2025 Reboot

I don’t do resolutions. This isn’t a post about my plans for reinventing myself in the new year. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting new goals for a week, month, quarter, year, or even a decade if it helps someone step up their game or become the best version of themselves. But this isn’t about that.

This is about the transition to a new year on a much more micro level. I don’t have the memory to recall last holiday season, but this one felt like a particularly hard reset. Work and school ended for everyone in my household on the Friday preceding Christmas, allowing us all to properly leave our respective responsibilities at the doorstep. It was great. Now, however, it’s the first day of everyone returning to those responsibilities, and for me personally, I can barely recall what my routine looked like all the way back in December of last year.

Most times, this would be a bit disconcerting, and I’d take as much time as I could to revisit the immediate past. I’d ensure no balls were dropped, all fires had been properly put out, and all corporate clichés were in place. This year, though, I’m taking a different approach, whether forced or otherwise.

This year, I’m viewing the lack of continuity as a chance to reset my approach to how I use my time: professionally, personally, creatively, socially, and any other -lly you can come up with (feel free to email suggestions). By many definitions, this may be thought of as “productivity,” but that presumes some level of output, and I’m trying hard to think of this approach largely divorced from whatever “product” results from it. Perhaps I’ll reflect on the output at a later point, or perhaps I’ll forget all about this. Spoiler alert: I don’t have a comprehensive solution worked out. I’ve learned enough about myself over the years to know I won’t settle into a process and abide by it completely with zero alterations, even if it’s working great.

Instead, here’s what I’ll be focusing on for now:

Consumption: active, passive, reflective, interactive, etc

Conceptually, I love the idea of floating in the deep end of active consumption. Spending my personal time actively using my brain, rather than passively consuming whatever content is around me, aligns much more with my personal values and how I view myself. This is a hoity-toity way of saying: I like to believe it’s a better use of time to play a game, work on a puzzle, make art, or actively take notes about things I read than to watch TV, browse the internet, or even read a book purely for pleasure.

This isn’t even slightly realistic, though.

I, too, live in a modern world that is hellbent on throwing easily digestible nuggets of flashing light at my eyes. I also happen to enjoy books and graphic novels and movies and TV shows and music and the internet—at least, some of it. On top of all that, I’ve learned that I can’t carry the cognitive load of a constantly active brain. My friends and family don’t see much upside to the short fuse and lack of patience that come at the end of a day short on dopamine and norepinephrine. They also like TV.

So, perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m looking for the right balance, aiming for routines that encourage space for active reflection as well as interactive consumption, while still making room for being passive and allowing myself to turn off my brain now and again. I hope future posts reflect this focus, at least for awhile.