ake back mornings

This one has been a struggle for me so far. I'm generally a morning person but in January, I had many dinner meetings and in service of Goal #3 (Reconnect with new friends), 

I did have a few longer nights out than intended. Having something at night made it more difficult to take back the morning, even I did pretty well with Goal #5 (Drink less).



I plan on amending this from Take back mornings->Make plans during the day, not at night. After speaking with a few of meeting counterparts, 

 In Japanese biz culture, there's a term called "nomu-nication" or "communicating over drinks," meaning that alcohol can help to be a 

social lubricant to create more open business conversations, but I feel confident that I can buck this trend with my sleepy peers.



Making fewer evening plans also has the happy effect of helping me spend more time with my wife and our dog, which I already feel like I do a decent job of, but creating more time is only positive.



Get back on the bball court

I'm proud to say that I've been very good at this one so far. I played pick up at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo three times, signed up for two Indoor Hoops Open Runs in NYC (highly recommended!) while back home and closed the month by playing in a 3x3 eve



Now that I'm back on the court, my next goal will be to get back into basketball shape. This means working out, getting to the court when I can, joining my friends' weekly runs, etc. If I can do a decent job of my amended Goal #1, 

I'm confident that I can be in prime position to start to get myself into basketball shape. Getting into basketball shape will also help

Reconnect with close friends



I also feel like I've done a good job of this goal. This was helped by me going back to NY and visiting friends from home, but I've made an active effort to reconnect with friends from both NY and Tokyo. But reconnecting hasn't been the difficult part for me.



The more difficult aspect of this goal, for me, is continuing to maintain that relationship without having something concrete to work on together. This is what I plan to work on in February and onwards: Maintain relationships with close friends



Make new friends

This one has been a mixed bag for me. In many ways, I actually did a great job at this goal this month: I joined a book club where I met new people, I made time with someone who I'd discussed meeting up 

with for several months and learned that we had a lot in common, I helped host an event in Tokyo, where I met a few people that I could see myself staying connected with, someone who I met through work in 

December, I've now met up with a few times in various places throughout Tokyo and now feel is a friend, etc..



However, what I did learn, especially coming out of my time on TimeLeft is that making friends for the sake of making friends is not something that I'm that interested in. What I care about is finding people that care about similar things, 

who want to explore topics that are on each others' minds and those who I can relate to due to some form of shared context.



In the context of this goal, where I think I can improve is moreso around being better about making plans that help me further explore my own creative and intellectual pursuits, outside of work. For example,

 I took a leap and joined a book club, lead by someone I met in Thailand in November that was held in NY last month during my ten-day visit to NY: debating whether we could relate in any way to the narrator, Alex in Cl


I have a bad habit of waiting to make my personal plans the day of or only a few days in advance, which ultimately means many of them end up falling through, giving me FOMO.



Drink even less

I have become so good at this one that I'm actually thinking that I can take it off of the list. I naturally do not drink much and the one club event I attended, 

I made a strategic Irish Exit to get home as early as I could.

I think this plan is already folded in to amended Goal #1 of making plans during the day, so I am removing this one for a new goal (good job Ren!).



Finish 1 book/month

I have crushed this goal, finishing three books over the course of January: Together by Vivek H. Murthy, Mixed Race Superman by Will Harris and the aforementioned A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

 I'm also on to my fourth book, Making of A Counter Culture by Theodore Roszak, a dense sociological analysis of youthful rebellion during the hippy movement. This may be my hardest one yet, but feeling good about achieving this goal.



Don't want to overextend though, so will keep this at 1 book/month.

Go to ~1 new Asian country or revisit 1

Interestingly enough, this goal is actually being pushed to 2026 as my wife and I are getting a second dog! We are already traveling for

I ended up finding out that they too, in fact, prefer to do meetings over lunch/coffee vs. in the evening as it gets pretty tiring doing dinners several nights a week.