Notes on last year

• Another year of not drinking, my only issue is it becomes a talking point, and not a fun one.
• Also at a good level of things. Enjoying running. Did a good amount of adventures. Made some nice furniture. Practiced french daily on Busuu and Duolingo, althought don’t feel that good.
• Both the best and worst thing happened, getting pregnant for the third time, but then loosing that baby. A lot of emotions that I haven't properly got through yet.
• I’m always striving to “be better” but need to be more comfortable with the objectively good life our family leads. I want to be more content, and raising kids is an adequate life goal isn’t it.
• I’ve felt overwhelmed quite a bit this year, usually a run and a chat solve this, but I’ve also found that being less phone focused helps a lot. A good dad can control his time on his phone.
• Managed to curb social media by simply deleting social apps from my phone. this has meant I’ve missed messages from friends that I haven’t heard from in a while, and missed news of people getting engaged.
  • Leaving phone out of sight really helps. Especially when working. But this also translates to home life.
    • Leave the phone on charge, upstairs.
    • Take a camera to events
    • Take a real notepad on walks
• And its not just social media, need to ensure that I’m less focused on media in general. I browse the Guardian, BBC and Reddit much too often.
• Overwhelmed. I’ve seen my attention becoming crazily taken up by “Wanting/needing” things which is annoying. I need to get a handle on it, because I don’t buy these things and I get to the point where they live, cluttering my brain.
• Overwhelm has been helped by better management of things. When I hear about a task, clarify why, if it’s necessary, get details and add a deadline meeting to the calendar with the person who is expecting it. If I hear of something that needs doing; delegate, and add the task as a talking point to the 1:1 doc with the employee. Add tasks to calendars
• I also managed to do stuff this year by DOING STUFF straight away. Sometimes just doing stuff and delegating right away before things dwell and need to become meetings.
• I’m still not confident in product leadership. Not sure how to measure confidence? So my main ways I’ll get confident are:
  • Go to product leadership talks & meet-ups
  • Take a product leadership reforge course
  • Use LinkedIn as a learning/teaching platform and ask questions there
• Overall happy with adventures, though not at the year end. too little too late.
  • List of things I’ve done is good
• Add calendar reminders to prep for Christmas. Do better hand making of the little things, cards, gifts, etc.

Before the end of 2025

More confident in my role

Better, more content family life