My 2024, in review.

December 26, 2024

The end of the year is looming, and we approach the dark, melancholic week which sets its home between Christmas and the new year. Like a troll on a bridge, the week of limbo must be defeated to pass into the glorious bastion of twenty twenty-five.

Which, is an overly dramatic way of saying that it’s the time of year when I reflect on where I am and how I got here. Nothing too deep, but I like to check in and think about some things.

Tagets?

I don’t believe that the tradition of “New Year’s resolutions” is healthy, useful, or enjoyable but these are the personal points of importance which I set myself in 2024. These were set at various points rather than on January first.

Write more.

This is the eternal goal. Write more. Then write some more, and, then, a little more. This year I have released two novellas. The Chronicles of Ned: Space to Breathe, and Denouement: Of Gods and Vampires. I have also partly written Denouement 3. I have to admit though, I could have written more. I have found myself distracted by many things over the last couple of months.

I think part of it maybe my workflow and tooling. While I enjoy Scrivener, at times I sense that there is a lot happening with the UI/UX which pulls my mind out of the actual writing. Not least of which is the fact that its typewriter scrolling is a strange, unpredictable beast. That’s not to say in any way that Scrivener has worked against me. I wrote plenty this year and I genuinely think that my writing has been, well, pretty good. But, ever since ‘Literature & Latte’ announced that they were working on a new writing application, I have been more willing to acknowledge Scrivener’s flaws. I don’t understand why that had any effect on me really. The result, though, is that I have been a little distracted by the flaws in my current application. I think Scrivener is actually, maybe, a little ‘long in the tooth’ in some ways. Also, I am dreadful at remembering to use the distraction-free mode, and that’s on me.

The main issue that has bugged me with Scrivener is that switching devices is harder than it should be. If I use iPad or iOS, I get a scary popup when I return to laptop, and it raises my irrational writer’s dread about losing words. It has never lost anything, but I have had to manually intervene with the sync. It just feels absurd that I have these problems with an application that has been around as long as Scrivener has.

Outside of Scrivener musings, I have had a lot going on this year with work. It has left me, on many occasions, too mentally drained to write with any gusto. That can’t be helped. And again, as I have said, I did release two things this year, so it’s not like I’m slacking. My personal aim to write more and write better, has simply not been met.

I think there have been at least a few months when I have been a little ‘down,’ generally. I don’t like writing when I’m not feeling ‘up.’ Actually, I should probably be a little more honest and say that I have been quite emotionally low, for at least a half of this year. I got out of myfunk, and it was nowhere near depression. Not at all what some people have to deal with. My ‘sad’ was not clinical or in need of professional support. But, I have been less than myself at times in 2024, and it affected my writing in ways I didn’t expect. I think it has to do with being quite lonely, over all, in life.

Have fewer subscriptions.

I set out with the goal of not subscribing to non-entertainment services in 2024. I know this is a convoluted way to say it, but I can’t get away from paying for streaming video services. I don’t have broadcast television, and I do want to watch TV shows from time to time. Paying for streaming services is just something I want to jettison from my life at this time. I probably will at some point, but right now, no.

I did however manager to not pay for Notion, Obsidian, task managers, storage solutions or other services for most of 2024. I jumped back onto Todoist as my task manger about three months ago because it made my job easier. After some reflection, I realised that Things 3 was fine for my personal life, but not ideal for work.

My solution to this has been looking at services like Craft/Notion/Click-up. Basically, if I can make a work dashboard, I can approach each day as a ‘task sheet’ rather than a task manager category. I am explaining this badly, but I want my task manger to be for my life, not my job. I want to look at it and see tasks that exist outside my work. This, in reality, means I have to subscribe to something specifically for work. I think it’s worth the cost to separate my two personas. I wasn’t too fussy which service and Craft had an excellent sale recently, so I went with that. I hope in 2025 I can be more clear with my life/work concerns and draw that proverbial line in the sand, mentally speaking.

While Todoist has made me more productive, over all, I have ended up thinking about work more than I care to, of an evening. This has been because I can see those tasks lined up for the following day. There is no profile switching in Todoist and it hasn’t been great to have it all in one place.

I think I have been more selective about subscriptions overall, and this has been good for me.

More exercise

In the summer, I walked my dog at least a mile every day and picked up heavy things before my evening shower. I did well. I lost weight and felt better. Winter hit me hard, though. He’s a short-haired Chihuahua, and they don’t do well in the cold. Without the habitual daily walking, my desire to pick up heavy things has also faded. I have a home treadmill, but for the last two months I have had a knee injury which has prevented me from using it.

