First week of bringing change

This was the first week in 2025 where I actually started working towards my goals. Although it says week 2, week 1 was just goal setting and figuring out where I want to go.

All in all, the week went well, I felt like I’ve been more productive and focused this week than in the last 3 months of 2024. However, it still wasn’t ideal, which is to be expected. Let’s dive into more detail.

A little bit of procrastination

Working from home is great and all, but becoming distracted is quite easy. You don’t have coworkers around you to prevent you from laying in bed, scrolling through LinkedIn, or just doing random stuff. I wasn’t as focused on work as I wanted to be, which is fine, this is something I will gradually improve, I wasn’t expecting to flip a switch and completely change anyway. I did make a bit of progress though, I still managed to do the todo list I shared with my accountability partner.

I meditated and read every day for the past week, and I do feel a bit more mindful and focused now. I don’t give into distractions that easily. However, I need to take frequent breaks (every 30-45 mins or so), but I try pushing myself a little more each time I start feeling the need to take a break to build that focus muscle. I do put a lot of value on breaks, so I don’t push myself too hard, otherwise I’d just burn out quickly.

Overall, still a long road ahead, but I am on the right track I feel. Just need to continue meditating and being mindful of temptations to become distracted.

Coming back to working on a personal project

This one was a bit of a ride this week. There were lots of ups and downs. A few times I reconsidered working on the project as in the beginning stages I was doing the foundational work (setting up the project, authentication, database, etc..) which I already did before on other projects, so working on this felt quite boring at times. But, I pushed through it and now I feel the “spark” igniting again a little bit.

Sitting down and starting requires the most effort

Before starting to work on the project, my mind is thinking about all of the things I need to do, all of the problems that need to be solved. It all becomes this messy cloud of thoughts which ends up creating a ton of resistance to get started. What I end up discovering over and over again is that once I sit down and start working, my mind “shifts” to the task at hand and I realise it’s not all that bad.

Of course, sometimes I end up stumbling upon a problem which I am struggling to solve, that does tend to “kill the mood” and create resistance again. But, my way of approaching that is by either taking a break or switching to another task.

Overall, putting more time into the project felt really nice.

“If you don’t use it, you lose it”

I think I heard that quote in 2024, or maybe even in 2023, and it’s one of my favourites. When I started working on my project, I quickly realised how many things I’d forgotten. I haven’t written Go in about a year, and I haven’t started a project from scratch in about the same amount of time as well. It felt quite overwhelming coming back, as I’d keep getting stuck on every step. It’s easy to feel disappointed and overwhelmed when you forget the things you used to know really well at some point. But it’s normal, you will forget things, especially if you take a longer break from them.

I’m happy to announce that everything’s coming back now, I managed to push through the disappointment and it feels like I haven’t taken a break from Go at all.

Book club

I wasn’t much into sci-fi, or reading fiction books for that matter (I was one of those non-fiction only type of people), but wow, Red Rising is great. I am hooked. I event went and bought a physical copy of Golden Son. While I was at the book store, I bought ReWork by DHH as well. After Red Rising, I’ll read that (in my mind I have to read a non-fiction book before “earning” to read another fiction book).

Sleep well, eat well, exercise and breathe

In the Diary Of A CEO podcast with Noah Trevor, Noah said the following:

Before you think about anything intently and intensely when you’re struggling, ask yourself a few simple questions: Have you slept? Have you eaten well? Have you moved your body? And have you spent a little time breathing? If you answer yes to all of those questions, you can continue to pontificate about the meaning of life and everything that you’re going through. If you have not, just fulfill all of them and then see if you’re still feeling the same on the other side, and you’ll be shocked at how often times you aren’t.

This one hit me like a truck because I’ve experienced this very thing so many times. If I don’t get good sleep, if I’m hungry, and if I haven’t exercised in a while, I feel like life and the world are the most depressing things ever. I don’t want to do anything, nor do I see the point in doing anything. But, as soon as I’m rested and with a full stomach, life is so much more nicer and enjoyable.

Pausing weekly calendar planning

I’ve been doing calendar planning for over a month, and I’ve realised I don’t really need it, for now. My life isn’t very busy and complex at the moment. My main goals are: work, exercise, personal project, reading and meditating. My daily structure is already embedded into my brain. Whenever I plan my weeks in a calendar, they end up looking the same week after week. In the future, as more and more things start popping up in my life, I’ll resort to calendar planning. For now, I’d like to keep it simple.