I Achieved Zero Goals in 2025 (And I’m Glad I Did 😄)

How failing helped me beat burnout

Dec 20, 2025

2025 went by fast, and it’s that time again to review what I’ve achieved.

Before getting into numbers and charts, I want to say this first: thank you all for reading my newsletters 🙏

This year has been messy for me as a writer. I disappeared for months and changed directions. Many of you stayed anyway.

Let’s dive into what happened behind the scenes.

2025 in Numbers

33 posts posted, including 9 guest posts.
734 new subscribers.
1,405 current total subscribers, down from 2,469. (I’ll explain later 😁)
1,580 views per post on average.

Most popular posts

🥇 My Path Into Tech: What Worked, What Sucked, What Stuck by Jenny Ouyang

I really appreciate Jenny sharing her story. She talked about her abrupt life changes, how she navigated through the uncertainty in life, and finally landed a job in tech.

She also highlights what worked and didn’t work for her. Even though the time is different now, I would still consider it very valuable for those who are experiencing the same.

🥈 A Day in the Life of a Tech Leader by HipsterTech

It goes through the life of a tech leader in a small startup. I also provide my perspective of working in a big company. It touches the day-to-day tasks that Engineering Managers need to handle. It’s useful for those who are interested in knowing what management job looks like.

It’s a collaboration post. Huge thanks to HipsterTech for guest-posting :)

🥉 I Stopped Writing for a While

I found myself cannot take it anymore mid-2025. I completely stepped away from Substack, and instead focused on my 9-5 and personal life. It gave me that space to breathe.

I ended up taking a break for six months. On my return, I got a warm welcome from the community. This break helped me rebuild my momentum and see writing from a fresh perspective.

I Achieved Zero Goals

It sounds funny but I achieved exactly zero goals set in my 2024 wrapped post.

Goal #1: 52 posts.
- Result: I posted 33 posts.
Goal #2: Subscriber count 10k.
- Result: My subscriber count is now 1.4k, far from the goal.
Goal #3: Paid content ready & published.
- Result: I still do not have any paid content.

And no, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it was necessary.

These “failures” reflect why I burnt out and needed to take a six-month break.

My goals were unrealistic and proved that I lacked a clear vision and strategy at the time.

Now that I’m back, I feel much better. I’ve been able to build a more realistic schedule and a sustainable system.

Changes After the Break

✂️ I Cut My Subscription List by 50%

Inspired by Marcos F. Lobo 🗻🧭 in his cleanup, I took action to clean up my subscriber list.

The main issue was that my original list was imported from my 10-year-old blog. Back then, I mostly posted coding tutorials rather than career content. Most readers have already lost their interests over the decade.

My open rate was terrible, hovering around 18% to 20%. It also gave me a false sense of popularity.

So I took some actions:

I removed dead emails. Most of them are from the imported list, and are not being used anymore.
I removed inactive readers who hadn’t read anything in six months.

As a result, my subscriber count dropped from 3.2k to 1.4k.

That’s good! No one cares about my subscriber count more than I do, and that 3.2k figure was just an illusion. Now the numbers reflect more accurately about how many people are interested.

Since then, my open rate has jumped from 19% to 35%.

I Built a Writing System to Prevent Burnout

One main reason that led to my burnout is that I focused too much on vanity metrics.

I didn’t have a product or a strategy. I was simply hoping the subscriber count would go high enough and I could turn on paid subscriptions.

And hope is not a strategy. 🤷

I realized that sustainability came from two essential factors:

Knowing what’s the next big thing. That makes me write toward that direction.
Focus on delivering value, not numbers. Build a close core audience.

Now my writing process is more realistic and motivating. It’s a lot better than shooting in the dark, hoping the numbers will go up.

Thank You for All the Guest Posts

I want to show my appreciation to those who have written a guest post on Tokyo Tech Lead:

I’ve learned so much from you and thank you for your contribution 🙇

Thank You All

Thank you all for reading my posts in 2025. There are more ups and downs than I expected in this year, but I’m grateful for all of you.

That’s it!

I’m going to take a short break during the holiday season.

Thank you all for the support. I’ll see you in 2026!

👋

Adler from Tokyo Tech Lead

Xian

Dec 30

Hmmm… I think we have something similar. Haha. I have a monthly reflection called You Are a Product Beta Version 1.0. Every Tuesday, I share what I read during the past week. Every Thursday, I wear my developer’s hat and send a technical post. I try to follow a simple rhythm. 🤠🤠

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