7 projects, 12 months

Publish Date: Dec 12 '19

65 13

So originally I was planning to do a 12 projects, 12 months year-long project. I only had two ideas and one is a bigger one. Someone gave me the idea of doing sprints for it and develop it in different phases.

But I still want to do other projects along the way so I decided to switch off months, or do a couple months of sprints and then switch to a different project but I’ve decided to talk about some projects exactly I want to do.

I honestly haven’t decided all of them but getting started on these will take me through September so I’m sure I’ll have more ideas later.

PROJECTS TO BE COMPLETED:

Workout Calendar- This is going to be my larger project. I’m hoping to do six different sprints in order to get it up and running and quality. I’m hoping to have it to at least a usable state by April at the latest. I also want to create this as an app which I have never done before. If anyone knows if there is an android equivalent to this site let me know.

Color picker that changes site colors- I saw Jack do this on his portfolio site. Basically he takes into account the color contrast for accessibility and when you choose a new focus color it’ll update the rest of the site to maintain color contrast. I thought that was super awesome so I want to try it out.

Build a react component- This seems like something that will be really quick but I want an idea for something I will reuse time and time again to do it for. I don’t necessarily care if it’s been done before but everything I’ve coded before are complete projects so I want to try to do something that can be put in multiple.

Breakout- This is one of those games I loved playing as a kid. I want to recreate this using C++ so that I have more experience instead of just lessons. Break out of the tutorial stage… get it? I’ll see myself out.

WordPress theme- I’ve wanted to create my own theme for a while now. Granted I do love my current one I do want something personalized.

Basically I want my GitHub to be a lot more entertaining than it was this year. I think this year I was stuck in a “I don’t know what I want to create.”

And who knows what 2020 will bring. If I get selected for the second part of the scholarship I’ll be doing 5 projects with the Nanodegree.

What projects do you have planned for 2020?

Originally published : https://jkimexploring.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/7-projects-12-months/

Comments 13 total

Ben LovyDec 12, 2019
This is a great idea - I definitely continually fall into the same rut. Spelling it all out for yourself ahead of time is a good way to set a roadmap! I also think 7 is a more realistic number than 12, setting realistic goals is important for setting yourself up for success. By December 12, 2020, I'm hoping to have completed the following seven:
1. Finish my music synthesizer/generator project, with rudimentary music authoring and a playable keyboard.
2. Build a graphical game of Yahtzee using Rust/WASM with networked play and an AI opponent.
3. Complete porting my portfolio to Gatsby.js instead of homebrew DIY mish-mash, and re-host all DEV blog posts there.
4. Build a more robust attendance system over my first attempt that isn't so tightly coupled to one particular school.
5. Add a new feature to the DEV codebase - right now I have my eyes on a way to embed MIDI files in posts using liquid tags.
6. Add features to my home-grown Lisp interpreter so I can dogfood Advent of Code 2020 in a language I built myself.
7. I dunno, maybe get a tech job :)
A bunch of this is stuff I've already messed around with and have repositories for - starting projects is fun, but 2020 is going to be about the follow-through.
- JkImExploringDec 12, 2019
  
  I've seen some playable keyboards and they're so cool!
  My portfolio site right now has the blog part just linked to DEV but I might switch it at some point.... or redo the whole site. I'm not as happy with it now as I was when I first made it.
  Those all seem like great goals! I like how so many are multi-part.
  I hope to get a tech job within the next year but I'd also be good with doing SEO and/or social media with a different company because I do enjoy it.
  - Ben LovyDec 12, 2019
    
    I'm not as happy with it now as I was when I first made it.
    
    Every time I feel stuck for what to build, I just look through my super old GitHub graveyard, and then I get overwhelmed at how much work I really do already have in front of me...
    
    On the one hand it's cool to see the skill progression in yourself, but on the other what the heck was Past Ben thinking?!
    - JkImExploringDec 12, 2019
      
      I have two graveyard projects right now. One was redoing a final project because it was a mess and the other is a connect four board but I have no desire to do either anymore so I set new goals. Hopefully I finish these? Those were also ones other people told me to do so I think just wanting to do them for myself will encourage me more.
      - Ben LovyDec 12, 2019
        
        I don't think there's any real harm in moving on from a project that hasn't captured your interest as long as you're dropping it in favor of something you actually will build and learn from.
        
        A connect-four board sounds pretty fun, though, maybe something to revisit in a new style down the road? I like having small projects I feel I fully understand, they're good for learning new tools and paradigms so you don't also need to learn a whole new problem. It's way easier to learn one thing at a time.
        
        JkImExploringDec 12, 2019
        
        I'm keeping it on my GitHub so if I decide to do it down to road I won't be starting from scratch. It was a starter project for Chingu but it ended up lining up with a vacation I planned and I didn't have time to finish before I left.
Ali SheriefDec 12, 2019

Those are very exciting things to do. I want to make a GUI toolkit that can replace GLUT, but OpenGL shaders have been a thorny topic for me. The single biggest problem I'm facing is that I can't debug shaders (renderdoc comes close, but no OpenGL shader debugging support, alas). I've taken a hiatus from OpenGL entirely because of that.

I remember when I made my first OpenGL program: A bunch of models on a grey screen with camera controls on the keyboard. Then I learned how to shine a diffuse color on the screen (yay completely pitch dark models!). Now I'm trying to implement reusable BRDF models so I can put them into other OpenGL programs, but how do you do that if you can't even debug it.

Think about all the JS programs we wouldn't have been able to build if there was no JS debugger!

I'm also fond of 3D modelling with Blender but the whole OpenGL episode left a sore on me.
- JkImExploringDec 12, 2019
  
  That just sounds so frustrating! I've never done 3D modeling but I kind of want to try. I also want to learn SVG next year but that I don't know what to create yet, I might just create something cool for my portfolio homepage.
Richard SchlossDec 12, 2019

One more hashtag to use...the 4th one might be: #youCanDoIt
Abhay GoswamiDec 13, 2019
To-do list for 2020:

-Bhahi-khata( application for managing your expenses)
-Get AWS solutions architect certificate
- Master React, MongoDB and Node.js
- JkImExploringDec 13, 2019
  
  Those are great goals! Good luck!!
Blake StansellDec 13, 2019

This is a great post! I'm trying to get a list together as well, although as a beginner mine will probably be more like 4 projects in 12 months :)

My biggest goal is to get my personal website finished and pulling in blog posts from a headless cms.

Have you considered a PWA for your app? I've been going through some tutorials on them, and, unless you know or want to learn Kotlin, they seem like a great way to build an app without getting lost in the weeds.
- JkImExploringDec 13, 2019
  
  4 is better than nothing! I only did one this year I think... whoops but it was my portfolio site.
  I haven't looked into PWAs yet! I will though!

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