🗓 2020 Recap: Life Shuffle
It’s wacky how much my life changed in 2020. I quit my job, moved out of the city, and restarted my career as an indie developer. My partner and I bought our first house and car, inherited 9 chickens, and got a dog! I went from being stressed and tired to creative and free.
The story of this year is best told a month at a time, so let’s head all the way back to January. And, if you missed it, here’s a link to my 2019 Review.
January 🏃♂️👋🏻✍️
I was running more than ever, making new friends at meet-ups in Montreal, and writing one blog post per week! This combination of exercise and writing felt amazing but eventually waned as the easy topics dried up.
February 🤕🔥
I got injured and stopped running for the rest of the year. I also stopped writing. At the time, I didn’t see this as causation but it definitely seems like it now. Shortly after, I explored Flutter by building a note-taking app, which sparked a desire I hadn’t felt in a long time—the desire to go back to indie development. ✨
March ✈️❤️❄️
I flew to Arizona for a work retreat. It was awesome to see my team face to face, some of whom I hadn’t even met yet! Right after, my partner and I visited her parents up north for a few weeks and ended up hiding out for 6 months, waiting for the pandemic to blow over. That never happened, but living in a temporary place with only one pair of pants caused me to reconsider some things. 🤔
April / May 🚣🏼♂️🏔
I mostly lived in the moment, trying to make the best of our situation. Living without my own space for months without an end date was really hard. Solo kayak trips and hikes helped gain back some of the control I’d lost.
June 😬
I explored some new personal projects and launched will-you-please. I also spent too much time stressing about whether or not to leave my job. I was half-way through a 2-year acquisition agreement so leaving early meant giving up a huge financial opportunity.
July ⛅️💨
I made the decision to quit and return to indie development, saying goodbye to the project I’d spent the last 6 years of my life on. The pandemic forced me to realize that the future isn’t guaranteed so I left while the opportunity still existed.
August 🗺🤗
My partner and I visited my parents before embarking on a month-long road-trip in a rented SUV, looking for a new town to call home; it turned out we didn’t miss the city life and after meeting the warm and friendly people in every small town we visited, we knew it was the right choice.
September 🏡🚀
We bought our first home—log construction, with a horse barn, a field, and a workshop—in the small town of 100 Mile House. Real-estate was cheap and the place was perfect, so we went for it! It was the first place we looked at in person. I also launched codesalad.dev as a place to publish my programming-related thoughts.
October 🚗🏠❄️
We bought our first car, moved into our home, and inherited 8 chickens and a rooster! Then, winter came and the chores began. It felt good to move my body again. Shoveling snow, chopping wood, and cooking every day provided a certain satisfaction that the city couldn’t. For the first time in my life I lived somewhere that truly felt like home.
November / December 📚🐶🎄
I launched a new app ReadRally, we got a dog and finally met our neighbors. It turns out having a dog eats up a lot of time so not much happened in December. We stayed home for Christmas and I dug into a few of the books we’ve been snagging at the local new/used bookstore.
And that was my 2020 in a nutshell. I spent the entire year turning my life upside down to get to a new starting point. I’m excited to develop new habits and patterns in 2021, and there are three main things I want to focus on:
- reach $5k MRR on indie projects,
- start physical hobbies like woodworking and gardening,
- and be more active outdoors.
These focuses are generic and easy, and that’s the point. I’m leaving lots of room for exploration and while I settle into a new rhythm, and I’m super excited to get started.
See you on the other side 👋🏻