2025 resolutions recap

This is my eval of the resolutions I made for 2025 plus a recap of the year through some apps I use.

Books (Goodreads & The Greatest Books)

Finish reading all books in the top ten of the universal list: ✔️ done.

It's actually seventeen books (In Search of Lost Time is a seven-volume, and Don Quixote is two books).

Also, I have read already half of the next ten in the list (#11–#20).

Read at least 14 books this year: ✔️ done.

I read a total of twenty “items” in 2025, but nine of those were comic books, thus “easier” to read. I'm weighting those ⅓ of a “normal” book. So: 11 normal books + 9×⅓ = 14 books read.

This may have been the year I have read the most since my youth (although these stats are not reliable because I only started tracking books consistently around 2016):

Podcasts (AntennaPod)

I made no new year resolution about podcasts specifically. Throughout the year I struggled in the usual way to feed myself a diet I consider healthy (science, work-related topics, software and technology, in-depth news analyses, Japanese language, History) and to stay away from junk food (“news”, petty or local topics, click-baity debates).

I don't know how, but in 2025 I managed to listen to even more hours of podcasts than in previous years. 919 hours are too many hours of earbuds sounding deep into my ears; that's no good.

Those above are hours listening. Regarding number of episodes, there are a few podcasts with typically short episodes that I have listened to a lot in 2025. Some of those were Monólogo de [Carlos] Alsina, eldiario.es' Un Tema al Día (those two I consider guilty pleasures), BBC's The Interview, Quanta's podcast, Nihongo con Teppei (Japanese for beginners) and Aporia's podcast (those are healthier).

Even so, I reached the end of the year with a queue of more than 100 episodes to play, and a lag of more than a month!

Exercise

These are my stats for the year:

• Weight-lifting at the gym: 57 times (once every 6 days)
• Running outside: 50 times (once a week)
• Hiking with family or friends: 19 times (once every 19 days)
• Skiing: 3 days
• Other (kayaking, callisthenics): 4 times
• Total: 133 times (once every 3 days)

Compared with the previous year:

• Weight-lifting: 58% more
• Running: 85% more
• Hiking: 138% more
• Total: 82% more

Therefore, I consider I achieved my two goals (with caveats):

• Work out better and more often: ✔️ done.
• Run a half marathon in 2025: ✔️ done.

The caveats being:

• I worked out more often than in previous years… but not better. Around the second half of 2025 I got demotivated at the gym, stuck in a boring cycle of work-outs, not appreciating any progress. The first problem is: I do not go to the gym nearly as often as I should (I go barely more than once a week). It's almost impossible to notice results that way. The second problem is: although I more or less know what exercises are good for me, I do not push myself enough and I do not introduce enough variation. Third problem: appropriate nutrition (absolute lack thereof).
• One day in November I did run 21 kilometres, 97 metres and 50 centimetres, but I did it alone (ie, not in a popular race, as planned). I had registered for a half marathon somewhere in Madrid in November, and I had been training more or less regularly with that goal in sight. As the date approached though, I realised I wanted to be elsewhere and I would miss the event. So I transformed my last “long run” (~19.3 km), exactly one week before D-day, into a full-fledged 21K. I ran it on my own, as any other training session, in 2h03′ (5′50″/km, or 10.3 km/h). I would have liked to run the race, but I don't care much about this.

Japanese

Study “well” often: 👎 failed.

Take (and pass) the JLPT N4: 👎 failed.

I studied a few times at the beginning of the year, but after that I just played sporadically with the Japanese apps on my phone and with Anki; nothing consistent. Not the slightest chance I would have been prepared to pass JLPT N4 this year.

Nutrition

Make a conscious effort to plan meals more often; eat a little better; cut on bad food: 👎 failed.

I behaved well in the first month or two; then slipped back into old habits and easy choices.

Finances

Save more money; review our balance sheet and reduce some expenses: 👎 failed.

To be honest, this was a weak resolution — almost an afterthought. I never identified with this goal, because I don't feel in my gut that I should save much more.

As I said one year ago:

“Our family finances are in good shape overall, I think. […] Some of the line items will be hard or impossible to streamline. […] I suspect I'll have to work with much smaller line items. […] Truth be told, I don't think I'll make much of a dent.”

I think that's why I made zero progress here.

Writing

Finish the short story that I started writing a few years ago: 👎 failed.

I sat down to write only a few times throughout the year, and did not finish that short story.