In my last post I talked about taking on some passion projects and generally trying to do a bit more of the things I enjoy doing. To that end I am going to set myself quarterly goals to try and motivate myself and allow for measurable, incremental improvement. So, here are my 5 Goals for Q1 2020:
1. Raspberry Pi Project
Over the last few weeks I’ve seen some interesting tweets and posts from @alexellisuk on k3s and his k3sup project. Then over the holiday period I saw a photo from @davidjgaunt with a nice little RPi rack setup. It got me to thinking, I have a couple of Pi’s kicking about my desk that I haven’t really used, and I am lucky enough to live in Cambridge where we have a Pi store too.
I’ve got all the bits and pieces I needed and I am going to build a cluster and document my journey, I am not entirely sure what I am going to do with it yet but I would like to try learning OpenFAAS and also do some home automation stuff. If I can get it connected into Azure DevOps as well then maybe I can use it for demoing some pipeline work.
2. Publish something every week
In 2018 and 2019 my posting frequency was terrible for a myriad of reasons. Some of it related to my workload at the time and some of it due to the nature of my ADHD. I really overthink writing and creation of content to the point where I am unable to do it.
A good friend once told me “Don’t let great be the enemy of good.” and this is something I need to focus on this year. I have a huge backlog of notes and unfinished posts that I just need to get out there. I need to learn that putting something out there no matter how I think it will end up is better than producing nothing at all.
3. Contribute something via GitHub
Last month I was listening to an episode of the CloudSkills.fm podcast and the use of GitHub as like an online resume/CV came up in the discussion, I really liked this idea and want to make more use of GitHub in general.
I’m not a developer by trade, but over the last few years I have picked up bits and pieces to support my work in automation and CI/CD. Now I don’t think I could contribute much in terms of actual software code, but I do have great experience with things like CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code. I want to be able to provide some examples back to the community and maybe help others out along the way.
4. Make time for hobbies/downtime
For around the last 14 months or so the amount of time I have carved out for myself has gradually declined. In the past I have made a point of taking time out of my day to pursue other activities that I enjoyed. I was a regular 2-3 night a week raider in World of Warcraft for as long as I can remember, now it is hard to look back and think of when I last loaded up that game.
Running my own business, moving to a new house and a whole host of other distractions have just eaten into my time and my mental capacity to function over this period. My energy just hasn’t been there, that needs to change. I don’t want to go so far as to start 18 hour a day marathon gaming session (I’m too old for that now!), but I would like to get a few hours a week to do something I enjoy outside of IT.
5. Exercise and Health
For all the same reasons as above, the last year saw me put exercise and being healthy on the back burner. I often take the easy option of grabbing a takeaway or eating out as it lessens the number of decisions I need to make and saves me some mental capacity to function and focus on other things. The problem with that is being unhealthy physically can have just as much of an impact on your mental health as well.
I am lucky enough to live in a building with a gym and pool, I need to make use of it. So, for this quarter I want to make better choices, eat healthier and get myself more active. Even if it is only a couple of times a week, I want to log some activity.
