The Power of Log

I recently started a new position at a new organization, and it was the biggest change in my career. My family moved overseas to Cambridge, leaving behind all our friends and most of our belongings. But working on a fixed-length contract is a new opportunity for me. It let me answer the old question "Where do you want to be in three years?" knowing that in three years I'll need to find a new job, instead of just thinking about it.

I've been a tech lead for many years, mostly because being a development manager didn't really appeal to me. So I started looking at other positions I would be qualified for, if I had the relevant experience. I decided I've got three years to get that experience, and plenty of opportunities as my new organization. But looking at all the things I will need to do is a daunting list, and I needed a way to break it down into SMART-type goals.

The first thing I noticed is that 3 years is about 1,000 days. So that gave me a deadline for all my major goals. Then I decided on some long-term goals that support the major goals, and set deadlines of 100 days for those. Last, I created some short-term goals and gave myself 10 days to start those.

Over the course of the 1,000 days, all those little 10 day goals will add up to a ton of experience, and also help keep me from getting overwhelmed by the task at hand. Three years seems like a long time, but it will fly by. My goal is to have something to show for it all at the end.

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