2: Looking At What’s Next

Turning my journal into tasks

In my last blog post, I mentioned how I started journaling a few years ago to help organize myself. It’s reshaped everything about my life and who I am. Getting everything in my head typed out into a doc has me so much more organized and capable of doing more than I ever thought possible. Coming to terms with the past, understanding the present, planning for the future. It feels like I have a second brain.

The brain in my head used to have to manage and keep track of remembering everything. Keep up with my imagination on everything. Thinking about my day-to-day life. Making it all somehow cohesive so I can progress. It often felt like trying to do difficult math homework, hold a witty conversation, answer a bunch of emails, plan for the future, and do my taxes all while juggling a bunch of random items on a unicycle over a pool of alligators. As you get older and your life becomes more complex, it all just gets to be too much.

The second brain in my journal can now take care of keeping track of remembering most things. Writing forces me to express my imagination literally and put it into words to help make sense of it. Then this frees my focus to be more present in my day-to-day life. Instead of drifting in and out of my unsorted thought processes like I used to do, now I can really exist in the moment with people and really pay attention to what’s going on.

Since 2017 I’ve written 300+ pages, approximately 250k words, into this journal. Although I took a break from it during the first half of this year (2019), I’ve written 150 pages since July. Much of it has had to do with exploring things I like doing, shaping up my daily habits, and planning for the next 10 years – where I want to be at 42 years old. I also combine everything that I’ve researched and learned about in the last few years there. Forming a plan to keep doing more with my life. I wrote a few essays I’d like to refine and eventually post here on my blog when there’s time for it.

Now I’m doubling back through this year’s journal to summarize it for myself. Turning it’s contents into actionable tasks to work on. Looking at the next year of my life and what I’ll focus on throughout it. I’d like to keep doing what I’ve been doing recently, only better… then better… and keep getting better at it. More streamlined and focused. Managed enough to do away with the needless wastes of time, but free enough to decide what I can work on depending on my mood each day.

So, here’s a rough list of everything I’ve been doing or looking into this year:

• Finish my Bachelor’s in Computer Science by 2021 ( https://wgu.edu )
• Get my Ethical Hacking Certification before 2020, and my CSSLP before 2021.
• Learn the C++ programming language with professional proficiency.
• Work on my video game to practice Java, C++, and game development skills ( ‘Omnia‘, 2013 project )
• Flip websites (buy and sell) and pursue other business opportunities.
• Take online tutorials daily to continue learning and stay sharp ( PluralSight, FreeCodeCamp, Khan, etc.)
• Practice editing videos on Adobe Premier.
• Compile my school work and research to write articles and create video tutorials based on them.
• Post videos on my YouTube channel: Vlogs, Product Reviews, YouTube Channel Spotlights.. etc.
• Read at least 50 pages (or one chapter) from a book each day.
• Write book report articles on the books I complete to sum them up.
• Research and study neurology with the goal of working with neurologists as a programmer.
• Write code tutorials/textbooks styled like a fantasy RPG D&D choose your adventure book.
• Write a novel centered around time travel, future tech, and telepathy.
• Learn the React framework/library in JavaScript.
• Get better at WordPress development.
• Build a web application projects (gamefied blogging/journaling, browser history research assistant, and one other)
• Set up and run a physical linux web server
• Learn how to fly Freestyle FPV drones (like this)
• Learn to play Magic: the Gathering well and win a Friday night tournament
• Learn about D&D and start playing it with a group of friends regularly
• Play and write music at least once a week (Exits Exist)
• Skateboard at least once a week
• Draw on my tablet at least 5 hours per week (learn photoshop/illustrator)
• Work out at least 8 hours per week

That’s a lot of stuff isn’t it?

Setting Unrealistic Goals

First, I already know everything I listed there is more than my schedule can handle. I work a full time job 8 hours per day, and I’m taking full time college courses 4 hours per day. There’s hope though! I have few extra hours on weekdays and 8 hours on the weekends that I can devote to the stuff on this list. That’s an accumulated 30-40 hours of extra time to spare!

