The year that was, 2023

Well, it's the end of another year and it has been a strange one. It hasn't been a terrible year, like some recently. But I also don't seem to have done anything except work. In review at the end of the year, I feel I've learned a lot and I feel very tired. So let's see whether I've achieved anything at all - there has to be a bit more then Hell Let Loose and Roboquest.

• 14 posts on this blog (15 including this one) - ninth consecutive year of a post per month
• Started posting my blog posts on LinkedIn - small thing, but a big deal for me
• Another year of the Year in Pictures - ninth year and we're up to 40 photographers
• 224 Github contributions - well down on last year
• Rebuilt my email setup so email actually arrives
• Finished replatforming all my apps
• Started playing D&D again
• Started writing a D&D setting too
• Some reading
• Managed to see a few friends for the first time in years
• Foraging cookery course
• Completed another escape room
• Stripped down and repaired the taps in my kitchen
• Finally sorted out the signatories on the house bank account (2+ years!!)
• Another year of exercise with a personal trainer
• Established a good physiotherapy regime
• Another year of the Saturday morning exercise class
• Won an award for CIO potential
• Spoke at a conference about the future of tech
• Yet more instagramming
• More photos on my Flickr stream

Resolution count - 3/10. Utterly awful.

This time last year I wrote this:

"Looking forward to 2023, I'm going to write the same thing I write every year. I need to spend less time working and more time living."

It really has been a strange year. I seem to have been constantly busy and yet outside of work achieved very little. I feel like I've spent so much of the year on the back foot - whether that's because I've been worn out, or because I've spent time doing things for other people and not moving forward with things I want to do. My resolution count shows this - lowest in years. For various reasons, I've not been able to prioritise much for myself. I've learned very little, and not completed many projects leaving an overall sense of emptiness.

It has been a sub-optimal year for physical health. I've had a year of blood tests for chronic fatigue (fortunately nothing) and all manner of problems with my hips which have blown apart my fitness. I've been nursing injuries since May and while training and physio has helped, I feel like I've moved backwards (and outwards) this year. This is something I really want to turn around in 2024 if I can avoid damaging myself any more.

Also, while I don't feel too bad as I write this, I think my mental health has taken a battering this year. My work / life balance is completely off - the worst it has been in years. However, unlike previous years when this has been the case at least I'm enjoying the challenge this time around. But that doesn't change that work has been full on, which has led to much exhaustion and doing less of my own things while I hid and recovered.

All that said, while my real-life has been less than ideal my work-life has been doing ok. I have achieved a lot in my current role and even won an industry award which was rather surprising. I don't write about work much during this year-end post but this year it's worth calling out the success to contrast ... well ... everything else.

So some words for 2024...

Looking forward to 2024, I'm going to write the same thing I write every year. I need to spend less time working and more time living.

Sigh.

More seriously, I want to focus on my health - physical and mental. I need to increase the quality of my time across the board. The time I spend at work needs to be better spent. Outside of work, I need to make better use of the time I have - doing more, and resting better. I definitely need to do more myself instead of chasing round after other people. This year - quality over quantity.

Time for 2024. Tally-ho.

Professional new year resolutions

It's my favourite time of the year - the null zone between Christmas and New Year where nobody is doing anything, the weather is awful and hiding away is socially acceptable. I can sit with a laptop, learning about things I never find time to touch during the year and slowly become one with a chair. All without any guilt that I should be doing something else.

Every year I write new year resolutions and then do an end of year summary however this always focuses on my personal life. This year has been VERY work-heavy so I thought I'd also write some extra new year resolutions for my professional life and why I think they are important. It's the holidays so don't expect anything enormously insightful - there is a huge list of things I should be doing, and this is more about where I should refocus myself for the new year. Here we go.

More engagement

Anyone who has read Future Engage Deliver knows that you can have a vision (Future) and set everything up for output (Deliver), but if you don't bring people along (Engage) your success is going to be limited at best. This ranges from simple visibility through to detailed talking about strategy to everyone, both in the team and wider. When physically in the office some of this happens just by not hiding behind a closed door, but when working remote those corridor conversations don't happen - there is the need for more deliberate mapping of communications and touchpoints.

My area is now essentially a remote working group and that creates a need for more deliberate communication. We're also in a time of change - a very exciting time, but change is always unsettling. This is going to make engagement even more important.

I don't think I'm too bad at engagement - but only when I prioritise it. There has been a LOT going on, and good engagement takes time and energy - two things that have been especially in short supply in Q4 2023. So for 2024 I'm going to look to make two changes. First, make sure my engagement is of a higher quality. Second, and more important at the moment, I'm going to prioritise engagement which means finding or making more time for it.

Give back more

The Tech industry can be a pretty bleak place at times, and the only way that will improve is by all of us doing what we can to make it better. Over the years I've tutored, coached, mentored and set up groups. These days I'm still mentoring people across several different organisations - particularly people who are leading software engineers, and software people who want to progress into senior management. I also sit on the London Data Board, I've done some consulting with groups looking to restructure (both paid and pro bono) and I've spoken at conferences about technical leadership.

I get a lot out of these kind of things and I am going to assume it's helpful! I'd like to find ways to do more. If you'd like a chat do reach out. Otherwise, I need to explore some ideas around this - ways to share / cooperate / mentor and so on. I'm not very clear what I can do beyond more mentoring (I'll post about that in the new year) but I'd like to find something.

Do less

Both of the above will take time and while we insist on saying "make time" this is actually impossible. Time is a fixed resource and needs to be spent effectively. What I want to do in 2024 is to make sure the time I have is spent on quality activities. For 2024, that is going to mean two things. First, a renewed focus on delivery - getting things out the door rather than spinning wheels and sustaining. This will also help with the good feels - everyone likes achieving things. 

Second, I'm going to ensure the various meetings and governance processes I attend are providing proper value. As mentioned earlier, we are in a time of change and that can easily mean overlapping or redundant org processes. This only costs us time and energy, so finding and stopping them helps not just me but everyone. I'm going to push back hard where it seems appropriate to do so to protect my time.

Work / life balance

Actually, there IS a way to "make time" - work more hours. That has been my default in 2023 and to everyone's surprise it has proven unsustainable. In 2024, I need to balance work and life better. This doesn't just mean looking at working hours - I need to put things in my off-time and have the energy to do them. I know there are problems when I'm not doing anything in my free time because I'm too tired so this is a move to protect my mental health.

So that's it. In 2024 I'm going to work on how I engage with people, I'm going to find ways to give more back to the industry, I'm going to focus my time at work and I'm going to improve my work / life balance. Any guesses how I'm going to get on? Happy new year!