I hope to get back to good eating and regular moving in the next month or so. I would rather not screw my knee up any more than I have, so I am being cautious as all heck.

Still, as soon as the cold goes, the dog will be back to his daily marching, and I’ll get a lot more steps in.

Simplify life.

I have had a year-long drive to simplify life. This was first evident in my desire to jettison subscriptions, then, became even more intentional when I started simplifying my physical space by aggressive decluttering my home.

I have even stopped using my computer monitor and external keyboard. My personal tastes are trending towards simplicity and minimalism. It has been really good for me and, I think, a large part of what pulled me out of that funk I spoke about earlier. Feeling more intentional has really made me happy.

I also have to accept that simplifying has taken time. Every aspect of my life has become more streamlined, and the physical decluttering took time. There is still more to be done, but I have come a long way. I have spent many hours packing boxes and cleaning cupboards. This is all time which could have been spent writing. The decluttering work is actually how I injured my knee, so it’s hilarious to me that I call it out as a source of joy.

I still want to jettison the last of my physical books and remove some other items from my life. This includes a plan to change my wardrobe contents and further clear my home office.

Religion.

For clarity, I attend a Pentecostal Christian church (an Elim Church.)

My time with the Bible has been the single biggest source of joy in my life this last year. It sustained me through the ‘sad bits’ of the year and gave me inspiration, resolve, and motivation to keep improving my life and myself as a person.

I have become closer with my church friends too, which has also been a source of joy. I look forward to our group meetings on Wednesday nights and always take a lot away from the time.

I know some people will eye role hard at the next paragraph but I feel like saying it is important to me because I wanted this post to be honest and clear.

I love God, and that is the simplest way I can say it. Jesus is the single most influential person in my life, and that should not be taken as a statement which is devaluing to the rest of the people. Jesus is the direction which I strive, and I am certain that it has made me a better man. It has certainly got me through the tough times, and no doubt, will continue to do so when required.

The unplanned persona change.

When HexDSL started the year, he didn’t intend to finish it as Dandelion-Utilitarian. It wasn’t planned at all, but as part of the funk clearing, I needed to make a change. Feel like the online persona alteration has resulted in a clear message that I am who I actually am. I think there was an expectation by many historical YouTube viewers that I would behave in a specific way and I disappointed them. I never made any promises, but the name change seems to have made it clear to them that I do not intent to behave the way they wanted me to.

Was 2024 a success?

Honestly, there have been some high points on this year, as well as some notable lows. The truth though has been that most of this year has been ‘bland’ for me personally. I have felt aimless at times and especially in the early part of the year, just not very ‘good,’ generally.

I think part of my overall ‘meh’ about the year has been that my daughter went off to university and that took quite a lot of my general routine and threw it away. This left me thinking hard about what I wanted, sans child and I don’t think I had a good answer for a while.

Now I’m approaching the final death rattles of the year, I can say with honesty that I currently have motivation, drive, and targets. I know where I’m going, it just took me a while to find the right map for the stars I was looking at.

2025 plans and declarations!

This is easy. Here is the plan, it’s so simple I can bullet list it for you!

• Become for financial stable, through better decisions. — I’m not terrible with money, not at all, but this year I’m going to be decisive with my budget and get the last of my historical debts paid off.
• Read more. — I read. I read a lot, but this next year I want to make it my default pastime when I am in that ‘what should I do’ mood. Reading more is never bad, not for any human. I would like to read more of the Bible too, maybe I’ll do one of those daily reading plans.
• Walk more. — with or without dog. As soon as my knee feel better (hopefully in the upcoming weeks) I’m going to try to log more steps each week. Doesn’t have to be massively more, but I want my average step count to go up each and every week for 2025. I may even buy a cheap step counting watch. Hopefully, Casio sell something super cheap that doesn’t need to be charged a lot.
• Write more. — I mean, there isn’t a lot to say here. I write more, and I feel better in my soul. I should write more. Likewise, I think I could do more on my website too.

There we are. Four bullets for a better me.

I also hope that in limbo-week next year, I will be in a position where I can talk about how I am finally ready to buy that camper van/motor home I have wanted for the last five years. I would rather not make ban financial decisions either, so I have told myself that I’m going to wait for a year. But, I think it maybe in good position to start shopping, this time next year.

Please tell me about your 2024, and plans for 2025, in the comments. Or shoot me an email.

Thanks for reading.

Dandy.