I won’t be able to work on every single item from that list all the time. I probably won’t even want to. Avoiding burnout is really important. I’m staying flexible. I won’t read that much every single day at first, I might never be good at Magic the Gathering, or I may never flip a single website successfully. That’s ok. I’m not going to beat myself up about it if that’s the case.

My perspective is based on the idea that I have 10 years from right now to get it right and make some progress on it. I wrote a detailed 10-year plan for myself that tracks my estimated income and expenses, concentrations and projected focuses, with alternate plans when problems arise. Things like failing health, losing work, and other misdirections.

The main idea here is that without this journaling habit, this list and these ideas, I wouldn’t ever have a chance at getting anywhere close to accomplishing or even starting these pursuits. This list and set of goals I’m forming is just an upper bound goal to keep reaching for. This blog post is an opportunity to break the ice and start writing about it all.

Organizing Topics To Economize Time

I think the key is organizing these tasks into a few manageable categories. Everything having to do with learning software and writing code can be considered one main concentration, everything related to videos and tutorials are another. Researching and writing articles can be done in the same set of time in my schedule as studying subjects for school, and the new hobbies I’d like to learn can all be given the same time slot. With a few categories that all get their own time slot, I can rotate out the exact topic/task I’m on each week to keep things fresh or more interesting.

My overarching goal is to be able to figure out this system of organizing my time successfully by next year (October 2020), and then keep getting better at it until 2030. Let’s see where I am when that time comes.

Slot 1: Study

• Finish my Bachelor’s in Computer Science by 2021 ( https://wgu.edu )
• Get my Ethical Hacking Certification before 2020, and my CSSLP before 2021.
• Take online tutorials daily to continue learning and stay sharp ( PluralSight, FreeCodeCamp, Khan, etc.)

Studying and taking classes at home affords me the opportunity to also listen to videos and take notes for certifications and other stuff. Bouncing back and forth between tasks when I get bored or reach a stopping point with each one has been a really good workflow for me. I’m actually currently projected to graduate WGU by 2023… so finishing by the end of 2021 is incredibly accelerated. Like I said earlier, this is an upper bound to reach for. Graduating by 2021 is the best possible achievement I could ask for here, that’d be a maniacal pace. Good thing I’m a maniac. Those three items can be combined to be something simple like… ‘Study’.

Slot 2: Creative Research

• Research and study neurology with the goal of working with neurologists as a programmer.
• Write code tutorials/textbooks styled like a fantasy RPG D&D choose your adventure book.
• Write a novel centered around telepathy and future technology

These are less important things to study but will require a different pace and they really don’t have much in the way of a time restriction. The work with neurology won’t be that important until I have my Master’s degree. The fantasy styled tutorials are just a fun idea I worked on one day that I’d like to continue. The novel has been in progress on and off since 2016, and who knows when it’ll be good enough to say what I want it to say? So these are like.. ‘Creative Research’.

Slot 3: Business/Career

• Flip websites (buy and sell) and pursue other business opportunities.
• Learn the React framework/library in JavaScript.
• Get better at WordPress development.
• Build a web application projects (gamefied blogging/journaling, browser history research assistant, and one other)
• Set up and run a physical web server.

It’s clear to me that working a day job, even if it pays reasonably well, is not going to provide enough money to do all the extra things that go into having a stable secure good life. Don’t get me wrong, life can be very good when you’re making almost any amount of money. Being prepared for emergencies can be very hard and affording the extra new things can be impossible though without being at a certain income level. That’s my main ambition for continuing to improve in my career while also building up other sources of revenue. So this stuff gets filed under… “Business/Career”.

Slot 4: Video Editing

• Practice editing videos on Adobe Premier.
• Compile my school work and research to write articles and create video tutorials based on them.
• Post videos on my YouTube channel: Vlogs, Product Reviews, YouTube Channel Spotlights.. etc.

