Chris Jarling

In the light of the third point in this list, I'll keep what I want to do this year simple. I have three topics I want to focus on:

• Have fun
• Be healthy
• Simplify

They're also vague and not quantifiable. This is against what every productivity expert will tell you. I learned for myself that hard numbers on goals will create too much pressure on me and I will just let it slide. Those are more like loose guidelines, or themes for the year.

Have fun

I tend to forget about having fun. My life is pretty good right now, I get to do a lot of things I enjoy. However, I have a tendency to see everything as tasks that need to be done. I'm good at doing tasks, but I will do it with a grim precision, finish it and move on to the next. This makes me unhappy.
I will work on being more present in the moment in order to enjoy whatever I'm doing, if possible. If I cannot enjoy it, at least I will work on not letting it ruin my mood.

Be healthy

I'm 32 now and I can feel it. They days of invulnerable youth are over. My body asks for care and maintenance and I will provide it. It matters. This will be done mostly through two things: Eating well and physical activity.

Luckily, I have a head start on both: My wife is very passionate about cooking and eating healthy, so in order to step up my game there, I just need to cut back on buying crap (mostly soda and highly processed vegan meat alternatives). Because of our dog, I take at least on walk a day, two on most days, so I have some physical activity under the belt automatically. I only need to add a workout here and there. Those should be fun, so they don't become a chore, will most likely be a mixture of gym, running and climbing.

Simplify

I noticed it's good for my mind to simplify everything. Most important will be minimizing my possessions, but I plan to let the pattern of simplifying get into every single aspect of my life. I started with this very website. It's a lot simpler now.