2019 Goals Quarterly Update (Q1)

Kamran Ayub -

This is my first time trying a quarterly update on my yearly goal setting but I was updating that old post with progress notes and decided I should just formally document progress every quarter instead of retrofitting an older post. That way if any goals evolve (which some have!) then I can look back and see that change happening. Also this forces me to post at least once every 4 months which may get me into the groove of writing more generally.

Progress on yearly goals

Here are the goals I originally laid out and progress notes for each! At the end I also listed some unplanned accomplishments so I can track those too.

Primary Goals

Professional

  • ⌛ Publish 1 Pluralsight course on Azure or TypeScript or React (September Q4)
  • I have maintenance updates coming in before July but no plans for a course; targeting after summer. Adjusted the target date.
  • ☑️ Publish 4 Pluralsight guides on React & TypeScript by May
  • I was able to publish 3 PS guides but didn't do a 4th because I actually got an unforeseen opportunity to write a freelance article for RavenDB! I am marking this goal as completed with a bonus objective!
  • ✅ Speak at NDC MN on a TypeScript topic
  • I was accepted to speak at NDC MN in May.
  • ⌛ Publish 5 technical articles on the blog about Azure, TypeScript, or React
  • I need to plan this out more specifically, though I have a couple ideas! I did post about Copying to clipboard using React and TypeScript on dev.to.

Personal

  • ⌛ Pay off all non-mortgage debt
  • I've paid off all loans under my name! 🎉 Cassie is up next. Neither of us have any credit card debt or car loans, it's just the student loans left.
  • ⌛ Passive income should account for 2% of earnings, 1099 income for 5%
  • As a percentage of household W-2 income, passive income is at 1% and contracting income is at 1%, making a total of 2%. Not bad and I project passive income will be just at or higher than 2%. I am not quite as sure if contracting will end up being above 5% but I'll try!
  • ☑️ Replace my PCs at home with a single good Ultrabook/Notebook and a NAS
  • I sold my secondary PC, decided to keep my main PC but instead got a quieter case for recording. I also picked up a used Lenovo Yoga 720 laptop as my personal on-the-go machine. No NAS quite yet, though. I also discovered I have enough parts for yet another entry-level PC but something is up with the motherboard/parts and it won't turn on correctly 🤷‍♂️.
  • ⌛ Push 3 substantive updates to KTOMG throughout the year: Steam review revamp, Raven 4 upgrade, and Linux hosting
  • This is my focus for the summer, after NDC. I am nearly done migrating to RavenDB 4!

DIY

  • ☑️ Learn how to cut trim/baseboard and finish the nursery
  • I finished the nursery but decided to paint the trim/baseboard instead of replacing it outright, for now.
  • ⌛ Finish my office decor/storage, maybe paint it too
  • I am in the process of selling my old furniture so I can create a "maker" space for me and my kids. I still would like to paint it.

Stretch Goals

Professional

  • ⌛ Set up a quarterly newsletter
  • I am working on this! Look, I now have a mailing list sign up under each post!
  • Publish 1 more Pluralsight course on Azure or TypeScript or React
  • Publish 4 additional Pluralsight guides throughout the year
  • Participate in 1 Pluralsight Mentoring session
  • Become a Microsoft MVP with a focus on Azure/TypeScript content
  • ⌛ Speak at a JSConf or ReactConf event
  • So far have not been accepted to any that I've applied to but 🤞
  • Speak at the React MN meetup about TypeScript or GraphQL
  • Record a YouTube video walkthrough of my Raspberry Pi baby monitor written guide

Personal

  • 1099 income should account for 12% or more (+2% over 2018)
  • ⌛ Travel completely free somewhere in the US with wife and 2 kids using miles/points
  • We earned our 50K bonus miles from our Chase Sapphire Preferred card (you should too!) but not sure if we will go anywhere using them yet or wait. I was proud of this one because we used the card to pay off my daughter's birth bills, earn the 50K bonus miles, and are saving the receipts for a future tax-free HSA reimbursement. That was a nice hack!
  • ⛔ Participate in Ludum Dare during the spring
  • This is a no-go, just didn't have the time. Perhaps in fall/winter!

DIY

Unplanned Accomplishments

Professional

Freelance writing for RavenDB. I was excited to have the opportunity to work with Hibernating Rhinos, creators of RavenDB, to write two articles on RavenDB. One was published in April, the other will be published in May.

I made a little app. Without much fanfare, I released an app that helps track your savings rate. I'd love to spend more time building it out but it's not a heavy focus right now.

Released an OSS project. I released a small gatsby source plugin for generating TypeDoc to source in a Gatsby app for Excalibur's new docs site.

Personal

Finished 3 books. Through Audible and the library, I finished some books: Hit Refresh, Meet the Frugalwoods, and Gone Girl. I am currently listening to Mission Critical, a Gray Man book and reading Conceptual Blockbusting along with Code Complete.

Finished over 60 episodes of ChooseFI. It's no secret I love the ChooseFI podcast (and I'm not alone). As of this week I'm on episode 67R which means I'm about halfway through the back catalog. That's about 70 hours of content! It's just a fantastic source of information on all aspects of "life optimization" like finance, mindfulness, happiness, and growth. I recommend it whenever I can and if it impacts others the same way it impacted me, then I'll continue singing its praises.

Final thoughts

It's been a busy Q1! I owe thanks to Todoist, that has transformed how we do things around our household between my wife and I. I've actually enjoyed writing quite a bit though now I feel the itch to come up with content for the blog.

I have been thinking of what I want Kamranicus.com to be and how it should change to host my content and showcase different things but haven't landed on anything final yet. As you perhaps might notice, in the posts and guides I've enabled Adsense since there are some popular pieces of content on here and I actually earn a little from my Amazon affiliate links already.

I was also very excited and thankful for the opportunity to do some freelancing as it lit a fire under me to get me working with some business products like Quickbooks (use my 50% off referral link) and Dochub to better manage my side hustling. It also derailed my focus on KTOMG for the spring since March-May has just been doing writing leaving much less time to get things done for KTOMG in a timely manner. Oh well!

Looking towards the summer (Q2), I'm also pretty excited for NDC MN, some course maintenance, and then re-focusing on KTOMG. This will also be our first summer that Cassie and the kids will have off together! So they will be visiting me at work more often and I'll be trying to spend time with them when I can. The grill is already out 🔥🍔