Suddenly, I decided to reflect on how my 2024 went by reviewing photos, screenshots, and files, and I was shocked. I never realized how much I had accomplished in a year and how many places I had visited.
January
Started with a business trip to Houston, where I worked as a lead auditor. However, I was promoted to ICT Technical Manager effective February 1st and planned to travel in March in my new role.
During that trip, I attended Ali Abdaal's workshop on 2024 planning, and I sincerely recommend it to everyone. It had a huge impact on my life and significantly changed the quality and efficiency of my everyday routine.
The business trip on January 2nd was quite extreme for a Russian immigrant, as we celebrate New Year’s Eve in a much more dramatic way than any other date. It’s a milestone where you struggle to finalize one project (the old year) and start the new one, often going to sleep only around 3–4 a.m. on January 1st. That’s the minimum of what typically happens that night.
I suddenly found myself playing the role of a DNV brand ambassador because I had video equipment and filming experience—we managed to complete the project very quickly.
January was also memorable due to the crazy number of audits scheduled one after another. I even had to cancel a business trip to Calgary because I had a cold, but I still managed to conduct the audit remotely. How sick days should work in such cases is something I still barely understand. 😂 I also created the first set of the standing table and walking pad (redo that many times in the year).
We bought, disassembled, and cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner a typewriter from the 1920s, which, based on its brand and type, likely went through WWII. Someone (no finger-pointing here) insisted on disassembling it down to the smallest part, and after cleaning, I lost hope of ever reassembling it someday.
We also upgraded our 3D printer with new parts, and I built a new home workspace featuring a walking pad—essential when you work 12 hours a day at a computer.
We fulfilled my childhood dream by purchasing the tallest, most beautiful live Christmas tree I’ve ever had. It stayed fresh and green until the end of January.
Amid all this, I was juggling two massive AI courses (6 months and During this time, I was also engaged in two massive AI courses (6 months and 4 months). They were incredibly interesting, and I spent most of my free time completing them. I successfully passed both exams in January and thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience!
February
February was a very sad month. We all lost hope for a brighter and happier Russia with the murder of Alexey Navalny. I can’t bring myself to call it “death” because it was clearly murder. The second half of February was filled with controversial news and messages, and I sought escapism in the old, cozy world of Minecraft.
Workwise, I had many remote audits and a business trip (on-site audit) to New York.
One audit stood out—visiting a company with a stunning Wall Street office offering views of the Brooklyn Bridge. After one workday, I walked to the Empire State Building, listening to the Boyd Brothers History podcast, which made the experience unforgettable.
The most unexpected and memorable fact about the Empire State Building was learning it was constructed during the Great Depression. At first, no offices were rented, but it became incredibly popular as a sightseeing point because, at that time, people rarely had the chance to view the world from such a height. As someone who had more flight hours by age five than most pilots, I’d never considered this perspective and found it fascinating.
In February, we also visited Virginia Tech and UVA. The experience reminded me how much I miss teaching in person. Surprisingly, UVA felt more appealing than Virginia Tech.
February, overall, was a month of relentless audits, fear of worsening news from Russia, and escapes into the world of Minecraft.
March
Another business trip, this time as an ICT Technical Manager to Houston. At that point, I realized I now had three jobs: I was still managing information security and other audits, but I was also a technical manager responsible for overseeing other auditors. If I wanted room to breathe, I needed to find time to hire and train new auditors.
This was also the point where I became one of the first qualified trainers for ISO 42001 (the artificial intelligence standard). My first training was already scheduled, which added a third role to my responsibilities. My enthusiasm for the February promotion became less exciting at that point. 😂
In March, our neighbors finally realized that the construction of a new apartment complex in the neighborhood was imminent. Most likely, we would lose the beautiful walkway to the lake, which would become a construction zone in 2025. From that point on, there were many after-work meetings discussing how to push residential contractors to minimize the project’s density. My thoughts were that we were already struggling with traffic, and it might be time to look for a new house with a large piece of land—and maybe even fulfill another dream: to have someday heritage chickens!
April
April was the month of the full solar eclipse, and because my son is a passionate astrophotographer, we couldn’t miss this celestial event.
The biggest challenge was choosing a location for the full solar eclipse that we could drive to, booking a last-minute hotel, and ensuring it wouldn’t be cloudy. We decided to bet on Indianapolis.
We found a beautiful park, and the weather was so pleasant. The solar eclipse itself engaged all our senses and exceeded every expectation. I had seen a partial solar eclipse in my childhood, but this was something unbelievable and indescribable. Mike was very popular among the people searching for the eclipse, as he looked professional with all his equipment. He later sent his photos to everyone he met. All in all, the eight hours there and twelve hours back in traffic were totally worth it.
