My 2025 review of work, a case of deja vu?

Unlike last year, I didn’t get sick during my two weeks off over Christmas and New Year’s. That already gets this year (and my 2025 review) off to a better start. Or does it? More on that later…

Last year, we lost a team member as he moved on to a new challenge. Little did I know that a few months later, another team member would also choose to move on. Nor did I know my team would report to someone else as a result of internal restructuring. Welcoming two new members, a new boss, and figuring out new ways of working meant 2025 was a year of change. 

Our two new team members have slotted in well. But helping them get up to speed with the workings of our company has kept me busy. And sadly, that stretch of being busy isn’t going to end for another month or so. You see, both of them are out on planned extended personal leave. Nothing like starting the new year at 50% capacity, right?

Office workers looking flustered, with one person holding up a piece of paper that says "Help"

My remaining teammate and I are flat out. But the good news is that we don’t have many additional pressures. People know we’re covering for our other team members, and as long as we can keep the ship afloat, we’re doing okay.

Other than that, work, for the most part, is good. Working with good people, both on my team and the different teams I interact with, certainly helps.

Out with the old, in with the new

On a different note, to help me work efficiently, I got a new office chair for Christmas. After four and a half years of sitting in my old one for 8+ hours/day (work + guitar practice + DC CopyPro stuff), it was pretty worn out.

My new chair is a bit higher, which is actually more comfortable. But it has forced me to make some changes to my work setup. Until recently, I’d been using a keyboard tray under my desk with an attached mouse pad. It worked great with my previous chair. But not so with the new one. Additionally, the new height meant I was looking down at my monitors. I knew that would lead to neck strain with long spells in front of my computer. The solution?

I moved my computer and mouse onto the desk and bought a small riser for my monitors. Problem solved. The added height to the chair improves my posture. The other tweaks ensure I’m still comfortable and productive.

My new office setup, part of my 2025 review, with new chair and montior stand

2025 review of DC CopyPro

At times, it’s hard to believe I launched my site 5 years ago. But when I look back and realize I’ve got more than 100 blogs, it’s a little more believable. 😉

I wrote weekly blogs during my first year, and then switched to monthly blogs after that. Despite that, my site saw steady growth for the first three years. For the past two years, things have sort of leveled off. But there was a slight improvement this year. Though I was just off my highest number of total views, I increased the number of visitors to my site in 2025. I’ll take that win.

As I’ve alluded to before, I need to spend some time updating my main pages this year. I also need to work on some SEO tweaks to help me continue to rank. I’ve gone through and revised all my old blogs. Now  I need to ensure there are no orphaned posts and identify any gaps in my keyword strategy. The world of SEO is ever-changing, and if you don’t keep at it, any gains you’ve made can disappear pretty quickly.

Lessons from my 2025 review—taking time off matters

It was only 6 months ago that I took time off to visit family and friends in Canada. It seems like a lifetime ago. But I’m so glad I did it. It wasn’t just about reconnecting with people face-to-face whom I usually chat with online. It was about unplugging and disconnecting.

My family practicing putting in Canada, a fond memory when I think of my 2025 review

We didn’t have any grand plans for this trip home. But that’s precisely what I needed. We did a few touristy things. But for the most part, it was all about getting some R & R. It was the first time I’d done that since I started my new career. Its importance became very obvious to me. I’ll be looking for more ways to do that going forward, though I’ll have to do them closer to home. That “commute” to Canada is a killer (on the body and the bank account)!

DC Copy Pro’s Asana 2025 review

I’ve previously written about how Asana is my “go-to” for project management at work. It’s also how I track my personal tasks. Wanna know how much I use it for personal stuff? Check out these stats! 

Picture of my personal stats, part of my Asana 2025 review

I told you it’s how I get shit done. My personal stats aren’t that far off my work stats in some areas. 😉

Picture of my stats, part of my Asana 2025 review from my work account

Unfortunately, I did get some bad Asana news at the end of 2025. I learned that we’re going to have to say “goodbye” to Asana at work in 2026. Our whole company is being migrated to another project management platform. Looks like I’ll be learning new ways to “get shit done” in 2026. You can expect a blog comparing that platform to Asana after I’ve had a chance to get my feet wet with it.

My 2025 review = my return to the guitar

After I decided to quit the “Dads band” I joined a while ago, I didn’t touch my guitar for over 6 months. That’s the longest break from it I’ve had since I picked it up again a decade or so ago. I resumed playing again when my son started playing (more on that in a moment). Without a band or a setlist to work on, I went back to a song I struggled to learn on a platform called Rocksmith. It’s basically Guitar Hero, but instead of a plastic guitar and buttons, you use a real guitar. It helped spark my interest in electric guitar, as I’d only played acoustic up to then. 

The song is an instrumental titled “Desolate Motion” by the band Karawan. It’s a quick, challenging song that showcases various guitar techniques (tapping, harmonics, sweep picking, etc.). I got it in my head that if I could play that song, I could say, “I can play guitar.” Years ago, I spent months working on it, but I never got it to an acceptable level. 

Not me—a much more accomplished guitarist. 😉

I’ve spent several months working on it again. It’s better than I’ve ever had it. I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but if I get it to a point I’m happy with, I may record it and share it one day. We’ll see.

Still rowing throughout 2025

I’m happy to report I didn’t break any rowing machines in 2025! That is quite an achievement! I was happy with my performance on my new Concept 2 early on. But last spring, I noticed my distances during my daily 30-minute workouts dropping. I’m not sure what caused this drop. It may have had something to do with gaining some weight, but I don’t think that was the whole story. My energy just started tanking during my workouts. 

