I fell a bit short of where I wanted to be last year, so I've been stewing on how many goals to try this time around. Right now I have a list of 11 primary goals, although I will probably add one more goal to make it an even 12.
Here's what I'm thinking of so far:
- Publish 100 blog posts
- My 30 day blog trial was challenging but enjoyable. I'd like to increase my output this year and publish 100 posts on this site. It will be the same mix of reflective posts (like this one) and more useful, tutorial-style articles.
- Release a small game for the Atari ST
- Revisiting my nineties development setup brought back some really fond memories for me. A couple of my really old games got picked up by AtariMania, so I'd love to release something that's actually worth playing.
- Improve my marathon time
- Last year was my first time running a full marathon, but I was a little disappointed with my time. I'm training to improve on it this year.
- Enter Ludum Dare
- It's been 7 years since my last Ludum Dare entry. It's a great way to get feedback - and to actually release something - so I want to try against this year.
- Release Craft Roulette 3.0
- I started rewriting Craft Roulette in Rails in 2019, but I stopped short of actually releasing it. Since then I've upgraded it to Rails 6, made it mobile-friendly(ish), and come up with a long list of features I want to add. I want to release it this year.
- Release a demo of The Game
- I tried this last year and failed, but I made some pretty good progress. There's still a lot to do, but I think I have enough pieces to started building the finished article on.
- Release version 1.0 of Writing PHP with Emacs
- I published version 0.6 at the end of 2019, and I'm getting close to finishing version 0.7. All of the major content I originally planned is now in the book, but I want to add the "Recipes" section and get the whole thing edited and tidied up. My plan is to have it all finished and released in the first quarter of 2021.
- Deliberately practice
- This one is a little hard to quantify. My plan is to pick small projects to work on, and then write about the experience once they're complete.
- Complete a maniac week
- This is another 2020 goal that never was. I still like the idea of shutting myself away to work on a project for a week, although that might change depending on how the year progresses
- Release a game and earn at least $1 from it
- I've wanted to make games since I was a kid, but I've never sold a game I've created. I'd like to change that.
- Release a side project and earn at least $1 from it
- Nearly all of my income comes from freelance work. Given how things went last year, I'd like to diversify where my money comes from.
My list of secondary goals has around 20 items, but I'll be adding more to it as the year progresses.