2021 was a crazy year by all means. Learning from the mistakes from the past, I decided to create a proper plan for 2022, something which I’ve never done in the past 27 years of my life. Even though I love working on different goals or projects at the same time, this can often be hectic and quite inefficient. The idea here is to create a plan for 2022 so that I have a clear vision of the things I’m pursuing. I do not plan to take up anything extra other than I’ve mentioned in this plan. This planning also will act as a skeleton for the long-form article that I’m working on revolving around the concept of ‘How to Live’. The overall vision for 2022 is to achieve the goals that are defined based on the three focus points I have for the year: Health, Career and Wealth.
Goals
- To be fit and healthy by end of 2022.
- Create alternate work streams and a passive income by the end of 2022.
- Master programming and transition my career into a more data oriented one.
Objectives
To achieve the goals mentioned in the previous section, the following objectives have been laid out. Some of these objectives are interconnected and contribute to more than one of the goals.
🏋 Weight
At the time of writing this post, my weight is 70 kgs, putting me in the slightly obese range on the BMI scale. I have shed close to 6kgs in the last month, but by end of 2022, I want to achieve a target weight of 65. I’m tracking this progress on Google Fit as well as on the Zepp app.
🛌 Sleep
Last year, I’ve done enough reading on the importance of sleep and it’s quite evident from the scientific literature that human beings need close 7-8 hours of sleep irrespective of what all hustle gurus say. Having a consistent sleep schedule is important as it balances the circadian rhythm. My plan is to sleep around 11 PM every night and wake up around 6 AM every day along with a 30 min nap in the afternoon. I would love to track my sleep, but what I’ve found is whenever I ever my fitness tracker to sleep, it’s quite uncomfortable for me to have something on my wrist while sleeping. This eventually affects my quality of sleep and I prefer not to do it. For the moment I’m tracking my sleep in my habit tracker on a google sheet! (I have a couple of ideas for developing an obstruction-free fitness tracker. If you’re someone who works in that space or would love to build one, do ping me!)
🚴Cycling
I rode around 3000kms in 2021 and 2022. I recently purchased a road bike and I’m planning to take cycling seriously this year. In 2022, I plan to ride a minimum of 6000 km. I love long-distance cycling/ randonneuring and I’m planning to compete for 200 and 300 BRMs this year. So far I’ve completed close 600+ km and I’m well on track. Follow me on Strava to see what I’m up to!
🏃♂️ Running
I’ve always wanted to run but never committed to it. So the plan this year is to start things slowly and attain a fitness level to participate in a half marathon event or do a virtual half marathon run by end of this year. At the time of writing, I’m able to run 5k easily and I’m working towards my endurance on running a 10k.
🏊♂️ Swimming
I learnt proper swimming end of last year and have decided to dedicate 2 days a week to swimming. I’m in the process of improving my form of swimming and my goal is to attain the fitness to swim continuously for 800m this year. Swimming is totally new for me, so I haven’t set anything ambitious here.. This training regime would allow me to gain some confidence in the open water swimming, a plan I have for 2023.
🧘♂️Meditation
As Naval has said, Meditation is the art of doing nothing. I’ve been using Waking Up by Sam Harris for meditating. Last year I logged close to 120 mindful days, accounting for a total of 2000+ minutes of meditation. The goal for 2022 is to move away from the app and start practising unguided meditation every day for 20 minutes.
⏲ Fasting
I’ve tried intermittent fasting during the second half of last year and it worked wonders for me. I love the concept of fasting and it gives me so much energy throughout the day. I love my current fasting schedule and would like to stick to the same this year ie 16/8 fasting with two 24 hours continuous fasting in a month. So this would come around 5840 hours, but considering some buffer, I’m hoping to hit a target of at least 4500 hours of fasting by EOY. Tracking the fasting hours is tricky and I’m thinking of developing an app that works with an NFC tag for friction-free fasting. The plan is that I’ll scan an NFC tag and it will automatically note the current time indicating the start or stop of fasting. Let’s see how it pans out.
🍲 Diet
I would like to cut on outside food more this year and preferably would love to eat from home the majority of the meals. After a lot of research on this front, my goal is to follow a diet that contains zero added sugar, more fibre, seasonal produce, fatty fish, lean meat, least processed, colourful (means more antioxidants) and fermented (Need to explore a bit of fermentation this year!). Also, another plan is to take a 60-day no sugar challenge in May 2022.
🍺 Alcohol
I’ve been drinking since 2013 and consider myself a social drinker. But the last couple of months, I’ve noticed that consuming alcohol had a drastic effect on my bowel and sleeping patterns. Even a single pint of beer would cause hangover issues for me the next day and I’ve started to hate drinking during the last couple of months. The goal for this year is to drink as little as possible with maximum hydration possible.
💻 Programming
I’ve always felt like I’ve missed the bus ride for programming. I’ve lived with that remorse over the year, but I’ve decided to stop complaining and master programming this year. With Web 3.0 coming, I don’t want to miss the train ride again. The goal for this year is to learn Python, master the basics of data science and transition into a career that is oriented towards data. At my current job I’m doing focused on energy, I deal with a lot of data and I’m in love with that. In 2023, if everything goes well, I plan to study again and do a postgraduate degree in data science. The plan is to complete the data science MOOC’s I’m doing by March 2022, and compete in some challenges on the Kaggle platform. By end of the year, I would like to create a portfolio that would help me in university admissions and job hunts.
