2026 resolutions Q1 checkpoint

This year, the oracles advised me thus:

“Set calendar reminders for April 1, July 1, and October 1 to review progress. Adjust goals that aren't working rather than carrying them as dead weight all year.”

And I decided it was a good idea.

So, here goes my quarterly review.

Reading

Read mostly short books: 👍 that's what I'm doing, for the most part. Average book read in Jan–Mar: 140 pages long.

Read eight physical books that I had selected: 👍 looking good; I have already read four of those.

On Goodreads, read at least ten books: 👍 looking very good; I have already read eight (although three of those were graphic novels) and I'm halfway through number nine.

Download some long-form blog posts that I have been saving over the years and read them on the reMarkable or the Kindle: 👍 I did that and read a bunch of articles, mostly by Scott Alexander. I still have many for the rest of the year.

Writing

Finish the draft of my short story during the first quarter of the year: ☹️ I wrote quite a lot (for my meagre standards), and added some good pages. I did so while commuting, and a few times at night in bed. But I missed my self-imposed deadline. So I'm granting myself an extension of one additional quarter.

Drawing and painting

Nil. (But there wasn't a proper resolution about this, anyway.)

Nutrition

Be a better vegetarian, make a conscious effort to plan meals: 😐 Slight improvement over my baseline, but not as much as I had hoped for.

Eat a little better, cut on bad food: 😐 I ate almost nothing of what I consider “bad” for almost a whole quarter. (The fact that I am now wearing clear aligners 24/7 except while eating, and that I have to wash them properly after meals, was unexpected help: it's easier to avoid snacks and to stick to regular meals that way.) But I'm not giving myself a high mark because in the last week or two I had a partial relapse.

On an impromptu, I stayed away from coffee for two or three months. I never consumed much; but sometimes I have the occassional night when sleep doesn't come easy, and I always wondered to what extent caffeine was messing with my circadian rhythm. One day in January I realised coffee falls into the “bad” category after all, and I simply stopped taking it altogether.

The results? I think I noticed fewer sleepy days and a bit less difficulty getting to sleep, and I wish I could report significant improvements — but the truth is it wasn't dramatic, and the positive effects I think I saw could be caused entirely by autosuggestion, or by chance over such a short period of time.

I'm reflecting about this whole resolution now, because I'm not convinced the benefits justify the sacrifices, and eating what I decided I want to eat doesn't come as easy to me as, say, reading what I decided I want to read.

Exercise

Keep on running and weight-lifting, work out at the gym at least twice a week and do it better: 😐 The good is that I'm exercising roughly as often as I did in 2025 (once every three days), that I'm going to the gym as often (once every five days), and that every time I work out I spend more time than I used to (typically 55′, all exercises combined) and I push myself a little more than I used to. The bad is that I didn't achieve going to the gym twice a week or more (I fell short by nine session in Q1).

No trace of a third sport, although this year I went skiing again (two trips, five days of ski in total).

Work

Announce, by the end of February, my business project: ☹️ I underestimated how busy I would be with my new job. And working on this side project is a task that is particularly difficult to squeeze into my daily routine (as opposed to, say, reading or writing): it's something I need to do at home, on my personal computer, in my spare time, when family and chores do not distract me. This is a clear “F”. For this, too, I'm granting myself an extension of one additional quarter.

Philanthropy

Give away 10% of my gross income to charities working on poverty and global health: 👍 Done.

Private resolutions

• #B daily: 👍 Most days I tick this box.
• #D weekly: 👍 Done all weks. This is both Good and Easy.
• #F: ☹️ Nope. This needs a little bit of preparation, which I haven't done yet.
• #J: 👍 Achieved.
• #P: 👍 Mostly achieved.

Other changes or experiments

Since March 10 or so, and for one month, I did not listen to any podcasts.

I had not planned to do this, nor was it a new year's resolution. One day I simply decided that my ears would benefit from fewer hours of earbuds/earphones/headset, and on top of that I wanted to experiment with being more “present”: too often I do not pay attention to the environment or to what I am doing because I am focused on a podcast. Sometimes at home doing household chores I do not hear a conversation in some other room or my kids saying something to me because I am plugged in to a podcast. And walking on the street I rarely pay attention to life around me or let my mind wander aimlessly because there is always some voice in my ear.

A couple random nudges from life recently made me think again of the importance of having time to think freely, moments when one is truly “doing nothing” and thus open to inspiration and to whimsical thoughts (and to rest). And so I decided to cut on podcasts — radically, of course.

I have to say so far I am not missing them. Every few days I check and I see that the queue of new episodes has grown with lots of promising monologues and debates from some thinkers I love… and I mercilessly delete them in bulk.

Perhaps podcasts were not such an integral part of my being up-to-date, of my learning, after all. Perhaps the distance between podcasts and toxic “news” is not so great. I have not made up my mind yet; I'll continue with the experiment and see.