Year of Small Efforts
My 2025 retrospective can now be found on last year’s theme.
Description
Last year’s theme didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. The main issues that stood out to me were (1) the overall lack of attention to the theme throughout the year, and (2) having too many large, looming goals to work on. These issues ended up stacking on top of each other in a theme-killing death spiral: large project -> procrastinate -> forget -> repeat.
To address this, the theme for 2026 was developed to better respect the time I have for personal projects, and is much more lower-stakes compared to last year. The Year of Small Efforts aims to make progress on my personal projects every day, but this time I’m not going to restrict myself to a predefined set of goals. The idea here is consistency and letting things build up over time and on their own.
As the theme implies, I don’t want to work too hard. Making small efforts means not forcing myself to keep reading or working, but rather doing things that feel easy to work on in the moment.
I’d like to finish some of the items on my list from last year, if only to get some sort of positive closure from the Year of Commitment. However, I’m not doing to let the completion of these items become the focus of my year.
Ideal Outcomes
Be able to work on things as the opportunity arises
- Sometimes it’s easier to just switch whatever I’m doing rather than trying to force myself to finish or find a good stopping point.
Develop better habits/processes around using and managing my to-do list
- Themes can die pretty quickly without periodic maintenance. My to-do list has been floundering for a while now, and getting it back into shape will make it a lot easier for me to find things to do.
Re-imagine the phone as a tool for productivity
- I’m not always at my computer, and whenever I am doing something on my phone, most of the time it’s either scrolling on Twitter or YouTube. Most of the things I’d like to do involve some sort of reading, so adding more capabilities for doing that may help.
Be more committed to sleeping and waking up on time
- This is the only concession I’m willing to make on the “not forcing myself” goal. It’s too easy to sleep late and get out of bed late, and I worry about letting this become a habit or having some other negative health effects.
Daily Themes
Get out of bed with my alarm (ideally my first alarm)
Sleep early (ideally before 11PM)
Check my to-do list daily (ideally twice daily, in the morning and afternoon)
At least one 25-minute work session (ideally more) dedicated to personal projects/development