Rough Drafts Instead of Resolutions

In December 2021, while trying to think about my goals for the new year, I came up with the idea of a “rough draft” for the year. Instead of trying to pluck neatly worded resolutions or goals from my mind, I started by imagining the kind of year I’d like to have. What sorts of things would I spend my time doing? Who would I do them with? Which things from the previous year stood out as most enjoyable, most memorable? I imagined myself already in the next December, and wondered which accomplishments would make me happiest if I’d already achieved them. I recently asked ChatGPT for five questions to help get this type of thinking going, and the answers are exactly the kind that actually help.

1. What activities do you find yourself naturally drawn to?
2. What do you find yourself daydreaming about?
3. What do you find yourself talking about most often?
4. What do you feel most proud of in your life?
5. What do you feel most energized doing?

— Polymathematics (@onlyfootnotes) December 20, 2022

It is much easier to answer a question like “what do I feel the most energized doing?” than it is to answer something vague and intangible like “what are 1 – 3 goals I should set for myself this year?” Starting backwards from the previous year is a lot less stressful and produces a much more authentic outline for what you hope your new year will look like. So first, I’d like to review my “Rough Draft 2022” now that the year is over. Then, I’d like to think through my “Rough Draft 2023”. If you try this, it might even be helpful to literally write out a few paragraphs imagining that you are in December 2023 and summarizing the year.

Here is my “Rough Draft” from 2022

Goal	Metric	Status
Read ~300 pages a month	Average ten pages of reading long form writing (books, articles, short stories, blogs, etc) a day. At EOY, have read 3,600 pages. I don’t care how many words are on a page.	Completed
Write one blog post a month	One post is published in every calendar month, regardless of length. (12 blog posts in 2022 is still great, even if one month had none and another two, but prefer consistency.)	Completed
Play at least one live show in 2022	Music played to at least 2 strangers in a public setting.	Not completed
Release at least one piece of music in 2022	A well mixed and well written piece of music is released to the public in a “final” form on at least one streaming service (Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, etc).	Not completed
One family trip	A family trip (not at one of our homes) of 3 or more days.	Completed
Establish a more consistent workout routine	Elevated heartrate (70-85% of max) at least once a week, on average (i.e 52 workouts in 2022).	Completed
Get my chess rating up at least 200 ELO points	Rapid chess rating on chess.com is 200 points higher than it was on December 31st, 2021 (1003).	Not completed
Play at least one “over the board” chess tournament in 2022	Participate in one (or more) in-person chess event in 2022.	Not completed
Finish the hardware prototype that I started in 2021	One functional MVP.	Removed
Continue building the software project I started in 2021	MVP by December 31st, 2022.	Completed
More photos	Keep shooting film / digital photographs to document the year	Completed

My three most important day-to-day goals in 2022 were to read more, write more, and workout more. I achieved all three, which feels great since these are each fundamental wells of wellbeing for me. These three seemed both the most important and the easiest to build into habits.

Reading

I read hundreds of articles and essays, dozens of short stories, and about 15 books. For online reading, a few tricks made this super fun and productive: use Matter to track digital reading, use Send to Kindle for longer pieces, or print out longer pieces. Of the books, I focused mainly on fiction in 2022. That is because I find it much more dynamic and useful to get the bulk of “non-fiction” content from long form internet writing (blogs, articles, journals, essays, etc). I was also much more interested in writing fiction this year, so reading good fiction was important!

• The shortest book was Jorge Luis Borges’ collection of short stories, Ficciones
• The longest book was Stephen King’s IT
• My favorites were Childhood’s End, Hyperion, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

In 2023 I want to continue this trend of reading more. One habit from 2022 that was extremely powerful was reading before bed (rather than TV or using my phone) and I will certainly bring that into 2023. I expect to continue reading fiction (hope to read more authors for the first time since I am such a creature of habit), want to keep exploring shorter fiction (was debating reading one short story a week), and for non-fiction want to primarily focus of biographies or history.

Writing

I wanted to write at least 12 blog posts in 2022 and landed at 19. The heavy lifting was done by my Roundup posts, which use a great format I experimented with this year that allowed me to reflect on the people, writing, tools, and podcasts I was interacting with. Having a formula for at least some of my writing made it feel less daunting, and offered the chance for “wins” early each month. They are a great way to keep up with the habit and momentum of writing, which is why I started the blog in the first place.

• The non-roundup post I am most proud of from 2022 is my essay about my time living in New York and my first trip to California called ‘How We Learn Cities’. I also wrote a ton about my personal projects and met tons of cool people online by sharing my experience with those.
• My most read posts of 2022 were Simple and Complicated and Pair Programming with Artificial Intelligence.

