It’s almost midnight on January 1st, and I started this post almost 14 hours ago. Then a little cyber gremlin intervened, and I lost most of the day. Not an auspicious beginning to my year, but that is a topic for another day. Today, I’m writing about my plans for the year instead.

Last year, I created about 20 separate “mini to-do” list trackers in OneNote that I used for a few months before Andrea started chemo treatments. Then I kind of tossed them aside and only referred to them sporadically after that, but that’s about it. I played with tracking results, I played with trying to come up with separate “project” lists, but in the end, my priorities were elsewhere. Going back to them, let’s see where there are some ideas to inspire plans for this year.

Self-organization was a list of little things I could do to improve my life, and for the new year, I like the idea of stretching and making something from scratch. Two items, that’s all. They could probably fit under other categories, but they’ll suffice here for now.

Learning could be a huge category but I filed some of the directed learning under other headings. What remains at the top of the list is learning to use my 3D printer.

Reading is another category where I could have a huge list of individual books. But instead, one of my first commitments is to make a list of books to read in 2023! Starting with finishing Crime and Punishment and the Sleeping Car Porter.

I kind of dropped the Astronomy hobby in the last couple of years and it is time to pick it back up. I have 30+ “items” in my tracker for astronomy, and I’m committing to some big ones, including building an observatory this year.

For our Computers, I need to setup our smart devices and improve my backups with cloud saves. I also want to finish setting up some stuff in the basement (TV, music, video games).

I mentioned we had made some improvements on Finances this year, but I want to do some simple clean-up of accounts and files, do a pension buyback, and have some structured end-of-life discussions with Andrea and Jacob.

On the Family front, I’m hoping there is a LOT less work on the health front, even with some pending surgery for Jacob. We have some outings planned, maybe even a small trip, and some fun stuff with Jacob (remote control car, board game design, and Lego: Colosseum). Plus a large “classified” project around some Xmas gifts for next year.

We’ve been putting off some minor and major Home renovations in recent years, and we’ll knock some of them off the list over the course of the year. In the short term, there’s some stuff to get going in the basement.

Website Setup is a bit tricky and misleading. It is short but there are tons of other things that tie into and thus are listed elsewhere (like reviews and general writing). I’ll write about one aspect of that for the month of January, but I also have some new branding to figure out on the Astronomy Guide front.

Writing is a narrower category than it first appears, as it is mostly about “books” more so than blogs. So, I’ve got ideas for my HR Guide, an Astronomy Guide or 2, and a fiction title I’d like to do more on.

For my other writing, including Blogging – Reviews, I have plans for more movie reviews, recipes, TV season reviews, book reviews (of course), music reviews, quotes, jokes, and even restarting my PolyWogg gallery links from Flickr.

Beyond reviews, I also write about other topics, and I generally track it under the heading of Bloggables, aka topics based on my experiences or curation of good articles on the web.

I have a general heading for Photography but if I’m completely honest with myself, it is more like “managing photos”. I plan to learn how to use GIMP, which is a really long series of lessons that may take me more than a year. I want to upload more family and astrophotos to Flickr so I can cross-link them to my website and create some photobooks. And, I probably should wrap my head around the best place for long-term backups and storage of my photos.

My Volunteering hat is almost non-existent for the new year. AstroPontiac has had zero need for me in the last year, and I need to audit RASC Ottawa’s books, which is about an afternoon’s worth of work. I think I can handle both of those.

On the Health side, it’s a bit strange. While I have lots of things going on for health, almost all of it appears under a separate heading (fitness, which is next). In the narrow area of health, I’ll meet my new doctor and review medications and a potential need for the Shingles vaccine. However, I’ve also had a “weekend retreat” for myself as a mental health holiday on the planning list since before the pandemic started. I’m hoping to squeeze that in for the Spring.

For Fitness, I’ve already mentioned assembling the exercise bike, and stretching, but I also want to use my BowFlex, ride my exercise bike, and go walking three times a week each. I also want to start using my Scooter. And it’s about time I did a proper clothes purge too.

Each year, I have grand plans for Cooking more often through the year and trying out lots of new recipes. It almost never happens. This year, I want to do more with bread, crepes, ice cream, and 15 other recipes in general. It should be manageable.

At the end of the list, I created a catch-all called “Activities“. They tend to be things that don’t exactly fit the other categories, although some could be shoe-horned here and there. I want to learn to play a song on the piano. complete a memorization challenge, assemble some models including a Robot, and fix Andrea’s Xmas Carousel (it needs simple gluing to work). But I also want to figure out a big Raspberry Pi project that will likely involve the 3D printer too. That’s for later in the year when I have time to work on stuff while prints are going on. I doubt I’ll get to it, but it’s nice to dream.

So that’s my list of big items for the year…about 100 in total, give or take a few (depending on how you count). My list of “possibles” for the year. Now, let’s see tomorrow what I’m going to work on first.