Jan 10, 2021 7 min read #offtopic

2020 Recap

This is my recap for this 2020.

General overview

It probably is the most weird, tough year in our lives. This is the year that was stolen from us. The year when we were locked down. The year when you probably lost your job, your friend's parents had to close his business or that one when some of your friend hung on several months to get paid for an ERTE (Record of Temporary Employment Regulation). Or even worst, the year when you or some of your friends lost a loved one because of a fucking virus who no one had invited to the party.

Maybe we didn't deserve this year, or maybe yes, who knows. Chances are we deserve it somehow. Because of our unconcious way of living (not taking care about climate change, generating more and more polution and trash, we think we own Earth...) this virus has come to tell us "hey! stop going this way". You know, maybe nature is trying to say something to us.

I know a lot of people passed away since this pandemic started, loadsof them are facing real tought times like homeless, refugees, old and sick people... but c'mon many of us hasn't been bad at all. No travel, restricted social life, restricted movements between towns or provinces. Ok. But many of us have been lucky enough of having food, water, a roof above us, our family close by... I am grateful that my family is safe and healthy.

You know, 2020 hasn't been a year for exploring out there but for travel inside. At least we have good news now in 2021, the first version of the vaccine is already here. We hope it works #fingerscrossed

Working

I've been tracking some personal metrics this year and one of them are related to work. Fortunately I kept my job in spite of the pandemic.

Also, Crononauta decided to change the workday's length so we can spend more time with family, or just relax, because of the pandemic. That was an amazing idea and I think now we've found a great balance between work and life.

I worked more than 1499 hours this year. I reached an average of 35491 keystrokes and 3369 clicks a day, and a personal record of 67605 keystrokes and 6919 clicks in only one day.

Learning

One of my main goals for 2020 was to push my English skills to the next level, specially in speaking.

I've been studying English in some different ways in 2020. I signed up for a local English Academy from February to June and also for 8Belts from May until now. I took some grammar lessons from grammar books, YouTube videos and sometimes I used Babbel too.

I think the method that is working the most for me is 8Belts. I have a commitment of studying 40 minutes a day and to achieve 2 steps (or peldaños as they call them) every day. The vocabulary and sentences you learn are very useful, and you have to go over your vocabulary every day to earn points to step up a new peldaño. That's very nice because repetition is one of the keys to efectively remember everything. With 8Belts I also put my speaking skills into practice talking to natives from different countries weekly. I really feel more fluent at speaking than before, so this is great :)

I'm not planning to go back to a local academy for now. They're very focused only in grammar and to train you to pass Cambridge's or any other exam. What I want is to really get better at English, not passing an exam. That's totally secondary for me.

I added up a total of 268 hours of learning English this year.

211h with 8Belts / 18h of speaking training
I'm a Belt 6 right now, which means I can master the language but I'll continue studying this 2021 to get better and reach the Belt 7 (
47h with the local English academy
7h 39 min with Babbel
6h 40 min with grammar books
2h 30 min with YouTube lessons

Fitness

Another goal for this year was to keep swimming and try to beat my personal record of swum kms in 2019. That was not possible because of the pandemic.

I had to stop my swimming training because of Covid-19

I were doing bodyweight workouts at home during my lockdown, from March to June when I started going out of home to exercise, until I changed it for cycling. And I have to say that I had never done so many kms before :)

It's been great to "discover" cycling this year because I found a great balance among being outside, exercising, breathing fresh air, burning calories, sunbathing and, of course, staying safe because I've always been training alone.

I think cycling could be one of the safest sports you can practice during a pandemic, specially if you train alone like me, because you can go outside with no mask and without the risk to be infected or you infect other people. Just for the fact that you're completely alone in the middle of nature or a road.

Even though I hadn't practiced cycling before, and taking int account that I started in June, I did a total of 3137kms and a 96.97 kms ride on 25th of December, which is my longest one. What a great gift!, don't you think? :)

But that's not all. I realized this year I burned more calories than in 2019! Wow!

I burned more calories in 2020 than in 2019!

I couldn't ever imagined that I would be able to beat my 2019's total, so that had been great to find it out.

Relating to walking, my metrics are too low not only for 2020 but for 2019 as well. So, I'll need to get out of my chair more often :)

I started this self-tracking project in May, so I've been registering my weight daily since then and realized I've kept my weight in 2020. Keeping in mind that I'm around 170 cms tall, and we're facing movements restrictions, it's more than ok.

Another conclusion I can draw is that my diet is more than ok too. I've been following a mediterranean diet all my life and I've never needed to be on a diet. I always try to eat healthy as I can.

Reading

I think this 2020 has been the most productive year for me, because it has been the year the most focused I've been in my goals. And I'm proud of it.

Another goal for this 2020 was:

Read at least 1 book a month ✓

Done. I read 20 books this year which is a total of more than 64h reading (I only have metrics from May until now).

Some of the books I have read are:

Gaming

I've always played video games since I was a child / teenager but I left it back for a long time since I started to study and work. So, I wanted to recover that from the past and to start enjoying it again this year.

I played 24 games, which are more than 160 hours (cauz I only have metrics from May until now). I really enjoyed this time so I'll continue playing this 2021.

These are the games, in order of play, I played in 2020:

[Jan] Horizon Zero Dawn
[Jan] The Last Guardian
[Feb] Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice
[Feb] Journey
[Feb] God of War
[Mar] Uncharted 4
[Apr] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Battle Royal)
[May] Guacamelee!
[May] Metal Slug 2
[Jun] Metal Slug 3
[Jun] The Last of Us: Remastered
[Jun] The Last of Us: Left Behind
[Jul] Control
[Jul] Ghost of Tshushima
[Aug] Ghost of Tshushima
[Aug] Fall Guys
[Aug] Cuphead
[Sep] Cuphead
[Sep] A Way Out
[Oct] Rocket League
[Nov] Overcooked 2
[Oct] Overcooked 2
[Oct] Rocket League
[Dec] Worms Rumble
[Dec] Cyberpunk 2077
[Dec] Celeste
[Dec] Rocket League

Media consumption

Even though I love making videos and photography, I haven't watched so many TV shows, series or movies this year.

My metrics says I watched 16 movies (31h) and 11 TV Shows / 78 episodes (121h). Mmm... ok.

Final thoughts

2020 has been a tough year for a lot of people, our movility has been reduced insanely but this is a great moment for instrospection, to know ourselves a little bit better, and for taking all this "free" time to learn something new and keep improving not only your skills but as human beings as well.

So, please, let's stay safe, be conscious and keeping physical distance :)

Thanks for reading.

General overview

Working

Learning

Fitness

Reading

Gaming

Media consumption

Final thoughts

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Y pasaron dos años ...

Adiós 2012, Hello 2013!

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