Note Apr 20, 2026
Run a 5k without stopping
Hit 4k without walking last week. Going slow but not stopping is the whole game.
Now
- Run a 5k without stopping Body
- Plan a friends trip to Portugal People
- Read a book a month for a year Learn
- Visit Oaxaca Places
- Launch my design portfolio Work
2026
— APRIL
Note Apr 4, 2026
Plan a friends trip to Portugal
Booked! Lisbon → Porto → Sintra in October. Group of 5.
— MARCH
Note Mar 30, 2026
Run a 5k without stopping
Knee tightness on the long run today. Backing off mileage for a week.
Note Mar 23, 2026
Read a book a month for a year
Six months in, six books read. The trick was switching to audiobooks for commute.
— FEBRUARY
Note Feb 4, 2026
Launch my design portfolio
Portfolio live at maya.design. Tweeted about it. Cried a little.
Closed Feb 4, 2026
Cut out sugar for 30 days
Harder than I expected. I slept better and stopped craving it after week two. Would do again.
— JANUARY
Closed Jan 4, 2026
Meditate every day for 30 days
Missed 3 days. Still felt noticeably calmer in week 4. Imperfect but real.
2025
— DECEMBER
Closed Dec 4, 2025
Write a letter to my grandmother
Sent it. She called me crying. Do this more.
— NOVEMBER
Closed Nov 4, 2025
Get a freelance client
First paid design contract. Small budget but real work. Proof I can do it outside my day job.
— MAY
Closed May 4, 2025
Learn Figma advanced prototyping
Finished the full course. Now I use it daily — totally changed how I communicate motion to engineers.
— APRIL
Closed Apr 30, 2025
Complete a 30-day drawing challenge
30 illustrations in 30 days. My hands hurt. My eye got sharper. Days 22–25 are the best things I've ever drawn.
2024
— JANUARY
Closed Jan 15, 2024
Publish three design case studies
Took six months of rewrites. Got two job offers and a speaking invite. Write more, ship more.
2023
— MARCH
Closed Mar 22, 2023
Run a design workshop
12 participants, 3 hours, one whiteboard. The energy in the room was unlike any Figma meeting.
2022
— SEPTEMBER
Closed Sep 5, 2022
Travel to Bali
Two weeks. Ubud and the rice terraces. I understood why everyone goes.
2021
— JUNE
Closed Jun 30, 2021
Build my first design system
Component library for a B2B SaaS. Still in use 3 years later. Most lasting thing I've shipped.
2020
— DECEMBER
Closed Dec 31, 2020
Maintain a daily creative habit for a year
366 days (leap year). Sketched something every single day. Some days just a dot. That's the practice.
2019
— FEBRUARY
Closed Feb 10, 2019
Learn motion design from scratch
6 months of evenings. After Effects, Principle, Lottie. Changed how I think about interfaces.
2018
— MAY
Closed May 20, 2018
Finish a 5k race
28:41. I cried at the finish line. Not my proudest moment. Also my proudest moment.
2017
— AUGUST
Closed Aug 1, 2017
Move to a new city alone
Packed two bags and moved to Berlin. Terrifying and completely worth it.
2016
— MARCH
Closed Mar 15, 2016
Get my first design job
Junior UI role at a tiny agency. Terrible pay, incredible learning. Wouldn't change it.