My big to-do list this year features daily writing, math courses, metabolic efficiency, 19 books, an epic hike and kettlebells.
For background check my 2018 recap to see how I did last year, and the goals tag for annual bucket lists and accomplishments dating back to 2013.
Laying them out here keeps me organized, accountable and inspired. Thanks for following along, and I hope these lists spark ideas for your own adventures in 2019.
Now then, the goals:
Goal 1: Write every day. It’s time get back to my 2014 form and make daily writing a priority. Over the past few years I’ve pushed writing to the back burner: my job switched from social media communications to business analysis; my hobbies shifted from blogging and triathlon to reading and math classes. These are great changes, and it doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game. There’s a way to weave in writing to complement these new paths and pursuits. This goal will help me find it. Here are three components that should help make it happen:
- Establish a regular time and place to close off, open up, and write for an hour — no matter what. Here’s a nerdy utility analogy: think of this as optimizing Generation.
- Refresh my website and content strategy to reduce uncertainty and make publishing as frictionless as possible. Building on the nerdy utility analogy: this is efficient Transmission.
- Start an email newsletter to increase readership and feedback, and decrease social media dependency. Closing out the nerdy utility analogy: this is modernizing Distribution.
Goal 2: Get really smart at math, Round II. I made a lot of progress in 2018 (Calculus, Differential Equations and Proofs) and I want to keep that going by completing more math courses: Linear Algebra and Applied Statistics. I’ll also connect the dots between theory and application by strengthening my data crunching skills using the software R and SAS.
Goal 3: Go keto. This is a diet that reprograms your body to a state of metabolic efficiency: burning stored energy in the form of body fat and ketones, which burn clean, rather than depending on carbs, which burn dirty. Most of the foods are similar to paleo: no grains, no processed foods, no sugar, etc. The big change is in food quantities and timing. I use this analogy to get my head around it: paleo is figuring out the right materials to use in the factory, and keto is figuring out how to optimize the use of those inputs for the factory to be lean and productive. I’m using The Keto Reset Diet by Mark Sisson as my guide (and most of the stuff I wrote above came from that book). It starts with a 21-day metabolic reset, followed by a dive into ketosis. I’ve started the 21-day metabolic reset and it’s pretty weird.
Goal 4: Read these books. The list below is in no particular order. My eyes are bigger than my stomach. Full disclosure: I read the first three books on the list by the time of this posting (Jan-Feb 2019) – this is not the first or the last time I’ve added completed tasks to to-do lists for the sheer dopamine rush of crossing them off.
- Our Towns by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- Radical Markets by Eric A. Posner and E. Glen Weyl
- The Book of Why by Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie
- The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- The Iliad by Homer
- Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen
- Whiteshift by Eric Kaufmann
- Judas by Amos Oz
- The People vs. Democracy by Yascha Mounk
- World Order by Henry Kissnger
- The hero with a thousand faces by Joseph Campbell
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
- Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
- Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock
- The Cost Disease by William J. Baumol
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
- The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Goal 5: Take an epic hike. Maybe another adventure up Mt. Whitney. Maybe the John Muir Trail. Maybe the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia. Maybe the Great Baikal Trail in Siberia. Maybe the Maroon Bells in Colorado. Maybe the Angelus Circuit in New Zealand. Maybe I’ll finally cross the Grand Canyon off the list.
Goal 6: Complete the Simple and Sinister kettlebell workout at 32kg. This is means graduating to one-arm swings for 10×10 in five minutes, followed by 10 Turkish Get Ups (five each side) in 10 minutes.