2016

2015 was a bad year, and there's a lot of uncertainty which will unavoidably carry over to this new year. ... but I'm tired of focusing on that.

So, here's what I'm hoping to achieve in 2016...

Work

• Make the jump from SVN to Git
• Retire the old in-house development server
• Make an up-to-date VM driven development server
• Master Craft
• Get competent with Craft Commerce
• Get a much better handle on JavaScript
• Have a refactor of my front-end assets

I've already made good progress on a few parts of the list, and after a year or two of concentrating on server and CMS related self-improvement, I'm particularly looking forward to getting my head around the raft of modern front-end enhancements that are becoming viable. Things such as Service Worker and offline-first strategies for modern websites, and a sprinkling of more modern CSS. I'd love this year to be one where web animation comes to maturity, but I don't see it happening quite yet - and I see little point in learning things that aren't widely applicable yet.

Personal

• Putting 2015 to bed
• Getting back to exercise; cycling, body-weight, kettle-bell
• Becoming competent at Kayaking
• Getting a woodwork bench made, and getting on with some projects
• Making new friends
• Practice creative writing
• Basic competence at singing

At the moment, some of these things seem very dependent on that first point... and I have no control over that at the moment, unfortunately. I shall try to distract myself with the other points while I wait for time to do its thing.

Meta

I'm naturally quite an anxious person, and it can run away with me. Getting a grip on that, and learning to quickly bring my attention back to the present moment is something that I really need to achieve. The majority of my stress boils down to a constant feeding of my anxiety gremlins. There is always something that seems a legitimate and realistic worry.

It's time to stop letting that impact my day-to-day life so much.