April Recap: Meta-work
Thinking about the work to make work work, annual goal progress, and 12 interesting links
My son, my wife, and I were sick for a week in April. A few days ago, when my son was finally feeling better and I was ready to get back to work fully, he had five episodes of diarrhea overnight.
As a father, I know I cannot grind like 20-year-old singles, working every waking hour possible. And I don’t want to. But I have to find other ways to create as much impact. I set aside time in the mornings, evenings, and weekends for my family, so I need to spend my remaining time wisely.
Getting rid of distractions. At the most basic level, I have been trying to eradicate time wasters. I often go to Twitter and Reddit for “research” when I’m stuck but they are rarely helpful. I recently vibe-coded a Chrome extension to automatically switch away from the distracting For You timeline whenever I visit x.com. I have also deleted social media apps from my phone.
Working smart (and hard). Just because I’m sitting at my desk trying very hard to work doesn’t mean I’m actually doing meaningful things. There are many things that seem important, such as networking, attending events, and building a personal brand, but they don’t matter for a startup looking for product-market fit. One helpful tactic is to aim for one major task per day and take time to think what that task should be. (Also, sorry if I haven’t replied to your messages. I need to prioritize my family and my startup.)
Staying healthy and mentally sharp. I often find there’s a diminishing marginal return whenever I work late into the night when I’m already tired. Only with a strong foundation of a healthy body and a recharged mind can I push myself hard. Haruki Murakami runs and swims regularly so that he can sit down and write for five to six hours every day. When I’m tired or sick, I usually make more mistakes, am less creative and open to new ideas, and am just a terrible person to work with.
This is, of course, still a work in progress. I still sometimes get distracted or work on less important stuff, and I’m still constantly lacking sleep. Also, whenever my son falls sick, I lose my rhythm and need a few days to get back into the swing of things.
Recently, I started experimenting with ChatGPT as a personal coach and an accountability buddy.
I first got ChatGPT (o3) to research my profile online because I have published many essays over the years, and then I shared some context around what I’m working on.
At the start of each week, I’ll share my weekly goals and create a plan with ChatGPT.
Every day at 9 am, ChatGPT will ask me for my focus of the day and any blockers and we will plan a rough schedule together.
At the end of every work day, I will share the tasks I completed.
It has only been a few days but I have already found it helpful. Most of the benefit comes simply from thinking about how I want to spend my time and sharing it with ChatGPT. Having to write my thoughts and plans down forces me to really think through them. And sharing with ChatGPT makes me want to stick to my plan. I also appreciate getting little encouragement and tips from ChatGPT, as silly as it might seem.
If you have been struggling to maintain your focus and use your time wisely, give this a try!
How am I doing for my 2025 goals
I wanted to say April went smoothly and I’m still on track but—honestly—I’m not sure. Physically and mentally, I felt the worst because my family and I were sick for a third of the month.
Business-wise, we still haven’t made any revenue from our new projects. But for now, it’s good that we have been leaning into our interests and shipping. I do need to talk to potential customers more, though. Help me out here. More details below!
Build a meaningful profitable business
In April, we launched Stores, an open-source Python library for giving your AI agent tools in as few as three lines of code.
From our experiments with LLMs, we noticed that most LLMs are smart enough to create and modify plans on the fly. This meant that we can “simply” create AI agents by giving a powerful LLM tools and letting it figure things out. But equipping LLMs with tools isn’t easy at all. Different LLM providers have different requirements, and MCP servers are a whole other beast on their own. We just wanted a super simple way to give LLMs tools and let them do things.
Besides the open-source library, we have also been building several tools that you can plug and play, from sending emails to updating Notion, to browsing the web, to running Python code. If you have been coding your agents, try Stores and let me know what you think of this approach. Feedback is always welcome.
We have also been re-imagining what AI apps for the everyday user (not technical people) could be. While ChatGPT and the likes are great at answering questions and finding information, using them to help do things hasn’t been easy. There still isn’t a simple way to create documents, organize files, and edit images within our existing workflows. We are in the early stages of this exploration but already have a simple prototype. If you need a better way to work with your files with the help of AI, let’s chat!
Bring my family on a vacation ✅
We went to Perth in March.
Read at least 3 books on parenting
My favorite entry from The Daily Dad:
And to show up every day.
I have stopped reading Good Insider after skimming through the remaining chapters that are relevant to me. My wife and I have been struggling with getting our son to eat, and Satter’s framework is what we have been trying lately. To be frank, it hasn’t eased our stress entirely because our son seems to be getting skinnier and I’m not sure we can keep letting him decide not to eat.
