2021 by the numbers

2021-01-03

Last year was my first iteration of really sticking to New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve been calling this “top-line annual goal setting” (there’s probably some actual name for it) because there is no prescription for how to achieve the goals: all that matters is the final number. I expanded on last year, and it’s possible I might add some throughout the rest of the year.

Fitness
- Run 500 miles
- Run a half-marathon
  - Do an overnight cycling trip
  - Complete 200 consecutive pushups
- Reach 155 lbs
Learning
- Read 27 books
- Watch 15 movies
- Listen to 60 albums
- Reach a streak of 150 days on Duolingo
- Start and maintain “tech guide”
  - This is a little vague, but slightly on purpose. Essentially, I want to keep track of basic elements of software engineering, tradeoffs between common decisions, etc. Each time I spend brain power making a decision of researching something, it should go into this guide for easy access later
- Complete Functional Programming in Scala
  - Complete all examples, share on GitHub
- Complete Learning the bash Shell
  - Complete all examples, share on GitHub
- Get AWS Developer certification
Improving
- 5 toastmasters speeches
- Write for 3,120 minutes
  - This is 20 minutes, 3x a week
- Write 36 blog posts
  - Write “5 year career” blog post
  - Write “Time tracking” blog post
- Improve my touch typing from 222 to 280 CPM (characters per minute)
  - Based on this site
  - My hunt-and-peck typing score is 373 CPM (average of three tries), my current touch typing is 222 CPM (average of three tries)
  - 280 is 75% of my hunt-and-peck score
Interests
- Make 52 batches of ice cream
- Spend 7,300 minutes on side projects
  - This is 20 minutes for 365 days
- Submit at least 1 crossword to the NYT crossword
- 1600 peak score on lichess
Personal
- At least 40 hours of community service
- At least 31 days without alcohol
- At least 30 days without Twitter