2021 in Retrospect

Friday, December 31, 2021

What the hell did I even do this year?

2021 was a year of fits and starts; bursts of creative energy, followed by virtual hibernation and physical depression. If you had asked me before I started writing this, I'd have been hard-pressed to think of anything I accomplished this year. But in looking back (meaning scrolling my Twitter feed back as far as it'll go) there are actually quite a few things that I'm proud of.

Now, this list is largely for my own benefit, to remind myself that the year wasn't wasted. In case you're curious, here's all the stuff I made and posted about this year, in chronological order:

• January 4: Started a new blog
• January 21: Snake on a Spreadsheet Advance
• February 4: "How to make Minesweeper in Google Sheets"
• February 5: Color-Matching Memory Game
• February 12: "Why you should use Google Sheets as your browser homepage"
• February 16: "Automatically copy your shared Google files"
• February 23: "How to shuffle a range in Google Sheets"
• March 13: "Making an escape room in Google Sheets"
• March 15: "Add a little light to your day"
• March 26: "5 popular ways to automate spreadsheets and make them work for you"
• March 29: Weather forecast in Google Sheets
• April 1: Secret Roles
• April 24: "Blooming flowers in Google Sheets"
• April 29: "How to use Zapier at work—no matter your role or industry"
• May 17: "How I turn Google Sheets checkboxes into buttons"
• May 21: "I let anyone change my Twitter avatar for a week, and it was pretty much fine."
• May 24: "Google Docs is switching to canvas-based rendering. Here's what that means."
• May 30: Spreadsheet Tactics Alpha
• June 11: Created a Twitter account and new docs for Oregano
• June 12: Checkers
• June 15: "Make video games in Google Sheets using only built-in functions (Part 1)"
• June 15: "The Zapier guide to line items"
• June 18: Figured out how to make animations in Google Sheets
• June 22: Google Sheets Calendar
• June 29: "Make video games in Google Sheets using only built-in functions (Part 2: Board Games)"
• June 29: "5 ways photographers can start automating their work"
• June 30: "5 ways automation can help entertainers maintain a remote presence"
• July 3: infini-footy
• July 19: "Create helpful documentation from Slack messages"
• July 31: chaos board
• August 5: Interactive list in Google Sheets
• August 6: Started Sheet Street
• August 9: Rippling pond
• August 13: Made a spreadsheet portfolio… spreadsheet
• August 17: "To get the most out of automation, try using it less"
• August 20: pinTabPomo
• August 22: favicon snake
• August 24: favicon pong
• August 24: "Making interactive favicons with SVG"
• September 2: favicon chat
• September 6: sheet-posting
• September 13: "How to get automated text alerts for upcoming calendar events"
• September 14: "How to send automated reminders for upcoming calendar events"
• September 23: Conway's Game of Life in Google Sheets
• October 4: "You're carrying Soviet spy tech in your pocket. Here's how it got there." (Part 1)
• October 7: "The Zapier Manager guide: How to add automation to your Zapier account"
• October 15: 5-hour Google Sheets live build
• October 27: "5 automation ideas to do more with Google Forms"
• October 28: Snake in Rows
• October 31: Hosted our annual Halloween movie festival/quiz night
• November 10: pieces of sheet
• November 15: "That’s no spreadsheet… that’s a game engine!"
• November 17: cursor svg snake
• November 23: SPARKLINE Drawing + Bezier Curves
• November 29: Made a new links page
• December 2: Started a new role at Zapier
• December 13: "You're carrying Soviet spy tech in your pocket. Here's how it got there." (Part 2)
• December 15: SheetDelver
• December 31: Convert JSON to CSV

Running some rough numbers for the hell of it, that's 59 items over 361 days (I didn't do anything January 1-3, apparently), with an average of 6.3 days between them. The longest gap between items was 23 days in April. June and August are tied for most productive months, at 9 items each. The most popular project was sheet-posting, which was re-shared on Kottke.org and received an honorable mention under "Most Helpful Tool" in Glitch's year-end review.

Next year's theme is Foundation: I'm focusing on creating a stable and comfortable space at home and work, so I can do good work and relax despite the… gestures vaguely at everything. This means projects will be consciously fewer and further between (but maybe of a higher quality?) while I concentrate on things that can't necessarily be shown in the same way, like my morning routine or exercise habits.

I'm grateful to everyone who got me through this past year, and I'm looking forward to another year together (even if it's over Zoom calls and Twitter threads). Let's get to it. 💖