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.
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