Why I'm doing less in 2026

Happy New Year from Chiang Mai! 🇹🇭

I just returned from a 4-day trip to Pyeongchang, South Korea.

I’m not sure about you, but travel usually fills my head with ideas. New content directions, new business strategies, new ways to restructure my work, etc.

But this trip did the opposite.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by options, information, or the pressure to always be “doing more,” keep reading… this is for you.

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It was just after 8pm, and our taxi had dropped us off at our guesthouse in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The temperature was nearing -20°C outside.

Barely any street lights.

I handed cash to the driver for payment, and we stepped out onto the icy pavement. Bundled up in coats, hats, and scarves, we then approached the house and knocked on the door.

No answer.

We went to another door and knocked again.

After knocking on 3 doors, still with no answer, I started wondering if this was even the right guesthouse.

At this point, the taxi had already left, and I could see Nackie getting colder, his breath coming out in clouds. I was genuinely starting to panic internally.

Then all of a sudden, a woman appeared behind us out of nowhere.

She spoke no English, but showing her our guesthouse on the map, she pointed us in the direction we should go — down a dark, icy driveway that seemed to lead nowhere.

Regardless, we followed her directions and started walking that way, but the road was too icy and steep to feel safe. So we stopped and turned back.

We were lost.

Cold.

And without a Korean phone number, we had no way of communicating with anyone who could help us.

This was supposed to be a relaxing trip, but instead I'd somehow managed to get us stranded in sub-zero temperatures without any means of communication.

At this point, I was somewhat thinking we might freeze to death, which would be a pretty embarrassing way to go lol.

But then our luck arrived.

Headlights cut through the darkness, and a car pulled up to the side of the road — the driver rolled down his window to speak with us.

Again, he only spoke Korean. But we showed him the name of our guesthouse, and he told us to get in the car.

Turns out he was the owner!

He drove us a few minutes down the road to the actual guesthouse, and I could finally feel the relief setting in as we pulled up.

After hanging our coats in the hallway inside, he (Yoo, was his name) brought us to our room, gave us warm food, and made us feel right at home with his hospitality.

Sitting there in that warm room, eating, watching Nackie finally stop shivering, I had a realization.

It wasn't a sudden realization, but slowly throughout the trip, it started becoming clearer and clearer…

A few weeks before Korea, I'd bought a GoPro and lights and a microphone to start a YouTube channel.

I did end up making a few videos, which were fun.

But alongside building two newsletters, doing client work that I depended on for income, and having a few other ideas I was dabbling in, I realized I was spreading myself way too thin.

And even worse, everything felt urgent.

Client messages needed immediate responses, newsletter deadlines, YouTube upload schedules. Every notification felt like something I had to address right now, even when rationally I knew most of it could wait.

To be completely honest, my brain got so cluttered that I ran out of time for the essentials — reaching out to potential clients, creating content, and growing my newsletter.

Even when I was sitting at beautiful cafes in Chiang Mai, I wasn't really experiencing anything.

I was just checking messages and scrolling Twitter for new ideas. I was always thinking about what's next, but never actually being present.

Of course, that was never my intention when I moved to Thailand a year ago.

But yet somehow, I'd ended up just working all the time anyway — except now with better weather and a beautiful condo lol.

Watching Nackie see snow for the first time and actually being present for it, something clicked for me:

I don't want to spend my entire life building toward some “optimized future” version of myself, especially if it means missing the moments happening right now.

And in coming to that realization, my professional work started to regain its excitement quickly, too.

Could it really be that simple?

That presence actually makes you more alive to your work, not less productive?

That's why going into 2026, I've decided to approach my work and time differently.

I'm eliminating the YouTube channel (sorry GoPro lol), adding artificial friction to social media apps (via the OneSec app), putting my phone on grayscale, and letting my primary source of information be books.

And I'm focusing exclusively on 2 things:

Nothing else (for now)

That doesn't mean cutting out experimentation, either… rather doing it more intentionally. Before every new commitment now, I ask myself one question:

Does this simplify my life or complicate it?

Which I think is a good way to approach decisions, but I also realize you cannot start from that position.

Maybe saying yes too much is part of the process. Maybe understanding what it means to be overwhelmed is necessary for learning what matters to you (because only then can you meaningfully subtract).

You have to experience the chaos to appreciate the clarity.

That's why alongside everything I'm subtracting, I'm also building in time to think about my life intentionally.

Every 5 to 8 weeks, I've decided to take a weekend “thinking holiday” in Northern Phuket. Not really a vacation, but also no work and no laptop. I'll walk on the beach, let ideas come to me naturally, and reset before diving back into work mode.

I keep thinking about that night in Korea.

How scared I was that we'd freeze, how grateful I felt sitting in that warm room, and how present I was in that moment because I had no choice.

I don't want to wait for near-death experiences to feel that present again.

So what are you building toward that's making you miss what's already here?

Joshua

P.S. If this resonated with you in any way, please forward it to someone who needs to hear this 🙏