2026 Resolutions and Dissolutions

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. I believe our lives have momentum. But life changes, be it relationships, job changes, or setbacks, and I just establish new resolutions on the spot. Life doesn’t wait for New Year’s Eve.

Yet, this year I do have resolutions, but let’s start with dissolutions. Don’t think of the new thing you’ll do, but rather what old thing you’ll stop doing. Or else you will fail. The reason you didn’t go to the gym, or meet friends more often, is not because it didn’t occur to you. It’s because you were busy doing something else. Even if it was as pathetic as binge-watching or doomscrolling, at some subconscious level you found it preferable. So, if you want to go to the gym more, think about what activity you will quit doing that will give you back time that you can then use to go to the gym.

Dissolutions

My dissolutions this year are to work less and to travel less. This is odd, I know, as most people would consider them positive things to want to do, proper resolutions. Let me explain. I changed jobs a year ago, and I’ve loved every minute of it. So much, that I’ve let work take over my life. In a positive way, not because I felt forced: work is beyond interesting and impactful, and I’m back to working at home. Also, my son is now fully independent and extremely busy; it’s not like he’s demanding more time with me. I said it’s voluntary, but this doesn’t make it healthy, and I need to dial this back a bit.

My second dissolution: to travel less. At Christmas and in summer we are back to Barcelona, not negotiable. But we’ve been traveling much more than that: Mid-winter break, Spring break, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and more. I’ve enjoyed it all. But our kid is stressed about not having enough time for his studies. Even for us it was challenging: we were out all Thanksgiving, and then we didn’t find time to put the Christmas decorations indoors until very late December, and we didn’t even bother outdoors. Regular weekends are busy with general housekeeping, some long weekends are necessary to catch up.

Resolutions

Now that I’ve explained how I plan on freeing time, let me share how I want to use it. I’ll go with the major/minor model. My major resolution is to get 2 hours for my endeavors every day before 8 PM, when I’m just done for the day. I want four 30-minute blocks to practice piano, to stay physically active, catch up with AI developments as hands-on as possible, and for general housekeeping to feel on top of things again.

The minor resolution is to not gain weight, and ideally lose some. I hope the 30-minute physical activity and not overindulging in food will suffice, I’m not planning on wild changes or dieting.