Baru Obračajová

I am big on resolutions – as a biohacking data and productivity nerd AND someone who struggles with wanting to do EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME, I am all about setting intentional goals. This applies to language learning, fitness, travel, and, of course, my design work.

So let me take a minute and some internet real estate to reflect on the past ones and get set for the future.

My Q3/Q4 Design Learning Goals

My Q3/Q4 learning goals were as follows:

• Produce a new learning format and test with real audience
• Do user research and make a scope for my next big project
• Make more design friends

The production of new format was awesome – I created a limited release, eight episode long podcast for my classes. The students have given awesome feedback to this, and it made learning more accessible. I also dug deep into creating a tangible artefact: the course map.

As to my scoping adventure, I wanted to get better at identifying user needs and scoping my own projects. This makes it a little meta – my goal was to identify my goals? – but it turns out that it was exactly what I needed. I have been hyper vigilant for any opportunities, talking to a lot of humans, and now I think I am onto something. Hence my goals below.

Beyond that, I wanted to make more design friends. This may sound corny, but when I made legal tech and design friends at a summer school a while ago, it has been truly life changing and a serious source of joy in my life and work. So I have been reaching out to people and making design buddies, a practice that I intend to deepen in my next learning cycle.

My Design Learning Goals for Q1/Q2 2024

My learning goals just kind of surfaced from the work I was doing. While I was making the course map, I was frustrated, because I did not feel that kind of prolific freedom I feel when I am programming something. Sky was not the limit; my skill level was.

I will also want to venture into video making for the purpose of my big project, while at the same time prioritising putting myself out there over perfection. I just really want to enjoy the process and have fun with the format.

I also wish to keep on working on my design friendships (and yes, this is a learning goal), and I fully intend to time block for this in my schedule. If it is on the calendar, it gets done (and enjoyed).

So here is the full list: in Q1/Q2 2024, I intend to:

• Do 100 hours of graphic design practice
• Design and produce an absence tracking artefact
• Post three learning videos for my students
• Plan a design date for every month

On top of that I have some more other learning goals outside of design, such as that I intend to get back into Japanese classes and nourish my Duolingo streak.

If you have any resources for any of my goals, it would be awesome if you would post them into the comments.

Thanks for being on this journey with me,

Baru