Thinking about 2024: Rhythms and Practices

Like many people, as one year turns to the next, I evaluate and aspire.

In years past, both were rough: I don't have a great memory for anything more than a few months ago; I had the over-ambitious tendency to think a new year would create a new me. Perhaps it's a sign of encroaching middle age, but I've adopted some habits to aid my faulty memory and I've let go of the need to think I need total and immediate reinvention.

My evaluation now is a review of the year's written journal. In 2018, I bought my first Moleskine planner. It has a two-page spread for each week and some front pages for planning the year. My use of it is partially planning and partially journaling. I'll start with January, read through it, and use the last pages as a place to write down a long, personal essay's worth of reflections. These usually turn into the front matter for the next year's planner.

While I have aspirations, I've largely stopped writing goals. These were the stuff of over-ambition. I wasn't going to buy and restore an MG Series B, despite my interest, having never once so much as changed my own oil. I write my aspirations as rhythms: what do I want to do during most days, most weeks, and most months? It's a whole lot easier for me to take action on the rhythm of reading for one evening a week than to accomplish the SMART goal of reading fifty books in a year. Even though the former is required for the latter, my brain thinks in terms of one step, not arriving at the summit.

I also like the word "practice." It works in both of the common senses. First, it's a way to get better at something. My kids practice math. Second, it's a way to refer to the actual thing. Lawyers practice law. My ideal of practicing something is both purposefully getting better at it and doing the thing itself. The way to be a writer or a reader or a person who is thankful is to be grateful, to read, or to write.

Considering what precisely I am practicing is where these daily, weekly, monthly, and annual rhythms—habits, really—align with my values. I've talked to a few of you about this and thought it might be worth sharing the practices I want to bring forward and the new ones I'm considering for 2024.

Rhythms that worked in 2023

Being grateful every day: most weekdays, I spend a few minutes with my gratitude practice. The journal is three things for which I am thankful and three things I'd like to accomplish. The practice is straightforward: I review the date in previous years and take a minute to create a new entry for today. The practice helps me contextualize whatever's happening in the broader timeline and in the positivity of practicing gratitude.

Blessing my kids each evening: I don't put the kids to bed every night. The older two largely manage the job themselves and wrangling the younger two is a trade my spouse and I make with whatever other irksome chores persist into the 7pm hour. But I do aim to visit them and to tell them that I love them and God does, too. This anchors me in the eternal now, helps me get over how annoying little kids can be, and reminds me to practice blessing.

Turning off my phone on Saturday nights: a digital sabbath has been in my mind for a long time, but the last year or two I've finally found a nice medium between being a useless luddite and being always online. I turn my phone off when it gets dark on Saturday night and turn it back on around the same time on Sunday (or Monday morning). This digital sabbath helps me find time to unwind and practice thinking.

Real projects most months: My work is all-online and all-digital. I like to joke that when technical solution architects talk about alignment, it's about people's feelings, not about reality. When you make something from wood, alignment is about whether the two boards do what they're supposed to. The "feedback" you get is from the real world, not from opinions. I love the change of pace of painting a wall or installing a shelf; it's practicing handiwork.

Rhythms I am trying in 2024

Reading on the train: After working only remote for a few years and then entirely in the office during some home construction this August, I've settled into a routine of riding the train to Boston twice a week. It's great to see colleagues, work above ground, and have lunch with my brother. Commuting time is liminal, and while podcasts are fun, reading and thinking about nonfiction was far better. This fall, I read Anthony Storr's Solitude and I'd like to continue to practice reading.

Working walks: Like I said before, my work is entirely laptop, keyboard, and screen. It's easy to shift from one thing to another. While chasing emails and Slacks feel like work, it's not quite what I'm paid to do. My role is to understand somewhat challenging technical goals/obstacles and discover a way around (or through). This takes a lot of screentime, but I'm convinced it takes deep thought as well. That's hard to do when looking at a screen. When I am done researching options for a new challenge, I aim to leave the computer and take a walk (or bike) to tackle the challenge with focused, screen-free thought. Practice thinking.

Writing drafts: Last year, I wanted to write and publish far more articles than I did. I submitted nothing to other platforms, published the bare minimum on my blog, and ended up making a mostly product announcements for HubSpot on social channels. The goal of publishing one long-form post per month wasn't helpful. Taking the advice of "writer's write," I'm thinking the better practice is focus on the writing, not the publishing. Writing on a new draft each week seems tenable. I could do this after I send my weekly newsletter on Friday mornings. Practice writing.

Being concise: My job is producing solution recommendations (aka architecture). Clients come to me for help. Often they have a long list of challenges. The easy thing to do is a sort of in-line reply: I could deliver lengthy slide decks, replying to everything. I have done that, but those don't seem to resonate. Anyone can make a list of a dozen things to do; the hard thing is assigning real priority: what matters most? How do you solve the thing that'll have the biggest impact? I'd like to make this practice next year: after I draft a solution design, cut the number of slides or bullet points in half. Practice concision.

You've had a look at mine; what practices are you thinking about for 2024?