When I’m away from home, I spend way too much time looking at photos of our cats, missing them—especially when they are home alone with just two cameras and an automatic feeder. 😭
Of course, I had one true vacation and one "fake" one, where I had to attend a meeting and work on the way back home and the very next day. But again… it was totally worth it.
In April, after work and on weekends, I completed another AI course to refine my lecture material to perfection and spent a lot of time playing Minecraft and books reading. I will do the separate post / video about books of that year.
I also started listing what I wanted to see in the new house and on the new land and began exploring ideas on Pinterest. I’d say that in April, the idea started becoming a draft of a plan.
I delivered my first ISO 42001 training (the standard was very new, released only two months prior), and it went surprisingly well. Despite the fact that the attendees were highly advanced and experienced, I was still able to provide them with a lot of new information. Three full days of intense lectures and a week before of preparation along with audits in parallel.
Mike wanted to accompany me on my next business trip to Phoenix, Arizona, because of the low light pollution, to do astrophotography while camping. We bought the lightest camping tent possible and started planning. And we also did another astrophotography night at the lake near our house:
May
Started in Phoenix, Arizona, where for the first couple of days I did audits. Afterward, I took vacation days, and at night we drove two hours from Phoenix each day to different spots for astrophotography. The photographs and views were absolutely incredible:
The first night, we were quite scared by the ridiculously loud hundreds of donkeys, which apparently weren’t mentioned in any reviews. During the day, Mike was doing summer classes and exams (which reminded me of someone with a bad habit of planning everything for one day—haha).
The light pollution was so incredibly low that we could see our shadows in the middle of the night after the crescent moon had risen.
After returning home (after being stuck in the Arizona airport for two more days due to weather and flight delays), I had another business trip (audits) in Washington, D.C. While it might seem close to me, it’s actually a two-hour drive in perfect, non-existent conditions, and usually a 3–4-hour drive in traffic. But hey, I lived in Moscow, where my normal commute to work was 2–3 hours one way each day for nine years.
We first spoke to our realtor, and from that month onward, events began spinning at an unrealistic speed. In June, we rented storage and moved most of our belongings (or so we thought). Apparently, our house had three times more stuff than we estimated. However, this would be our first ever civilized move without any minimalistic nonsense, so I decided to take everything. Literally everything.
I laugh when people talk to me about minimalism and all that. Try moving from one continent to another after fully renovating an apartment and living in one place for nine years with only two bags (one of which contained only computers). During those three moves, we didn’t use storage or rent containers—we just sold or donated everything and moved with two bags. Not this time. I don’t care how much stuff we have or how much work it is. I am tired of &%#ing minimalism and starting from scratch every nine years. This time, we’re moving with all our belongings—everything, literally everything. It made me feel so incredibly happy and civilized. It didn’t feel like a survival exercise anymore—just a planned move to another house.
June
At the beginning of the month, we did a huge amount of work packing everything into transparent boxes, moving all the stuff to storage, renovating the house and porch, painting, and more—all in addition to our daily jobs. We took a couple of days off here and there, but most of this work was done in June and July.
I had another business trip (audit) to Maryland, which is a bit further away from me but still manageable and a lot of remote audits and meetings.
But most of that "after work" month was spent on intense renovation, moving items to storage, and preparing the house for staging. Funny enough, after an entire month of work, the house didn’t look any different or emptier, which was really discouraging.
July
I had a long trip (audit) and met my Australian best friend in New York.
Besides that, it was another month of packing, fixing things, and looking for new houses along with loaded hours of remote working — a very emotionally loaded and exhausting month.
To distract myself, I completed two intense blogging training sessions.
It was also really nice to see my friend, whom I hadn’t seen in person for eight years, and walk with her in New York.
That was the first time I visited Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and it was crazy. I never knew such a place existed where everyone suddenly speaks Russian, all the labels in the grocery stores and pharmacies are in Russian, and even kids in kindergarten were singing in Russian. It was an absolutely surreal experience.
We recorded our first long podcast about AI and security with another Australian friend from Luxembourg. I even edited and published it without any delays.
The most important event of July was finding the house of our dreams—it checked every item on our wish list (for all of us).
The house also came with heritage chickens (my long, long, long-time dream!). Let’s skip the part about the four goats and dealing with the realization that we now also have six cats. 🤣
August
Guess what? I had three business trips (audits) in consecutive order, with only one weekend day at home between airports with 3 hours time zone difference. Why am I writing "audits" in brackets? Because audits are different from management meetings and public speaking. Audits involve enormous pressure, very packed and intense schedules, and talking to 50 new people each week, sometimes each day—a big challenge for an introvert.
On top of that, there was enormous pressure to sell our house as soon as possible since we had already signed the contract for the new house. The prospect of paying for two mortgages wasn’t very optimistic.
My first business trip was to San Francisco, and I couldn’t miss the chance to visit the Charmed house and meet my friend there. The biggest surprise was seeing large coyotes wandering in the middle of the day, completely nonchalant.
