Resolutions 2026

Last Year

2025 turned out to be a good year to not learn how to use em dashes though I sympathize with all the human em dash users out there. The other straightforward resolution was composting. Very easy.

Another big success was going to the Olympic Peninsula with my girlfriend. The line to get into Hoh Rainforest was too long, so we hiked along Rialto Beach and Lake Quinault instead. I would absolutely visit again for longer than a weekend.

I did a very light calisthenics routine every couple days, and even that was a real battle of will. I can only tell that it helps when I’m actively doing pushups. I got a climbing gym membership this year because the only way I’ll actually get stronger is if it’s fun (and they have a sauna).

I did not come close to writing every weekday. It was still a good resolution to make because I made it easy to restart when I felt like it. I kept it up through February and had 5-10 days per month after that.

I didn’t have much more fun. I went wrong early by interpreting “having more fun” as being more spontaneous and ditching my todo lists altogether, but for me that results in not doing anything (or getting stuck in the same boring routines). The only “fun” example I tried was going cross country skiing which was horrible (but successful in the sense of forcing me out of the house and being a memorable experience).¹

I don’t know what I was thinking about E.B. White. I just read one little book of his. Maybe I’ve just forgotten how good he is now. Luckily, 2025 was a good year in books anyway. I loved Crossroads and East of Eden. Both have raised my standards for how good a book can be. I already sped through No Country for Old Men, and I want to be a bit more ruthless about only finishing books I really like.

This Year

Make My Website Uglier

Over the past year, my blog posts have verged closer and closer to the highly personal. I’m trying to keep them from getting too personal, but I didn’t mind until I was applying to jobs and I had to consider whether to put my website on applications. Most likely, I will keep this as a professional landing page and move my blog to a pseudonymous and more experimental (“uglier”) site. I’ll try to give everyone a warning though.

Timeboxing

I know it sounds weird and corporate, but I want to start timeboxing more. A timebox has two components: a time limit and a clear goal. With a time limit and a goal, I can sometimes do things in an hour that I’d normally smear over an entire day. The time limit keeps you from getting distracted by anything that doesn’t move you closer to the goal.

I can twist this to work for things regardless of whether I want to do them. Knowing there’s a strict time limit to chores makes it easier to not procrastinate, and being more focused lets me make better use of the time I spend writing or working on other projects.

A related intention is to live more seasonality. There are so many things I want to pursue, and I don’t want to try to be doing everything all year. Winter is a better season for hibernating a little and doing more reading and studying (good thing I don’t know many people yet!) Spring is better for socializing. Everyone’s excited to be able to go outside. And so on.

Read Textbooks

This past year, I visited a friend who’s always reading textbooks. Whatever he’s interested in, he goes and gets a textbook or two and self studies. It was a good reminder that the feeling of getting stupider every year since graduation is avoidable. I’m starting with System Design² because I never took the class at MIT, and I can’t believe I made it this far without knowing this stuff. I’ll probably move to natural science next. There are just so many basic Astronomy, Geology, and Biology things that it feels like everyone should know (but I don’t). I’m also interested in Psychology and Neuroscience because I miss studying that.³

Get a DVD player

Every time I go to the library I see that they have a good selection of DVDs including relatively recent releases. While I’m at it, I’ll probably get a Blu Ray player and play CDs too.

No More Bad Moods

Whenever I formulate a grand vision for my life or year or even just a week, a bad mood comes along and ruins all my best laid plans. To solve this, I’m going right to the source and quitting bad moods.

Join Some Clubs

Reading back over these resolutions, it really bothers me how self-centered they are. I guess personal improvement is de rigueur, but I’m settling into a new city, and I’m definitely looking to make new friends and generally get more community-involved.

Secret Resolutions

These are totally real resolutions that I’m not sharing publicly. But this year I will write them down privately so that I remember what they are.

Good luck to you and yours!