New Year Resolutions 2018

This probably isn't the best way to start the year. I keep reading about how New Year's resolutions don't work again and again and again. I'll try and heed some of the advice from articles like this and put some actual goals for 2018.

Blogging

I want to have weekly posts for this blog. I've put down this target in the past but have never followed through. I spoke in an earlier post of the #newwwyear on Twitter and I need 2 posts written by Sunday to meet the targets set in that tweet. It's a small thing but publishing that plan has provided some motivation to write this post and the one that will follow tomorrow. I know if I hadn't written that tweet I wouldn't be writing this post today.

Work

I spent some time in December researching DevOps processes. I'd like to implement some of these concepts to the projects I'm already working on. I've already updated the release to use the release management features available in Visual Studio Team Services.

We have some rudimentary testing setup and I'd like to move towards a more TDD direction. It's going to be a long process because the projects pretty complex already and there is a lot of functionality that is planned to be added.

Physical

I still play basketball 1-2 times a week. I'd like to keep that up.

I took a couple of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes last year and enjoyed them. I'd like to keep taking classes on a more consistent basis.

I'd also like to take better care of myself by being more efficient at work. I've read "The Passionate Programmer" by Chad Fowler (Twitter) and "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and I'm tying to put some of their theories into practice. I got into a rut of working a lot of long hours under a lot of stress last year and it's something I'd like to avoid this year. They have to be done sometimes but not as often as I was doing them.

Travel

The last holiday I had was 3 years ago when I spent a couple of fascinating weeks in China. I plan on taking a holiday this year in September/October. Not sure where yet but there's time to do some research.

Financial

I want to automate my savings. I put money away every month but there are some manual steps that could be removed.