Trying a new format this year. Here are the “six areas of life balance” from my goals page (and according to The 12 Week Year). I rated each one and chose the few things that made the biggest impact on each rating, both good and bad.
| Category | Score 1-10 | Most impactful: good | Most impactful: bad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | 7 | – Joining mycopilot.com – Running a marathon – Tracking macros – Lifting consistently | – Getting sick – Junky carbs – Eating early in the morning – Eating late in the evening – Fudging on my macros – Finding reasons to not run |
| Business | 8 | – Switching companies – Taking on a 2nd team (temporarily) – Focusing on culture/process – Using a career/life coach – Writing as my method of thinking – Being a river | – Being a people pleaser – Slack (because time suck) – Not saying “let me think about that“ |
| Family (more) | 5 | – Game nights with extended family – Weekend adventures – Summer beach vacation – Eating at the table – Playing Switch games with my kids – Working 40 hours or less | – Hacker News (distracts from family time) – Losing my temper with my kids – Kids getting sick over and over – Lack of focus/attention on growth (no parenting books, for example) |
| Community | 5 | – Slack (both work and non-work) – Work trips (Portland and Denver) – Not focusing only locally | – Spending weekends at home – Not reaching out/initiating hangouts – Too much small talk |
| Personal | 8 | – Reading (75 books this year) – Writing this blog – Using a career/life coach – Working in coffee shops | – Slack (because time suck) – Not enough high quality fun – Too much low quality fun – Could use a hobby that’s only for fun |
| Spouse | 8 | – Boston trip to see Ben Platt – Season tickets to live musicals – 2ish hours of us time each night | – Not many date nights – Non-stop meeting days (can’t text back) – Passive aggression (on my part) |
Here are the themes I’m seeing:
Start
- Recurring scheduled date nights with Nancy
- Focus on growing as a parent (read a dang book, idiot)
- Spring and/or fall vacations with family
- Being honest and saying no
- Eating at the table every night
Stop
- Small talk
- Spending weekends in the house
- Getting freaking sick (wash your stupid hands, idiot)
- Hacker News
- Eating junky carbs (they make you feel like crap every time)
Continue
- Working at GitHub
- Reading and writing
- Using mycopilot.com
- Playing video games with my kids
Pretty good year! 2022 was my Year of Adventure and I think I had a few big ones:
- Training for and completing my first marathon
- Switching companies (GitHub is a great place to work)
- Taking four trips (two for work and two with family) after not traveling for a couple years
- Starting to meet with a career/life coach
But mostly I think that theme fizzled out after the first few months. I’ll ponder what to do about that for 2023.
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Mike Crittenden 