Goals for 2015

It’s that time of year again. I want to make some new goals for 2015.

1) Stop talking over people

It is very often the case that I talk over people both at work and socially. One of many things happen:

  • I become way to over-excited about what we’re talking about
  • I think that the other end of the conversation is wrong, and want to short track fixing the confusion.
  • I think I know what the other end of the conversation is asking and try to fix the problem or answer the question too quickly.

In almost all cases this is the wrong thing to do. Conversations where my boss signals that I’m doing this end up moving way smoother. Listening does often lead to a quick resolution without either party feeling talked over. This is definitely something I’m aware of and want to fix in 2015.

2) Blog more

I’ve dropped the “become a better writer” part from last year. I would still like to accomplish that but don’t feel it’s a good goal, but it’s not something that overtakes other things I’m working on.

I do however want to blog more. I do a lot of random things in WoW, Emacs, programming and other interests and blogging about them helps me remember and helps spread some of the helpful things I’ve found out about. Let’s see if I can actualy keep up with it this year.

3) Continue learning / Work on side projects

I’m keeping this goal from last year because it’s super important to me. This is why I think I’m good at my job and what keeps me interested in it. We started doing hacking nights at work and I definitely want to keep that up. It helps make this social and helps others enjoy side projects as much as I do. It’s fun to build stuff and actually use it day to day!

Conclusion

I’m going to keep this year’s goals at only 3. Two are carried over from last year (one because I failed, and one because it’s important) and the new one is a pretty big goal for me. I want to focus hard on these 3 and not distract myself with anything else. 2015 is going to be a good year.