With Isotope v2 beta out, I got a lot of stuff done this year.

(I apologize for the braggy tone of this post. I’m lucky that this year was a good year. I’d like to capture how it happened.)

• Metafizzy stickers
• Bower logo
• Packery
• Draggabilly
• imagesLoaded v3
• Outlayer
• Masonry v3
• Refactor shirt
• Bower talk
• Isotope v2

Looking back, I’m interested how this year was more productive, considering my full-time job is appropriately demanding, and this year was the oldest I’ve ever been. I have several ideas why.

• Work was not crazy. I was able to keep regular hours.

• I worked on side projects in smaller time segments – 1, 2, maybe 3 hours. I didn’t stay up late into the night, tinkering. I didn’t get burnt out from long work sessions. When I began a period of work, I felt capable of working for a smaller time frame and leaving things as-is when I felt I had enough.

• My projects had clear goals. I had a decent vision of each before I began.

• I purposely ignored the Isotope and Masonry issue trackers. These were inputs that didn’t directly impact the projects.

• I worked on one project at a time. I didn’t start a new project until completing the current one.

I think I can generalize these reasons as comprising good balance of being on and off. I was able to turn on and work because I was able to shut off and not work.

I find it interesting that these projects (except for the Bower talk) didn’t have any hard deadlines.

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Shipping Isotope v2 is a big deal for me as it is a culmination of all the projects. Every project on the list above was a necessary stepping stone towards landing the new version.

Plenty of more work is left to be addressed, but the projects are conceivably done for now. This provides a new opportunity. For the first time in years, I can focus my attention on something other than a layout library. If 2014 has any of 2013’s good fortune, that may just happen.