YouTube is huge and online video has a more broad and inclusive audience now more than ever. Most people have phones and laptops that can stream and play 1080p and 4k video. The quality of all of it is really prime now. So.. learning to edit videos, even at a novice level for my own stuff is really important. I could write all the articles in the world, but if everyone is much more receptive to watching a video on it instead – why not try to provide that?

It struck me that most people can’t go to college and they may never be exposed to coding and technology topics. Getting into something like software development really requires a lot of context and introductory knowledge to get off the ground and understand the lay of the land. If I can do something to make it more accessible and fun to get into, I think that’d be a great use of time. File these under “Video work”.

Slot 5: Reading

• Read at least 50 pages (or one chapter) from a book each day.
• Write book report articles on the books I complete to sum them up.

So far this year I’ve gotten through 5 or 6 audiobooks and started reading a few physical ones. My eyes are far far better at reading text on a screen right now than they are on paper, but I think it’d be a really important habit to just bake into my days consistently. After selling books on Amazon back in 2016 I have a huge pile of them left over ready to get started. It will just be a matter of carving through that and picking up new titles (I’ve purchased like 14 books in just the last few months).

Most importantly though, I believe that writing summaries and thoughts on what I read will really drive it home and make the activity more meaningful. I’ve noticed people will speed through audiobooks, racking up dozens and dozens of them … but how is all that new knowledge cemented in their mind? I have no idea. For me to get the most value from reading, I will need to reflect on everything and what better way than little book reports like revisiting 3rd grade? Categorize these under “Read”.

Slot 6: New Hobbies

• Learn how to fly Freestyle FPV drones (like this)
• Learn to play Magic: the Gathering well and win a Friday night tournament.
• Learn D&D and start playing it with a group of friends regularly.

Learning these are just things I always wanted to do but never knew anyone that did them. There’s other stuff I could add to this list too, but this is enough for now. Won’t take a whole lot of time, but will require commitment to regularly doing them and adding to my knowledge on them. Label them “New Hobbies”.

Slot 7: Current Hobbies

• Play and write music at least once a week (Exits Exist)
• Skateboard at least once a week.
• Draw on my tablet at least 5 hours per week (learn photoshop/illustrator)
• Work out at least 8 hours per week.

These last four are things I’d be doing way too much of if I wasn’t on this new way of living, in fact, I think they’d be all I would be doing. I don’t know how to balance the time I spend on them yet. I just enjoy them too much. I feel like for stuff like Skateboarding or Drawing, I will either not do them at all for months at a time or spend all day on them everyday and not look up for months at a time, 10 hours at a time, no limits, all chips in. So learning to balance it will be the biggest challenge for me. In truth I’d like to start a clothing/skateboard brand and sell my designs/artwork printed on products, but that’s not really in my scope right this moment… but may be added if I can do these routinely. I’d categorize this under “Passion Routines”.

Summary: From 25 Topics To 7 Timeslots

Ok so what do I have from all that? I grouped 25 subtopics into 7 main topics:

• Study – Classes at WGU, Certifications, PluralSight, FreeCodeCamp, Khan Academy
• Creative Research – Neurology, Fantasy themed textbook, Sci-Fi Novel
• Business – Flip websites, Learn React.js, WordPress dev, Set up server
• Video Editing – Learn editing, Tutorial Videos, Youtube videos (vlog, review, spotlights)
• Reading – 50 pages, book reports.
• New Hobbies – FPV drones, Magic, D&D.
• Current Hobbies – Play music, Ride skateboards, Draw, Workout

Although this is all the same amount of tasks and activities as we started with, categorizing and combining them suddenly makes them more manageable to me. I can set them up into a schedule. There’s 7 days in a week, at least three of those topics are daily routine kinds of things (study, read, hobbies.. maybe new hobbies); so really I’m looking at just planning weekly blocks of time for three pursuits here: Creative Research, Business, and Video Editing. I’m imagining that right now, I’d best serve these by really spending multiple hours on them in each sitting.

Now I suppose my job will be to work out a schedule for myself and start a checklist every week to make sure I hold myself to task.

Thanks for reading, I’m looking forward to sharing more about all of this when I can.