New Year's Resolutions 2010

Last year I succeeded at 50% of my resolutions. I successfully uploaded all my old photos to flickr, but I wasn’t able to entirely give up soda at my desk. It went great for about six months, and then we had a big deadline, and I started up again. I felt pretty good about lasting six months, though.

This year, I have only one resolution: I signed up for Project 52 over on spaceninja.com. The idea is to post fresh content at least once a week, all year long. I’m aiming to make the content worthwhile, with no fluff. I want to write a lot of good content about web development, to start advancing my ultimate goal of becoming a name in the industry.

The flip side of that resolution is to post more worthwhile stuff over here. I’ve been reading through my archives, and I used to write a lot more. In the last few years, however, I basically only write about Zoe and my work. I miss that “here’s what’s happening with me right now” kinda vibe that blogging used to have. Since I’ve split my professional life into its own blog, there’s no reason to hold back anymore, so I’m going to try to be more personal on here again.

New Year's Resolutions 2009

Every year, I pick a bunch of stupid resolutions, and I never manage to stick with them. So this year, I’m keeping it simple:

No Soda at my Desk: I typically drink two or three cans of soda every day. Water in the morning, but then I’ll have a soda with lunch, and I’ll keep drinking soda until I leave the office. In the past, I’ve tried giving up caffeine or soda entirely, and failed. Instead, I’m just going to say that I’m not allowed to have soda at my desk. If I want one with lunch, that’s no problem, but when I leave the breakroom, I’m done with the soda, and I’m only drinking water at my desk.

Upload all Photos to Flickr: I’ve got about five years’ worth of digital photos on my computer, and for the last couple years, I’ve been uploading the good ones to Flickr. The problem is that I’ve been doing it a little bit at a time, and I’m taking photos faster than I’ve been uploading them. So I’ve got all my photos from 2003 and 2004 uploaded, and everything since Zoe was born, but nothing between there. So my goal is to finish the job this year so that going forward, I only have to deal with new photos. Plus, then Annie and I can print up photo books of our old photos!

Wish me luck!

New Year's Resolutions 2007

I just realized that I never posted any New Year’s resolutions this year. That’s probably because I never chose any – which is probably because I’ve done such a lousy job of keeping them up in the past. In 2004, I achieved 2 out of 5 resolutions (eat breakfast every day, and do more design). In 2005, I accomplished 3 out of 5 resolutions (get up at a regular time every day, do more web design, and post more frequently, with more images). And finally, in 2006, I dropped down to 1 out of 4 (attend more web conferences), which is particularly humiliating, since I went out of my way to choose goals that I would be more motivated to accomplish.

The getting up at a regular time and eating breakfast every day probably sound pathetic, but remember that when I wrote those goals, I was working from home or unemployed, and it was actually becoming a problem. I managed to achieve them, though, which I still feel proud of myself for, though now that I have a regular job, it’s less of an accomplishment.

As for this year, it’s already July, so it’s too late for New Year’s resolutions, but I do still have some goals. I want to finish posting my photo archives on flickr, I want to keep posting a newsletter about Zoe every month. Not exactly earth-shattering, I know, but hopefully more realistic than the last few years.