The 2020 plan

At the beginning of 2019 I set about creating a list of all the things I wanted to learn. It was huge! I was kidding my self if I thoughtI was ever going to be able to do all the things I had written down.

Obviously life happened, events occurred that I could not have planned for and my long list remained largely unfinished. I think I probably "completed" about 3 of the 10 tasks I had set myself. That is not to say that I failed in 2019. Far from it. But where I directed my time had to shift. I interviewed for and got a new job, something I was not planning on and something that consumed an awful lot of my time. But it was worth the input and sacrificing some of the tasks I had set at the beginning of the year.

Whats in store for 2020

2020 is already shaping up to be a good year. I am 5 weeks into my new role, which I love. We have already recorded the first episode of Salted Bytes and I have a new plan in place.

This year, I am gonna be more realistic. I am gonna concentrate on few things in the hope that I will be able to finish. But if I don't, then that is also OK.

Salted Bytes

We are planning on stepping things up a gear in 2020. The plan is to record 2 episodes a month and to try and get more guests (if you fancy coming on the show please get in touch). I am also planning on trying to write 2 articles a month. These will be as varied as ever but will still center around the software industry.

Health

In the last year I have been using the mornings before work to swat up on my current interests. But this year I am going to use this time to exercise a little self care. It is all to easy to neglect your physical and mental health and this takes its tole.

So this year I will be exercising, doing yoga and practising a little mindfulness in the hope that an increase in mental and physical health will help me become a better engineer.

Programming

Software is a tough one. I just want to learn everything! It's all so interesting but I will be taking some learnings from last year, I think it is far too difficult to plan a years worth of learning and exploration. Stuff changes so fast and my interests and where I need to concentrate time does too. So I am going to approach it in a different way. I will only be looking 3 months ahead in the hope that this is more maintainable. I still a rough idea of what I want to learn but I a realistic in the knowledge that this will change.

Here are a few things that I will be concentrating on:

• Getting better at the stuff I already know.
• Application security.
• Making stuff - Hardware and software.

Thats it! A start contrast from last years plan but one that I feel is more achievable and one that is less likely to make me feel like I have failed. What do you have have in store for 2020.

Thanks for reading 🙏

If there is anything I have missed, or if there is a better way to do something then please let me know.
Check out our software focused podcast - Salted Bytes