Goals for 2021

I traditionally write out my goals per year and my goals and tasks per semester. I use these lists then to anchor my monthly and weekly tasks that go on my calendar. For reference, here are my goals for 2014, 2015, 2019, and 2020 (looks like I forgot to blog about my goals for some years).

Planning 2021 was harder than planning any other year. I made me think deeply about what I’ve learned in all these years of planning, which also made me develop a course on reflecting on the past year and planning for the next year.

It’s hard to plan a year when there is so much uncertainty. So, I did not include travel in my plans, except for going to the Netherlands for my research (hopefully, although I’m doubtful we’ll get the vaccine any time soon in Ecuador). I focused on what I can control if the circumstances remain the same – that is, if I remain healthy, with employment, and able to work from home. I do not take these things for granted anymore, and have done some thinking on these scenarios to explore how I feel about these threats.

Without much further navel-gazing from my side, here are my goals for 2021:

Work goals

Writing: Submit 5 journal papers (I outlined the topics for these)
Research: travel to Delft for lab work, define research question with my most recently started PhD candidate, analyze the data from my survey on the PhD defenses, work on Research Project, apply for XX funding.
Teaching: obtain my UTQ, find balance with online teaching, teach in the MSc program in Delft (or get more involved somehow), supervise 4 BSc students, graduate 6 MSc students, graduate 2 co-supervised PhD students.
Service: get the journal ACI Avances into Scielo, propose a session for a conference, work on committee documents, edit a part of an issue of IABSE SEI, attend 4 conferences virtually
Admin: tackle my email backlog, maintain inbox zero
Blog: increase podcast downloads, develop 3 online courses, get 2 speaking engagements, improve website further, improve newsletter with exclusive content

Personal