⌛The Year of Timeliness
What is time, and how do I actually use it?
I spent substantial portions of this year evaluating time and my relationship to it, and, as with any sufficiently nuanced prompt, I'm left with more questions than answers.
Fortunately, part of this year has also been about learning to love questions themselves, so I'm not particularly bothered by this year-end state of much left unresolved.
Yearly Themes
Since 2022, I've written a year-in-review style post (2022 review, 2023 review, 2024 review). I found value in drafting and publishing them, but part of me now is rebelling against the onslaught of year-wrap style content. It seems that every living app developer has decided they can't close out for the holidays without shipping a flashy summary of what you did on that app that year.
So, my last post of the year this go around will instead focus on a single concept: yearly themes.
First, a refresher on themes versus resolutions. Here's the explanation from the folks who champion this every year:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DS2g0vTDXux/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Last year, I wrote: I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, as I have found them to be too rigid and unattainable. For years, I’ve been listening to content creators CGP Grey and Myke Hurley talk about the concept of setting yearly themes instead. This six-minute video does a good job of explaining the basics.
It's fair to say that, a few years into the practice, I'm theme guy.
The Years of Clarity and Timeliness
The 2024 theme of "clarity" helped me move through some knotty situations and think critically about actions I could take to swim forward when the waters in front of me were murky.
This 2025 theme was, in a sense, an extension of the same. The more clarity I gained, the more I saw how so much of my future would be shaped by when I chose to do what. And with hefty life changes swirling about me, I thought at the end of last year that I would do well to put some additional thought into the timing of it all.
The Urgent & The Important
Looking back now, I'm thankful I followed through on that insight. While I certainly got the timing wrong on some key muscle movements this year, I was learning every time I did so. As vulnerable as I tend to be in these pages, I'll keep some things rather close to the chest here as it relates to personal ups and downs of 2025. Suffice it to say, it has been another wildly challenging year, but I'm proud of some of my more decisive moments.
In a way, this "when" and "what" falls squarely back into the age-old practice of prioritization. The 2x2 grid of urgency and importance is never far from my thinking, as it's implementable in its simplicity and profound in its impact. As an aside, I think the way that grid, often referred to as the Eisenhower Matrix, is typically taught is misleading can even be counterproductive. I'll dive into that in greater detail in a 2026 post.
Many, many times this year, I found myself ranking urgency and importance. And many, many times, I found myself defaulting to the things that were easier to handle, even if something urgent and important was pressing down upon me.
But in other times, I was able to use the grid as a forcing function to get the right things done in roughly the right order. Anyone who has ever sold a house and moved to a new city knows that there is a shocking amount of complexity that goes into these processes. The fact that all of that happened this year, and without any derailing hiccups, is a testament to at least some sequencing/timing going right.
This awareness of timing also helped me steady some anticipatory nerves when life felt like it was pressing down upon me. In September, I wrote about giving grace and working on meeting myself where I am, which can often be different from where we pretend to be. Timing.
On Being Late
There's also a more obvious interpretation of the '25 theme: I'm a late person. That doesn't mean I'm always late, but it does mean that I chronically underestimate the amount of time it takes to get things done. I know that I need to put aside my initial estimate every single time, and then think logically about how much I'm not automatically taking into account that make the thing take longer.
And if you haven't seen Mike Birbiglia's description of late people versus on-time people, may I recommend you stop what you're doing and watch this clip.
I've moved the needle on being more "on time," but I still encounter daily reminders that demonstrate I still have a long way to go.
The Year of Focus
And so, as the calendar ticked closer to the fresh start of 2026, I started considering if I should just keep the theme the same for another year. There's no shame or inherent lack of value in doing so. A year of timeliness built on a year of clarity, and I still have much road to travel with each theme. But upon reflection, I considered a new theme that would allow me to continue building on what I've learned while also providing me with more, well, focus.
Which is to say, 2026 will be the Year of Focus.
I want to increase the degree to which I intentionally move through this world, spending time on things I want to spend time on, and doing my damnedest to avoid the trap of drifting, magnetically pulled towards one shiny object or another (unless I determine a particular shiny object is worth prioritizing, that is).
I want to revisit my work and home environments with an eye towards the structure that allows me to get the urgent and important done first, while also carving out time for the things that may not seem important but that are actually critical to feeding the soul.
Music, for example. I have made ample time for music this year, and I want that to continue and expand. I can lose and find myself over and over in the chords and rhythms. I want to see others play and I want to keep creating myself, focusing on a hobby that lifts me up no matter how far down I may go.
What's Your Theme?
And so, dear reader, what's your theme going to be? If you haven't tried this before, I encourage you to give it some thought. And if you need someone to bounce a theme off of, ya know where to find me.
Timely Yours,
Rye
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