#572—

End of the first; Start of the second

By Nat Welch

So the first quarter of 2016 is over. As such, it's time to reflect.

Looking back at my 2015 year in review, I've pulled out my goals for 2016. They weren't really broken up into objectives and key results. Instead they were just a list of measurable changes I wanted to make. I'm going to try taking them and restructure them into something a little more comprehensible moving forward.

So here are my Objectives, and their Key Results as I defined them at the beginning for this year. The objectives are new, the results are from that year in review post.

  • Improve physical health

    • Lose thirty pounds of weight
    • Be active (elevated heart rate) for two hours per week on average

  • Ship more side projects and be creative

    • Take in revenue from one side project
    • Participate in 100:10:1

  • Grow culturally

    • Travel to five cities you haven’t been to before, or at least not in five years.
    • Read seventy books

Alright, so I'm actually doing pretty well on some of these, but horribly on others. Let's break it down.

Improve physical health

I am doing horribly here. I'm not walking as much since I have a shorter commute. I haven't been weighing myself, and I'm definitely not getting the sustained elevated heart rate I need.

I am wearing a Fitbit regularly though, so that's interesting.

q1 fitness data

Some slightly different goals here might be in order. I'm going to keep the weight thing. That's something I just need to get on. But instead of elevated heart rate, I'm going to aim for thirty minutes of running, three times a week. I liked reading the NYT How to Start Running Guide, so I'm going to try following that. It's in my calendar and everything.

I also want to add a goal of stretching every morning. I don't know how I'm going to measure that, beyond just saying it, but I always feel better when I stretch after I wake up.

Ship more side projects and be creative

Ok, so I'm doing ok here. I haven't taken in any revenue from a side project, but I did formalize and start 100:10:1. I've been writing every week about my progress. My progress twelve weeks in isn't great. I think a lot of it is due to an unwillingness to just sit down and power through things. I also miss having a whiteboard in my apartment for sketching out ideas, but that's a poor excuse, given that I have my notebook. As proof to my procrastination, I am writing this post instead of coding on 100:10:1 right now...

I'm going to modify my KRs for this objective as well to break out the three parts of 100:10:1. I also want to add something about writing. Maybe number of posts made in 2016? I can add that to the stats page to track. Let's say 200 posts made in 2016, and a four post per week average. I will write some code for this.

Grow culturally

Well I haven't left New York since the new year, so obviously haven't made progress on my travel goal. But I have read nineteen books so far, so am very much on track to hit seventy by the end of the year.

One thing that isn't on my goals, that I have been doing, is going to see movies and art exhibits. I don't really keep track of this beyond foursquare checkins though. In the first three months of 2016, I went to museums, galleries or theaters thirteen times. This is lower than it was in 2015 for sure, just due to my work schedule, but it's a good thing overall. If I aim for five art things a month, I think I will be in a good place.

Art things so far this year that I have in Foursquare:

January:

  • Joy @ Nitehawk Cinema
  • Oakland Museum of California
  • The Big Short
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

February:

  • Deadpool
  • MoMa
  • Whitney
  • Swann Galleries

March:

  • The Boy and the Beast
  • Whitney
  • The Revenant
  • New-York Historical Society Museum & Library

New Goals

So adjusted 2016 goals:

  • Improve physical health

    • Lose thirty pounds of weight
    • Run for thirty minutes, three times a week
    • Be able to run four miles without stopping
    • Stretch every morning

  • Ship more side projects and be creative

    • Take in revenue from one side project
    • Participate in 100:10:1 (Create a list of 100 projects, build MVP of 10 by June, and a fully flushed out project by EOY)
    • Write 200 posts in 2016,
    • Maintain a four post per week average on https://writing.natwelch.com

  • Grow culturally

    • Travel to five cities you haven’t been to before, or at least not in five years.
    • Read seventy books
    • Go to five art exhibits, live shows or movies a month

Onwards to Q2!

/Nat

#571
#574