I've been considering what my goals for 2010 should be. Mostly they're focusing on improving the quality of our lives.
Leave work between 4 and 4:30. The extra hour or half hour per day doesn't make a lot of difference to my work productivity, because at the end of the day I'm not starting new tasks or doing anything significant; it's usually some minor thing. But whether I get home at 5:30 or at 6:30 makes a big difference to me; earlier means that I can cook supper, and have more time at home. It's not much time, but it makes a lot of difference to my mood.
Work from home two days a week. It would save a commute and give me some extra time during that week. Once per week would be better, but that may not be possible; still, it's worth trying for the less ambitious goal.
Focus more. I seem to spend a lot of time on distractions: aimless web browsing, TV, etc., time that I should be spending on more interesting and worthwhile projects. We're in the middle of renovating the basement to give me a cozy office to keep my books and stereo; I hope sitting in an office will be better for concentrating than sprawling across the living room.
Reduce my backlog of unread books. Unfortunately, this will probably entail reducing the number of books I read from the library, because it's very easy for me to walk in and leave with five or six books that will take two weeks to read, but I have stacks and stacks of books waiting at home. Many of these books will be read and then given away, making more space on my shelves. This goal will be easy, as long as I can resist the library's temptation.
Reboot the cello. There are actually several things I could work on reviving -- the cello, actual free software development, my still-decaying French skills -- but I always found the cello relaxing, which would be a nice outlet to have. It would be nice to do more work on projects such as Python, but I'll have to wait and see if the "focus more" goal is met.
Not on the list: Learning a new programming language. This was a 2009 goal (and probably a 2008 one too), but the end result was that I got about 5 chapters into O'Reilly's OCaML book. All of our software problems at work aren't fixable by whizzy new languages or technology; the problem is evolving our legacy code to be better without breaking old customizations or features, and a complete rewrite is not going to help.