January was an exciting month.
To begin with, as you might already know, I skipped the New Year’s Eve resolutions altogether.
Honestly, they’re set up for failure before the night is even over: I choose these over realistic goals in the fever of the moment, I don’t have the tiniest clue on how I’m gonna achieve them, and by the 3rd Monday in the month, I’ve already abandoned them, feeling miserable.
I’ve been there too many times; I’m ok without New Year’s resolutions.
I prefer to build on the momentum I gained last year with small, consistent steps toward the goals crafted when I could think clearly, alone with my notebook and my thoughts.
The other special thing about January was that I allowed myself to experiment more without the pressure of delivery.
I started from the hypothesis that, as an experienced software engineer with some product ownership experience, I can now publish my shelved projects, since most of the code writing, which I consider a bottleneck in personal projects, can be delegated to agentic development environments.
The experiment was to build a silly macOS app, from idea to App Store, with the only constraint being to avoid getting stuck in the development phase (because that’s where I’m most comfortable) and to force myself to complete the steps that come after: publish the app, handle the marketing, and mark the first sale.
If you’re a Mac user and a snow enthusiast, you can get a taste of what I baked in the AppStore. I call it Flurries. ❄️
I leave the in depth details of this experience for another time, when I will document my journey in a series of articles.
Spoiler alert: the part that comes after writing code is the hardest for me.
Monthly Challenges
Daily breathing exercise
N/A
In January, I chose only one challenge — do at least one breathing exercise every day to help me reduce my overall stress levels.
The success rate was 42%, meaning I only checked 13 out of 31 days. Not great, but still better than nothing.
That’s why, for February, I decided to continue this challenge and complement it with daily reading sessions, as I noticed that reading also helps me relax and lowers my heart rate.
Well-Being
Objective: Build lasting endurance that carries me further, longer.
🚧 KR1: Complete a marathon to push my mental strength.
🚧 KR2: Swim 1 km in under 30 minutes.
🚧 KR3: Finish an indoor Super Sprint Triathlon sub-50min.
For Q1 in 2026, I crafted a goal that will push me closer to my ultimate objective of becoming an Ironman Finisher at 40 years old.
And I continue from where I left off last year. However, my approach is a bit different this time.
My first key result, completing a marathon, is to train my mind to get used to the long and intense efforts required during an Ironman.
The second key result, swimming 1k in under 30 minutes, is to (re)learn proper swimming technique. I need a strong foundation for the upcoming 3.8k.
And the last, but not least, key result is for me to have the experience of all three sports combined — a Super Sprint Triathlon (swim 400m, bike 10km, run 2.5km).
To make things easier at this time of the year, I will achieve this last KR indoors.
Wrapping Up
If for my Well-being I know what I want, I can’t say the same for my Productivity and Mastery paths. I don’t have a crystal clear direction yet.
However, I will extend my agentic development experiments into February without a strong goal or any specific key results. Just enjoying the process of discovering new things.
I’m embracing the excitement of learning by doing.
—Alex
Love the snow effect. Remember the day when my hubby built me an advent calendar with snow effect. Loved it so much :)
Wish you the best on achieving your goals! Will do a half marathon this year and try to speed up my 5km running pace, so curious how it turns out for you!