Grading My January Commitments Before the Month Ends
January’s almost over, and I made some commitments at the start of it. I’d rather grade them now, while there are still a few days to adjust, than write a tidy summary once the month has closed and the details have softened. So here’s an honest report card, letter grades included.
The commitments came out of three posts: the principles in New Year, Same Foundation, the rules in The Tech Parent’s Dilemma, and the boundary I described in The Weekend I Stopped Answering Slack.
The report card
| Commitment | Grade | What moved the grade |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend boundaries | B+ | One emergency Saturday; still checking Slack |
| Being present | C+ | Phone away more often; head still drifts to work |
| Writing consistently | A | Daily habit held; quality uneven |
| AI project discipline | B- | Pulled into new model releases; turned down two gigs |
Weekend boundaries: B+
I mostly held the line. I worked one Saturday this month, and it was an actual emergency, not a “quick question” dressed up as one. Most weekends felt good. Taking weekends off is the change I’m proudest of, because it was the biggest shift and it’s holding.
The slip-up is Slack. I still check it occasionally. I don’t respond, but I check, and checking is its own kind of work: it pulls my head back into the week even when my hands stay off the keyboard. That’s the next thing to stop.
Being present: C+
Better than before. My phone stays away during family time more often than it used to.
But I still drift mentally. I’m physically there and thinking about work. This is harder to fix than I expected, because there’s nothing to put in a drawer. A phone goes in a drawer. My head doesn’t. I wrote about one small tactic for this in The Five-Minute Father; it’s too early to say whether it changes the default. What I can say is that I now notice when I’m not present. That’s progress.
The part of this grade I like least is patience with my kids. I snap more than I should, especially when I’m stressed. I’d like to think the presence goals below will help with this too.
Writing consistently: A
I’ve published 27 posts this month, one a day. Some short, some long. It felt good to write regularly again, and I explained why I bother in Why I Still Blog.
The A is for consistency, not for every post being great. That’s the trade-off I chose on purpose: a daily habit with uneven output beats waiting for the perfect post and publishing nothing. I’m also trying to be more honest in what I write: less “here’s the perfect solution”, more “here’s what actually happened”.
AI project discipline: B-
I said I’d stop chasing every new model. I mostly succeeded. But I still got pulled into the latest Gemini releases. That breaks the depth over breadth principle I set at the start of the month.
Curiosity isn’t the problem; it’s part of the job. The problem is when exploring a new model quietly replaces finishing the work in front of me.
The better news on this front is saying no. I turned down two consulting gigs. A year ago I would have said yes to both. Fewer commitments is what makes focus possible in the first place.
Three goals for February
All three target the weakest grade above, being present, and they’re small enough that I can’t talk myself out of them.
- A daily meditation practice. I tried it for a week in January and struggled. Five minutes a day, smaller and less ambitious this time, to see whether it helps with presence.
- A weekly family activity. One thing each week, phones away, fully present.
- A monthly no-tech day. One Saturday with no computer and no phone. Just family.
I’ll grade these the same way at the end of February. The test that matters is whether my family notices.
Somewhere in between
One thing sits outside the grades: imposter syndrome. I’m still questioning whether I know enough, am enough, do enough. No letter grade fits that, and I don’t expect one month to settle it.
If you made commitments of your own this January, try grading them before the month ends rather than after. A grade with a few days left is something you can still act on. A grade on 1 February is only a record.