Goals for 2020

Back to work today with a nice little two day week to help get back in the swing of things. As nice as it is to have time off, it's good to get some routine back - at least so I know what day of the week it is!

2019 seems like such a blur to me; I loved every second of my first full year as a Dad but from a work point of view, I know I could have done more. That's not to say that I didn't improve or learn anything - because I did. Ultimately, it comes down to being better at documenting the journey and in turn, that makes it infinitely easier to look back and say, "Wow, look at all the things I did!".

With that in mind, I spent time over the Christmas break working on a few website theme changes, improving the list of posts on the homepage and introducing a new 'Today I Learned' (TIL) tag. It's this new category that will be getting a lot of use in 2020.

So, what do I want to achieve this year?

Post at least once a week

Most of the time this one should be easy. I read plenty of front end and design articles every week, so I'll be documenting the best ones in the new TIL category. But by setting the bar at a minimum of one per week, I know I'll end up with at least 52 new posts this year - which is more posts than I've ever had on this site!

Significantly improve JavaScript knowledge

One of the best decisions I made last year was subscribing to Go Make Things - a developer tips newsletter run by Chris Ferdinandi.

Chris sends a short email each weekday with code snippets, tools, techniques, and interesting stuff from around the web. This daily exposure to bitesize chunks of JavaScript with well thought out explanations have been a great learning resource for me.

Throughout the year I also completed a few JavaScript courses and I want to do more of the same in 2020.

Continue to grow as a designer

Honestly, I feel like the design work I did in 2019 was my best yet. I know that's partly because at Etch I'm surrounded by a group of talented designers producing really great work, whom I can ask questions and share ideas with.

Working alongside people who are good at what they do challenges you to up your own game. I still have so much to learn about design but I'm confident that this year can be another best yet.

Broaden front end skills

I've already mentioned JavaScript, but this goal is more about making sure I'm improving across everything that I'm involved with. There's so much great stuff on the way for CSS and I know there's always more that we can do to ensure our work is as accessible as possible.

Be less reliant on Chrome

For a while now I've been wanting to make Firefox my primary browser. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Not only does it have great set of dev tools (if you've worked with CSS Grid then you'll know what I mean) but Mozilla, the corporation behind Firefox, are a not-for-profit. They value privacy, security, open-source, gender equality in tech and much more.

So there you have it, a few but very achievable goals for 2020. If you've got your own goals and resolutions, good luck and stick with them.

Have a great year everybody!

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