2026 Yearly Theme

Better late than never, right?

Deciding the Theme

This year I was a bit different in deciding my yearly theme, mostly in how and when I named it. When the year started, I had no major drive to figure out my theme immediately. I opted to mull over it instead. During those first few months, I quickly recognized a pattern in my thinking for my theme, the phrase “everything is up for reconsideration”. However, I couldn’t determine a nice Cortex-style name for it.

Fast-forward to April, and I decided that I really needed to clean up and formalize this vague idea now that it was the second quarter of the year. After some brainstorming and dabbling, I stumbled on The Year of Sovereign Inquiry.

Year of Sovereign Inquiry

Weird name, right? But it works. To expand a bit, the breakdown is something like this:

Sovereign → self-governing, independent, in ultimate control of your life and choices

Inquiry → active questioning, investigation, testing assumptions

Why it works: It frames the year as a process of questioning everything under my own authority. This includes habits, philosophies, systems, and tech.

The name goes back to that feeling that everything in my life, no matter how long I’ve held onto it, is really up for evaluation this year. I’m slowly going through various areas of my life and looking at everything and wondering “does it have to be this way?”. I then test out the alternatives.

I had been working with that mindset throughout 2026 already, and I finally had a name for it.

So Far

As a yearly theme, it’s been working quite well. By default, I am already someone that questions everything. Well, almost everything. This theme has encouraged me to push that extra bit whenever I come up against something I would normally consider untouchable. Instead of blindly moving on, I think “Go ahead. Anything is up for reconsideration, it’s the ‘Year of Sovereign Inquiry’…”.

Since the start of the year, there have been a number of ‘inquiries’ I’ve dug into. Many of these might appear as habit changes I would likely investigate regardless, but now, I am doing so with much less hesitation. I am also willing to test out alternatives no matter how long-standing or important the current system is. Here are a few examples:

Reliance on Apple

• I’ve been using NixOS more heavily on the GPD Pocket as my secondary daily driver.
• This has pushed me to slowly move away from services and apps that are locked within Apple.
• I got an Android device (original Google Pixel) to test out GrapheneOS.
• I’m researching how to use a stack like Flutter+ClojureDart for app development instead of straight Swift+SwiftUI. It would be cross-platform and allow for the majority of the development (still need to build/debug iOS/macOS apps on Mac) to also be done on Linux if I choose.

Shifting Local-first and Home-labbing again

• I’ve been moving some services and systems to self-hosted options when it makes sense. Sometimes it’s to enable the service outside of Apple, sometimes it’s to get my data out of the cloud. Other times, the self-hosted option is simply better. Here are a few I set up:
  • Immich - Photo backup outside of Apple Photos formatting. Available to GrapheneOS and Linux devices now.
  • Pinchflat - continuing to test out systems like this to view YouTube content like my text RSS feeds.
  • Nextcloud - my sync service, notes on mobile, and honestly a playground for other stuff (calDAV, etc).
  • Switched to Unifi gear - Better network control. I can disable WAN on my client devices (for better focus), and still use my services on the homelab (which is still connected to WAN to do its thing).

Notes/Journal

• Switched from org mode to simply using markdown files, except when org makes more sense (when tables, TODO lists, and other features are important).
• Configuring various clients to properly use links in my notes was a pain. So I stopped using links. (Do I need links? Do I actually use them often, if at all? --> No)

Time Tracking

• I switched to using time-warrior instead of dedicated apps. I have it configured on my server and make entries via ssh using a shell alias or Apple Shortcut. It works surprisingly well. It started as a short experiment, but I have been using it now for months.

Task Management

• I tested out Super Productivity for dev and hobby tasks. I wanted something more open since I was writing dev notes in my project tasks.
• I tested Vikunja for self-hosting options.
• I am trying to use a simpler tag-based workflow (ex: using day, week, season and other tags instead of dates for management).

Limiting Mental Inputs

Video

• I’ve dramatically pulled back on video content I consume. I don’t watch videos at lunch, and block YouTube for most of the day (and only sometimes work around it XD )
• I’m trying to use systems like Pinchflat for better intentional viewing

Podcasts

• I’m testing out blocking my podcast player in the morning (!). Podcasts are great and I love listening to them during the day, but given the topics I listen to, I often want to ‘look something up’, or spec out a configuration for tech I won’t buy (which is a big time-suck of mine). So, I’m at least delaying that during the day. It’s going well so far.

Internet

• Like podcasts, I’ve started to dabble with periods of working offline.
• With the Unifi and home server changes, I can have my client devices blocked from the WAN, but still able to connect to the server. So, I can still sync my notes, or even push my code (I added git repo mirrors on my server, so I can push to that, and the server will push the changes to source hut for me).

Reading

• After a reading lull at the start of the year, I’m reading more. This is partially due to replacing a bunch of my browsing and video habits with books.
• I also listen to audiobooks, often instead of podcasts when they’re blocked.
• In light of the yearly theme, I’m less worried about whether something will “count” for my reading. Those old thoughts of “Does an audiobook count? What about a zine?” are out the window, and I’m learning more because of it.

Exercise

• Back to simple, quick workouts, and overall activity. Going well.
• Also trying out sandbag exercises.
• Not worried about hitting all my Apple Watch goals, or ensuring I use the various workout services we have (Apple Fitness+, Tempo). Do what works, not what I have sunk-cost guilt over.

Target Second Language

• I always go back to German whenever I am interested in learning a second language. Last time I did this, I realized it made more sense for me to learn Spanish, or even French, instead (although I stuck with German).
• Prompted by our Montreal trip and encouraged by the yearly theme to reconsider - I think I’ll finally switch my target language to French Spanish (changed my mind while editing this post XD ).

Going Forward

Lastly… I might move my theme’s start to Q2 each year (April 1st)? It’s when I finally defined the name for my theme this year, and it also lines up with when I left Red Hat last year, so it actually works well. I don’t need to conflate it with the changing of the year, which is sort of the point of the themes in general. We’ll see.

In summary though, I’ve enjoyed this theme thus far and hope to continue experimenting as the year moves on.