I have a lot of projects on the go, reflecting a very long to-do list of sorts. As a result, I often feel like I’m not making “enough” progress on my projects because individually I’m not. But it makes me wonder if I should think of them as a “group” instead of individual projects. Here is the set of them.

A maker space theme

I want to get a 3D printer, and under that heading, I have a lot of sub-project ideas. Some are them are astro-related, some are game- related, but many of them are simply just fun ad hoc stuff to make with a 3D printer.

For the astro ones, I want to not only build a telescope (or 3) likely using a 3D printer, but also have some projects around converting old binoculars into eyepieces (a guy online has a way of doing it that looks downright fascinating). There’s also some options to create an attachment for a Maglite flashlight in a way that would replace a green laser pointer and without running afoul of Transport Canada rules. Both of them are things I would love to design and then share with the broader astro community in Canada, perhaps part of my volunteering / giving back to RASC.

I have some computer-related items, including assembling a robot that I have, building a video game console with a Raspberry Pi, and programming my own app (likely around Trivia).

I mentioned “games” above, and I want to do some board game design with Jacob. He likes it, he’s pretty creative, and together we might have some fun.

I also have some “kits” for multiple Lego projects (including several fairly large ones), some escape room puzzles, fixing some previous projects, putting together some Kiwi kits I bought for Jacob but that didn’t really appeal to him, and a variety of easy crafting projects.

An organizing theme

I have a whack of things I need to do for organizing the garage, basement, stuff around the house, some reno projects, etc. Many of them are far from urgent, of course, but we’d like to do them sometime. Preferably when COVID improves and we can have workpeople in our house more easily.

A large self-expression theme

Obviously, the biggest form of self-expression for me is writing. Within that sub-category, I have project ideas related to my blog and all the normal subtopics, my PolyWogg HR guide, a guide to managing your career in the public service, a manager’s guide to the public service, an Astro Guide (with multiple subtopics), a guide to performance measurement, a review of certain types of government programs, and performance measurement for libraries…it’s a long list of areas to write about, and I haven’t even talked about my fiction writing. Much of it will push to my retirement, but they’re on the list. In the same vein, I review books, movies, music, TV shows…I’m even reviewing Sky and Telescope magazines as part of a mini-project.

I already covered a “maker space” idea, but other areas of self-expression, perhaps a little more artistic, include origami, photography (including a photo site or scanning my mother’s photo albums), and cooking. I’d even like to learn to play the piano and fly a drone.

A social (or reading) theme

I don’t know if this is really a social theme per se, but I have a book club aka the PolyWogg Reading Challenge that I run, and it creates interaction with a number of friends and new acquaintances around books. It takes a bit to run, but people seem to enjoy it, and I like seeing people who didn’t know each other before I created it start talking and sharing books. Some have even got together to exchange books!

I also have a desire to organize all of my ebooks and to binge a large number of series. Not exactly a “project”, but it’s not not a project either.

A learning theme

Probably the biggest project under here is the idea of MOOCs and various courses that interest me. Psychology is at the top of that list, with a MOOC at Carleton, and I even have the textbook to start. But there are tons of courses on The Great Courses as well as on Coursera that I can do for free too.

I think I should lump astronomy in here too, at least for my own learning. There’s some element of it that is different from my writing / self-expression theme including just imaging and observing.

Moving forward

For those keeping score, that’s probably between 40-50 “smaller” projects that are on my list and I do a little bit on them at a time, embracing the variety. But it does mean of course that I’m not making a lot of progress on any ONE project, I don’t “tick” the box that they’re done.

I’ll have to think about this a bit more as I take stock at the end of March, June, September and December i.e., a quarterly review of how I’m doing.