New Year (2018 edition)

Last day of the year… I didn’t explicitly set resolutions in 2017 but I kept them hidden instead. There are several posts about how stating your resolutions makes you happier (you get some sense of completion) but you don’t get closer to achieve them. So I’ll gladly ignore those studies this year :)

I didn’t manage to achieve them but 2017 was a great year nevertheless, in the professional and personal sense. I went to conferences, finished projects, gave many courses, visited lots of new countries and had a blast every day. I also managed to blew a lot of deadlines and had to say NO many times (to a book and several conferences for example). 2017 was heavily focused on professional achievements instead of personal ones (I didn’t read nor exercise as much as 2016).

This new year I want to try to accomplish fewer things and, hopefully, more specific. So these are my new year resolutions:

• Lower my WIP to 4 or fewer projects a week. I try to do too many things at the same time, with horrendous results. I can’t try to organize a conference, manage the budget of another, prepare a talk… at the same time. I have to do fewer things at the same time and close unfinished projects.
• Try to read again as much as 2016, 52 books/comics a year (31 this year)
• Do more exercise as much as 2016 (2000km biking and 10.000 steps per day should be easily achievable, given my 18.000 mean and 75.000 max in a day in 2016)

And that’s all (!). I know I’m going to attend several conferences, courses, and all that jazz. I want to focus on things I did last years and had fun doing it: reading and exercising having fewer projects at the same time.

Juggling many balls at once was making me unhappy and I was breaking many compromises. I don’t want to repeat it in 2018 :)