accomplished over the last week. The question I would be asking myself is, what did I get done this week?
the morning routine
I used to be obsessed with perfecting my morning routine, but I kind of lost it. Now, I am trying to build one again, and the main goal of this morning routine is to have time for two things, workout and writing.
So my morning routine is very simple. wake up, do some journalling and morning pages, try to get some writing done, go for a run.
using wallet apps for personal finance
Since I have some financial goals to hit this year, I also have to make sure I spend responsibility. Since using UPI is so easy and instataneous, I find myself spending much more than before
daily journalling.
Journalling is probabaly the best habit I have ever started.
Not only does jounalling center me and help me focus on what’s important, but it also acts as my morning pages thus helping me be more clear and creative
So these are the systems I am using to accomplish my 2023 goals. The reasons I call them systems and not habits are because habits are meant to remain the same, whereas systems are meant to evolve and improve to better suit the purpose.
So as 2023, progress, I would put out weekly and montly updates while also evolving these systems to better help me.
So these were my goals and systems for 2023, whats yours?
until next time,
Pushkar.