I decided to go public with my 2025 goals this year. Why? I’m curious to see how this commitment will affect me.

How

I’ve been in the habit of setting goals for myself, in a more or less structured way, for years. And not just productive/professional goals but also life goals: work, study, reading as well as travel, hobbies or anything else I think could improve the quality of my life.

Rules

I’ve a simple, unbreakable assumption: the sum of the activities listed must be sustainable within my routine and allow me to have at least a 25% time buffer for unplanned activities or whatever comes up.

I’ll try to put numbers on these goals, whenever possible, so I can track my progress and compare it at the end of the year.

Things I want to do

1. Write at least 12 blog posts: I want to give this project some priority and keep it going. I’ve discovered an unexpected pleasure in writing and I hope it can give me the energy to publish more and more interesting content that could be valuable to others;
2. Enhance my GitHub portfolio: I want to produce at least one valuable analysis and make it public;
3. Host at least one live stream on Twitch: I like the idea of ‘learning in public’ as a way to build a community focused on discussing topics such as data analysis and critical thinking;
4. Solo traveling: this one is challenging, but I’ll give it a try. Throughout my life I’ve traveled a lot but never entirely on my own. Inspired by the YouTube channel Solo Solo Travel, I’m eager to discover what an experience like this can offer me.

Things I want to keep doing

1. Deep work: over the past two years, I’ve managed to drastically reduce trivial distractions (notifications, doom scrolling, etc.) to make more room for intentional living. I want to keep this up;
2. Keep studying: after completing my Master’s in AI & Data Science last year, I want to further enhance my expertise in these fields;
3. Read at least 7 books: I’ve got a long reading list to work through and I want to keep up the momentum from this year;
4. Focus on my health: exercise and nutrition are my top priorities. Recently, Nick Maggiulli posted a thought-provoking article about this titled “Don’t Bet Against Biology“. I’ve come a long way this year and I’m not giving up;
5. Fun stuff: travels, parties, videogames and so on – I want to keep my life exciting (sub-goal: platinum The Binding of Isaac 👀).

Things I want to quit doing

1. Staying up late: due to work and my master’s degree, I’ve found myself sleeping quite late this year. I need to get back on a better sleep schedule (no less than 7 hours);
2. Overthink: don’t get me wrong, practicing critical thinking is always the best thing to do in 99% of cases. However, sometimes you have to stop and remember about that 1% where it is useless and often frustrating;
3. Overcommitting myself: I need to reduce my workload in order to improve the quality of my work and my overall well-being.

I can’t wait to pick this article back up in December!