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In this issue
End of the year highlights
In other news
Things I read this year that made the most impact on me
Framework for reflecting on the year and planning the next one
📝 End of the year highlights
I was eager to write end-of-the-year highlights but soon realized that most of them were rather personal.
I got married, left the job I was passionate about for the last five years, took a 2-month sabbatical, started reading fiction books, intentionally set aside a lot of time for my hobbies (⚽️ football, 🏂 snowboarding and 🏄🏻♂️ wake surfing), redone my personal website, visited two new countries (🇹🇿 Tanzania and 🇲🇽 Mexico), spent a lot of time closer to nature, stopped using an alarm clock, went to vipassana retreat and launched this newsletter.
That was a fantastic year! But reading about personal achievements when you can’t really relate to them might be boring. Instead, I started thinking of some new habits I picked up over the course of this year. That might be interesting to share, although there aren’t that many.
Most of these I worked out during my sabbatical, which I’m incredibly grateful to have. I learned the hard way that having a sabbatical is a privilege, and you do need to plan for it. Having 2-6 months entirely off every 8-12 years can do wonders for your mental health and your ability to recalibrate your values. I hope I’d get a chance to do that again in ten years.
So, here are some new habits I picked up over the year. Most of them are around work hygiene and personal productivity.
Worked out my personal schedule
I struggled a lot with finding the perfect time to produce creative work, tackle some admin tasks, and take time to recharge during the day. The schedule I have now works best for me. I try to squeeze some writing in the morning if I wake up early (before 8.00am), but I’m not anxious if I don’t. Then the family breakfast and I start working around 9.30am. Before 11am it’s admin tasks time, my brain is still foggy for some creative/thinking work, and then around 11am I start off LoFi music on the background and start my deep work session for about 2-3 hours (it can stretch up to four if I’m lucky). Then lunch, and then, starting at around 4pm, I head off to either meetings or the second admin/research tasks session and continue up until about 7pm.
Started journaling first thing in the morning
I’ve been journaling in Day One since 2013, not missing a single day, but I haven’t been writing daily. Now I try to start every day by completing my Day One entry for the previous day. That gives me clearer entries because the last day’s memories are still fresh.
Tackle tasks in bulks
I used to write off long todos lists with lots of small tasks from many projects. That didn’t work. I need to focus on the project and tackle tasks from each area in bulk. That does wonders!
Take meetings in bulks
The same applies to meetings (mostly Zoom calls). I noticed my days became fragmented because of the calls – one hour call, then one hour of free time, and so on. Obviously, you can’t produce any real good work during those fragmented hours.
No meetings before 4pm
I need to have free time for deep work in the middle of the day. Protecting it from any meeting did wonders to my productivity this year.
📰 In other news
You might have noticed that this newsletter now has a logo! Kudos to Danya for designing it 🙏🏻
👓 Things I read this year that made the most impact on me
Why Going to the Doctor Sucks
This piece made a massive impact on me this year and inspired me to start a company in health tech. That might not do the same for you, but I highly recommend reading that even from a patient standpoint.
Stripe: Thinking Like a Civilization
I published this one on Morning Walk before but can’t stop thinking about months after.
A massive piece on Stripe (you know, the company that allows you to collect payments on your website easily), deconstructing various elements of their success. Product strategy, culture, management approach, M&A strategy, and many more but most importantly, Patrick’s and John’s long-term thinking which is just phenomenal.
✍🏻 One more thing
Reflecting on the year behind and planning the next one is more effective and fun with the proper framework. This one made waves of recommendations. Go ahead and set aside two hours this New Years’ Eve to reflect on your goals and achievements.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Until next week and happy New Year! 🎄👋🏻