My plan for 2011

Last year was a pretty good year for me. Here's my plan for 2011.

1. Write twice as many blog posts

I compose blog posts because I learn things in the progress, and it gives me a searchable directory of all problems / solutions that I've encountered recently. I find that I often solve the same problems over and over. That's why I save a lot of time writing blog posts. In 2010 I wrote 39 blog posts. Next year I expect to write twice that amount. 78 blog posts means that I have to write one every fourth day. That should be manageble.

2. Have three public appearances

Talking in front of an audience is a great experience. The trouble for me is to find a broad subject that is of interest to many. Most of my talks so far have been quite narrow. In 2010 I've talked at two public events that my employer held. Next year I want to talk at three events, with one of them outside my comfort zone.

3. Learn one new language outside of .NET

Learning one new language each year is a way to get perspective of your current mother programming tounge, mine is C#. Last year I really started working with F# for real and that has changed much of my thinking while coding C#. My OO code is much more functional this days and I take much better care of immutability and state in my coding. In 2011 I want to dive into something outside Windows and .NET. Let it be Python or Ruby. I need to get out of my comfort zone and get new perspectives.

4. Deliver one private project

I have a lot of private projects outside of work. It is my workbench where I can experiment freely without costing my customers anything. This year or 2011 I would like to deliver one of my private projects. If this is something that I've already begun or a new project, doesn't really matter. Just being able to deliver a private project would be a huge step forward for me.

5. Project Euler #50

Last year of 2010 I completed 25 project euler project problems. This year I would like to complete 25 problems and getting to level 2.

6. No more than 40 hours work weeks

This year I will get my first child. That is a major reason why I will cut down my work hours to 40 hours every week and no more.