Annual Review 2024

Introduction

For me, 2024 was all about trying new things and stepping out of my comfort zone—whether that meant meeting new people, building things, or spending time with people I care about.

At the end of the year, I did my first-ever annual reflection, and this is a summarized version of it. I'm really glad I set up a system at the start of the year to check in with myself. I combined monthly reflections with weekly journaling (which I prefer to write by hand), and it helped me understand how I was feeling, thinking, and doing.

It's one thing to just live life and keep all your thoughts to yourself, but it's different when you actually write things down. Writing has helped me make sense of my thoughts, clears my mind, and gets me excited about what direction to take next.

At the start of the year, I was motivated to achieve my goals. But after a few months, I slowed down and got a bit lazy with my goals. I don't know if I burned myself out by pushing too hard, but I wasn't as hard on myself as I would've been in the past. I wrote a note to remind myself that missing a goal isn't life-threatening—the real deal is to keep playing the long game.

In this essay, I'll share some highlights of the year, reflect on the goals I set, and briefly talk about my approach for 2025.

Highlights of 2024

• Newsletters sent: 21
• Most read issue: Clown mode and editor mode
• Books read: 8
• Favorite book: Influence
• Essays written (short + long): 16
• Favorite essay: Writing Manifesto

Reflecting on 2024 Goals

A Bit of Inspiration Newsletter

I had a goal of reaching 100 subscribers in my newsletter, but I fell short in the end. This newsletter started as a fun project back in April 2023 because I felt I had something to share. Now, it has grown to 71 subscribers, which I'm happy about.

The format has changed many times. I experimented with longer posts, then really short ones, until I finally found a middle ground that feels right for me and, hopefully, my readers.

At times, I questioned why I was even continuing and felt like quitting. That usually happened when I started thinking of it as a way to make money, which took away my motivation. But now that I'm not focused on that anymore, I'm actually enjoying it again.

I also decided to switch from publishing every Friday to every other Friday. Weekly was too much to keep up with, and I didn't always have something valuable to say. I can always change things in the future, but for now, this feels right. I'm curious to see how it goes in the new year and what new shape it might take.

Digital Products

I also had the chance to work on three digital products in 2024. The first one was Story Seeds, which took a lot of time because I wanted the design to be great—both for the product itself and the landing page. It was fun, but the return wasn't as good as I had hoped. Looking back, I overestimated how many people would actually need it.

The same goes for Creator's Compass, though my expectations weren't as high. More people seemed interested in it, but I also got some tough feedback—some even questioned why I made it in the first place. And I won't lie, I wanted to grow my Twitter following at the time and thought this would be the fastest way. But it didn't feel as rewarding as my first product.

My latest one, The Reading Hub hasn't done as well in terms of performance, mainly because I made it while I wasn't as active on Twitter, so there wasn't much traffic. Still, I'm glad I worked on it and put it out there. I don't really focus on who doesn't buy it—I just appreciate those who do.

Overall, working on these projects was fun. I got to play around with copywriting and made my first video tutorial, which is always a plus. I don't expect them to make me rich, but they're helping me improve my skills and learn new tools, which is valuable in itself.

Revamp My Personal Website

At the start of the year, one of my biggest personal projects was to revamp my entire website. I had this big idea of creating a completely new design that looked nothing like what I currently have. But pretty quickly, I realized I had taken on more than I could handle. That made me procrastinate, and I ended up getting nothing done.

In the end, I decided to keep most of the design elements I already had since the foundation was solid. Instead, I focused on improving the structure and adding new content. Honestly, it took way longer than I expected—I only finished at the start of October 2024. It wasn't easy to work on it while juggling other responsibilities and managing my energy.

Improved Workflow

One of the most important things for me this year was building systems to make my workflow smoother. That meant creating a better project hub to manage all my projects and tasks. I used to work with Trello, but I wanted to move some of that into Tana, which was a much-needed change.

I also focused on improving my knowledge hub—a space where I could collect and work with information from books and things I came across online. The last major system I built was a content hub, where I could plan and schedule all my content. This became the place where I write my tweets, essays, newsletters, and other content formats I'm planning for the future.

These three—my project, knowledge, and content hubs—became important for creating and organizing my work online.

I also created a system called Game Plan inside Tana. It's a space that acts as a compass for my yearly intentions, goals, habits, and reflections—both monthly and annually. It took me about a month because I kept going back and forth between researching and building. It was a headache at times, but I knew that once it was done, I would have a useful system for years to come.

Before I had all of this, I used to keep everything in my head or write things down on paper, only to never look at them again. But now, having a dedicated digital space where all of this lives has been a game-changer—definitely worth the time and effort.

Meeting New People

When I first started using Twitter/X seriously in late 2023, a brother reached out and asked to chat. That one conversation gave me the confidence to have more. I told myself that if someone reached out, I wouldn't decline or make excuses to avoid it.

