Marriage to Metrics : My 2024 in Review

Personal 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦

The biggest news was that I got married – something I never thought I would do! While ostensibly done for paperwork reasons, it brought much joy, it gave us a meaningful reason to celebrate with loved ones and was almost, almost romantic ❤️. My eldest son began school; me and my AI helped him learn most of the basics of reading and addition/subtraction before he started 🧮🔤. This seems to have set him off well and while at time frustrating it was incredibly rewarding. Teachers are saints 😇.

Personal Development 👨‍💻

Just over a year ago, I began learning generative AI and started this blog to document my exploration of its potential and share insights. I use ChatGPT daily, and Perplexity more than Google. Despite hype in some areas, I’ve never been more convinced it’s the wave of the future, fundamentally reshaping our lives.

I made 14 blog posts (mostly book reviews) top one was the first.
Second was one describing how I created a RAG enhanced chatbot and UI on AWS Bedrock
Added automations and API calls for my daily data (more of this below).

Goals:

1 blog post per month (excluding book reviews).
Build a portfolio website.
Use other tools more extensively, especially to build micro apps (Claude, DeepSeek, maybe Cursor or Replit).
Build out my Google Console and daily data work.
Use these skills in my day job.

Health ❤️👨‍⚕️🩺

I collect a range of daily data through both a Google Form I fill out each night and from apps such as Google Health and Fitbit. Much of it I sync via API calls to a Google Sheet. I’m increasingly focused on health, and this data is enlightening.

Workouts 🏋️‍♂️

Nine years ago I committed to working out on every workday without fail – I haven’t missed a day. While weekends and holidays aren’t included, I often fit in workouts on those days too. This is a powerful habit. I recorded 351 workouts, a number boosted since September as I now do a 20-minute cycle for the school run in addition to my usual 30-minute workout at lunch.

Key takeaways:

Resistance training dominates: 134 weight sessions and 34 high-intensity sessions with weights.
Cardio was mostly cycling (usually short journeys) and high-intensity bodyweight sessions (55).
36 Pilates/Yoga sessions – too few for this important exercise group.
14 days with “none” and 71 with “walk” (fast pace, at least 15 minutes), almost all weekends or holidays.

Goals:

Double the number of Yoga/Pilates sessions.
Half the days with no workout.
Add more “peak” workouts; I am rarely pushing my cardio at present.

Meditation 🧘‍♂️

I meditated on 54 days, in two blocks: January-March (at night) and July-August (in the morning). As soon as my morning routine changed with my son’s schooling, I dropped it. I feel meditation has positive effects, but I’m not sure they compound.

Goal: Start a daily practice again.

Heart Health & Steps ❤️🚶‍♂️

My resting heart rate in 2024 (from July when I began tracking) was 55 BPM, though it has risen slightly over the six months of tracking to 57 BPM in December. Monthly Google Heart points average 2,230. The (suspiciously low 👀) recommended goal is 650.

Having no car, I walk a lot and enjoy it. Step counts peak at weekends, with weekdays quite sedentary. I average 208,600 steps per month or 7,450 per day.

Alcohol 🍻

I drank on 25 occasions: getting drunk 15 times and having 1-3 beers/wines a further 10 times. Getting married and having stag parties inflated this above my normal post-children baseline.

Longest break: 69 days between August 3 and October 13.

The main takeaway from all my data was the effect of alcohol on me. I knew all too well it destroys my sleep quality; now I see the clear effect on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) – it drops significantly on nights I drink.

It forms the core of most of my friendship groups and would be difficult to stop entirely. It’s a higher bar to knowingly drink with children to look after and enjoy. I am less patient hungover.

Low HRV is abnormal; it only happens when I drink.

Goals:

Drink on a maximum of 10 occasions.
Drink more no/low-alcohol drinks.
Avoid staying out past midnight.

Sleep 😴

I score my sleep subjectively between 1-5, and the annual average is 3.3. My Fitbit’s average “Sleep score” was 78.

My average ‘get out of bed’ time is 6:31 AM, with 11:01 PM being my average lights-out time.

7h30m of sleep a night ( or 7h12m according to Fitbit)? I’ll take that with a 1 and 4 year-old!

Coffee ☕

I love coffee. I tend to have an espresso early and an oat milk cappuccino after lunch.

727.5 coffees in 2024.
1.99 per day on average.
8:08 AM average time for my first one.
The only day I did not worship at the altar of the coffee gods was when I was very, very sick 🤢.

Food 🥦🥪🌯

I write down roughly what I have for each meal.

167 meals I had falafel. I usually have 4 each time, so 668 falafels in 2024 🧆.
226 Huels (a meal replacement protein drink).
77 ‘power’ pancakes (mashed banana, an egg, cocoa, wizzed oats + toppings) – the kids’ favorite breakfast.
39 times we had pesto pasta, and 27 times quesadillas – my boys’ favorite dinners.
46 curries.
10 Indian takeaways.
67 days I had no olive oil or olives. I drink a shot or add it over my lunch most days.

Goals:

Smash the 700-barrier for falafels 🧆🧆🧆.
Reduce the number of Huels I consume.

