

Ask HN: What are your big plans for 2013? - pavs

I was just doing my 2013 and wanted to know how others manage (what software/notebook/) and what they put in their Yearly Plan or todo list.
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notactuallyme
Never really been a fan of new year resolutions, but a few that really are
down to accidental timing...

\- Stay off cigarettes (quit a month ago and going fine)

\- Stop using cocaine (this happens to be the week I've realised that I'm
close to being addicted - hell, I'm high right now)

\- Start writing some sort of novel, something I've wanted to do for a few
years

(edit: Sorry for the throwaway account, don't really want my name showing up
in Google talking about a coke habit..)

~~~
ddorian43
any longterm effects that you see?

~~~
notactuallyme
Sorry can you elaborate on what you're asking?

~~~
ddorian43
on your cocaine addiction, if you have used it for a long time(i don't know
how much is long), do you see any longterm effects? (example: some people who
smoke weed say they are more chill(when not high) then before they used to
smoke)

~~~
notactuallyme
Until fairly recently I didn't use it often, and no, I haven't noticed any
real changes in myself (other than when on it).

I've smoked weed for a much longer time - though not much lately, and never a
full-time stoner, just relaxing with friends now and then - and while I don't
think that's really changed me either, it does feel like it has a greater
ability to, because getting stoned is about relaxing and thinking, it's a
state of mind you can go to when sober, and certainly I know a couple of
people who are always smoking it and their normal personality certainly seems
to have merged with their stoned personality.

Long-term changes aren't what's making me stop, it's the worry that if I keep
going much longer I'll spiral out of control, which definitely isn't good for
my bank balance and has a decent chance of not being good from a safety point
of view, either.

~~~
ddorian43
safety as in health safety ,law safety or both?

~~~
notactuallyme
Health - I've never been particularly careful in terms of looking after my
body (smoking, eating, etc. etc.) but don't want to do anything that could
have a shorter term risk, which is why I've never, and will never, touch
anything stronger than coke.

To be honest I've never really thought about legal issues. Had a couple of
occasions where I had weed in my pocket and was a little scared by proximity
of cops, but never enough that they would have really cared had they noticed.
And never been close to any issues with police and cocaine, so never stopped
to worry about it.

------
alexatkeplar
\- Improve my Greek vocabulary

\- Rewrite the Hive parts of SnowPlow (<https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow>)
in Scalding

\- Try out Go, Rust and F#

\- Add Android and iOS trackers to SnowPlow

------
mflindell
Finally launch my hobby web app into the world. Usually when you think of a
new year you think in big projects and not the small things that make up the
big ones. So I guess ill be fixing lots of little bugs ;)

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kator
I'm not a fan of "New Years Resolutions".

IMHO it's a false point in time to force a process you won't follow through on
anyway because the driving factor is the random reality that day on the
calendar happened to pass by that we've assigned importance to (i.e. New
Year).

That said I believe in constant, on-going goals analysis and review. On a
daily basis I review my goals for the day. On a semi-random basis I review my
goals for other random-lengths of time. Usually triggered by passing through
or letting go of another goal on my roadmap. Meanwhile on a fairly regular
basis I review my personal "core goals" and see if my current progress and
goals are in alignment. If they're not I either rework my core goals or rework
my "working" goals to align. Sometimes I do this on the subway to work and
other times on a beach while on vacation.

I think setting goals at the beginning of the year really has no impact on the
reality of your life. That said it's not a bad idea to look at your "core"
goals. Rather then say "I'll loose 25 lbs this year" say "I want to be healthy
for the rest of my life". And then identify some short, mid and long term
goals to obtain that overall "core goal".

Often if I find myself overwhelmed by life I will stop and review my "core
goals" and make sure everything is in alignment with those. Or I change them
to meet what I really want in my life "now". When I was younger I had very
different "core goals" then I do now and I'm comfortable that sometime in the
next 0 to 24 months those might change as I review what is meaningful and
rewarding to me in my life.

