Q2 2026: The Balance Quarter
What I'm doing from April 6 to June 29, 2026
The Rules
Time Budget
Work hours (Mon-Fri)
~1hr/day for personal projects
Evenings 6-9pm
Kids + house stuff, no screens
After 9pm
Free time — reading, games, whatever's left
Weekends
Mixed — family, house projects, longer project windows
Point Reward System
Conversion Rate: 1pt = 1€
| Quest Tier | Points |
|---|---|
| Tiny | 1 |
| Small | 3 |
| Medium | 5 |
| Big | 7 |
| Huge | 10 |
| Habit Performance | Points |
|---|---|
| 90%+ | 10 |
| 75-90% | 7 |
| 50-75% | 5 |
| 25-50% | 3 |
| 10-25% | 1 |
| Below 10% | 0 |
Earning — Hobbies & Publishing
| Activity | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Published article | 10 | Bonus on top of any quest value. Ship it or it doesn’t count. |
| Book from backlog (owned) | 14 | 2x reward. Read what you have. |
| Book DNF from backlog | 5 | A third. You tried, you decided. That counts. |
| Book (new purchase) | 7 | |
| Book DNF (new purchase) | 2 | A third. Same logic. |
| Audiobook | 5 | |
| Boardgame play session | 3 | Target: 1 play/week |
| Videogame play | 1/hour | Track your time honestly |
Spending
| Purchase Type | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Normal purchases | 1 pt = 1€ | Books, clothes, whatever |
| Game purchases (video or board) | 1 pt = 0.50€ | 2x penalty. Play what you own, Captain. |
North Star Projects
These aren’t quests — they don’t have a “done” state this quarter. They have momentum. Track progress, not completion.
- Tinkerer Tools: Journal — Keep writing, keep publishing
- Tinkerer Tools: Workshop — Keep building, keep publishing
- Yawl — Ship to Product Hunt
- Pitaya Map — New project with Laura
- Homelab Iteration 2 — Improve and validate before canceling subscriptions
Quests
Work quests carry a mandatory one-line impact note in italics. This doubles as a brag document for performance reviews. If you can’t write the sentence, either the quest wasn’t impactful or you don’t understand its impact yet.
Work
| Quest | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Product Engineer Lead transition | 7 | ✓ Write role definition doc→✓ Validate with reference managers→✓ Align with manager→● Start role Wrote role definition preread, validated with two reference managers that description is accurate and already doing the work. Manager confirmed continuation. |
| Configure work laptop for hands-on dev | 3 | ✓ Frontend tooling / Storybook→● Backend setup→○ Full workflow working Storybook configured for new hands-on role. |
| Fix broken test environment service | 5 | ✓ Discover & diagnose→● Fix→○ Verify & flag monitoring gap Service broken for 4 months unnoticed. Discovery + initiative exposes monitoring gap. |
| Layoff / severance negotiation | 7 | ✓ Lawyer consult→✓ Evidence dossier→● Negotiate agreement→○ Exit Contacted labor lawyer and compiled evidence dossier from work laptop and Slack to establish there are no grounds for dismissal. Targeting negotiated agreement. |
| Padll CTO advisory — scope & decide | 5 | ✓ Initial conversations→✓ Stack/code audit→● Decide engagement scope Audited the MVP stack and code with the agency that built it. Decision on engagement scope deferred until after layoff resolves. |
Home
| Quest | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Garage protections | 3 | ✓ Find existing→✓ Buy if needed→● Install Rolled over from Q1. |
| Laundry room | 10 | ● Scout materials→○ Propose to Laura→○ Buy→○ Coordinate handyman Rolled over from Q1. Untouched for 13 weeks. |
| EV charger insurance | 1 | ✓ Call insurance company→● Buy if needed Rolled over from Q1. |
Kids
| Quest | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Montessori book | 3 | Finish crafting the book from Alicia. Rolled over from Q1. |
| Potty training Zoe | 10 | ✓ Research methods→● Start→○ Stick with it Rolled over from Q1. |
Laura
| Quest | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Book holidays | 3 | ✓ Research options→✓ Share with family→● Book Options shared with mom and Laura. Still need to book. |
Personal
| Quest | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bookshelf | 1 | Just do it. Rolled over from Q1. |
| Frames | 1 | Just do it. Rolled over from Q1. |
| ONG research | 3 | Find new organizations to donate to. Rolled over from Q1. |
| Photo album | 5 | ○ Select from phones→○ Compile→○ Print Zoe’s first 2 years. Rolled over from Q1. Never started. |
| Solve personal dev workflow from work laptop | 5 | ● Evaluate options (CLI vs browser vs SSH)→○ Decide approach→○ Implement Browser experience inferior to Claude CLI. SSH tab times out. Max plan decision pending. |
| Unify Claude config across devices | 3 | ● Decide sync method→○ Implement on work laptop→○ Implement on homelab The vim-on-every-laptop problem, but for Claude. Work laptop, personal, homelab. |
Completed Quests
Archive of finished quests this quarter.
