fresh from the archives

50 days in public

The idea is pretty simple - you post a message with your goals for the rest of the year, and reply to that message thread every day with what you've done for the day. People can give advice and encouragement to eachother, and everyone is motivated to lock in and finish their year with a bang.

My goals for the last 50 days of 2025

Building:

• Build a personal website that reflects me, looks cool, and will be easy to update and work on in future
• Plan and make a proposal for my YSWS idea (tentatively called The Box)
• Work towards getting a ticket + flight stipend to Overglade

Learning:

• Learn cross-platform mobile development, either through React Native or Flutter
• Study hard for my end-of-year exams
• Stay consistent with practicing Clarinet and honing my competitive programming skills

Life-ing:

• Sit the exam for my drivers license
• Plan at least one hangout with friends before the end of the year

The big things I wanted to do were to earn my drivers licence, do well in my exams, and work my way towards a ticket and flight stipend for Overglade. I think it's interesting that of these 8 goals, only

My day-to-day was pretty simple: I'd work towards my goals, and then sometime in the evening I'd make a post on Slack about my progress for the day. Before I went to bed I usually set myself some work to do the next day, so that I could start the day with some clear goals in mind. Here's a typical post:

Day 18/50:

• Made a projects page for my personal website - it still needs some work though.
• Finally, FINALLY got Milkyway Pets working for macOS (I hope - I haven't been able to confirm whether it works)
• Practiced clarinet for ~30-35 minutes. It's the first time I've played since I got sick, but I really want to make a habit of practicing most days.
• Went out and practiced driving in the evening - I felt a lot more confident that last time (actually, less terrified might be more accurate)
• Realised that I'd lost my 33-day Anki streak

After spending my last month with exams looming over my shoulder, it feels so weird to have all this time to myself. I still want to manage my time better than I have in the past, and avoid spending too much time on YT and Slack - hopefully these goals can be reminders for future me.

I think setting myself a To-do list everyday was probably the thing that made the biggest difference during this time. I'd frequently set myself more than I could chew, but it's very satisfying completing a list and I think not having to choose what to do makes it a lot easier to get started with something.

What I achieved

Build a personal website	A success! You're looking at it now :) I wrote a blogpost about it here.
Plan and make a proposal for my YSWS idea Make something with hardware	I ended up making a event proposal that got a good amount of attention, but I realised that I didn't have the time to run an event any time soon (although I'm working on this in the background). I changed this goal to something I've wanted to do for a while (since Highway) but never got started with: learning hardware! I ended up designing a circuit board christmas tree ornament with blinking LEDs!
Work towards getting a ticket + flight stipend to Overglade	This is probably the goal I spent the most time on - even more than my exams 😅 As of the time of writing I'm just waiting on a project review before I buy a ticket to Singapore! I wanted to finish my two big projects before the end of the year. I didn't quite hit that goal due to unforseen bugs, but I made a lot of good progress. You can check out my projects made for Milkyway here: Milkyway Pets Burning Rain
Learn cross-platform mobile development	Ehh. I downloaded Expo and started messing around with React Native, but that's about it. This is still something that I have an interest in, but other things are taking up my time at the moment.
Study hard for my end-of-year exams	I think I did okay in my exams, but I definitely feel like I used getting sick as a bit of an excuse to slack off. I definitely need to take better notes throughout the year.
Stay consistent with practicing Clarinet and honing my competitive programming skills	I definitely practiced Clarinet more than I would have otherwise, but I don't think I was really that consistent with it. I learnt two new songs though! I also did this year's Advent of Code challenge and solved 9 out of the 24 problems. I got a bit busy (and lazy) and didn't complete all of them, but I think that even just doing those 9 was good practice. Again, though, calling it consistent is a bit of a stretch.
Sit the exam for my drivers license	I did it! It was way easier than I thought it would be. I put this off for like a year out of a lack of need/motivation, but once I actually started dedicating time towards learning the road rules it was really easy. I now have my learner's licence and am learning to drive my parents' manual!
Plan at least one hangout with friends before the end of the year	Unfortunately this didn't happen for... reasons. Attempting to organise something in the new year.

Closing thoughts

It's kinda crazy to me how much I got done in these 50 days. Even though I didn't achieve everything I hoped to, it's still way more than I would have done otherwise. I want to bring this same process into the new year, setting goals and slowly but surely making my way towards them. I want to be more sparing with what projects I put myself into and more consistent with my efforts. Keeping a log of what I do day-to-day makes it easier to recognise what I'm sending my time on and notice patterns (i need to start journaling again). If you have any suggestions or thoughts, let met know!

If you want to try something like 50 Days, you can commit to daily updates on social media or in a personal channel, or if you're in Hack Cub, you can also join 365 Days. I'm feeling really good about this new year, and I want to make the most of every moment. Even though it's a bit late, I hope you have a wonderful 2026.

Until next time,