As an example my primary goal is to "Live my life in my passion". This has
actually been true for most of my life starting sometime while I was in high
school. Clearly my "passion" has changed over time but the "core goal" remains
the same and drives many of my decisions in my life.

That said some other "core goals" of mine have changed though my life as I've
progressed through various phases and transitions in my life. Your "core
goals" when you have young children are most likely very different then when
they've all moved out and are living their own lives. :-)

Be flexible, be alert and true to yourself, find your "core goals" and then
develop your short, mid and long-term goals driven from those. And as always,
be willing to change them as you and your life changes.

~~~
kolinko
How do you know the problem is with resolutions/goals and not with your
process of setting them?

The way I see it, most people have a bad process of setting their goals. It
causes them to always pick the same ones (e.g. lose weight, stop smoking,
change a job), and never follow through (e.g. because they always approach the
goals using the same methods, like "I will eat less", or "I will have a strong
will this time").

I've been setting my goals according to one of Tony Robbins' workshops for the
past 9 years now, and it's amazing what it helped me to accomplish.

In short, my process is: \- split it to material goals, self-devel goals &
career goals \- for each section, brainstorm by writing down dosens of goals I
want to accomplish in my life \- then for each brainstormed goal I write down
whether I want to achieve it by 1 year, 2, 5 or 20. \- out of 1 year goals I
choose three of each kind (9 total).

The above causes me to choose things that are really important, not just "top
of the mind" - I surprised myself quite often by discovering that some things
I considered could wait.

Then, for each of the 9 goals I write down: \- why do I want to accomplish it
\- the first step, something I can do instantly.

The first step quite often propels me towards achieving the goal, and the
reason is a nice reminder of why I wanted to achieve it.

So far, the track record was quite nice. Out of 9 goals I accomplish 3-4 in
any given year, but it's still a lot. The rest are quite often accomplished a
year-two later, thanks to the path I initiated on the first year. Or abandoned
when I discover that the reason is no longer relevant.

Finally, I don't think it's about New Year's. It's about doing an occasional,
annual, overview of where you're going and what you accomplished. As much as
it's important to constantly track your progress, you cannot ask yourself
"where am I going", "what do I want from life" every day or every week. Those
are the things one should ask & modify only once in a while.

(edit: I built an iOS app for this process. I hope nobody minds the plug:
[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goal-setting-
workshop-+-simpl...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goal-setting-
workshop-+-simple/id408425741?mt=8) . I'd give away free codes here, but don't
have any left of this version. )

~~~
kator
> How do you know the problem is with resolutions/goals and not with your
> process of setting them?

I did not go into depth about my process but the issue I have is with this
concept of "once a year I will sit down and make of list of things I will try
and do" and meanwhile it never gets done. Mainly as you have outlined because
you lack real understanding of the underlying motivations and instead it ends
up being the singular fact that it's 12/31/YYYY.

That said I did say: Short, mid, long.. Long doesn't mean 1 yr in my mind. :)

> ...you cannot ask yourself "where am I going", "what do I want from life"
> every day or every week..

Why not rephrase that "Am I doing what I want with my life." and yes I can ask
myself that every single day of the week, because I can compare it to my "core
goals" (the 9 you talk about, I keep 4 but if 9 works for you that's fine).
The answer should be yes against your "core goals" if not either your goals
have shifted and you didn't notice or you've shifted off the path and didn't
notice.

If you measure only once a year and set goals once a year you're going to have
a very random life experience. :-)

If you measure often and make small course corrections often you'll have a
more directed experience.

All that said they're just goals and reality has a tendency to happen (S*
happens as they say).

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emixam
Travel around the world! I'm leaving the 4th of January for India before going
to South East Asia, Oceania and South America. I'm blogging about it:
<http://travelingcoder.com>. I also plan to work on personal projects on the
way.

