In this week's P.O. Box:

I know I’m “late” on these 2026 resolutions, but I didn’t want to rush it.

The start of a new year is theoretically a convenient time to outline a roadmap for the next 365 days, but it doesn’t really coincide with my schedule. It always falls smack dab in the final flurry of the fantasy football season.

Plotting out the things I want to do differently and improve upon has become one of my favorite annual traditions, so I needed some time to marinate on it. We’re ready to go now, though.

I recorded the annual Taekcast show with Davis earlier this week if you prefer video/audio, but below I’ll expand in more detail on my game plan for 2026.

S/o Chris for a truly diabolical thumbnail.

I did a decent job accomplishing my goals for 2025—I did more yoga, tackled a big offseason project, and kept the book club rolling. I drank less alcohol and spent less time on my phone. I didn’t end up committing to a fitness challenge, though. I’d give myself a solid B+, but there are still a lot of things I want to get better at.

Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish/do differently in 2026 (and, more importantly, how I plan to do it)…

🧘 A consistent meditation practice. I first started meditating more “seriously” during COVID. I read a book that motivated me to explore it more, downloaded Headspace, and carved out time for a daily practice. I really enjoyed it, but after April was born it quickly got discarded. Any luxury time I could free up went to exercise. Now that I have a better handle on things, I want to dive back in to meditating regularly.

Game plan: For this to stick, I need to make it attractive (a piece of advice from Atomic Habits). Since I do the sauna nearly every night and had previously been listening to music/podcasts during that 20 minutes, I’m committing to exclusively meditating during sauna time. The only issue with this plan is the one or two days a week I don’t have time for the sauna. I think what I’ll do is put 15 minutes on my calendar in the morning each day and have that reminder staring at me in my inbox as a constant reminder to make time for it.

🧱 Bricking my phone in the early evenings. One of the best habits I’ve developed is no phone in the bedroom, which I’ve now been doing for over two years. I still have a big leak, though, and it’s getting distracted by it in the early evenings. 5-7:30pm is family time each night and I always have intentions to be phone-less during that window. But whether it’s putting music on or responding to a message, I often find myself getting pulled back in from a small gateway.

Game plan: Two things: 1) I’m going to leave both my phone and my watch in my office for this span. The watch notifications are just as slippery as the ones on the phone and I don’t want to use that as a crutch. 2) I’m going to use one of my old phones as a brick phone with only a few essential apps that I do need to use during that window (Spotify, our home speakers, lights, etc.).

💪 A focus on mobility. Adding in yoga regularly last year was a huge step in the right direction, but I still feel like I want more mobility. I got strong last year, but chasing around a toddler, crawling on the ground, and shimmying through tight spaces (we are squarely in the “fort building” stage right now) quickly exposes your mobility deficiencies.

Game plan: I’m going to pivot my regular lifting program to more of a hybrid routine that focuses more on mobility (I don’t think strength and mobility have to be mutually exclusive). I need to have a concrete program—quite literally lines on a spreadsheet and boxes I check off—for it to stick. I’ve already gotten a few suggestions to check out and I’ll keep you posted once I get rolling on this.

⏱ A Hyrox competition. I said I wanted to do a fitness challenge last year and never made it happen. Part of the issue is I like hybrid stuff, so committing to one thing, like a marathon, is not appealing to me. After some research, I feel like a Hyrox competition is exactly what I’m looking for—8 functional workout stations with a 1km run in between. The SkiErg and the sled push are the only two things I can’t really train on my own at home.

Game plan: When the dates are posted for the Boston competition (it was in September last year), I’m going to register and start training.

🎭 More comedy. I wanted to include one content/”work” related goal in here. Each of the past few years I’ve focused on something new (streaming 150 drafts, pre-recorded videos on the Deposit Kingdom channel, the Underdog Masterclass) and this year I want to do way more comedy videos. Cosplaying as a fantasy analyst is fun, but nothing is more enjoyable for me than making comedy.

Game plan: More “Best Ball Bros”-style content throughout the year instead of just once annually; more short-form videos. Maybe a more ambitious project (I have some ideas and will be in the lab over the next month)?

I’ve enjoyed all of the comments/messages I received from the show with Davis, so if you have any other ideas or recommendations that dovetail with these goals, please do share.

🚢 SHIP CHASING: Early 2026 ADP Reactions & Eliminator/Marathon Champs. Lots of Ws from the SC community in 2025.

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Newsletter Roundup. This week in the newsletter we reacted to the Conference Championship games, apologized to Sam Darnold, tried to make sense of what the Bills are doing, and marveled at how much is going on right now across the league.

I regularly write the Fantasy Life Newsletter. Get it in your inbox free every morning:

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Super Bowl Bye Week. The one where we talked about Joe Brady and Ann Michael Maye.

☕ POURTFOLIO REVIEW: It Took Us 21 Weeks To Find A Bink But We Did It. Shipped the Fullback Dive for $10k. What a relief.

After Dark returns tonight with recurring guest, Daniel Racz. We’ll talk some ball and some movies:

🧱 Book #1 for January (45%): The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami.

I’m enjoying this stretch where he sets up his new life at the library in the new town.

Got a question for me? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll get back to you…