Another goal for 2022 is to learn to code in Javascript and write smart contracts. With Web 3.0 coming, this is quite essential. As a first step towards it, I’m porting this blog into a fully custom static blog based on the eleventy framework. I’m midway through the project and I’m already dealing with a lot of javascript code. Moving the blog from WordPress into a static one will allow me to have more control over the blog and its performance.
🎨 Art
Art is something that adds purpose to my life. When I’m photographing or working on something artsy, I’m in a meditative state that I cannot explain. I created very little art in 2021, something I’m really sad about. I want to create more art in 2022. I’ve been part of a wonderful community of artists at Better Art Foundation, but I’ve never utilised my opportunities well. The goal for 2022 is to create more art and build a portfolio of a minimum of 3 art projects. The projects I’ve planned for 2022 are Abandoned Gods, Memoirs of an ALS Patient and an NFT Project. The NFT project is something that I’m really excited about and involves some generative art, which complements the programming goals I’ve for this year. 2023 will be the year when I will focus more of my attention on generative art using AI.
📰 Newsletter
My newsletter 10+1 Things exceeded my expectations and crossed 700 subs in 2021. I’m taking a break from writing the newsletter in January, but plan to restart it in February. The goal for 2022 is to hit 2000 subscribers by end of the year. The newsletter is a key part of my journey as it documents my learning, but also provides an audience for discovery. Moreover, I’m happy to create a community of like-minded individuals through the newsletter. I’m looking for cross-promotion opportunities heavily this year to achieve my goal, so if you’re someone who is writing a newsletter, feel free to ping me.
✍️ Blogging
I would love to write more articles on this blog this year. As I’m writing this I have got a list of 75+ ideas that are worth exploring. I’m aiming to finish 2022 by publishing a minimum of 30 original blog posts. Also, a lot of sections on this blog are not updated, something I’m working on. All these will be hosted on my blog that will be custom coded by end of this year.
📚 Reading
I set an ambitious target of 52 books for 2021 even though I started late in June 2021. I failed to meet the target and eventually ended 2021 with 33 books. This year I’m planning to read consistently and aim to read a minimum of 45 books by EOY.
🎓 Theoretical Physics and Interaction Design
Apart from programming and other passions, I’m also pursuing theoretical physics and interaction design passively. For interaction design, I’m taking the lessons from Interaction Design Foundation and for Theoretical Physics I’m learning from the modules from Theoretical Minimum and Good Theorist. The goal for 2022 is to complete classical mechanics in theoretical physics and Become a UX Designer from Scratch on IDF.
💸 Side Hustles
I’m earning a bit from the newsletter, but it’s not really much to support me as a creator. By end of the year, I plan to generate a minimum of 50000 INR (~ $670) per month from the side hustles. The primary income streams would be from sponsorships from 10+1 Things, freelancing on Fiverr and a course/product I’m creating for newsletter writers.
💰 Emergency Fund
One of the biggest mistakes of 2021 was travelling irresponsibly without thinking about an emergency fund. Emergency funds are critical and give everyone a cushion when an unexpected situation appears. I aim to create an emergency fund by end of this year that will support me for at least 6 months in case of an emergency.
💰 Portfolio Risk Management
I started investing even before I had an emergency fund which is a blunder because of FOMO. Also as I’m writing this 35% of my portfolio is in Cryptocurrency which is a huge risk considering the taxation the Indian government is imposing. I would like to minimize my crypto investments to 20% of my portfolio and allocate more debt instruments into my portfolio to reduce risks. Ideally, I want my portfolio to be 30% Indian and US equities, 40% debt/ index funds, 20% crypto and 10% as cash.
💭 Other Objectives
Apart from these main objectives, some other objectives are to increase my earning potential, relocate to Europe with my partner and create a lifestyle that is sustainable in the long run. But these are all interconnected and I don’t really have a clear picture of those at the time of writing this article. For example, if I achieve my career goals in programming and blogging, I would definitely have a higher income potential, which will open up opportunities to relocate to anywhere in Europe.
Contrary to the last couple of years, I plan to travel very less this year. Considering the financial, health and career goals I have set for this year, it would be very unsustainable to travel for long this year. and hence it never made the list of goals this year. The only travel I would be doing this year will be to Dubai, where my partner is located and a couple of local treks in Kerala, India where I’m currently based in.
Another goal or project I’ve in my mind is to set up a business for my mother ( ideally related to food), something that will keep her engaged. I also would love to improve the front yard garden we have and build a small vegetable garden for seasonal vegetables. At the time of writing, I’m in process of setting up a drip irrigation system for watering and a herbal garden. But these are projects that are very low on my priority list and something I do to take my mind off from my usual routine. Let’s see how it pans out in 2022.
Final Thoughts
A wise man once said to me that you should always have a plan irrespective of the timeline or date. I may or may not achieve these goals by end of 2022. But what this plan gives me is a perspective for the whole year and some focus on things I need to work on, End of 2022, I will update you on the status of all these objectives I’ve with a year-end review. I’ve tried to kept this plan as realistic as possible, but due to the fascinating brains we have, I may have overestimated the things I can achieve in 12 months. Contrary to the popular notion to focus on one thing, I love to work on multiple things in parallel. This can be inefficient at times, but according to me, the magic happens at the intersection of these wild pursuits. I thrive on those aha moments and can’t wait to experience them!
Enjoyed this article? If so, check out my 10+1 Things Newsletter that I send out every Sunday. It contains 11 interesting Things I thought were worth sharing including books,articles, projects, and other things I'm curious about. Click here if you would like to check out the previous issues and may be subscribe!