I started reading The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read and like its recommendation to praise effort, not talent. I personally think it is important for children (and adults) to learn that they can work hard and just do things rather than give up when they are stuck because they think they don’t have the talent.
Write daily, publish monthly
My journal streak is now at 512, the longest it has ever been. I have also published 34 essays so far this year.
In April, I published eight essays, with Keep showing up being the most popular piece and my favorite of the month. I was hesitant to publish that but I’m glad I did. Interestingly, the essays that resonate with others are those that I was afraid of publishing because they felt too easy to write or made me feel too vulnerable because they were very personal. Ironically or not, I like reading personal essays. Perhaps this is a sign for me to keep writing for myself.
Eat healthily, exercise 5x/week, sleep well
I was sick again in April, the worst I have been this year.
I set this health goal because I believe these will help me stay healthy and avoid illnesses. From 2016 to 2021 (before getting Covid and having a kid), I barely fell sick. If I remember correctly, there were years when I didn’t even get a fever, flu, or cough. I want to get back to that level of health, which I think is a good proxy for my overall and long-term health.
I have been eating better than then. I have been exercising less than then but sufficiently. But I have not been sleeping well. My son has finally been sleeping through the night. Let’s see if my sleep, and in turn my health, improves. I might be getting some viruses from my son but I’m not sure how to deal with that yet.
My remaining goals
One-year goals (i.e. other 2025 goals)
Help my son develop a night routine and be in bed by 8 p.m. - He has been going to bed around 8-9 p.m.
Take three deep breaths whenever I’m angry or frustrated - I used this a few times in April. There was an incident when I bumped into a slow swimmer in the pool. I would usually be enraged because the guideline is for slow swimmers to stay to the sides. But in that moment, when I raised my head out of the water and looked at the guy, I decided to say sorry and move on. He raised his hand at me, and I just assumed he was saying sorry too. Looking back now, I’m glad I did what I did because it’s not something worth being angry about.
Accompany my parents and uncle to their health appointments - Two so far. I missed another one in April because my son was sick.
Cycle 10x a year - I cycle once in April. 3/10 now.
Switch from kopi (coffee) to kopi siew dai (coffee less sweet) - While I have been mostly drinking lattes, I had several kopi siew dai and teh siew dai.
Host five dinners at home - Some close friends came over for an impromptu meal, and one even cooked for us. 1/5 now.
Get a part-time cleaner for our house - The poop and vomit made cleaning more tiring in April but we are still coping.
No coffee after 3 p.m. - Yep.
Five-year goals
Bring my family to Europe and New Zealand
Create a library at home for my son - I turned our unused TV console into a mini-library for now.
Teach my son to cycle and swim - He is gradually more comfortable with jumping into the pool and kicking his legs in the water. This is slower than one might be with proper classes but I don’t care. I don’t feel the need to rush him or force a program onto him, especially if it might dampen his enthusiasm.
Learn to play the piano - There was a piano fair near my place, and I was so tempted to sign up for classes or get a cheap piano. But I know I don’t have time for this now.
Complete a triathlon (any distance)
Lifetime goals
Publish a book
Get back into drawing - My son started to scribble, and I have been drawing animals and people for him. I’d count this as drawing!
Complete an Ironman triathlon
Bring my son somewhere to see snow (maybe Japan, Seoul, or Switzerland)
Raise kids with integrity, compassion, and agency
Build something with my dad
Have a workbench for playing with hardware
Visit Ghibli Park in Aichi, Japan, and Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan
Mentor someone
Volunteer somewhere (maybe contribute to healthcare or education)
Contribute somehow to Singapore (maybe through my business)
Become rich enough to be independent, not to acquire material possessions
Live until 100 while being physically fit and mentally sharp
Use social media to help others, not just consume content
Learn to speak another language (maybe Japanese)
Links
I was on a reading spree in April, so there are more links than usual. Enjoy!
Growth
Hugging the X-Axis by David Perell
I want to do everything, so I do nothing by
Just Go by
Parenting
Big screens are fine(?) - I’m gradually opening up to the idea of screentime as long as my son isn’t watching a video on a tiny screen. For example, he started to scribble recently and I let him draw with Procreate on my iPad.
Thomas Jefferson Hated Kids Reading Novels by
Taste
Impact, agency, and taste by Ben Kuhn
Marketing
