Starting 2026
Categories: Personal
I didn't write a review of 2025 mainly because I didn't think that it was worth doing. A lot happened over the year but it wasn't particularly intenetional. I had a lot of success but overall I ended the year feeling like I had spread myself a little bit too thin. I'm hoping I can change that a little going into 2026.
I've had a great Christmas and new year break this year visiting my parents in the UK. It's created a lot of space for reflection and the many long walks in the frosty countryside have given me plenty of time to think about what I want from 2026. I think I can break down my priorities for the year into 5 main areas that are split between home and work. They are:
- Focus on one large scale non programming work related project that builds towards my goal of creating a legacy within the Australian agricultural industry.
- Build out my agricultural agent, echidna and make real progress early in the year getting it into peoples hands.
- Transform my personal situation. I finished 2025 a little flat, fat and burnt out. I really have to do something about this or it's going to be by undoing.
- I want to start to build a body of work online that I can be proud of. I write a lot but very little of it is curated and very little of it isn't related to the industry research I do. I want change this so I have something I can look back on.
- I want to do more with my family and with my home. We were really stuck on a treadmill in 2025, a treadmill of work, school, kids sports, work etc etc. We did very little to break the monotony. We did very little to maintain the house and to improve our environment. We didn't take any holidays (apart from this one). I want to change that.
So that's it. The 5 areas I'm going to try and work on in 2026. There's a certain sense of urgency starting to creep in too. I'm nearly 50 now and I'm starting to feel like time is running out, especially professionally to have imapct and to get some of the things I hoped i'd achieve done. There's a similar urgency to my home life. My family is getting older, my kids will be leaving for university and other things soon. So time is limited and while i'm overweight and unfit, I feel like i'm limiting that time even more.
The next step is to start to break these themes down into specific outcomes, then break the paths to these outcomes into quarterly goals and activities. I find that normally Q1 is over before I know it so this year I plan to make sure I get on with things early. I know that i'm not going to be able to transform overnight but I do want to be more intentional from the get go. This year it feels important.
The first thing i'm going to though is enjoy the rest of my break here in the UK, try not to think about the flight home for the time being and fix these bloody sticking keys on my Macbook Pro keyboard that are driving me insane.