2025 | A blank canvas
A blank canvas. A clean slate. A new year. An opportunity to start again.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reflecting a lot on 2024. I accomplished a lot as I shared in this viz that was recognised as Viz of the Day by Tableau (my 4th of the year!). There were so many highlights that I simply can’t list them all. Every way I look at it, winning IronViz comes top of the list. It was in many ways a catalyst for other successes throughout the year. Without that I don’t think I would have started this blog (something which I have thought about doing for a while but needed an extra push towards), and almost certainly would not have had the opportunity to present 25 times!
Through all of this, my family took more of a back seat. I was fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time with them, but it was not as much as I would have liked. There were big achievements in my home life. My wife and I bought our first house in the summer which had been a goal for both of us for a couple of years. There were also other family events that I pushed to one side and ignored as best as I could. In the run up to IronViz, my grandmother passed away. Even now, 9 months later, thinking about it makes me numb. I didn’t have time to process it then, and I’ve tried my hardest to not process it since. In 2025, I want that sort of approach to home life to change.
Shifting Goals
My goals for 2024 were dominated by my career. I wanted to publish more vizzes, do more public speaking, write x many blog posts. Those things are still there in 2025, but in a smaller way. I am keen to change my focus and approach the future in a broader way. For years now I have looked on data as my life, but I have a life outside of data as well.
My Goals for 2025
Goals are often very personal, and I’m not going to share all of mine with you. What I do want to achieve through this is a sense of accountability. The online community that I have access to is incredibly supportive, and I know that you can help me achieve these things this year.
Exercise 5 days a week – My physical health has suffered over the past few years. It’s time I take control of that. It doesn’t have to be much exercise, but my goal is to do something that gets my heart rate up at least 5 times a week.
Read 50 pages a week (of anything!) – Reading 10 pages of a good book everyday has been something I have tried to do since I was in school. This year, I’m changing what a “good book” is. It no longer needs to be motivational. It doesn’t have to be a self-help book. It doesn’t have to relate to work. In fact, it might be better if it’s none of those things! I love reading, and this goal relates to reading just for the fun of reading. First up – The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien.
1 hour of fun vizzing a week – Sometimes we need to go back to why we do what we do. I want to get back to creating visualisations purely for the fun of visualising data. The pressure I put on myself last year took some of that away and I’m excited to get it back. What do I mean by “fun vizzing”? Vizzing for me about topics that interest me and that I care about. This will likely mean a few more rugby related vizzes which the vast number of people are not interested in, but I will try to ensure that the concepts have broader applications and can be lifted and shifted to other datasets.
12 Blog posts – This is more a minimum than a target. When I launched the blog last June I said that I wanted to produce a post every 2 weeks. Well, that turned out to be a lot of work! I want to prioritise quality over quantity so that the content that I produce offers value to you, my readers. And no, this post doesn’t count!
As part of my overall aim to spend less time on work based activities, I’ll be tracking my progress towards these goals by hand. Manually visualising data is a great way to become more creative and go back to basics.
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I always feel a great deal of excitement at the start of the year. 2025 is still very much a blank canvas that you can do whatever you want with. What are you planning for this year? Whatever it is, I hope that there is a bright year ahead for all of you!
Take care // Chris