Updated: Goals 2020

Shit happened. I need to amend my goals for the year slightly:

Health

Two Detoxes Don’t drink every night. A 3-week detox prior to my 40th birthday and a 3-month detox after my birthday. Should be easy, right? Try not to drink every night.

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. If I didn’t need to lose weight, I wouldn’t be so bothered…but I really do. Only drink at home.

Lose Weight. Yes, I say this every year and every year I fail. So it feels like I am just going through the motions yet I really have to become non-obese if I want to avoid shit like diabetes. So 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…so if that isn’t a reason to lose weight, I don’t know what is. Update: 5kg lost…easier to lose weight when working from home.

Work & Websites

Work towards promotion Hope M&S survive. I’m not sure I could achieve a promotion as a higher grade engineer this calendar year, but 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. There will be no promotions!

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. Would be nice to have another site in my portfolio – I have a list of projects I want to do that I just never get around to starting. Update – I’ve almost finished it. Yet nobody will want to use it.

Improve websites. I do want to do a complete re-brand of my roast dinners blog, and at some point my iwillbeawebdeveloper page. Which, I probably have to rebrand – I wonder whether I should change my jameswinfield.co.uk website from being a DJ site (not updated in years) to my portfolio site? I do have designs in my head for them…though design isn’t exactly my strong point. Update – I do have more time to do this now!

Explore

Monthly culture Monthly porn. 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. Want to join me? Let me know! Check out a different porn website each month.

Japan Zone 4. Well, the flights are booked, the first hotel is booked. Research is ongoing. I am going to Japan. Try to make it all the way to fare zone 4 one day.

3 New Countries 3 New tube stations. 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. One will be Japan and there are plenty of European countries that I’ve never been to. Iceland, Luxembourg, Turkey? Want to join me? Try to visit 3 new tube stations without being lynched, obviously in my local area and by walking only.

Random Country Random Street in Harrow. I really want to play random country holiday with someone this year. Or maybe I’ll just do it by myself…if nobody wants to do random by July, then I’ll just do it on my own.

Upgrade My Life

Replace stuff Buy an air conditioning unit. 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. Lots of stuff is long overdue an upgrade. Given that my bedroom gets to 30’C in the summer, I don’t fancy working in that kind of heat.

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

Double my savings Triple my savings unless M&S go bankrupt. 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. Well, I don’t have anything to spend my income on.

Move house? Stay in my fucking house. I don’t want to do this, even though I know the pain would probably be worth it. My house is easy to live in, my housemate is sound – both could be worse if I move, and it isn’t exactly as if every house move I have made has been a good move. But I’m going to look into what is out there. Yeah.

Be Kinder

Donate to charity more. Last year I gave a total of £76 to charity, which was up from £46 the year before. Piddling amounts but in the right direction. One problem I have is that I’m not massively enthused by any one cause, so I just rely on other people doing fundraisers and donating to what they believe in. Update: Am trying to give half my usual commute to charity now.

Waste less food Store more food. Not exactly something I can measure…unless I start yet another spreadsheet, keeping a track of rough amounts of food I waste. But I do buy too much food that I don’t finish – cheese for example I rarely eat a block before it goes off. Perils of single life. My Brexit stockpile hasn’t half come in handy.

Plant a tree Look at the same trees outside my window. Bit out there this one, but it is something good I can do for the planet and local area.