Whats up people! I hope you have all had an amazing holiday season and new year! I had a great few days off and actually feel raring to go in 2010! As a side note, follow me on twitter to see all those amazing ‘Decade in Review’, ‘Iconic photos of the decade/New Year/2009′ articles that I have been frantically retweeting over the holiday period. I love this time of year, because it means some people somewhere are just doing all that collating of all the amazing stuff so we don’t have to!
Anyway, it’s time for the first ever TFS State of the Union, in which I will be outlining whats been going on and accomplished in 2009 and some of what we may expect in twenty10 (the way all the cool kids are writing it).
What We Did in 2009
- Creation of The Fight Sequence
At 11.56pm on 31st July 2009, this site was created! I wanted to have a place, and I quote myself, “to keep it chill and chat about what I’m up to, what my workflow is like these days, and of course link you guys to the best links and articles that the Internet can offer”. This site has been running for about 5 months and it has already grown and expanded beyond what I ever dreamed of. Its definitely still in its formative stages, and I will be talking a bit later about how we can improve in the coming year.
- Creation of The Lifelist
All thanks to Maggie, this past September, I decided to write my very own lifelist, filled with goals and dreams that I ideally wanted to accomplish in my life! I posted it right here on the blog, so you guys could keep updated with my progress and find out what I had been getting up to. So far in 2009, I have crossed off the life list: buying a DSLR, getting a Master’s degree, seeing my favourite show Les Miserables in the West End, visiting the Vatican, getting a tattoo, and island-hopping in Greece! Whilst some things on the Lifelist I had been planning for or would have done them anyway at some point, some things on there are real ‘Someday’ items, which thanks to the Lifelist, I have now crossed off. I can’t believe how different my life would look today without the Lifelist, as it has really pushed me to plan for things that I never would have done without having it written down on a to-do list. I’m so proud of my Life-list achievements in the 3 months that I have had one, and I can’t wait to see what 2010 has in store for me and my lifelist as well (more on this below!)
- Projects
2009 was the year that I finished my Masters, thus finishing the era where all my free time was spent on Masters-related work. Since September, I have been working hard, for the first time in a very long time, on some really exciting personal projects. In the last couple of months, I have hinted on The Fight Sequence about the launch of 2 of these: Favourite Things and A Brief Guide to the User Experience. In 2009, both these projects were formulated and planned, and 2010 is definitely the year of the Project Launch! I’m really excited to share both of these with you guys and watch for more info soon.
- Organisation
2009 was definitely the year of Organisation and Routine. This year, I really got into learning more about how to become more organised, more efficient, and more optimised for both work and just life in general. It all started when somebody on my Masters course recommended I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which I have to say, really changed how approached almost everything. From there, I started to delve deeper into this world – I started regularly reading Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders, Lifehack, Zen Habits, and more recently, Nick Campbell’s Make Cool Shit. I also bought an Ipod touch, which revolutionised my life! For the first time ever, I have been able to sync my Ical on my home computer when I am out on the go, as well as sync my Omnifocus (another new purchase which I really recommend for productivity-heads out there; plus, a post on Omnifocus will be forthcoming later this month!) Discovering and using all these tools have really helped me to become better and managing my productivity. Here’s to carrying on the good habits in 2010!
- Getting Things Off My Computer and Onto the Net
Okay, so this is quite a weird one, but something that I am proud of nonetheless. This year has seen a real change in the way I store and share my information. In 2008 and before, I kept all my pictures, bookmarks, files etc stored in my home computer. This year, I have spent an awful lot of time going through all my files/pictures/bookmarks etc and putting them on the web for easy access. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you think how many hours it took to upload over 3000 pics to my Flickr account, or to sort through hundreds of bookmarks and tag them appropriately on Delicious…. you can see that this is not easy. Putting everything on the net has made my life so much easier – in terms of searching for and finding my content, for sharing with others, for keeping track of what I am up to with my content. In 2010, I predict this trend will carry on for me, as everything becomes more web-based. It takes some time to go through everything and actually get it up there, but I have found it to be a trade well-worth making.
Things to Look Forward to in 2010
- Improving The Fight Sequence
More Content, More Regularly: In 2010, I hope to be putting more content on TFS, more regularly! In 2009, my philosophy was sort of unplanned, and I just put up a post when I wanted to. However, the site readership has grown exponentially in the months that it has been active, and I am now feeling like my old ways are no longer acceptable! This year, I am committed to dedicating a certain amount of time a week to sitting down and writing. I have now implemented a loose posting schedule, as well as scheduled weekly time to write posts, which I hope will help me in generating content and putting it up quickly. Look out for more posts in the coming months.
Traditions: I know a lot of blogs are one-subject ponies, or if not, they may dedicate different days of the week to different subjects, so that their readers know what is coming. However, this is something that won’t be rigidly implemented at TFS. This blog covers, or will be covering, many different subjects including Usability, Photography, Graphic Design, Productivity, or just general tips and resources, that it seems unfeasible to schedule all this in. I also really like the idea of coming to view the page and it being a little surprise as to what will be here! So, please do not expect some sort of logical order to posts! Having said that, one tradition that will definitely be continuing is the Friday Links. For the uninitiated, Friday Links happen every Friday (surprisingly!) and are just a small collection of interesting/educational/fun links that I have been browsing that week that I thought may be of interest to share. I love putting these together for you guys every Friday and so if nothing else, on Fridays, Friday Links will be there.
Twitter: Something that I have been thinking about for a while which will be coming in 2010 is a better integration of the TFS blog and Twitter. At the moment, they are pretty separate as I use Twitter not only to retweet on-topic things but also as a social tool or to discuss off-topic subjects. However, from January, my Twitter feed will also include updates on The Fight Sequence, for example, every time I post here, there will also be a tweet linking to the blog article. As well as obviously publicising my blog articles, I hope those of you that do follow on Twitter as well as read here will find this helpful!
Crossing more things off the Lifelist: The Lifelist will continue to go strong in 2010. As mentioned above, we’ve already done a good number in the 3 months that the lifelist has been active. I am already starting to plan some of the bigger items to be accomplished over the coming year, and I am sure as the year goes on, some of the smaller items will get done as well. I am really psyched about having such a great tool as the lifelist as motivation and inspiration to continue achieving my goals and I can’t wait to find out what 2010 has in store! Plus, watch out for a big announcement in the next couple of weeks on the lifelist front: can you guys guess which lifelist item will be next on the chopping block!?
Project Launch: Finally, as mentioned above, 2010 is definitely the year of the Project LAUNCH! I’ve got some really exciting and awesome things to share with you on that front which I have been promising to do for a while. This year, those projects will go live, on The Fight Sequence, and I am definitely looking forward to hearing what you all think!
- And on a Personal Front..
Things to look forward to in 2010 for me personally include (hopefully):
- Moving Out
- Getting a job in a usability-related area
- Save enough money for some big-ass holiday!
- Keeping all my great friends and making some more!
— And that is that, the first TFS State of the Union. If you guys have any comments or suggestions, please do comment below and let me know what you think! I truly am absolutely psyched to start this year and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 12 months. See you guys on Monday to start the year off with a bang!
