My day job is largely about helping people and teams focus on working on always working on the most important thing next. So I find it quite frustrating when I struggle to prioritise the use of my own free time (#firstworldproblems). Currently I’m trying to work out how and when I can do the following…
Improve my 3D skills
I’ve been using blender for years and I generally feel confident in my ability to create objects and scenes but I know that I don’t challenge myself enough. Blender 2.8 has now been officially released so I need to relearn some things. I feel like setting myself a more complicated scene might be the way to get back up to speed. I’m also keen to get more proficient with Fusion 360 to model objects for 3D printing.
Improve my programming skills
I have been a recreational developer for most of my adult life. I have worked with php and python and even made money as a freelance developer for a few years. Recently I’ve begun to think that perhaps a career change to being a developer full-time might make sense for a number of reasons. I’ve been working on a personal project to brush up on my skills but there’s still a lot more to learn before I would feel confident applying for developer roles.
Improve my guitar playing
Like many people I learned guitar in my teens and was in a fairly mediocre band. We played a few gigs and our friends liked us. Recently I’ve found myself playing guitar again for the first time in a decade and I’m keen to progress beyond my teenage self’s repertoire.
Improve my drawing skills
I studied art all throughout my education, including the seven years across my GCSE, A-Level and Bachelors Degree. I was also the head of an Interactive Media department at a college and taught art students how to create their work on computers yet amazingly I still can’t draw.
Learn to skateboard
Yep, I’m in my mid thirties, self-employed and overweight so I figured this was the perfect time to learn to skateboard! I bought a regular board and an electric longboard. I’ve ridden the longboard a bit and almost feel confident on it but the regular board still scares me. I don’t want to be Rodney Mullen, I have no desire to learn tricks. I’ve just always liked the idea of using a skateboard for transportation so I just want to get confident riding around on either board.
Lose weight and improve my health and fitness
I have been overweight for a long time and I don’t want to be any more. My wife and I want to have kids and I want to be fit enough to take care of them and be able to run around and play with them. I also want to be alive long enough to see them grow up.
Having written it all out I guess that I have to focus my efforts on improving my health and my programming skills. Everything else can fit in around it where possible but those two will have the greatest impact in the immediate future.