Review of 2020 Goals

Well we all know what 2020 was like in terms of fun, enjoyment and quality of life. So, was 2020 a productive, successful year for me?

I’ll go through the original goals for 2020 that I set myself in, erm, February (don’t you remember that we still had a life in January?) – original headings in bold, original elaboration in italics, and 2021 comments in ordinary font. Not sure why I explained that to you as it should be obvious what I’m doing.

Health

Two Detoxes. A 3-week detox prior to my 40th birthday and a 3-month detox after my birthday.

Hmmm, kind of did this. Well I did the 3 week detox, then 2 of the 3 month’s – guess what caused me to start drinking again in late March? Though I also had another month off in November.

75% successful.

Stop unnecessary drinking. This is the bottle of wine at home on a Friday night after work, or the can of beer at my desk on a Friday afternoon, or drinking prosecco on a Tuesday afternoon at work…that kind of thing.

Well I didn’t drink at my office desk in 2020. But I drank plenty of beer and wine on my own, albeit quite often with a Zoom call to start.

0% successful.

Lose Weight. …maybe I actually will lose weight this year – and my goal is 10kg for the year. I am setting monthly goals too – January I have passed, February I will almost certainly pass. If I fail my monthly goals than I will punish myself with a vegetarian roast dinner…

Well I finished 2019 at 107.5kg and finished 2020 at 101.2kg. At one point at the end of November I made it down to 97.3kg, so I technically managed 10kg, but I’m comparing like to like so…

63% successful. Oh and I had forgot about setting monthly goals by April. Blame China.

Work & Websites

Work towards promotion. …I want to ensure that I have a plethora of experience and evidence behind me to go for it in 2021. This means learning JavaScript in a more technical fashion (I have quite the reading list), improving technical presentation skills, improving my test-writing ability – as well as shipping some damn fine code.

2021 will be too soon for promotion – I’ve now read the job spec and it is really something for full-on seniors, people with say 7-8 years experience. I have learnt loads this year, I am more comfortable with presenting technological information, and now actually good at writing tests.

100% successful.

Met Line Bingo. I’ve started work on a website called Met Line Bingo – which will be a fun, simple game for passengers to play when they are delayed AGAIN.

So I wrote the code for this, it was all working on my local machine, pushed it live, it didn’t work – then covid happened, nobody used the Met line let alone got delayed on it, and I lost interest.

I just think I didn’t bundle the assets correctly.

80% successful.

Improve websites. I do want to do a complete re-brand of my roast dinners blog, and at some point my iwillbeawebdeveloper page.

I did rebrand my roast dinners website – in fact I completely rebuilt it and made it super quick too. Really quite impressed with myself – even my vegan manager appreciates it. Didn’t touch iwillbeawebdeveloper.

50% successful.

Explore

Monthly culture. I want to do a different cultural activity every month this year (granted January I didn’t and February I probably won’t). Burlesque, ballet, bingo, comedy, cinema, theatre, musical, drag brunch, 20/20 cricket…that kind of thing.

Ahhh China.

0% successful.

Japan. Well, the flights are booked, the first hotel is booked. Research is ongoing. I am going to Japan.

I didn’t go to Japan.

0% successful.

3 New Countries. I normally aim for 4 but fail, and with half my holiday allowance being taken by my trip to Japan I’m making this more achievable.

Does Cornwall count as a country?

0% successful.

Random Country. I really want to play random country holiday with someone this year.

0% successful. Thanks, China.

Upgrade My Life

Replace stuff. Now I have a reasonable salary, it is time to upgrade my belongings – my battered office chair, my ugly over-sized (but free) office desk, my slow Surface, tired towels, suitcases with broken wheels, computer monitor with weird wavy lines, computer speakers that are far too bass-heavy.

So I bought a new desk and a new suitcase. There is really no excuse for not achieving this in 2020!

30% successful.

New socks. I need to finally get rid of all my old, tired socks too. Sock upgrades are required.

My sock drawer is full!

100% successful. BOOM.

Double my savings. I’m not telling you how much I have, but I do want to double the amount of saving that I have by the end of the year, and ideally have a fair amount in shares.

I cannot remember exactly how much I had in savings at the end of 2019, but I’m certain that I have twice as much or even 2.5 times as much now.

100% successful. Thanks, China.

Move house? I don’t want to do this, even though I know the pain would probably be worth it. …I’m going to look into what is out there.

I did start looking online when we had anxiety-inducing the “everyone back to the office” phase. And I am now saving for a deposit on a flat.

50% successful.

Be Kinder

Donate to charity more. Last year I gave a total of £76 to charity, which was up from £46 the year before.

According to my spending records, I gave £363.80 to charity in 2020. Check me out.

100% successful.

Waste less food. …I do buy too much food that I don’t finish – cheese for example I rarely eat a block before it goes off.

I definitely threw away my (un) fair share of quarter blocks of cheese in 2020, but on the flip side I’ve signed up to Oddbox and apparently I’ve rescued 156 kg of odd & surplus fruit & veg that might’ve otherwise gone to waste. Gosh, what a champion I am.

80% successful.

Plant a tree. Bit out there this one, but it is something good I can do for the planet and local area.

Masks required? No thanks.

0% successful.

Overall?

That gives me an overall goal success score of 48.7%. Not bad.

Time to start writing some 2021 goals. Some covid-proof goals.