Reviewing everyhour of 2021
TL;DR of 2021:
❄️ Took the plunge to leave the workforce
🌱 Transitioning from salary to freelance, everyhour.xyz hit 1,000 users
☀️ Summer in Scotland & Wales, lots of rivers(!), built compairbnb.info/hello
🍂 Lived in Spain and France, started treemeals.co
My 2021 targets:
✅ 1) do less unproductive/unhappy hours of work and much more work I do enjoy✅ 2) spend more time with friends and family (since covid and going nomadic, this will still be a challenge)✅ 3) sustain exercise — this year after the Ironman I dropped off unlike any previous year. I can’t stay in this habit❓ 4) Reddit is clearly a staple of my day, but I also see a trend of time doing nothing (playing phone games usually) growing. I don’t want this.❌ 5) Execute all started projects — have something to share about them, even if they don’t go anywhere they should have outputs else they are totally wasted.
1. ✅ I quit my job!
The work I do now is 90% enjoyable and exciting — be it projects I want to pursue or freelance work. I enjoy it more as I learn so much more.
I have become a much better developer and a better product thinker because of it. I also have gained an entrepreneurial skill and built better processes to help manage my ideas.
2. ✅ Thanks to being nomadic, video calls and coliving
In 2019, I spent 1685.5 hours with family and friends.
In 2020, I spent 1781 hours.
In 2021, I spent 1792.5 hours.
Being nomadic meant that we could stay with family and friends for extended periods. Going to the coliving in Menorca gave us a social network to cook, travel and go out with!
3. ✅ Exercise: Thanks to my mates!
For a long time, I was struggling. Then, Strava.
Strava allows you to challenge your friends. You do not want to be bottom of that leaderboard. Each of us did 4–5 times the distance we targeted in a 3 month period.
Comparatively to my Ironman days (32 hours p/m) it is much less, but it has been consistent at around 20 hours p/m and fairly close to my 2020 total.
4.❓ Doing nothing, usually on my phone
This is a graph of three years of data — a total of 700 hours.
Looking at the gradient just before 2021–01–01, you can see why it was one of my targets. Luckily, that gradient did reduce as I introduced time limits on apps on my phone, but there is clearly a consistent rate of around 200–220 hours wasted each year.
As such, this is not a ❌ or a ✅…
More generally, 2021 has been more about Leisure: youtube, netflix, reddit, podcasts, nothing/games, f1, and social media. Perhaps not surprising with lockdowns but still not a great trend.
5. ❌ Execute all started projects
It was ambitious but intentionally so. The least I want from starting projects is to be able to share my learnings, if not actually execute.
✅ everyhour.xyz
✅ compairbnb.info/hello
✅ treemeals.co
❌ de nada nights — newsletter for evenings of food, movie and games from different cultures festivals from around the world
❌ idealist — packaging my process for managing my ideas
❌ B-corp job board — in fairness I spent less than 4 hours but should launch it
❌ freelance project was closed without being released to the public
❌ portfolio site in next.js — I stopped as I didn’t want to focus on it
❌ started a blender tutorial but had no mission
❌ started a little game here: https://piqnt.com/space/D90gMHTLK
So… that is a big ❌.
My 2022 targets
Let’s make them a bit more specific…
1) Less than 150 hours of "Nothing" in the year2) Repeat: Execute all started projects — have something to share about them, even if they don’t go anywhere they should have outputs else they are totally wasted.3) Exercising 20 hrs/month (240 hrs) puts me under again, but for a year with no strong targets is still good4) Social - 1750 hours. Keep the good thing going. 5) Be earning from the software I am building - TARGET: £2,000/pm by December. I love the work-life balance. I love working on what I believe in. I don't love living off of savings...
