8760 In Progress

As we are now several weeks into 2026 (at the time of this writing), we’ve refined the goals laid out in our 8760 exercise. It helps to concretize the exercise with a few weeks of trial and error. I think we were lofty in our overarching goals, and finding a way to squeeze in all our objectives has been difficult. Between accomplishing larger projects to developing and maintaining habits, our time seems to be stretched thin. We have taken a step in defining a clearer roadmap for achieving our objectives.

Our daily habits were the easiest to solidify as many of them remained static. On my end, I’ve doubled down on the Vietnamese lessons while scrapping the Japanese. Much to my chagrin, I started and completed the Pimsleur course for Vietnamese for which there are only beginner lessons. Peter is also supporting me in a more consistent pursuit of coziness in the home via flowers and gathering more plants. He semi-surprised me with a trip to the LA flower market after a particularly stressful week which got the ball rolling on ideas. And finally, as my commute to work has increased recently, I’ve been going through audiobooks at a much faster pace. It’s an exciting endeavor that allows me to apply a growing fund of knowledge clinically and personally.

On Peter’s end, he’s been so engrossed in doing Upwork projects, learning Notion, and taking over more of his family’s business. It seems like he has barely any time left for daily “habits” separate from this never-ending work. The habits he does have, we share together.

We’ve been much more consistent with daily walks, with each of us reaching over 10k per day and completing audiobooks with it. We slacked slightly with weight lifting near the end of 2025 as well, much of it owing to holiday season and familial obligations. However, not only are we more consistent now, we’ve expanded the workouts to include more exercises. The boon in physical activity has paired well with an overhaul in cooking as well. Our kitchen is growing in terms of spices and ingredients which lends itself to more food exploration (partly due to me being influenced by the book This Is Your Brain On Food by chef and psychiatrist Uma Naidoo, MD).

Even though our time runs thin lately, we hope to integrate some AI lessons into our week as now. Part of this is to keep up with the technology that is rapidly evolving. The other part is that we both find fascination in the technology and our strengths involve learning. We’re not sure how AI will evolve and transform our lives and society as a whole, but this is something we’ve been talking about much more frequently. I approach AI with trepidation and bated breath while Peter is much more tempered and even-keeled with its anticipated adaptations into the workforce.

I think much of our habits, daily routines, and efforts revolve around gathering more knowledge. It’s fun to share with each other what we’ve learned each and every day—this practice palliates the discussions of daily drudgery that is so commonplace over dinner.

Though not conventionally considered “learning,” Peter and I have resumed couples therapy at the beginning of 2026. We are not facing catastrophe and hardships, but therapy has been a powerful tool of reflection for the both of us. It has emboldened us in many ways, and yet softened us in others. We are getting along much more swimmingly with our new therapist who has a much keener curiosity and understanding than our last. Peter was the one to locate our therapist, and has been so proud that the therapist is a good fit for us.

And as if we haven’t already planned our lives to a tee, we’ve taken it one step further with designated trips and events for the entirety of the year. Though initially challenging, it now provides us a roadmap of the times around which we can work overtime versus allocate toward travel and relationships. This was a large undertaking, one that deserves a post all of its own (coming soon)!

We can’t believe it’s already been 2 months into 2026, and yet it’s already felt so eventful. We’d love to hear from all of you the new and exciting developments from this new year!