2018 Retrospective; 2019 Goals
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Overall 2018 was a pretty good year.
The Good:
- 2018 marked the first full year of my self-employment comeback.
- I was able to maintain billable client projects the entire year.
- After having a few down productive months, decided to rejoin IndyHall as a full time member in July. It’s a bit costly (I pay extra for parking too), but this has helped me focus, both on client work and personal projects.
- Attended WWDC and had some social fun.
- Attended ElixirConf and doubled down on my excitement for this language, community and ecosystem.
- Finished my handoff of Philly CocoaHeads admin duties (still active member), giving me more time for new things.
- Continued to expand my web education.
- Paid off some long time debits.
- Started a savings account for a possible house down payment.
The Bad:
- Many of my recent side projects have died on the vine. Lots of false starts. I’m not shipping like I want to.
- Most of my consulting income comes from one large client. Need to diversify.
2019 Goals
- Diversify and increase my income.
- Add more clients so less dependent on single large client.
- Add passive income through a new product/service.
- Shoot for a 10% income increase.
- Be better at shipping/executing.
- 2017 & 2018 was a lot of learning new tech, demo projects.
- 2019 needs to be about shipping real value.
- Do a better job of tracking my time.
- 20-30 client hours/week
- 20-30 project hours/week
- 50 total “work” hours/week
- Better code documentation.
- Utilize work byproducts as education / blog opportunities.
About the Author. Mike Zornek is a developer and teacher focusing on product design and development with a heavy focus on Elixir and LiveView. In between his projects, Mike helps other teams through consulting. During off hours, he enjoyed watching Phillies baseball and playing relaxing video games.
Hopefully, you found interest in my scribbles. If you have commentary or a response, I'd love to hear it.