As the year begins, so many of us make New Year’s Resolutions that we only believe we can achieve at the most optimistic of moments. I’m not a big believer in setting specific resolutions that are unlikely to be kept. Over time, it feels the term “resolutions” has become weighted with negative baggage. Instead of setting resolutions, I’ve been thinking about my broader intentions for 2018.
Read less, do more
My main intention for 2018 is the title of this post “Read less, do more.” Last year, I read 151 complete books, according to my tracking on Goodreads. People often ask me how I read so many books – the answer is pretty simple, I spend the majority of my time reading. I mostly read pretty lowbrow fantasy, it’s very quick to read and is true escapism. I wish the Kindle would give me statistics about my overall reading habits, so I could track the numbers, but if I had to guess, I’d say I spend around 30 hours a week reading books.
This year I’d like to both spend less time reading, as well as read more books that edify me. Last year, I read 12 nonfiction books. I know that’s not a lot, but it was a record for me. This year I set a goal for myself of reading 18 nonfiction books.
I love reading, but there are so many other things I’d like to do! So I start the year with an intention to make more time for those things.
Take a real vacation
I rarely take vacations. At one point at Apple, I had so much vacation banked that I took 4 weeks off in one block and still had time left to take 2 weeks later that year. It’s easy to get caught up in work and feel like there’s too much to do and too little time. But vacation is when we recover and reinvigorate for the challenges ahead. When I come back from vacation, I’m filled with energy and enthusiasm. Problems that looked unsolvable find new solutions. Yet when things are incredibly busy at work, booking a vacation always seems like the lowest importance thing I could do. Note to self: it’s always incredibly busy at work, book the vacation.
Do what works for me
People always have suggestions on how you should achieve your goals. I’m working on recognizing that those suggestions don’t always apply to me. We all work differently and what’s best for someone else might not work for me at all.
Like everyone else, I begin the year with the desire to lose weight and get more fit. But my goal this year is to figure out what way works for me. I have a gym membership I never use – one of my tasks for January is to cancel my gym membership. That way isn’t working. Over the last few weeks I’ve tried SoulCycle and Barry’s Bootcamp. I continue to make it to yoga class not nearly enough. I’m returning to the climbing gym tomorrow with hopes of making it a weekly occurence. I’m trying a class at Flywheel next week, and considering giving Classpass a try. I’m not sure what will lead me to consistency in my workout routines, but I intend to find a way.
I’m currently trying a habit tracker in my bullet journal. It’s a pretty simple system, where you list out the habits you’re trying to build and check off each day that you complete them. Andy Matuschak wrote about a system that works for him through increasing targets over time. My friend Jay Shirley has written a tool to track his habits and help other do the same. I take inspiration from their methods, but I need to start with a simple system with a pen and paper and see where that takes me.