In some ways, 2018 was the year that all my dreams came true. I graduated college, continued fun side-projects, started my career as an iOS developer, and developed great friendships. Since 2018 was a transition year and I’ve now mostly landed on my feet, I am quite excited to set goals and make plans for the upcoming year.
I’m a total sucker for New Year’s Resolutions, even though I’ll admit they are mostly ineffective. There’s just something about the act of setting goals that I find fulfilling and fun. Inspired by Cortex, I’ve also been setting a theme for the year to set the tone and direct my decision making.
During these first 6 days of 2019, I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about a theme for the year ahead. What makes this year unique is that many things will be stable in my life. I can expect (unless things go very wrong) to continue my job and routine in 2019, both of which I’m really happy with. Furthermore, I can count on my employer’s great culture of work-life balance, so I know I will have the bandwidth for hobbies and projects.
So when think about a theme for 2019, I have a big decision to make: Do I want to do a few big projects, or many smaller ones?
This question stumped me for days. And it took some time, some pros-and-cons lists, and an overnight retreat in my camper van to figure it out.
Lowering the Activation Energy
You may remember from chemistry that an enzyme initiates a chemical reaction by lowering the energy the reaction requires to start. I’m calling my theme for 2019 The Year of Enzymes. Instead of working on really big projects—like shipping a new app, or gettin’ huge at the gym, or learning jazz piano—I’m instead choosing to focus on a wider set of smaller projects which may lower the energy required to complete larger projects in the future. Like an enzyme… get it?
For example, I have a podcast idea that requires a lot of research. Instead of planning to launch the podcast, I’m instead going to focus entirely on the most basic research. This research will be worthwhile in its own right, and may serve as an enzyme to make the larger project easier if I choose to pursue it later.
Let the Enzyming Begin
I wrote a long list of potential enzyme projects that I could do this year. Each item is intended to be doable in a day or two, so there’s little stopping me from getting started. Let the “enzyming” begin.
