Here we are, it’s the end of another year. As we say goodbye to the sometimes-great-sometimes-uncontrollable-trash-fire that was 2018, it’s time to start planning our New Year’s resolutions. As developers, it’s a perfect opportunity to lay out our development goals for the new year. But we also know that resolutions can be a real drag to follow, so I've broken my goals up into ones I will definitely accomplish, ones I will probably accomplish, and ones that I will briefly consider accomplishing. So join me in sending off 2018 the right way—full of ambition (and 400mg of Ibuprofen to curb our collective violent hangovers).
Me taking a quick nap, exhausted from all of the ambitions I have for 2019.
Resolutions That I Will Definitely Accomplish
Start writing
Hey, I’m writing right now, so we’re already off to a great start! 2019 will be the year I put pen to paper (metaphorically speaking, I haven't owned a pen since I started college). Articles, blog posts, maybe even a book (this is quickly becoming one of the goals I will briefly consider accomplishing). I’ve always wanted my words on the internet (apologies in advance), and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to use platforms like this to reach an audience.
Start a blog
I'll be honest with you, this is pretty much just expanding on the first goal. If you make your goals similar enough, it's easy to tackle two at the same time. It's a great trick to feeling more accomplished and I highly recommend it.
Read books
There’s a lot of important books that I haven’t read (though, to be fair, there's also a lot of unimportant books I haven't read). I think I made it through maybe 75% of one book last year so I really have nowhere to go but up. I'm hoping to remedy this in 2019 with this handy list sent down to me yesterday from the heavens (via recommended articles):
If anyone has any other suggested readings, let me know!
More Side Projects
I'm pretty satisfied with the side projects that I completed in 2018. Unfortunately, I was incredibly encumbered by my lack of free time (I generally work 60-70 hours a week between two dev jobs because I'm getting married in February and weddings are an unstoppable destructive force to your bank account). Up until this point, most of my applications have been relatively small in scale, and I'm hoping to work on something with a much more significant impact this year.
Resolutions That I Will Probably Accomplish
Contribute to Open Source
Contributing to an open source project is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I have always been too overwhelmed when searching for a starting point. It's kind of like how my college gym had this rock climbing wall that I always wanted to try out, but I never knew how to approach it. Are you supposed to use hand chalk? How do you put on a harness? Do I need special rock grippy shoes? So I just got really into running instead.
More GraphQL
I like GraphQL a lot. I've used it a bit in my own incredibly unfinished projects. I've used it in my own incredibly unfinished GatsbyJS blog. But I still have a limited grasp on the full power available, and I will use 2019 to unlock it's true, dark potential.
Get married
Sure this isn't exactly a development goal, HOWEVER my level of productivity at home directly correlates with my fiancee's current level of happiness. You may also notice I put this under probably accomplish and, well, I’m getting married on February 22nd and a lot can happen between now and then (that was a joke, please don't tell her).
Resolutions That I Will Briefly Consider Accomplishing
Start a YouTube channel
I’m a little more hesitant about this one. I was thinking of doing development stories & opinion pieces, but 2018 was a rough year to have opinions and I feel like 2019 won’t be any better. I did, however, buy Sony Vegas for $35 on a Humble Bundle (to curb the guilt of my previous use of a not-so-legitimate copy of Adobe Premiere) and I feel like I should put it to some sort of use.
Teach
I don’t know in what capacity. Maybe a course. Maybe tutorials. Maybe sagely advice to a young opportunist who I meet on the street through random happenstance. I am thirty-one years old now, which I feel is an appropriate age to start aggressively forcing my wisdom on to teenagers with a proclivity of self-importance only awarded through years of surfing through passive aggressive comments on StackOverflow.
Reach 1k Followers on Twitter
A man can dream, right?
I hope you enjoyed my list of development goals for 2019. Let me know if you have any big plans for the new year. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next year. 🎉
Top comments (7)
Great article! Congrats with engagement!
Here are a few things that may or may not help:
More side projects: Code something that fixes one burning problem for you. For me it was trying for example to meet half way 3 friends, which can be impossible in London, so I started coding on a meet me half way app.
Teach: start with non technical people is a great exercise of simplifying complexity. Me trying to explain to my mom while I was practicing for a training, was not only funny but also great for finding simple analogies.
Read books: Leverage the time you are waiting in a queue, traffic, commute, wash dishes, by listening to audiobooks. What ever you don't enjoy, make it more fun with books.
Hangovers: drink water, dehydration is the biggest contributor to hangover. Take this from a part russian that never had a hangover in her life.
Just try, hope this helps :)
Great post Keith. Good luck with all your resolutions 😁 Oh and I just followed you on Twitter, so you're one step closer there.
2019 seems like a pretty busy year. Happy new year and congratulations on your upcoming marriage.
Downgrade your wedding man. Working two jobs to feed the wedding-industrial complex is sad to see. They've played you.
1 step closer to your dream.
You now and after we follow you on DEV:
So far how is it going?
Just followed you in Twitter, good luck to reaching 1000!