2016
We’re at the dawn of a new year. I’ve always tried to take a critical look at the past year and look ahead to what’s next around this time, and this year is no different.
Last Year
I focused on habits in 2015, and had some decent success. I wanted to:
- average at least eight posts a month on my blog. Accomplished: I averaged 15 posts a month, with most of my blogging happening before the fall when I trailed off. I had an 86-day streak, and my most popular post was Thinking About Web Accessibility Differently.
- try one new recipe a month. I only did this for January and February, so I’ll have to do better this year. I did cook more, just not as many new dishes as I had hoped.
- keep contributing to my two favorite open source projects: WordPress and Underscores. I did that, helping make Underscores more accessible, and contributing more to default themes for WordPress and reviewing themes for accessibility as part of the accessibility-ready tag.
- pick back up regular exercise. I did this, joining a new CrossFit gym in April and going about twice a week most weeks.
This Year
With last year’s focus on habits, I obviously want to keep the habits going, and continue work on the one that I didn’t do as well forming. Aside from that, I want to take a different approach to 2016. I’d like to focus on three habits and/or goals:
Schedule two hours a week of thinking time for myself. I read a post about this recently, and liked the idea of having time to just think through whatever challenges, strategies or ideas that came to mind. No other agenda. One hour will be for work and one hour will be personal. I’ll set this in Habit List as a reminder for myself.
Listen more. I realized as I do almost every year when I tried to come up with Christmas gift ideas for family and close friends that I struggled mightily. I let life get in the way of this, checking my phone constantly, and wasting time on other distractions. I want to know people better, and build a foundation for a more thoughtful life. One where I pick up on more of the simple, but essential joys of life. I believe that won’t happen unless I’m a better listener. I’m not sure how I’ll track this, but I plan to set a reminder in Habit List for every quarter and ask my wife, Joeleen, how I’m doing with this. She’s always honest with me, and will be the one person who will know if I’m doing better.
Make progress on a book about accessibility. That’s hard to write because it’s scary to put out there. I’ve always had a goal of writing a book, and I think I now have a subject and idea where I can contribute something new and worthwhile to my field. I’ll count “progress” as almost anything, including something as simple as finishing an outline for the book. I’d also say I’m open to it being different than a traditional book because it’s more important to me that I author something than what the format might be.
Previous years: 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011.
See you in the new year!