What did you learn in 2020? Here's mine.
2020. What a weird, trying year for everybody.
This year presented both challenges and insights, I am sure you'd agree.
Skip forward to the end for my takeaways, unless you are up for a read.
On a personal level, I made the transition into the home office. I learned how to work more effectively from home and found myself reading about different methods for structuring a developer day. I found that a loose 45/15 sets of coding seemed to work well for me.
Starting the morning off with a divider event between home and work time also proved effective. For me, the divider was dropping my two boys at kindergarten, grabbing a coffee and walking across the back yard to the office.
I spent a lot more time looking at tools for time tracking, productivity, process flow and even just some silly enjoyment. I created a Google/IFTTT workflow that was triggered by "Hey Google, Its time to code". It would then open up my IDE to my correct directories, a browser with the relevant tabs and kick off some low-fi music.
I learned that I love the WFH life and that the drive to be an IndieHacker and build something that can offer that is the life for me and my family.
On a professional note, I found that my cofounder and I differ in many ways.
We have vastly different levels of drive and focus. He also has other priorities that consume his attention, both personal and with other projects. We value and measure time differently.
These factors, despite our planning and use of tools like Asana and Atlassian's products, caused the project too slow to a standstill.
I learned that despite best efforts and intentions, sometimes two founders just don't work out. In this case, the other founder is my brother. We are as tight as brothers come, but we are just different people.
I decided if I really want to make a go of this, I need to keep the ship moving forward on my own steam. At least at this stage.
So my key takeaways for the year are;
- Sometimes the fit, just doesn't fit. That's okay, as long as you can reflect and identify why.
- Enjoy the light in the dark. Despite the horrible situations the world found itself in this year, I got more time at home, more time with my kids and wife.
- Learn. There is so much time in a day, despite the common perception otherwise. Podcast's, if that is your jam, are great for it. Block out time to learn a thing with purpose.
- Schedule Things. Schedule at a level that works for you. Im not a rigid structure guy, but scheduling things like "Learning time", "Relaxation time", "A family drive" or even "Listening to that album without distraction" and go into that time with motivation and intent. It'll be way more productive and enjoyable.
I know these all seem pretty obvious, but sometimes it just isn't, or it is easier said than put into practice. This year was a lot more of the practice for me.
