First thing I did to think about 2018, is to review the goals I set for myself in 2017. Man, I did knock a few of those off of the list, but I was not nearly as successful as I should have been.

Here are my lame excuses for not accomplishing last year’s goals:

• I changed jobs 3 times in one year. I had a huge learning curve to  every new job, and I am still trying to understand the new industries I was working in.
• I was a bit stressed having landed in positions that were empty promises and not career-growth opportunities. Thus, the change in positions so many times.
• With all of the new jobs, I was devoting any extra free time I had to getting up to speed, and not focusing on networking or getting involved in the local UX community.

OK, OK enough with the pity party. Now let’s focus on what I really want to accomplish in 2018.

Read

• “Design of Everyday Things” (started in 2017, need to finish)
• “Checklist Manifesto” (charted for 2017, pushing to this year)
• “Sprint”

Write blog posts

• In 2017, I was shooting to post 25 original blog posts.
• I want to shoot for 12, long-format blog posts with valuable content.
• Plus I would like to continue my series of “UX Tidbits” and “UX Quotes” sprinkled throughout he year. I enjoy researching, gathering and creating these fun short snippets of info. I will shoot for 18 “UX Tidbits in 2018

Social Media

I have felt so lucky to have the followers on twitter that I have accumulated this far. I would like to continue to grow my Twitter following.

• On jnblatz on Twitter, my goal is to tweet enough interesting content to gain 1,200 followers. Ambitious goal I know!
• On Ladies that UX Dallas on Twitter, my goal is to tweet enough interesting content to gain 700 followers.
• Continue to tweet for The North Dallas Agile Product Owner Meetup and report what is happening with that organization.

Networking

• Continue to participate in local Meetups to expand my network and to get to know others in the UX community and other related fields.
• Have the opportunity to participate in one panel at a Meetup, meeting or class as a person who has some sort of UX knowledge to bring to the table.
• Give a presentation to one Meetup group. Group and topic to be determined.
• Attend Creative Mornings events to meet more designers and artists in the local community.

Professional Development

• Continue to learn Sketch well enough to mock up several designs to expand portfolio and skill set.
• Understand the industry I work for, cloud computing, better.
• Learn about managing teams. It might be something I am interested in, so I would like to learn more.
• Create UX assets and deliverables to sharpen my skills and enhance my portfolio.
• Wrap up the “UX Process” project I have been working on at work and develop a strong case study on the process of creating it. Continue to visit the project through the year to see how it is going and iterate as needed.
• Determine what topic I need to know more about when it comes to UX. Perhaps Customer Experience or Service Design? See how these tracks can be explored further in my current work space.
• Revisit these goals in the mid year to not only track my progress, but to add to it. I feel like I need more concrete goals than just listed here. Stronger possibilities tbd.

Personal development

• Have better work/life balance. Right now I am spending any extra time I have in the evenings working on “Cloud Computing” or “Leading the UX Team” related tasks and not having any rest or personal development time.
• 2017 was not a great year for travel for me. This is especially true for international travel. I would like to explore the world a bit more, even if it is in my home state.
• Read more outside of UX. I would like to learn more about another discipline. Be that fine art, history or social sciences. I would like to increase my knowledge about a field that could be complementary to UX, but is not strictly UX.