So I set a goal to have at least 5 different conversations because it was outside my comfort zone. I had never done anything like that before. I've always been more comfortable writing back and forth, but I'm also good at talking. It was just the process of reaching out and scheduling a call that made me think, Why even bother? But in the end, I pushed through, and I'm proud of myself for having had these conversations.

The more I did it, the less nervous I became. I reminded myself that I had no one to impress—just a chill chat with no pressure. And that mindset made all the difference.

Reading

One thing I took to the next level in 2024 was reading—both physical books and eBooks, now that I have a Kindle. In total, I finished 8 books, which feels crazy to me, especially since I was also juggling several others at the same time.

I used a shuffle reading approach for nonfiction books, where I would jump to the sections that seemed the most interesting first. You can't really do that with fiction, or you'll just lose track of the story and its development. My original plan was to read 5 books on topics like writing, sales, persuasion, active listening, and lateral thinking. But I ended up only finishing Influence and On Writing Well before getting sidetracked by books on history and religion. Despite that, I really fell in love with reading during this period. I also completed two fiction books, which was one of my main goals for the year.

The mix of fiction and nonfiction turned out to be a fun experiment, and it's definitely something I'll keep doing in the new year.

Health

Much like in 2023, I experimented with different ways to manage my autoimmune symptoms. For a long time, I stuck with breathing exercises and cold showers as much as I could. I'm not sure if they directly helped my condition, but they definitely made a difference in my mood and energy. I felt more alert and calm—something even my friends and family noticed.

The hardest part, though, was staying consistent. Looking at my habit tracker, I can see that from January to around September, I was doing pretty well—especially with my breathing exercises. But there was always this resistance before starting them. After September, I completely fell off and never really got back on track.

A big part of the struggle was timing. If I didn't do them in the morning, I was way less likely to do them in the evening. Another thing that made a difference was dropping my subscription to the WHM (Wim Hof Method) app. The guided breathing helped a lot, and without it, I wasn't doing the exercises as often. I originally canceled it because I had too many subscriptions, but now that I've cut Twitter, Medium, and ChatGPT, I actually have room to bring it back. The manual approach just isn't working.

Moving back to Aarhus, my hometown, has given me more ways to stay active. One of the biggest changes was getting back into football, a sport I've really missed. It's the best way to get my blood flowing and activate every part of my body. Plus, I get super competitive when I play—you just can't relax during a match. I almost never regret playing, except on days when my condition made it hard to perform at my best. Sometimes I wish I could play more than once a week, but for now, that's just how it is.

Running is another thing I really enjoy, though I haven't been as active with it. I need a better system to help me run more. I've been thinking about trying a shorter route with more laps—that’s something I want to experiment with in 2025.

And if I'm not running or playing football, I at least try to do push-ups or other simple exercises at home. It's not much, but doing them consistently makes a big difference—and I can already see the results.

Traveled

I went on two vacations in 2024—Turkey in April, and Singapore and Malaysia in October. The first trip was only with my wife and daughter, while the second included my mother and sister. Honestly, I never thought I would travel to those places. I like the idea of traveling, but I don't enjoy planning trips—it feels like a hassle. Once I'm at the destination though, I actually enjoy myself. Looking back, I have no regrets at all, even though the 16-hour flights to and from Singapore and Malaysia (I live in Denmark) exhausted me. But I've learned to be more open-minded about traveling.

My Approach for 2025

Looking back at 2024, I completed around 11 goals, and I'm happy with that. Some were meaningful and contributed to my personal growth, but none were groundbreaking. What mattered more was getting into the habit of setting goals and having a system that allowed me to track and adjust them as life changed. I also focused on building momentum by setting simple, achievable goals that kept me motivated and gave me that dopamine boost to aim higher.

When it comes to goal-setting, I don't set yearly goals—they feel too big, and I tend to lose motivation. Instead, I set yearly intentions. It's less about what I want to accomplish and more about who I want to become by the end of the year. Intentions give me a clear focus, and I have a few ways of accomplishing that.

First, I choose a word of the year—a single word that serves as a constant reminder of what the year is about. For 2025, that word is Focus. To me, that means working on impactful projects that move the needle in my life, learning useful skills, connecting with the right people, and cutting out unnecessary distractions. To reinforce this, I've picked a quote that expands on the idea:

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

Henry David Thoreau

I also created a vision board to keep that intention top of mind.

Once my intentions are clear, I set goals to support them. Some are new, while others carry over from the previous year if they're still relevant. I follow a three-step process to break them down:

• 1. Bucket List - I list all potential goals.
• 2. Quarterly goals - I choose which ones to prioritize for the next three months.
• 3. Monthly focus - I narrow them down further to focus on each month.

This kind of system helps me stay intentional and accountable through monthly reviews. At the end of the day, it's all designed for one purpose in mind—getting things done.