Workouts

For workouts, I decided that I was happiest running. In the front half of the year (through Julyish) I was running 3 to 4 miles, 3 to 4 times a week. The back half of the year, after several trips, I let my schedule take over and slowly slacked down to 0 – 1 runs a week. So consistency throughout the year will likely be a part of my 2023 workout plans. Additionally I may look to incorporate an additional activity that is more focused on building muscle. I recently heard a good line about habits that said “reduce scope, not schedule”. So I will aim to get my runs in, even if I can only spare a quick mile or two around the neighborhood.

Music

My music goals were not “completed”, but I chose early in the year to focus on some of my software / hardware goals instead of getting my music recorded and out there or playing live shows. This is something I hope will jump to the front seat in 2023. Although I didn’t release any music or play any live shows, I did make a ton of music! I have hundreds of demos, and more importantly, spent countless afternoons at the piano or humming along with my guitar.

Chess

My chess goals were not attempted. I exclusively played bullet chess in 2022 and got to about 1100 elo, but my goal was aimed at longer time controls like rapid. I didn’t do any in-person chess events either, but feel fine about that. That one could have been left off in retrospect, but I was coming off of a huge chess kick from 2021. I still play almost everyday and am wholly addicted to bullet chess. I do enjoy over the board chess more than online chess, so think in 2023 I will shoot for simply playing more in person, rather than a tournament or event. Chess with coffee and friends is delightful.

Programming Projects

The software project I wanted to complete by the end of the year was Printernet. I launched that way ahead of schedule (May) after being inspired by a talk Michael Siebel gave about MVPs and moving fast. Printernet has been an incredibly fun project to work on. It was my first project launched on Product Hunt, the first product I made revenue off of, and I shipped to my first ever international user.

I also launched two additional projects that I hadn’t even thought of at the start of 2022. This highlights the importance of tinkering and being open to new ideas and projects!

• ChromeGPT: chat with GPT from anywhere on the web.
• ReadingThis: Share you current top 5 reading recs with a single link.

Hardware Projects

The hardware project labeled “removed” was an idea I started tinkering on in late 2021 but decided to pause shortly after the year started. In 2022 I took on several software projects and one important freelance hardware project that took priority (a post on those coming soon hopefully). The idea for the one I removed from 2022 plans is still super fun and I am curious to explore it more. It has a similar “flavor” to Printernet in the sense that it is nostalgic and has software analogues that some would say make it unnecessary. I find myself drawn to those sorts of things lately (maybe a deeper area to explore?). Not sure if I will dive into it in 2023 or not, but I might.

And now… onto Rough Draft 2023.

Goal	Metric	Status
Read ~300 pages a month	Average ten pages of reading long form writing (books, articles, short stories, blogs, etc) a day. I don’t care how many words are on a page.	On Track
Write one blog post a month	One post is published in every calendar month, regardless of length.	2 / 12
Increase Substack subscribers	Gain 100 Substack subscribers in 2023	5 / 100 gained
Release at least one piece of music in 2023	A well mixed and well written piece of music is released to the public in a “final” form on at least one streaming service (Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, etc).	0 / 1
One family trip	A family trip (not at one of our homes) of 3 or more days.	0 / 1
One solo trip with Tessa	A fun trip with just the two of us, of 3 or more days.	0 / 1
Workout consistently	Elevated heartrate (70-85% of max) at least once a week, on average (i.e 52 workouts in 2023). Bonus points for not missing a single week.	On Track
Run a half-marathon or 10K	Run one legitimate race.	0 / 1
One launched hardware project	One functional MVP, shipped to a user.	0 / 1
Continue building the software projects I started in 2022	Keep working on Printernet, Reading This, ChromeGPT, and the other side projects in earlier stages.	On Track
MRR > $100	Achieve a monthly recurring revenue equal to or greater than $100 from one of (or a combination of) my projects.	$0 / Month
Build new things	While the row above this one is about maintaining / doubling down on existing projects, this one is a commitment to tinker and make MVPs of new ideas.	On Track
Publish four pieces of writing	Four pieces, fiction or non-fiction, published in online or print magazines.	0 / 4
More photos	Keep shooting film / digital photographs to document the year.	On Track

My rough draft for this new year has a lot of overlap with my 2022 rough draft. This is good! This means that I accurately planned my year last year to pursue things that give me energy and make me happy. So naturally, I want to do more of those things this year. I also set some more ambitious “execution” goals this year. Last year, I really wanted to focus on building things consistently and sharing them with people. This year, I want to continue doing that, but set higher goals for these projects. Hence: four publications for my writing, gaining 100 Substack subs, running a race, and MRR > $100.00.

I hope you all have a wonderful year! If you make a rough draft for 2023, I’d love to see it!