I’ve never really done a proper year-end wrap-up before. At most, I’d share my favorite new albums (Billie Eilish, The Cure) or songs of the year (like 'Die With A Smile' or 'Dancer'). And by the way, here’s a playlist of 2024 tracks that really hit me.
But this time, I figured I’d write something more reflective (but still condensed). And at the very end of the year, I did my absolute favorite thing: I deleted my entire to-do list, all my projects, and tasks from task manager app. No looking back, no copying anything over, just get rid of everything. This method always helps me reset and refocus.
So, here we go. Three not so long lists as a 2024 wrap-up.
- Didn’t write a book. It’s been sitting in my head for a year and a half now, but I just can’t seem to get it onto paper.
- Didn’t keep startupt.co going (well, more like I didn’t want to).
- Still haven’t (yet!) learned how to sell myself.
- Didn’t travel enough. I could’ve explored more of my beloved Portugal, but it didn’t happen.
- Didn’t make a million euros (again!).
- Spent a lot of time bouncing between ideas “in search of myself” and finally realized: no need to overcomplicate things. Just stick to what I’m good at, what brings in money, and what keeps sparking my interest — then focus on doing that even better. And here I am.
- Fully dove into programming and turned it into one of the core tools of my daily work on both client and personal projects. It made my work easier, expanded my capabilities, and combined with my 20+ years in media, created a solid and (hopefully) sustainable foundation for something new (but old — actually I've been doing this for a very long time)
- So by the end of the year, I pulled everything I’d worked on over the past two years into something coherent, gathered my knowledge and skills, and launched an AI agency — Novocean.me. And build a website for it during one sleepless night.
- Back in April, I created startupt.co in just 5 days (from the initial idea to a custom news aggregation system, subscription, and newsletter system). By October, I had the courage to shut it down because, honestly, it didn’t spark joy anymore, but helped me to feel that I can do a lot of things I didn't even know I can. And also I met a lot of very inspiring and interesting good people thanks to this project.
- Meanwhile successfully wrapped up several big client projects (AI workshops for streamlining business processes in news media, development, strategic consulting and more).
- Accidentally built a daily music quiz for friends — sevenly.in — and next year, I want to try to turn it into proper passive income (well, “passive” is relative, of course). Maybe even bring in investors because right now, it’s only a fraction of what it could be.
- Took the first steps (including functional prototypes) for two more apps aimed at generating passive income: a fiction writer’s assistant and a slow productivity app. I just love building these, and even if they don’t go beyond prototypes, the joy of writing code and seeing it work isn’t going anywhere.
- Treated myself to a proper, month-long vacation. August was hands-down the best month of the year because of that.
- Started playing drums. And my wife gifted me a real drum kit.
- To swim in ocean on January 1 (like aI did last year).
- Have even more fun doing things I like most.
- Novocean.me: Turn the agency into a full-fledged business (I’ve got a business plan).
- Sevenly.in: Fully launch the platform with all its features, and maybe bring on investors and partners (just need to figure out all copyright stuff).
- The other two apps: Get them up and running properly too (or at least to have a good fun developing them).
- To have another annual month long vacation.
- Write a book.
- To play drums like Mike Portnoy and Tosh Peterson.
- Stop doing pointless stuff (even if it pays).
Well.. That's pretty much all. Hope next year will be better then 2024. And hope we'll have more reasons to smile, to stop sometime, breath out and just look at the beauty around us (there are a lot of it, actually).
