January 2026: Month in Review

January’s done. Let’s review what actually happened.

The Commitments

Made several commitments at the start of the month. Time to be honest about how I did.

Only worked one Saturday. Actual production emergency. Otherwise, weekends were for family.

This felt good. Kids noticed. Wife noticed. I noticed.

Keeping this in February.

Better than before. But still catch myself mentally drifting to work during family time.

Progress, not perfection.

31 posts in 31 days. Some technical, some personal, some short, some long.

Felt good to write consistently. Clarified my thinking on several topics.

Turned down projects that didn’t fit. Focused on Azure OpenAI and Fabric work.

Still got distracted by new model releases. Old habits.

Routines. Having consistent boundaries made decisions easier.

Honesty. Being more transparent in my writing felt liberating.

Saying no. Turning down work to protect time.

Meditation. Tried it for a week. Struggled with it. Might try again differently.

Batch processing. Attempted time-blocking. Didn’t stick.

Early mornings. Tried waking at 5 AM. My body said no.

Small changes compound. Not working weekends improved everything else.

Writing helps thinking. Regular blogging clarified a lot of fuzzy thoughts.

Presence is hard. Being mentally present requires constant effort.

Progress over perfection. Better counts, even if not perfect.

Continue: Weekend boundaries, daily writing, being selective with work

Start: Monthly no-tech day with family

Stop: Feeling guilty about what I’m not doing

Focus: Being present, not just productive

January was good, not perfect. Made progress on what matters. Still work to do.

But I’m heading in the right direction.

That’s enough for now.

Here’s to February.