My 2024 Goals

Happy New Year!

It is that time of the year when we feel energetic and set goals for the rest of the year. I do that each year as well. Sometimes, I achieve my goals, and sometimes, I learn something about myself. So, the outcomes are always good. 

The goals for this year are a little tricky. I expect to finish my studies, hence a significant change in my lifestyle. This makes the future too blurry. But I will try my best to set directions. Let’s see what I plan to do this year!

Ph.D.

The goal here is simple. Finish my Ph.D. I have finished writing one draft of my thesis and plan to defend it by the summer term. The process is straightforward: My advisors will review the draft and suggest changes; after a few iterations, we finalize the thesis; we pick the committee for my defense; I present my thesis to them and answer their questions; and hopefully, they approve it.

Post PhD

The goal here is to get a full-time job. I consider postdoc positions temporary jobs equivalent to internships (because of the low salary). While I may accept a postdoc position as a backup, I want a full-time position in industry or academia. I might take a break after I finish my Ph.D. before I start working.

Emotional Intelligence

This is a new direction I want to intentionally move towards. Many books I read last year emphasize emotional awareness and intelligence. A lot of our decisions and behavior are guided heavily by our emotions. Our ability to detect them (in real-time) and act on them can bring high benefits. A higher level of emotional intelligence would involve identifying the other people’s emotions in the scene. 

Many things can help improve emotional intelligence. I have been writing a one-line story of the day (like a mini journal entry) on my daily tracking sheet. This has helped me a lot. The next level is to identify emotions right when I am feeling them. I will use the feelings wheel (a richer vocabulary of emotions) to track them. I will try to hit each emotion in the wheel at least once. I know that I will feel each emotion over the year, but this goal is about identifying them.

I considered writing a journal daily, but I don’t think I can sustain that. I will instead stick to the one-line journal for each day and write a more extended entry at least once a month. 

YouTube

This year, I plan to publish about 30 videos. 15 videos on modern portfolio theory, 10 on MIP Solver Reading Club, and 5 on other topics (my research projects or something else).

Reading

Learning from the mistake I made last year, I will not set a goal on the number of books to read, but a goal on the number of days I read. I plan to read (or listen to audiobooks) for at least 280 days this year. This is now included in my tracking sheet.

Finance

The finance goals for this year are tricky. I don’t know where I will be working or my income. I also expect the interest levels to drop this year. So, for now, I plan to slightly increase my passive income from last year: 900 CAD instead of 800 CAD. But, I will most likely revise this goal when I get a full-time job offer.

Health

I am happy with my goals and performance from last year. So, I will continue it. All I have to do is track the number of days I exercise and eat sugar. This year, in addition to sugar, I will also track the number of days I eat unhealthy meals. The benefit of this kind of tracking is that I still get to skip exercise, eat sugar, or eat unhealthy food. But I don’t overdo it. So, no FOMO. This makes it sustainable over the long term.

Blog

The goal last year of writing at least 20 blogs worked well for me. I will continue it. This number is neither too high to make the writing a drag nor too low for me to completely abandon it. So, I will write only when I am excited to share something!

If any of my goals resonate with you, please share them with me. I am curious to know your goals as well! Have a great 2024!

My Favorites

Video: Self awareness (Project Tenacious)

Quote: "Life is like an empty field. With intention, it becomes a garden, without it weeds and debris will take over. Something will grow either way, but it’s your choice what takes root." — John Steinbeck