At the end of 2021, I made a list of 101 items to complete over the course of 1001 days (roughly 2.75 years), here’s how it went:
The good bits:
– I completed all of my personal goals like moving, settling in a new state, getting married, going on a honeymoon and some of the travel (India (Goa), Spain, and, unexpectedly, seeing the Aurora Borealis from our back yard.
– My career also went fairly well, over the last 3 years, I completed a CS degree, I was promoted to P30 which is a mid-senior level at Adobe, and at the end of 2024 I was on track for promotion to senior level (fingers crossed!). I completed trainings related to my work around accessibility and security, helped organize programming for our DEI track during an internal tech summit, and have spoken at multiple events.
– Side quests: I joined a nonprofit board and served for much of 2024 as the secretary. I started/joined a few music groups with coworkers. I volunteered and mentored junior devs at and outside of work. I joined Orange Theory Fitness and went consistently for almost 6 months! (HUGE for me). We welcomed two doggos into our lives and lost a kitty baby. It has been a lot of living! 🙂
The less good bits:
– I gave up on chess related goals. I realized it wasn’t that important for me to hold on to and it created undo stress to have it hanging over my head.
– For a chunk of the goals (28.71%), I did not start. This figure is valuable because it’s a signal of everything that I didn’t care about or was too big or outside the scope of my lifestyle (with my husband). Sometimes, if the goals are big, they need to align with the life I’m creating with my husband otherwise I’d have to go solo even though I signed a legally binding piece of paper that kind of implies not going solo through life 🙂
The stats: 
(to be honest, this “in progress + completion” rate is much higher than I expected going into this)
So what can I do differently?
I think that nobody can do everything all the time, I also think that some goals are too big or too narrow. The sweet spot is the intent behind the goal and the realistic ability to achieve them. For example, if we only travel internationally once per year, there is no way I will visit all my goal destinations unless something changes.
– Set intention goals, not action goals
– Set goals that build up towards a larger aim or purpose
– Mind-map when these things may happen (some goals take a day, some goals take a season, some goals take years)
– Choose partnerships for the goals
– Split 101 in 1001 into smaller review segments, it is very easy to forget or to change my mind about something that seemed exciting years in the past
– Don’t feel compelled to fill out 101 items. It’s okay to add over time if nothing seems that interesting right off the bat.
I am going to take some time to reflect as 2025 begins and then consider making another 101 in 1001 list to give myself direction. But as I have learned in 2024 with a journey of ADHD self-discovery, sometimes less is more. I think working on a side project that serves my passions is a much better way to spend my time than to juggle 101 to do items 🙂
Happy end of 101 in 1001 and 2024! I hope it was less of a blur than it was for me 😀
Hugs,
Melisa
Use the template below to start tracking your own 101 in 1001 ❤ (link takes you to a view only Google Sheet, you can create a copy for yourself to edit)
NOTE: Always double check links before clicking on them, make sure information comes from a trusted source and don’t enter credentials to a site you did not navigate to yourself (we’re living in dangerous scammer/phishing times), if you are reading on mobile and cannot hover, this is the same link but less pretty: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TkHHwvplpq20o70jC08aKE5BKTgfyXQBTqIAiYMG2Fs/edit?usp=sharing
Illustrated by Meli 