I would like to think that 2021 will be an improvement on its predecessor,
but I am not so foolish as to say so out loud for fear that it will be
taken as a challenge. Mostly that will be determined by things outside my
control, which I think means that I should avoid setting myself goals that
depend on, well, much of anything besides myself.
- I'm going to put self-care back at the top this year, because I still
need to remember to do it. My back exercises and walking are the top
physical priorities, along with getting vaccinated against COVID-19
(which is a no-brainer). Losing weight would be a good idea, but it's
a stretch. Mental self-care is problematic, since I have very little
idea of what that would involve. (5 sub-goals, but fractional
completion is likely for most of them.)
- It's been pointed out pointed out that taking care of Colleen ought to be on this list
somewhere. It still feels like cheating.
- Wrapping up Mom's estate is going to be a fairly large project.
Fortunately my brother and niece are doing most of the heavy lifting,
but there will still be plenty of work for me, starting with taking
charge of her computer, files, and any online accounts that haven't
already been closed out.
- Update paperwork, because 2020. Wills, advanced directives, powers of
attorney, Colleen's passport and ID renewals, and guides to my paper
and electronic files. (10 items total, to make it easy at year's end.)
- Music: singing (with Kaleidofolk whenever I can), and hopefully recording (with and/or
without them, since I have enough solo material). There will be plenty
of opportunities for recorded or streamed concerts, too, so I'll throw
in a few of those too. Two hours of singing per week gives a nice
solid total of 100 (104, but let's allow for some slop here) as a
target for the year.
- Doing the rest of the sorting in the garage would be a good idea too.
Sub-goals of getting all the book boxes sorted and re-boxed by
category, sweeping out the northeast corner, putting up the lights, and
making the workbench usable. (I'll add some actual woodworking as a
stretch goal.)
- Along those lines, decluttering, and actually downsizing.
Getting rid of Stuff. Finding places for things. I've sometimes believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast.
- I should write more. Songs (a song?), Curmudgeon
articles, memoirs, all that stuff. I've been too willing to accept Done Since, the
occasional Thankful Thursday, and the even more occasional Songs for Saturday
as "enough" writing for a week. I should add at least one
more post each week, including at least one curmudgeon and one memoir
post each month.
- There is a lot of website maintenance needed, including
updates to lyrics, cleaning out cruft in the older websites, and
creating a memorial page for Mom.
- I should write more software, too. I haven't done much -- hardly any
last year -- and there are still lots of unfinished and unstarted
projects. This can start with tracking singing and self-care time,
auto-linking concerts and DW posts from song pages, and the
long-delayed command-line DW client.
There are 10 items on that list; some are substantially bigger than
others, and some are more nebulous than others. Despite my fondness for
numbers, I don't think I'd want to ascribe much importance to the
eventual sum. At least, I hope I won't, a year from now. Maybe they'll
average out?