(originally written on December 31, 2021)
Reflecting on the year is just as meaningful as looking ahead to the next. I like to think of it as baggage. Every year, I take on some baggages, it is inevitable if I want to move forward. These baggages arrive in the form of habits, purchases, or responsibilities. A year end review helps me cleanup and clear the path. After all, we can’t keep the agility with more baggages on our shoulder, we can only move forward if we offload some of them. So the questions to think about: am I heading in the right direction? What should I keep? More importantly, what should I let go?
Baggage to (try to) let go
All social media notifications
After multiple adjustments over the year, I have a good feeling the changes I made this time could work.
Paper Zettlekasten system
The deciding question that I asked, “will I take this with me if the house catches fire?”. No.
Doing everything by myself
Later this year I’m giving the responsibility of an entry leadership role. In a healthy organization, people usually get promoted base on performance. The challenge of transition from a bottom staff to a leadership role is to trust the people whom you’re leading, no matter how big the team. For me, that is to delegate the work to them although I know I can do it on my own.
Baggage to keep
Ukulele
Back in high school, I spent a year learning electric guitar, but it never got anywhere. Fortunately, the image of myself playing some sort of instrument never really died. During the pandemic lockdown in May, I pulled the trigger and purchased a ukulele. I suck now, but it feels really nice to have a side project.
A writing notebook
If I took anything from the paper Zettlekasten experiment, that’s the ability to focus with a pen and paper. When everything is taken away, I’m forced to create the most important content, the title, the logic, and the story.
Home exercise
I logged 2,349 minute this year, approximately half of 2020 (4,629 minute) with similar exercise sessions. With a toddler in my life, going to the gym is still risky, so I’m keeping the home exercise in 2022.