What progress did I make in 2023?

2023 was not a great year for me and I don’t like dwelling on it, so this post will be quite short.

Work
2023 was difficult. I did have to make some tough decisions about my future and spent large parts of the first half of the year ruminating on what path I want to take, affecting both my productivity and my mood very negatively. In the end, I think I made the right decision (and also had lots of luck), however, I let some people down in the process, which I feel very guilty about.

Fitness
The troubles I had work-wise also affected my workouts. I, basically, did not do any exercise between February and August, when I started going to the gym six times a week. This turned out to be much more fun than expected! Not only did I make considerable strength gains, I also enjoyed spending lots of time working out niche muscles on expensive machines. However, this was only made possible by me having nothing to do all day for a couple of months and I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much under a normal schedule. Now, I am back to going to the gym 2-3 times a week, doing barbell exercises and not making a lot of progress. However, this is quite fine for me, I still enjoy working out and I think I feel much better than I would otherwise. The only thing that is troubling me is that I am not doing any cardio, I hope to get back to that in the summer.

Nutrition
Nothing exciting here, I gained some weight in the summer, which I am now trying to lose (There will be a post on this soon).

Reading
I read the following books this year:
– Beowulf
– Grendel – John Gardner
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
– Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
– Parfit – David Edmonds
– Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
– There Is No Antimemetics Division – qntm
– The Lost City of Z – David Grann
– Im Westen nichts Neues – Erich Maria Remarque
Despite having considerable amount of free time, I did not manage to read a lot. However, I did “discover” a new genre, adventure books.

Writing
I published 5 posts in 2023, compared to 14 the year before. Here they are.

Ethical living
I started volunteering this year. I now do research for a couple of hours a week for an effective charity.

Plans for 2024
I think making plans for a whole year is not super effective, because it does not allow quick iterations. Therefore, in 2024, I will make quarterly plans, the first one is already is already published.