| Category | Quest | Points | Week | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Set up browser SSH to NAS | 3 | 1 | Cloudflare Tunnel + Access + short-lived certs. ssh.tinkerer.tools from any browser. | |
| Secondary button behavior fix | 1 | 1 | First hands-on frontend contribution in new role. | |
| Spoke with reference managers | 1 | 1 | Validated role description accuracy. For the most part, already doing the work. | |
| Created Balance Quarter doc | 1 | 1 | ||
| Thumbs-down pipeline initiative | 5 | 2 | Pivoted after discovering the fix belonged in the n8n workflow, not the service. Shipped one of eight ranked action items: a new Slack message adding operational value for the ops team reviewing ratings. Downgraded from Big to Medium — one action item shipped, not all. | |
| Publish SSH article to garden | 3 | 2 | Published to the garden. Doc written during Week 1 setup. | |
| Window fix | 3 | 2 | Broken window at home, fixed Saturday morning. | |
| Birthday presents run | 3 | 2 | Two presents for Yaiza and Lua (Zoe’s friends) plus a book for Zoe. | |
| Xteink replacement | 1 | 2 | Device broken on arrival, issued and processed replacement. Pure administrative burden. |
Weekly Habits
| Habit | Target | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Tinkerer Tools writing | 10 min | 4/week |
| Gym | morning session | 2/week |
| Intermittent fasting | — | 5/week |
| Deep work | focused slot | 3/week |
| Friend check-ins | 10 min WhatsApp | 5/week |
| Meditate | 10 min | 3/week |
| No alcohol | — | 5/week |
Monthly Hobby Goals
- 1+ boardgame play per week
- Keep reading — prioritize owned books
- Track videogame hours honestly
Success Looks Like
By June 29th, if these are true, the quarter was a win:
- Still publishing articles on Tinkerer Tools
- Projects moving forward (Yawl, Pitaya Map, Homelab)
- Still reading, still playing
- Kids stuff didn’t stall (potty training, Montessori book)
- Habits actually held — not the sugar situation again
- Economy stays honest — earning and spending
- Work and life coexisted — similar output to Q1, with a full-time job
- Work transition landed — proving value as Product Engineer Lead
Laura is my accountability partner.
Weekly Tracker
▸ WEEK 01Apr 6-12
Quests +6Habits +5Hobbies +1
Total
12
Spent
0
Balance
12
▾ WEEK 02Apr 13-19
QUESTS+15
Thumbs-down pipeline initiative5
Publish SSH article to garden3
Window fix3
Birthday presents run3
Xteink replacement1
HABITS+5
Writing
Gym
Fasting
Deep work
Friends
Meditate
No alcohol
18/27 checks67%
HOBBIES+11
The Golden Enclave (new purchase)7
Caves of Qud (3h)3
Tales of Maj'Eyal (1h)1
SPENT-14
Tales of Maj'Eyal (7€, 2x game penalty)-14
Total
31
Spent
14
Previous
48
Balance
65