[3/21-3/27] 2026 Goal Progress

Health

Personal Training Session #10

My knee pain is completely gone. This is huge.

So this week, I focused on the Big 3. Bench press at 60kg for a few reps, and deadlift—get this—90kg for 10 reps. For squats, I consulted with my trainer about my knee concerns, and we switched to 50kg for 4 sets, pushing through with higher reps instead.

And today, I'm incredibly sore.

I was worried before because I wasn't getting sore in my upper body—like, "is this even working?" But this soreness feels good. Proof that it's actually working.

About 3 days after my last gym session, when the soreness started fading, I did some flies and side raises on my own—stuff I learned at the gym. Building this habit of "moving my body even on non-gym days" is a good sign.

Also, I started taking weekly progress photos. When you look at yourself every day, you can't see the changes. Same as watching your kids grow—people who see them once a week say "they've gotten so big," but you can't tell yourself. Comparing photos, I can definitely see I'm getting bigger little by little. Pretty interesting approach.

Sleep Was a Disaster

I'll be honest. It was a total disaster.

I fell back into sleeping at midnight to 1am and waking up at 8-9am. The reason is clear: I got hooked on this Netflix show called "Travelers."

I thought I'd watch just 30 minutes after putting the kids to bed, and before I knew it, 1-2 hours had passed. Classic binge-watching trap.

As a result, my morning English study shifted to before work, which pushed my work start time later. Bad chain reaction. I want to fix this next week (though I feel like I say this every week).

Quitting Smoking

Total failure.

But I've strategized. I'll limit the money I can freely spend on investments and such, controlling myself with the mindset of "if I quit smoking, I can use that money for other things." Also, going to the office more. I smoke way less when I'm there, so I'll start by getting used to smoking less.

Work

The Entire Team Now Uses Claude Code

I think this is pretty significant progress.

Everyone actively working on the team has started using Claude Code. Once they start using it, they're like "this is so fun," and they're already catching up on things, coming up with ideas, reviewing existing tool settings due to security concerns.

By delegating work to AI, we've actually increased opportunities for humans to brainstorm together. This is fundamental progress.

AI was also faster and more accurate for incident root cause analysis. As a CTO, it's become quite a reliable partner.

Using AI as a Secretary

When I want to create a survey form in GAS, it's faster to have Claude Code write the code and just copy-paste it than to click around in Google Forms. Tasks that used to feel like a hassle are now 95% done by AI, and humans just copy-paste and check the content.

Another thing I've been enjoying: I have all my todos logged in a Todo.md file. During meetings, when I think "that's a next action for me," I immediately tell it "this is due tomorrow," "this is due next week," "do this every Friday." Every morning I ask "what should I do today?" and it prioritizes and lists things out.

It's not automation per se, but it's incredibly useful for organizing my thoughts.

Challenge: Humans Are the Bottleneck

This is where I'm struggling.

Humans are becoming the bottleneck in code reviews and spec confirmations. You need high resolution requirements for AI to build something in one shot, so human-to-human communication to increase that resolution is essential. But that communication isn't as fast as talking to AI.

Feature delivery throughput has definitely increased, but the feeling of "we could go even faster" has become apparent.

But I think this is a good problem to have. We're brainstorming ideas as humans and putting them into practice.

Money

Investing

No changes to the portfolio. US stocks are a bit unstable with war concerns, but I'm optimistic it won't be like this all year. Some stocks are still going up, and I believe I'm holding genuinely good stocks, so I'll take it slow.

I started two new initiatives. I'll save the details for a paid article, but day 5 and things are going smoothly.

I want to be a billionaire.

Subscriptions

Went back to just Google One after canceling everything. Storage issues, plus I use Gemini. Everything else stays canceled. Life hasn't been inconvenient at all. Saving about 5,000 yen per month.

English Study

Duolingo, 85 days in a row.

Every time a new course switches to different grammar or situations, my ears aren't used to it, but by the end of the course, they adjust. Just keep at it daily. Review past mistakes properly. Feels like studying for exams.

I'm also doing video calls with AI every day for speaking practice.

But individual word pronunciation is tough. Like "walk" and "work." I tried to say "I do this kind of work," and got back "Oh, you walk in the park a lot, nice!" and I'm like "No no no." I need to practice pronunciation intensively.

Next week I have a project interview in English. Need to prepare.

Other

No Illness Since Starting Weight Training

This isn't just about this week, but I haven't been sick once this year.

While people around me are getting sick left and right, I used to be the type to get sick easily, but since starting weight training, I haven't caught a cold at all. Some minor headaches or feeling foggy when blood sugar spikes, but a short rest fixes it. I really feel like I've become much healthier.

My Voice Got Too Loud

Maybe because weight training forces good posture with chest out, my voice carries better now. It's also gotten louder.

Too loud, actually. My kids have been scared of me lately.

They'll get used to it. Also, I'm trying to be conscious of speaking more gently.

Wrapping Up

After 3 months of consistency, I've developed some mental breathing room. Since I've successfully made habits of things I wasn't doing before—like weight training and English—I added 2 new habits. Ran them for 5 days and don't feel much strain. Proof that the foundation is solid.

I want to cherish these habits. Keep grinding on what I accomplished last week.

On the work front, AI-powered ideation is exploding within the company, so I want to incorporate that, run PDCA cycles, and contribute to building a better organization.