Every January, people set resolutions. Most don’t last February. You either did the thing or you didn’t, and the first time you didn’t, you failed.

A few years ago, CGP Grey and Myke Hurley introduced a better framework on their podcast Cortex: yearly themes. Instead of a pass/fail goal, you pick a broad direction for the year. They’ve done “Year of Order”, “Year of Health”, “Year of New”, etc.. When a decision comes up, you hold it against the theme and ask whether it fits. You can’t fail a theme as long as you aim in the general direction.

I liked the idea when I first heard it. It fits how I already think: not in terms of motivation and willpower, but in terms of systems and direction. i decided to try it this year.

2026 is my Year of Leverage.

Why leverage

I have two boys whose activity schedules are getting denser. I run an engineering group that continues to grow and get more work. I commute about three hours a day. I sit most of the day and offset it with a lunchtime walk and a coffee walk. I eat out more than I should because our schedule demands convenience. I code AI projects on the side because I like building things and it keeps me sharp.

None of that is going to change in any dramatic way this year. I’m not moving closer to the office. I’m not quitting my side projects. The boys aren’t going to have fewer activities. So the question is how do I get more from the time I already have?

What I Expect

At work, leverage means delegation. The uncomfortable kind where I hand off something I’m good at to someone who will do it at 80% quality, and I let that be fine. Every person I develop this year is a multiplier I’ll need in 2027. Spend time on people now so the organization doesn’t depend on me doing everything later. That means I have to stop doing some things I enjoy, and risk some mistakes.

With health, leverage means picking the interventions with the best ratio of effort to result. I already walk about 150 minutes a week. That habit is locked in and I’m not going to pretend I’ll add a gym routine on top of a three-hour commute. The better move is probably on the input side: swapping even one takeout night per week for something planned and lighter. Small diet changes compound over twelve months.

At home, the boys are old enough to own more of their own logistics. A shared calendar, a standing grocery order, a repeatable weeknight meal cooked by them.

Side projects are where leverage is already built in. When I spend an evening building something, it is usually building a thing that helps me build another thing or to automate something. This also keeps me current with where tech is moving, and it is fun.

What it doesn’t mean

Leverage isn’t about squeezing every minute. I still plan to play games, watch YouTube, and sit on the couch. The theme is about noticing where I’m spending time/energy in a low-return way and asking if there a version of this that costs me less and gives me the same or more.

It’s also not about doing everything myself, faster. That’s the opposite of leverage. The whole point is that it comes from systems, people, and structures that work when I’m not pushing.

Why I’m writing this down

Themes work better when you articulate them. Writing this post is partly for anyone who finds the yearly-theme concept useful, but mostly it’s for me. In December I want to read this back and see whether the decisions I made this year actually reflected the lens I chose.