Thoughts about my 2026 "personal curriculum"

There’s a trend going around social media these days where people share how they are planning their self-learning using the term “personal curriculum.” I didn’t know this term at the start of the year, but in 2025, I did make the conscious effort to focus my spare time on certain subject matter, as my own personal curriculum.

As we approach the new year, I’m once again finalizing how I want my 2026 personal curriculum to look like. I’m hoping to build off what I did in 2025 and become more advanced/proficient in my chosen studies (I want my self-study to feel like I’m progressing through a structured multi-year program).  My chosen subjects for 2026 are pretty much the same as last year: Writing, Korean, and rotating electives.

Writing

some of the notebooks I use for creative writing (Hobonichi spring start 2025 cousin and A5 discbound)
some of the notebooks I use for creative writing (Hobonichi spring start 2025 cousin and an A5 discbound with a Live Love Posh cover)

In Q2 of 2025, I bought a spring start Hobonichi cousin with the intention of using the daily pages to write one A5 page per day of free-form prose. I did this to form consistent practice at writing, and my experiment was a major success. I will continue to do this in 2026, but will be a bit more specific in what I will use those daily pages for. For example, I might dedicate the January pages to learning technical writing, or all of Q2 for writing only short stories. I’ll revisit every quarter or so to figure out what specifically I’d like to focus on for writing. But in general, the idea is to continue committing one A5 page a day for some kind of writing practice, whether it’s taking a course, stream-of-consciousness writing, or writing more first drafts.

Korean

my (custom made) Korean language learning notebook and Lingodeer app
my (custom made) Korean language learning notebook and the Lingodeer app

I’ve been studying the Korean language on and off since 2018, but 2025 was the year I tried to commit more time to learning in general. I’m on pace to finish Lingodeer’s Korean 1 course by the end of 2025, and while it’s lacking in some grammar specifics, it’s been far better to use this app to keep me disciplined and committed, especially since I didn’t have time to go to formal classes or curate a specific curriculum on my own. My goal for 2026 is to finish the Lingodeer Korean 2 course, while also working more on my listening skills. I’ll likely have to change up my listening activities as the year progresses, but I plan on watching Korean children shows like Pororo to see if I can pick out vocabulary words I know in context.

Rotating Electives

I plan on doing some mini projects over the course of the year (such as zines, bookbinding, sewing, and video editing), and sharing both the process and the final works here on this website. Much like my writing goal, I plan to keep the specific projects fluid throughout the year (to accommodate fluctuating time and financial constraints).

I’m using my website as an accountability tool to make sure I actually do the things that I set out to do with my rotating electives, which is why I plan to share a lot of my creative endeavours here. I am committing to a monthly newsletter that sums up what I’ve been working on (please subscribe if you’d like!)

How I manage my personal curriculum will bleed into my techo kaigi/journaling ecosystem for 2026. 2025 was my first year focusing on analog writing, and it has been instrumental for me in keeping my goals. I’ll share what my notebook system for 2026 looks like in an upcoming post and explain how it will contribute to my personal curriculum.

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