But I can say that in the past couple of months, I’ve improved my distances. I’m not back to where I was (sub-2:00/500m splits), but I’m moving in the right direction. I’m losing some much-needed weight, which doesn’t hurt. Hopefully, that trend will continue through 2026, helping me rediscover my previous form.

They don’t stay kids forever

I mentioned earlier that I took up the guitar again after my son started playing. I bought Rocksmith for him when he showed an interest in the guitar while in elementary school. But I ended up using it more than him. And it turns out he didn’t need it. He’s got a natural talent I’ve never had. In fact, he’s going to graduate soon with a degree in practical music (guitar) from a well-respected university in Seoul. Of course, the dream is to become a rock star. On the off chance that doesn’t work out, hopefully the degree will assist him in finding some teaching jobs to pay the bills in the meantime.

Or listen on Spotify.

He’s been in a band (O-sheep) for several years now, and they released a digital album last year. While the songs are in Korean, and I’m obviously biased, you should check them out. They’re pretty catchy tunes. Rumor has it that another 5-song album is in the works for this year. 🤞

As a young adult, the time came for him to move out, and he’s now sharing a place with his fellow guitarist. Their place is soundproof and doubles as a small practice room for him and the band to work on new stuff. It’s not big enough for full band rehearsals, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. And they’ve debuted several new songs over the past few months, so I guess they’re doing something right.

I don’t go out often, but when I do, it usually means that I’m going to an O-sheep performance. 

The streaks continue in 2025—well, most of them

Almost all my streaks remained intact in 2025—with one major disappointment. Virtually all my streaks are based on doing something daily. While travelling to Canada, I was worried that time zones and flight times would cause me to lose some streaks. But that wasn’t what caught me out.

I’m still not sure how it happened, but I somehow lost my Wordle streak. Somewhere along the way, being out of my routine, I somehow missed a day. I’ve yet to manage a full 365-day Wordle streak. But I’m currently approaching a 200-day streak, so fingers crossed. But other than that little blip, everything else remained intact.

My Duolingo 2,675-day streak

I just passed my 2,675-day Duolingo streak. Duolingo recently updated its Korean course content, so I’ve been spending more time on it during my morning routine. Previously, I also worked on intervals on the guitar fretboard with an online app. I was tied for the top spot on the leaderboard, with a score of 45. But at some point in 2025, the developer released a new version, and the leaderboard got wiped out. 

There aren’t nearly as many people on the leaderboard, but I compete against myself. I tried to match my score of 45, but only managed to hit 44. But then something happened that I never thought would—I beat that score with a 46. I’m currently in the top spot (on a pretty small leaderboard). But I know that would’ve beaten the old record, which stood for several years.

Leaderboard from the cyber fret trainer app I use, showing my previous high score of 44 and my new high score of 46

I post on LinkedIn daily, but I do something else on it daily as well

I started playing LinkedIn games daily a little over a year ago. I’ve added more games to the mix as they’ve been released. I currently have the following streaks going:

I usually do these right after work or after my rowing workout. It takes less than 10 minutes to go through them all. It’s fun challenging myself, and if nothing else, it’s a good mental workout.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing…

Just like last year, my pushup streak was in danger. I’ve got a 4-year streak of doing 100 push-ups daily. During my vacation this summer, that meant doing push-ups in hotels and at friends’ and relatives’ houses. Fortunately, I didn’t have to do any in an airport or on a plane. 

A man doing push-ups

Last year, a freak shoulder injury (while sleeping!) put my streak in danger. This year, it was a stomach bug. Just his past weekend, I came down with a pretty nasty stomach bug that had me “spewing out of both ends.” I’ll spare you the gory details, but it knocked me flat for the entire day. 

But I was determined to keep that streak going. My Duolingo and LinkedIn streaks that day were a pain, but push-ups were a nightmare. My wife thought I was bonkers to even try, and “gave me permission” to skip a day—but I’d still know. A streak is a streak—not a streak with excuses. So I did four sets of 25 push-ups and hated every second of it. I felt much better the following day and managed to knock out my 100 daily push-ups during my regular morning routine. Catastrophe averted.

The best-laid plans

But a 4-year streak is nothing. Last month, I hit a pretty incredible streak—30 years of living in Korea. I came to Korea in my early 20s “for a couple of years.” Guess that plan didn’t work out, but ya know what? I’m okay with that. 

AI-generated image of DC Copy Pro celebrating 30 years of living in Korea, a highlight of my 2025 review

My trip back to Canada was definitely the highlight of 2025. It’s always great to spend time with family and friends. There’s nothing like picking right up where you left off the last time you saw them—8 years ago. Despite all the changes, work is still pretty good. I hope things will get even better when my team is back to full strength. Though I’m gonna miss Asana. 

It’s somewhat sad having our son move out, but he still swings by once or twice a week. I love watching his band’s success and am truly one of their biggest fans. Anything that gets me to leave the house must be pretty damn good.

So, let’s see what 2026 brings. Hopefully, I’ll finally achieve the elusive (for me) 365-day Wordle streak, lose some more weight, and rediscover my previous rowing form. I’m not sure I’ll be looking for another band to play in, but never say never. I’ll be content to keep playing for myself.

No matter how your 2025 went, I hope 2026 is even better. If you want to share your highs and lows from your 2025 review, there’s a comment section just below. 👇

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Published by demizach

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