Review of 2022 goals

At the end of every year, I carve out some time to reflect on the past year and to reflect on what I have learned. Let’s see how I did with the goals I outlined for 2022:

Work goals

• Writing: Submit 5 journal papers (I outlined the topics for these): I submitted four of the papers from this list of five, as well as some other papers. I kept up a steady flow and I see that 9 papers are listed in Scopus (some haven’t come through yet) and 18 in Google Scholar (which picks up some conference papers and chapters as well).
• Research: spend 3 weeks in Delft (pandemic permitting), plan experiments, analyze other experiments, analyze yet another set of experiments, and apply for funding (not sure which source yet) in the Fall. I spent three lovely weeks in Delft, as well as a short week in September for a defense. We planned the experiments that will start in March and finished analyzing the previous series of experiments. We got funding for a new project related to fire safety (for Delft) and a European project related to fiber concrete (for USFQ).
• Teaching: prep new MEng course, prep new MSc courses (2), supervise 3 BSc students, graduate 6 MSc students, graduate 3 PhD students. I taught the new MEng course and have the material ready for 1 out of 2 MSc courses. I supervised only 1 BSc student, and graduated 4 MSc students and 1 PhD student.
• Service: get the journal ACI Avances into Amelica and Redalyc and improve periodicity, work on committee documents, role as IABSE SEI vice-president, attend 1 conference in person (pandemic permitting). For ACI Avances we achieved all goals and are about the submit the application for indexation in Scielo. I worked on (too) many committee documents, served as the IABSE SEI vice-president and attended 2 conferences in person.
• Admin: maintain inbox zero. Sort of. The end of the semester rush put me with a backlog again, but all in all the email monster has been mostly tamed.
• Blog: increase podcast downloads, get 3 speaking engagements, get more newsletter subscribers, break even with costs. Mixed bag. We got more podcast downloads. I gave two workshops (one on peer review and one on doctoral defenses) but these were for free. I got a bit of growth for the newsletter. I managed to cover the costs of hosting and website maintenance.

Personal

• Average 8.75 hours of sleep per night. I average 7h37min, which is marginally better than the 7h32min from 2021. I’ve been struggling with waking up in the night in our new house due to light entering from outside. I was also teaching on Saturday during the fall, so I didn’t have the chance to sleep in on Saturday.
• Read 52 books. 74 and counting.
• Daily meditation. On and off, and it’s been taking me some time to find a new routine in the new house.
• Resume exercise, get to 30-60′ of exercise per day as prescribed by my oncologist. I started going to the gym again in September, so that’s a step forward.
• Finish the online courses I purchased. I purchased more courses and didn’t finish the old ones.
• Move my piano to Ecuador. Yes, what a joy.
• Move to our new house. Yes, and still working on putting everything in place.
• Go hiking once a month. We did some hikes at the beginning of the year and then stalled with the move.
• Spend 4 weekends outside the city. We went to Ibarra, Pintag and Baños.
• Have a summer holiday as a family. We had a long holiday.
• Have two lunch dates per month. Didn’t happen.
• Volunteer as a family (pandemic permitting). Didn’t happen.