Technical New Year's Resolutions: 2014

· 304 words · 2 minute read

In reviewing my 2013 Technical New Year’s resolutions, I give myself a solid B-, maybe a C+.

I’ve been completely slammed and overwhelmed with my day job at times, which has contributed to my lack of focus on things outside of work. It’s also worn me down at times, and left me with little motivation. That’s no excuse, but a human being can only take so much.

If I reflect on my goals…

  • I did some more speaking, this year at Atlanta PHP, CoderFaire, and Emory University.
  • I built some great software at work, which I’m really proud of.
  • I shipped some decent updates to FloodWatch, but not a major 2.0 version. However, I will ship a major update (with iPad support) to it in the first few days of 2014, so this goal is 75% complete.
  • I didn’t blog much at all, which is disappointing. This one evades me every single year. I need to be better about it.

So for 2014, I’m keeping it simple:

  • Ship great products: Nothing else matters. I’m going to ship the best stuff I can all year, both at my day job, and in my spare time.
  • Find fun and satisfaction in all that I do: Not all work is fun all of time (which is why it’s called “work”), but I need to strive to find positives in all that I do, or if I can’t, cease doing them. If it’s not fun and satisfying in some way, then it’s not worth doing. Period.
  • Say “no” more: I’m a chronic overachiever who tends to overcommit myself. This year, I’m going to guard myself from being overcommitted. If I can focus on the goals above, shipping and focusing on enjoyable work, then this should be easy.

Wish me luck. Happy New Year! 2014 is going to rock.