------
michaelmartin
I always start a new pocket moleskine in each new year, and the first page
always has my goals for that year. I generally split it up into 3 or 4
business goals, and 3 or 4 personal ones.

I like having them written down somewhere physical because you end up seeing
them quite a lot (The moleskine lies on my desk for most of the year), and I
tend to keep the notebooks when I'm done (They're small, so it's no big space
consumer).

That means that after a few years, you still have the lists and can start to
see what sort of things have come up a few times and still not been done (Get
fitter...), and how your goals have changed. It's not a big fancy review
exercise, more of a nice thing to flick over from time to time.

------
yawgmoth
Do some Project Euler problems in a few different languages that I don't use
on a regular basis (Java, C++, Scala, perhaps).

Brush up on my Spanish speaking skills (which are limited compared to my
reading/writing skills)

I've been doing calisthenics for a year. I would like to do Pilates and yoga
as well. I would like to improve overall flexibility, balance, and strength.
I've had, perhaps, too diverse of a fitness plan (in 2012 I did 30 weeks of
Hockey, 16 weeks of Soccer, a whole spring/summer/fall of running, forty
sessions of physical therapy for upper and lower back, in addition to
bridges/pullups/pushups/planks).

------
edanm
Grow my software consultancy (PurpleBit) in several ways:

– Build and launch at least 3 major products for our customers (in addition to
the projects currently in the pipeline). In addition, take on some smaller fun
projects, perhaps charging value based instead of time+materials based.

\- Hire additional employees. Goal: be a 7-10 person consultancy by year's
end.

\- Start taking projects in a specific niche and build a reputation as the
premiere consultancy in that niche.

\- Start additional promotional projects, for example teaching software
courses in Web/iOS for local developers to solidify the consultancy's brand.

------
Yoni1
Mechanism: I wrote myself a Google doc with my new year's resolutions and I'm
going to set Astrid reminders to review them quarterly (let's say at the end
of March, June, September, and in time for 2014's resolutions). I agree with
@kator's comment that it's totally arbitrary. Maybe, but it's convenient! Also
I'm sharing it here to make myself feel like I'm obligated to someone. :)

The full doc would be boring to put here, so here is the tl;dr version:

1\. Productivity 2\. School 3\. Fitness

Slightly longer version:

1\. Productivity - primary goal: "I will be productive and inspired all the
time." Practically, this means wasting less time, doing more personal coding
projects, learning new skills, and other things. My first task in this goal is
to finish reading and start implementing GTD. A couple of inspiring
discussions: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4979938>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4982649>

2\. School (I am a master's degree student) - primary goal: "I will finish all
my course requirements and at least 70% of my thesis research and writing".
(The definition of 70% is "feels like 70%".) Secondary goal: "My school time
will be much more relaxed and awesome than it is currently, and I'll leave
more time for side projects, side work, and personal stuff."

3\. Fitness - primary goal: "By the end of 2013 I will be stunningly sexy."
Inspiring discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4971196>

------
kisamoto
Not exactly a resolution but here's mine:

\- Launch a new start-ups job website and open source the Django based backend
for developers to contribute features;

\- Finish at least 2 other ideas from my 'ideas list';

\- Learn iphone & android app design;

\- Learn a language (French or Spanish);

\- Find a new dev laptop to replace my MacBook Pro (Lenovo X1?);

\- Earn enough money from my own projects to afford to leave my full time job;

\- Improve my overall fitness and skills in rock climbing and mountain biking.

I think they're all fairly realistic.

~~~
RyanBrantley
Good list there! We are working on some similar goals going into the new year;
ios, spanish and mtb.

Best of luck to you in '13 and beyond!

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gghootch
\- Continue on the path of graduating cum laude.

\- Publish three academic papers.

\- Get a job.

\- Start a side project which actually has a chance of making some money.

\- Find the woman of my dreams.

------
richo
Build more cool shit on the internet.