Intermittent Fasting ⏳

Another fad or something that’s good for you? I’ve been trying to do simple fasting this year. Mostly it means I go for an 8-hour eating window, so a 16-hour fast during the week. I generally do it and feel the benefits. I just push breakfast to 10 and eat as normal at lunch and at night.

Time of week

Goal: Do it on the weekends too.

Phone Time

I often worry about my phone usage. I read a book to break my addiction to no discernible effect. I bought a technology safe, and it remains unused. There are clear spikes at weekends and on holidays. I do read a lot on my phone, this is not time spent on “brain rot” apps. In positive news over the year the trend is downwards.

Average: 5h44m per day.
High: 9h27m.
Low: 1h36m.

Goals:

Reduce average phone time.
Reduce time at weekends/holidays by 30%.

Bored yet? My new wife thinks it’s not interesting to let people know I showered 136 times last year 🚿 🤷‍♂️

NSFW 💋👯‍♂️💃

Do I have much more interesting data? Yes.

Will my wife let me share it? No. 🤨

Wealth 💰🪙📈📊

Good year overall. Everything generally went well. All of my various investments followed the market rally and my tech focused buys drove notable gains. Even my minor crypto holdings were up! A significant increase in both awarded RSUs and my company’s share price was a very welcome boost. The market has boomed, possibly driven by bubble-like speculation, possibly by AI-enhanced productivity gains. Maybe both. Either way, it is very unlikely this can continue. A slowdown, downturn, or major correction seems likely. Or possibly we could run into the revolutionary impact of AGI 😉🤖.

My paper net worth increased by an impressive sounding 26% (from a low base).
Estimated house price, by far my largest asset, was flat.
I paid off my student loan 🆓🎉
My son started school, removing significant nursery fees.
Our wedding, while modest and cool, was a large one-time cost.

I moved my SIPP and ISA to a new fee-free provider. They offer a cash bonus for refered new clients – if you are interested, let me know (UK only).

Property and pensions, iliquid assets, form the bulk of my paper wealth 🏡👴.

RSUs, shares promised to me, are dependent on me remaining with the company and vest over 3 years (and are subject to significant tax). They don’t count to net worth.

I have prioritized investing as much as possible for the past few years to good effect, but I feel I need to increase my rainy day funds ☔.

Goals:

Follow the plan: broad, cheap equity investments with smaller tech-focused bets.
Simplify portfolio.
Increase cash/MMF buffer.

Reading 📚

A disappointing year in terms of volume of books as I post my lowest numbers since records began 6 years ago. Offset my a generally high standard for both fiction and non-fiction. I read 15 books, just over 7,000 pages. All are reviewed on Goodreads, many on the blog.

There’s been a serious downward trend since 2021. My daughter’s arrival in 2022 left me with less time than before. Walks with children that talk leaves less time for audio books. And, my god, can they talk now 🙃😁.

That said, it’s still a disappointing total. I often read newsletters at night instead of books, this habit I plan to amend.

I’m a generous reviewer but only 5 books were awarded 5*. All but one of these are titles in series that I am very invested in. Lots of 4* books this year.

5* books

The Hidden Spring: A journey to the source of consciousness by Mark Solms
Children of Memory by Ardian Tchaikovsky
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
Tiamat’s Wrath by S. A. Corey
Leviathans Fall by S. A Corey

Goals:

Read 25 books.
Read at bedtime on 250+ nights (I managed it on 138 nights in 2024).
Review each book within two weeks of finishing it.

Movies & TV Shows 📺🎬🎥

It was not a standout year for me. The only exceptional show I watched was Season 1 of Wolf Hall – wonderfully acted and actually complimentary to the first rate but confusing book(s).

TV📺

Season 1 of Wolf Hall: 10*.
A Small Light: 9*. A great WW2 show focusing on the people who helped the Frank family in Amsterdam.
Dopesick + Painkiller: 9*. Two great shows on the American opioid epidemic. What a scandal. Dopesick is slightly better, but they work well together despite the same source material.

Movies 🎥🎬

Oppenheimer: 9*. A really well-done drama based on a long, complicated but interesting book.
War Sailor: 9*. Great Norwegian WW2 seafaring drama.

I noticed I rated lots of things 8* this year – good but not great, quite like my 2024 books.

Podcasts 🎧

My big finds were all AI related Dwarkesh, the AI renditions of the essential but extremely long “Don’t Worry About the Vase” newsletters from Zvi, and Hannah Fry’s Deepmind from the Google gang. See here for others.

Travel ✈️🚄🌏

We honeymooned in Phuket, which was great. Tourist-heavy, of course, but still full of great sights for the kids and wonderful Thai hospitality. Phi Phi was a very different experience from my last visit as a partying 20-year-old 🍹💃🎉! We also visited family in Brittany and took a shorter break in Anglesey. I visited Belfast and Edinburgh for stag parties – great times 🍻.

Goals:

More family time away, somewhere new hopefully.
I’ve never been to Munich, and the CL final is there this year… just saying, @LFC!