I can’t believe the year is almost over. I feel guilty when I reflect on 2020, despite the pandemic, my year hasn’t been too bad. I’ve had to make adjustments, but I feel lucky to be in the position I’m in. 2020 will be a year that many will want to forget, but I’ve tried hard to make the best of the situation and use the time I’ve had productively.
When the pandemic first hit, nothing for me really changed. I had already been working from home so I had my office setup and my routine sorted. Most of the frustrations have been around not being able to see family or go out to places. Despite saying to myself that I’d go easy on myself in 2020, I’ve actually achieved quite a bit.
What has gone well?
The end of this year has been incredibly busy, I managed to complete the project I was working on for the ICCA which has been a great success. Check out my portfolio page to learn more about the project.
On a personal note, when the pandemic hit me and my husband started the Couch to 5k challenge. I’ve never really been very active, so it really was a big challenge! The programme is a bit like interval training, you start by mixing walking with running – when I first started just running 2 minutes solid was difficult, I was a sweaty, breathless mess. I have to thank my husband for being my motivation as without him I don’t think I would have been able to continue. By the summer we’d both completed the programme and could run 5k in our lunch break. I have to admit that since winter hit and the weather has turned we haven’t actually been running as much, but there are also other personal things that have attributed to this (mainly PhD work and finally moving house).
Looking at last years goals, I managed to complete:
- The ICCA part one project
- All my PhD work so far, pending my mark for my final assignment
- An Adobe After Effects course
- And a Adobe Premiere Pro course
- A dyslexia awareness course and the science of learning course (both of which I blogged about)
The Adobe courses were brilliant, they’ve enabled me to expand my toolkit and learn new skills. I attended the courses online which was also a new experience for me (one I have been meaning to blog about). I attended the classes through Armada who I’d absolutely recommend!
What hasn’t gone so well?
As a result of undertaking a PhD, I feel like my academic writing has improved a bit. I feel like I’ve been doing more reading and writing, but I think I need to be more objective with this goal. I didn’t do as much as I would have liked. I wasn’t able to take the Cathy Moore training that I’ve had my eye on for a while, but she has just released a new training course for February which I feel would be more beneficial to me anyway.
So what about 2021?
I haven’t put much thought into what I want to achieve in 2021. To be honest, I’ve been so busy with my career development that I’m starting to shift my focus to more personal goals. I think the pandemic has actually been one of the driving forces behind this. For example, I’d like to spend more time with family and friends (if at all possible). I’d like to spend more time outside, getting fitter and sorting the garden. So I think 2021 is going to be another year of focused, precise goals.
- Complete year 2 of my PhD
- Continue to work on projects for clients
- Get my green screen setup working
Right now I think this is enough. When I submitted my final PhD paper for year 1, my motivation had taken a nosedive. I haven’t really been enjoying the work as much as I would have hoped, so if I want to achieve this I really need to put more effort into it; have fewer goals and fewer distractions. In a work capacity, I just need to continue on working as I have been. Finally, now I have the space I’d really like to get the green screen setup and functioning properly.
With Brexit and the Pandemic, I feel like 2021 is going to be a similar year to 2020. Hopefully, the vaccine will mean we will be able to go back to some kind of normality at some point, but it’s looking like that may be towards the end of next year. With everything going on, it’s really important to try to stay positive. Find something to be grateful for and be hopeful about. We are all in this together.
With that being said, I wish you all a Happy New Year.