Going from a steady salary from my job to an inconsistent income was a bit challenging at first.
Travel
Last year I said I wanted to travel more, so I really made it a priority this year. Here is a list of places I went in 2012. Seattle, Las Vegas, Seattle, Kansas City, Portland, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
Writing
In May I made a commitment to write 1,000 words a day. I broke my streak of days in a row a few times, but now it is going strong and I am at 165 days in a row. That slow, consistent progress is what allowed me to write two books, almost two dozen guest posts, and over thirty posts on this blog in the last year.
Learning the value of teaching
I heard all the time how important it was to teach in order to build your brand and market products, but I never understood it fully until this year. But, this year I took it to heart and used writing as my primary method of teaching. Traffic to this blog has grown incredibly and I’ve become friends with some very talented people through this site.
New Friends
I met a lot of great new people this year, many of whom I talk to on a weekly basis. They’ve helped me grow my personal brand, kept me on track to publish my books, and given incredibly valuable advice every step of the way. Now I plan to go to even more conferences.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, people I met through posting on this site and on Hacker News have been invaluable.
What Did Not Go Well
Focus
I have a serious problem being able to stay focused and complete a task without opening up tabs, reading Twitter, and looking at stats. If I improved this last year, it was only by a tiny percentage. Not good. As my blog became more popular I became more addicted to refreshing meaningless metrics rather than creating new content.
Checking email, Twitter, and Facebook on my phone has also been a constant interruption of time spent with family. I think this is the biggest issue I need to deal with in 2013.
Speaking
I would like to speak at more conferences, but I didn’t make it a priority this last year. Outside of a few small talks to 30-100 people, I did very little speaking. Now that I have the two books out of the way I’d like to do more speaking in 2013. But it probably won’t fall into my lap, so it is something I need to actively pursue.
Accounts Receivable
I mentioned earlier that I had some outstanding accounts receivable that I did not include in my consulting revenue for this year.
In theory I will receive this money eventually, but it may take a while. That’s why I love selling products, I get paid up front and don’t have to worry about collecting payments.
Limited Programming
Last year I spent a lot of time learning Objective-C and improving my general programming skills. Unfortunately this year, especially the second half of the year, I didn’t continue to learn and practice. The time I would have spent programming was replaced by writing the books. It worked out really well for me, but I want to make sure I dedicate plenty of time for programming practice this coming year.
Self Employment
Overall, being self employed has been wonderful. Between time to travel and time to pursue interesting projects, I’ve had a great year. Plus, doubling my income is a nice benefit as well. My goal for this last year was to exceed my previous salary, so I’d call that a success. Being able to do that and have complete control of my time is a wonderful thing. I especially love not having to fill out time-off request forms anytime I want to leave town for a few days.
