I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, but I've got some bad habits (like many of us) that I'd like to break, and some new good habits that I'd like to get into.  Here's my short list of changes for 2009.

10. Start using the keyboard more
Visual Studio has an extremely configurable keyboard command structure, so save a few seconds many times a day and stop reaching for the mouse!  Did you know that Control minus (-) will move the caret to it's previous location after navigating using "Go To Definition" (thanks NikitaP)?  A huge time savor.  There's literally hundreds of these buried throughout Visual Studio.

9. Write all my unit tests (first this time)
This year I started getting serious about writing unit tests for code.  It's so useful to have a known and accepted proof for a block of code, almost like a contract between a caller and a piece of logic.  This year I'll get more agile-like with my approach and start writing tests that spec out code, instead of the other way around.

8. Generate more code with T4
Like many developers, I've been using code generation tools since before .Net, and then with the .Net platform for many years now.  In 2008 I made the switch from CodeSmith to T4 -- and this year I'm going to beef up my usage with even more templates (heck -- maybe even a few from Oleg's T4 toolbox).

7. Remove people from my Twitter list
Although Twitter is pretty cool, I follow too many people already.  I get alerts every time a developer dreams up a great new idea.  This year I'm going to save those interesting conversations for the bar and remove them from my desktop and cell phone -- despite the fact that statistics show this type of social behavior actually helps people be more productive.

6. Write more applications in Silverlight 2
In 2008 I fell in love with Silverlight.  It really took me until PDC to get there, but I now see the wisdom in having a rich managed code environment on the client in a web application scenario.  Not to mention you can make some really cool-looking and functional UI's with this technology.  This year, I'm going to find more places for Silverlight in the line of business software I write.  The net effect should be a better user experience for our business users, a simpler development experience for developers and a lower cost of investment for stakeholders.

5. Leverage more of VSTS Database Edition
In 2008, Microsoft announced it would merge VSTS Developer and Database Edition SKU's in the next release of Visual Studio (VSTS 2010).  Since we're all mostly impatient, the good folks in Redmond were kind enough to give existing MSDN Subscribers who had access to one SKU access to the additional SKU.  There's so much great functionality in VSTS 2008 Database Edition (post coming soon) that there's no reason to ever hand-jam scripts for deployment scenarios, or copy production databases as test databases.

4. Use more Workflow
A well known acronym but little known technology inside the .Net Framework is Windows Workflow Foundation.  This powerful technology allows any number of processes to be designed in Visual Studio and then managed by the .Net Framework.  What's cool about Workflow is that it does the heavy lifting (managing state, conditional evaluation, etc.) for the developer so s/he can get back to coding the business stuff.

3. Frameworks are out and standards are in
If 2008 taught us anything it's that proprietary software frameworks are out (sorry Framework designers) and standardized open-source technologies are in.  The unfortunate side effect is that this means that there's a limited shelf life for that specialized do-it-yourself OR/M you've been working on for 5 years...  Instead, it's time to look to accepted and standardized approaches to solving these problems (LINQ to SQL, Entity Framework, etc.).  And the scenarios aren't just limited to Data Access.  Think ASP.Net Dynamic Data over your proprietary CMS platform, etc.  This year I'll be re-evaluating where Frameworks fit, how long I should expect to use them and where standards fit better.

2. Application Modeling is in
The next version of Visual Studio (VSTS 2010) contains a modeling definition language affectionately callled "M".  M (even in it's crippled state shipped with the early release bits we've seen so far) promises that architects and application designers will be able to effectively model application scenarios in a functional language that the holds value to the business.  What's this mean to developers?  Yet another paradigm shift on how we think about requirements and implementing details around requirements.  This year, I'll spend more time looking at what technologies will help me understand and build models for applications.

1. Services are in, components are out
It's taken me 5 years to finally get on board with the whole SOA acronym soup mix, but 2009 is the year of the service layer.  Why?  Well, it's taken this long for the client technologies to become sophisticated enough to consume WCF services in a meaningful way.  This year, more technologies exist that make the dream of write it once and use it everywhere a reality, so I'll be taking a long, hard look at traditional architecture patterns and evaluating where service endpoints fit instead of component code.

Do you have developer resolutions for the New Year?  I'd love to hear them.