2025: Prioritize physical health and deep-dive into Python
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2024 was supposed to be my year of JavaScript and getting a job as a developer. I started it off ok, but building The List NC kind of threw my whole year off. I think a lot of things threw my year off, to be honest. I won't go into that. But as this blog is near complete and the new year is about to begin, I figure I could benefit from mapping out some of the things I'd like to focus on in 2025 and hopefully keep myself on track.
Number one thing to keep in mind is not overloading your schedule. Remember the importance of rest, especially for mental health. The goals that I set should be too easy to fail.
Prioritize physical health
Really, this is the reason I'm writing this. Nothing else I write in here will amount to anything if I feel like shit throughout the year. I'll start with fitness.
I want to keep my routine as simple and consistent as possible, so the one big idea I have, particularly for improving my mobility, is to do at least 1 sun salutation every morning. I can increase the number of rounds if it feels good but even this small amount done every day will provide a lot of benefit.
Originally, my thought was to try to go to the gym every day, but to keep in line with the idea of not overloading myself, I'm going to go to the gym Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This keeps my after-work evenings mellow and I can go on a short walk after dinner instead.
When it comes to diet, the obvious things I can address are not going out to eat and maintaining consistent meal times. Right now, I'm terrible at both of these things. As Ethan Chlebowski has mentioned, a good first step to eating health is just making things you like at home. I need a first step, so that's where I'll start. So the two basic rules I'll set up for myself are don't go out to eat unless with friends and eat at the same times every day.
To summarize, in 2025, these are my rules for improving my physical health:
Do at least one sun salutation every morning
Go to the gym Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Don't go out to eat unless you are with friends
Deep-dive into Python
I've bounced around ideas for how to approach this, but I think this is the smartest and simplest way to effectively "go deep" with Python in 2025. I'm going to move through following book list, one book at a time, going as deep as possible on each single topic until I understand it in and out. Here's the book list, in order:
The goal is not to build products, but to learn and master Python to the best of my ability in the span of a year.
Here is a list of guidelines to follow through this year.
Write Python every day
Journal after playing with any new concept
At the end of each chapter, write a full blog post explaining the concepts covered in the chapter as if you were teaching them to a child
Never commit any code without being able to fully explain what it's doing
Every month, reread and work through one previous chapter from the year
Detours must remain detours and must not take more than 8 hours of your time a week
Don't stray from this plan