Goals for 2025
As 2024 comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what has been the most incredible and challenging year of my life. In January our child Leo was born and our lifes as we knew them were changed forever. There is plenty to be written on the highs and lows of being new parents and without doubt it has been the most difficult and rewarding year of my life.
This year it has been impossible to set routines and goals because our sole focus was Leo and adapting to parenting. Any other goals or accomplishments were secondary and whilst to some extent that will always be the case, I wanted to note down some goals I have for 2025 to hold myself accountable. Hopefully this time next year I'm smiling writing a post about how successful I've been!
Exercise at least 3 times a week
My health, both physically and mentally, has suffered this year from a lack of time to invest in myself. Weekly badminton sessions and long walks with Leo and the dog have kept things ticking over, but the lack of sleep, quick meals once Leo is asleep and having to balance parenting and returning back to work has had a negative impact on my fitness.
With Leo at nursery in 2025, I hope to have more time during the week to exercise, and I'm starting with a goal of 3 times per week. I hope to do more, but if I can achieve this it will be a solid improvement over 2024.
Launch my side project on Steam
I've been working on OnTrack for over two years. It's a browser based train logistics game where you have to build a passenger network and balance customer satisfaction and finances. At times I have suffered from focusing on too many features and knowing how to wrap up a "v1".
This year, I want to define and launch the first version. My definition of success here is that the game is on Steam and you can buy it. I have no expectation on sales or making any money, but it would be a huge achievement to meet this milestone.
Because the game is browser based (I did venture into Rust before falling back to the environment where I can be most productive), I will likely use something like Tauri to wrap the game up into an app.
Take Leo swimming at least once a month
Pretty self explanatory! We have taken Leo swimming once and he loved it, and he is always very happy in the bath kicking and splashing around. It would be great to really get him into swimming this year and reserve some time for me and him to spend together.
Do a weekly date night
Our relationship has been truly tested this year with the arrival of Leo and all that comes with parenting, but I am so proud of what we have accomplished and we are stronger now than ever before.
Towards the end of this year we instigated a weekly board game night at home and I want to make sure we continue this in 2025. Sometimes we'll be able to have someone babysit so we can go out for dinner, but even having a dedicated night in each week to play a game and decompress has been a great way to unwind and reflect.
Write 10 blog posts
The cadence of blog writing has been very up and down over the number of years I have been blogging (the first blog post was April 6th, 2012!) and that's not a bad thing - it has reflected my priorities and focus. But I like blogging and I like sharing knowledge on things I learn. From working on my side project, to learning recently about git bisect, and even reflections on fatherhood, I feel like I have plenty to share and 10 posts a year feels like a reasonable goal.
Be more productive at work
Balancing home and work life has been a challenge this year; working from home with a baby makes it hard to detach and get my head down, but commuting to the office means leaving more of the childcare to my wife. Next year Leo will go to nursery and I want to use this as a catalyst to make myself feel and be more productive. I am currently reading Uptime which is a compelling read and some of its ideas I think can be very beneficial to my productivity, particularly at work. Before returning to work in the new year I will be finishing the book and actioning some of the ideas.