~~~
onlyup
Cool, what are you going to make? And what did you make before?

~~~
richo
Short answer to both questions is <https://github.com/richo>

More specifically, I have an HTTP kernel in scheme that I want to get
compliant to the spec and release, and a gossip driven task/issue tracker that
I'd like to get out.

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j2labs
Here's answer: [http://j2labs.tumblr.com/post/38951909060/a-few-days-
before-...](http://j2labs.tumblr.com/post/38951909060/a-few-days-before-2013)

~~~
j2labs
Does anyone else have the typo issue where you forget an entire?

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paul9290
\- Add javascript to my front-end (html/css & design are my current strong
points) skills

\- Launch our (sleep.fm) mobile web app, will be 1st online alarm clock that
works in mobile browsers. Long time coming for us...

\- Connect with more local entrepreneurs & tinkers

\- Buy a 3D printer and possibly pursue a new start-up idea in the field

------
lazyjones
Work: decide on a new main programming language to switch to (from Perl) so we
can actually hire more developers ...

Personal: move to a new flat (8 years were enough for the current one, I need
new surroundings), stop eating sugar, grains and legumes (paleo-inspired
diet), perhaps move to a country that isn't passive-smoking hell like Austria.

------
minhajuddin
\- Build a useful open source project using go \- Get a few paid customers for
two of my products so that I don't have to work on other's projects.
(<http://substancehq.com>, <http://schoolone.in>)

------
latch
I plan on writing another free ebook.

~~~
okal
OT, but I love your work. I've learnt a lot of what I know from free
resources, which inspired me to start <http://hackershelf.com>. Just out of
curiosity, why do you do it?

~~~
latch
I like to write, I find it rather therapeutic.

------
edw519
To accomplish something every day, no matter how small.

(365 little things * the probability they'll get done) > (a few big things *
the probability they'll get done)

I did this in 2012 and am still shocked at how much more I accomplished than
in any other year. All those little things + their compound interest turned
out to be a bigger result than anything I could have planned. Who knew?

~~~
andyakb
could you give a few examples of what you would define as little things? do
they all work towards a bigger thing, or are they typically unrelated?

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damniatx
\- Create more application for iphone and android.

\- finishing my intern.

\- Graduating.

\- Take a photo with my parents infront of my university.

------
dotborg
find a girlfriend

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mailshanx
-Submit my thesis and get my Masters

-Publish my masters work in the leading IEEE conference in my area.

-Move to Europe to live and work there

-Learn more CS, particularly in the areas of natural language processing and distributed computing. (My academic background is in EE).

-Get fitter. Hit my strength goal of 1xBW bench, 1.5x squat and 2x deadlifts

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extramoose
Last week I put most of my belongings in storage. I drove my cat & car down to
the parents house for the holidays. Jan 1st 2013, I have 0 obligations. My
"big plan" for 2013 is to have absolutely no plans. Pretty psyched :)

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xradionut
Currently I use OneNote to manage projects and such. I've yet to find a really
good cross-platform tool that works as well. Plans for 2013, more OSS, less
MS. More coding, less managing.

~~~
RossM
You might like Evernote, I didn't but it is cross-platform (+web). I've taken
to just using a wiki now.

~~~
onlyup
I didn't either. It's definitely good for recording things but I think OneNote
has other strengths that make it way better.

------
sainib
My goal is to get at least 100 paying customers by the end of the year for my
product - <http://www.tourzilla.com>

~~~
onlyup
Would this scale if you're editing the videos manually?

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clockwork_189
I want to create an arsenal of cool html5 games and hardware hacks. By the end
of the year, I expect myself to become close to an expert in both those fields
:P

------
ajhai
\- Read less and write more (code, blog etc)

\- Reduce development time and learn a bit or two about marketing

\- Build a personal brand

------
vasuadiga
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

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mgarfias
Have a little girl.

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endlessvoid94
Focus on my health.

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wamatt
To think small

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rdl
Finally launching my startup.

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dmmalam
focus

