2013 Annual Review

Last year I started doing an annual review and yearly plan at the end of the year.

2013 was a pretty good year for me. Accomplished a lot, failed to accomplish even more, have a big list of things to get on with next year.

I’m going to try and keep up a bunch of habits, as well as aim at bigger goals. Here are my habits for 2014:

• do quarterly, fortnightly, and daily planning
  I’ve been experimenting with this for the last couple of months, and it’s pretty powerful stuff. Especially like the medium-term planning.
• meditate every day
  I want to start meditating. Everyone says it is incredibly beneficial, so I am going to try to do 5 minutes every morning.
• strength training
  I am back on the Stronglifts 5×5 program, but this time I’m only going to the gym twice a week instead of three times. It’s working much better for me: better recovery and less time pressure.
• improve Japanese language skills
  I am going to continue doing anki every day and try to read at least one book a month in Japanese. This has always evaded me so far so I hope 2014 will be the year when I can actually make this into a habit.
• intermittent fasting
  I did this for most of 2013, and it suits me very well so I plan to continue. Basically you don’t eat until the afternoon, so you effectively fast for 16 hours a day and only eat during an 8-hour window. More info here.

The focus on habits is due to realizing that habits are the base of all our behaviour: good habits, good lifestyle. The list above should be achievable, as I am already good at a couple of them. Trying to create too many new habits means you will probably fail.

The other thing I really need to work on is not wasting time online, but seeing how it is basically my kryptonite, I am not too hopeful 🙂

How about you? Any resolutions or goals for next year?