Doctor T Designs

I’m trying to continue my tradition of looking at both sewing and non-sewing year end reviews on the blog, though I feel like the non-sewing review is becoming less and less interesting each year. When I look back at last year, I will say that there was a certain prophetic note to what I wrote about making goals for 2025: “I feel like next year is already setting itself up to be quite chaotic on a larger scale, so it seems a bit silly to be making detailed plans when the only viable plan seems to be ‘hang on’.” Ehrm, yeah. Wish that one hadn’t turned out to be true, but here we are.

Non-Sewing Year in Review

On a personal level, I feel like I say this every year, but it’s been really busy. I traveled quite a bit, and was able to visit some new places, which is always exciting. I was also able to see family and friends a bit more this year, which was also nice. The job I started at the end of 2024 is continuing to be a good fit for me, and I’m really happy with where I am in that regard. So, on a personal level, the important things are in a good spot right now. Which is kind of hard to reconcile when juxtaposed against the *gestures vaguely at the everything* rest of what’s been going on in the world. Objectively, this hasn’t been a good year. It’s been the kind of year where I feel like I’ve put a lot of energy into my obligations, but there hasn’t been a lot of energy left for the other things. It seems as though there is a certain amount of the collective weight of the world pressing onto everything, and it’s filling up all of the empty spaces. It’s been a year to really appreciate the positive things, because there have been so many negative things going on.

Goals for 2025 – How Did I Do?

At the end of 2024 I had a few goals I wanted to work on in 2025, though I also noted that they were really more like “hopes” than actual goals.

(1) I hope to have more time to read. Yeah, this one is a big no. I spent a lot of time consuming the news, and I really didn’t put the focus on reading. It’s probably the least I’ve read in quite a while. I went through a similar phase eight years ago, but even then it wasn’t quite as bad as this year.

(2) I want to spend more time cooking and exercising. This one is also a big nope. It’s been difficult to get into a routine when spending so much time traveling. Cooking nights have felt like luxuries rather than the default.

(3) I want to set up a more regular schedule for sewing. This has been spotty. The months when I’ve had less travel I have had a more consistent sewing schedule, but the months I’ve been traveling a lot haven’t been consistent at all. It’s probably worth half credit, but I wouldn’t say I have a solid routine.

(4) I want to get my to-do list under control. This might be the most laughable of my goals. My to-do list is even more out of control now than it was before. It’s like playing whack-a-mole; one thing gets done and 50 more pop up. And I can’t decide if the issue is me (am I slowing down and everything is taking more time?) or just that I have that much more to do now.

(5) I’m hoping to find the time to finally get my living space back in order. This has been incremental. I have done a bit of work on this in terms of organization, but there is still a long way to go.

So, overall, not great. But I went into 2025 expecting chaos and I didn’t really think I’d get many of these things done. I had hoped at least to have a bit more reading time, but c’est la vie.

Goals for 2026

I know everyone is hoping for a quiet year, but I can’t say I think that’s going to happen. So having goals is probably another folly. In fact, there have been so many videos and posts about people not having goals for 2026, I think it’s practically part of the collective consciousness now. But, I do have a few things I want to try and do next year. I don’t expect they will happen, but I would like to try.

(1) I’d like to try and go the month of January without looking at social media (primarily Instagram). I’m finding the algorithm to be less and less helpful and more and more of a time suck. I’m going to try going a month without logging in and see how I feel. I will not be preventing myself from watching YouTube though; there are too many helpful tutorials and other things there, and I tend to get a lot of educational content. I may try to prune down my subscription list though so I have an even more curated list of videos to watch.

(2) Reading is still high up on my list of goals. I read fewer books than I have in a long time this year; I’m not going to set a high goal count for next year either, but I would like to prioritize reading a bit more.

I think that’s kind of it. I will have sewing specific goals in that wrap up post tomorrow, but based on how this year went, I don’t want to be too unrealistic about how much I can change things next year, and I’d like to really have a few top priorities in terms of goals.

Conclusion

I don’t think anyone is going to be sad to see the end of 2025, but I do have a lot of apprehension about what 2026 is going to bring on a larger scale. On a personal level, I wouldn’t be sad to have as many opportunities to spend time with friends and family as I had this year, though I may hope for a bit more time to work on personal projects or time to rest and relax. Here’s hoping that 2026 is much calmer than 2025 and that it ends up being a great new year.