2018

Rob M

• 2 min read

Last year I made a list of (totally generic) things to try to achieve in 2017, as I achieved almost none of it I'm going to make an almost identical list for this year.

Cycling goals

Starting with the positive, as this is my main hobby it's quite easy to achieve what I want to. I didn't quite match last years distance due to injury, but I did make it into Cat 3 road racing.

With a 150mile gravel endurance ride coming up in April I will need to be building stamina with long steady rides. I'm averaging nearly 300km a week due to commuting, so being able to combine effective training with my commute is a sensible idea.

Getting back into mountain biking by buying a suitable bike and not worrying too much about my Strava distance stats for the year. Strava is a good motivator for putting in distance, but it has had the effect of reducing my mountain biking as the time:miles ratio is so bad.

Be Healthier

  • Cut down on sugar - massive fail last year, possibly the same this year. My motivation for cutting down is the same, might have some early-year success. Perhaps complete abstinence is the only way to go

  • Cut down on alchohol - Another 2017 fail; I'll try to do a 'dry january' this year, which would be a good start.

  • Drink more water - I was supposed to get a drink bottle for work to help with this, now ordered

  • Running - I didn't achieve my distance goal in 2017, but got significantly faster (from not running at all to sub 20min 5k) and was able to run 10k (did not find easy at all). For 2018 I would be happy to get back to running the local Parkrun at a reasonable pace, without pushing past my limits.

Less procrastination

Having a short attention span seems to affect a lot of people; having the internet, TV, snacks, phone notifications all providing easy distractions and a quick dopamine hit. Attempting to reduce these seems sensible, I will once again try this using mostly willpower.

  • Leechblock on web browser - to limit web access during the working day, and stop access for most sites at 10pm in the evenings. Facebook provides almost nothing apart from the location and time/dates of upcoming rides, making it quite hard to completely remove my account.

  • Notifications - removed apps like Instagram on my phone and limited app notifications to useful apps only (ebay, whatsapp (with audible group notifications disabled for distracting groups))

Doing more etc.

A repeat of fails from 2017:

  • Reading - linked to the above really, but spending time reading [books] in the evenings as an effort to increase my attention span

  • Finishing a few projects:

  • The seemingly never-ending house refurb is now nearly complete, but still got a garden to finish and garage to make a bit more weather-proof.

  • Raspberry Pi - I have a couple of these now, trying out a couple of projects involving wiring seems interesting. A MagicMirror and PIR activated light is the plan.

  • Trying a bit of crypocurrency mining - I've been following Cryptocurrency for a long time but never got involved, after the huge surge in BTC interest last year I do feel like I've missed the boat. Would a little bit of dabbling without going towards complete financial ruin might help my continuing FOMO.

  • Applying for a new job - it was on my list for last year and I didn't get beyond browsing. It's not sensible to stay in an IT job on a bad wage for such a long time.

  • Coding - Still on the list from last year, only dabbled slightly with work when required

  • Blog - posting a bit more. I still have a bunch of unpublished posts, although not particularly interesting but they serve no purpose when not published. Possibly a monthly update on these goals for my own benefit...

That's all for now.