Here we go again...
2025 and my to-do list
I handily put off any real commitments in November and December as I recovered from hardcore career burnout apparently. That’s the only way I can describe the feeling of true “nothing-in-there-anyone-home” within my brain after wrapping up work in October. So I did many long awaited home tasks like shredding tax papers from 2007, saving dying plants, and repairing Roman curtain shades (total brag). I napped a lot. Read some non-serious books. I also have a 50-some day streak on Duolingo. I was as sloth-ridden as I could be in other words, given my personality.
Anyway ‘tis officially 2025, and I have to begin doing things again. More so, I want to begin doing things again. I am finally feeling ever-so-slightly bored. Which is nice in a weird way because the lack of desire was low key freaking me out in 2024.
The twinges of desire are also incredibly convenient because I have a writing schedule with my publisher wherein I start writing my new chapters for the Adventures in Tech book this month. More a to-do list versus new year’s resolutions, here’s what I’ve committed to and therefore I am publicly airing so I feel a level of guilt/obligation to complete the following:
Alana’s Official To Dos as of Now-ish
Write new chapters: Currently planning two additional chapters + a new introduction/prologue. One chapter in January, the next in February, and then review/edit in March. Topics will range from the disappointments of capitalism and corporate ethics to persistent glimmers of “if you work at it and REALLY WANTS IT” optimism. I’m looking forward to my moody era.
Debate whether to edit out any stories from the original book. This was suggested by my publisher, and I am arguing with myself about whether some of the stories are dated, still good, or serve a historic purpose. First I will re-read the book (insert girlish giggle) and really decide/edit in March. I get feedback like this, and I think leave it ALL IN, right?????
Amp up my social media game. This is series of things I should do this year before the new book is published, but currently specifically involves:
A video series on ambiguous/catchy advice we receive and feedback on what specifically we can do to act on it. I’m gathering ideas on this LinkedIn post; feel free to add ideas. Good ones already!
A cartoon-esque series (read: Alana messing around with AI) that will copy short advice from the above, mainly to test on Insta I think.
A “work can be funny too” video/podcast short series. I’m so so scared of the workload to commit to a long-term series, so I am thinking 6 - 8 episodes. Gotta plan this out more and actually make it happen after writing.
I’ll have a new list after March when I start figuring out book promotion, but I think that’s a reasonable list to start planning and testing for the immediate future.
If you were waiting…
For me to show signs of life again, I’ll also pick up some conversations that I left dead with coachees and colleagues when I checked out of consciousness back in October. Feel free to reach out, and I’ll book time for us :)
Stay strong out there,
A
I remember Tim Ferris had that same issue with stories going out of date with 4 hour work week (written back in 2007 - can you believe it?). If i remember correctly from some random interview he said that he didn’t update it beyond corrections because 1. he could just write another book to give new tools and stories etc… which he did with Tools of Titans. 2. He could update on blogs, podcasts etc… and 3. your same point of it being a document of sorts of its day which given the topic you write about I think that could be very useful. Through techs various eras there have been rebrands of tech and there has definitely been revisionists along the way who downplayed or wrote out the experiences of women and POC.