Doing More With Less: My 2026 Minimalism Goals

My desk was messy. My mind—cluttered.

We have reached the end of January 2026. I spent some time thinking about what to write about, and then the whole month went by. I explored my current thoughts on AI in the last blog, but my insight at the moment isn’t as deep as I’d like it to be. I think AI is a good thing, especially if you know how to use it. If you outsource all of your thinking, that may be a user issue. If you use it to supplement your thinking, then it can be very helpful. I could probably elaborate more, but this sums it up for now.

I was sitting at my desk the other day and thought, “Wow, what a mess.” I can’t think when my desk is in disarray. I find myself in this state when I feel like I’m not innovating or thinking outside of the box. While being “comfortable” is something I should be incredibly grateful for, I find that without pushing for that next step, I feel like I’m not using myself to my full potential. My environment is a reflection of that—busy and messy.

The first step is the realization. The next step is to do something about it. Pushing myself out of that comfort zone is where I find purpose.

I’ve discarded the thought that my blog would be some curated image of me. 2026 should be the year of greater authenticity—to be myself and focus more on my hobbies. Play more guitar, relax with video games, read more books, spend more time with family, find and reconnect with friends, build something in Rust for fun, become a Vim user, etc. Make sure my desk remains uncluttered.

Random thought: buying stuff feels like filling a void sometimes. I was lucky to have been born in the 90s. I still remember the time when most hardware could be repaired rather than replaced, and it would continue to run for years and years. This extends to other things—boots (I appreciate r/goodyearwelt) or other handmade goods. The satisfaction of fixing something and giving it a new life is incredibly rewarding. The goal this year is to buy fewer objects, and when I do, make sure those objects can last.

I want to try using Linux as my daily driver this year. I’m a Windows guy by trade, and I like macOS too. With that said, I enjoy the level of control that different Linux distros offer over the OS. I’m going to try to move my personal dev environment over to Linux and see how that goes.

Time to clean my desk.