An interesting fact was that I visited Manhattan Beach on the Pacific Ocean less than two weeks after stepping onto Manhattan Beach on the Atlantic Ocean in Brooklyn.
After that, I traveled to Boston for another audit. The best part was that the client team was absolutely amazing, and the audit was easy right from the start.
I visited an unexpectedly great museum featuring light installations: WDRN in Boston.
I highly recommend it to everyone! At the end of August, on the second day of showings, we received an offer and sold our house!
The biggest challenge was sitting in a park with two cats in their carry-on carriers. At first, we tried putting them in harnesses but quickly realized that cats are like liquid, and they stay in the harness purely by goodwill until they decide not to.
Both made sudden flips and tried to escape into the bushes. After that, the trust was broken, and they stayed securely in their carriers.
We also managed to re-assembled the typewriter!
September
In September I started two very intense training programs: one for blogging, during which I posted on Instagram and LinkedIn every day, and another for a productivity club and training by Ali Abdaal.
Thanks to those two blogging courses, you can see my September highlights on Instagram in all details 😄
We were in the process of closing the contract for our old house, dealing with a lot of stressful events like inspections and negotiations with buyers, and moving to the new house with endless trips—two hours each way using 2–3 cars and renting a U-Haul three times. Sorry, Sofia Vergara, but that look exactly reflect of how I felt in September 😂
We moved at the beginning of September and lived between two houses while moving our belongings, switching dental and vet clinics, exploring grocery stores, and getting familiar with farm animals (to whom I administered vaccinations right away, like a welcoming package). 🤦🏼♀️😅
I didn’t have any business trips in September and took a few days off, completing all audits remotely, which really saved the month. However, the previous month had been so exhausting that I can say September was a recovery period after the full burnout of working through August even despite all remote audits and a lot of walking during that time.
Our two house cats, our princesses, were absolutely freaked out during the first month at the new place and only fully relaxed in October.
The month was also a very intense learning process for farm animal care. I crammed my brain with about eight books on goats, chickens, and ducks, covering topics like anatomy, biochemistry, fecal egg count tests, coop design, vaccination schedules, and building a first aid package.
It’s amazing how much I can accomplish in one month when I’m not working 14-hour days or enduring 2–3 weeks of business trips with the accompanying jet lag and burnout.
This was also the month when we built a black soldier fly larvae farm and a compost box. We failed with the first but were very successful with the second. All of that is essential experience, which we’ll revisit in the spring.
October
October was a month with a very intense work schedule, business trips, and a total and absolute mess with boxes and unpacked items. We were constantly looking for something and couldn’t remember if we had that item or if it was easier to just buy a new one.
I prepared multiple shelters for barn cats, and we made a door to the garage because I couldn’t stand the thought of cats being out in freezing nights under pouring rain. I can now tell that they apparently don’t care—some of them sleep with the goats, and one I suspect lives between two houses because it disappears from time to time and comes back well-fed and groomed. We’ve also had more random cats coming to use the shelter and food.
We did a lot of work rebuilding the chicken coop, designing a new one, doing some terraforming, and preparing the goat housing for winter, along with clearing the land of branches and falling trees (an endless work project).
I completed two more training courses at work: one for blogging (which my employer, DNV, paid for!) and another for the new ISO vehicle cybersecurity standards. I also finished another very intense course for ISO 42001 artificial intelligence.
I had three business trips: one for an audit and another to speak at the Black Hat conference on AI and security.
I also attended the Women in Tech conference in Richmond (the nicest 40-minute business trip ever). Attending these conferences felt so good and enjoyable—it somehow gave me a great boost of energy, and I didn’t experience any burnout despite the large number of work hours and audits.
We recorded another podcast with Katya on AI and security, but I still haven’t edited it! Shame on me!
The Black Hat conference was such a blast! I really enjoyed every minute of it. Despite the fact that my speaking time was at the end of a very intense day, no one left the conference hall, and the audience was actively engaged in the topic. For me, this was a great sign of success and a clear demonstration that my public speaking skills and superpower are still with me after all these years.
October was so energetic and inspiring that I even managed to explore a new area around Monticello. I worked there after a tour and a long hike with beautiful views.
From my experiences this month, I can say that public speaking, blogging, and teaching charge me with a crazy amount of energy and give me a massive boost of motivation.
November
November was such a strange month, with a lot of remote audits (I didn’t travel at all), but I had so many follow-up meetings, unfinished projects (audits), management meetings, and other tasks that had been following me since April. I had to finish them all, so I ended up working 14-hour days almost every day.
Since I only have a walking pad and standing desk at the new house, it felt silly just standing still, so I walked constantly. By the end of the day, my legs were worn out. As a result, November became a great month for losing weight, with an average of 20,000 steps per day, including walking on the land each day despite me baking almost every day! The reason for that "baking motivation" - we bought and installed the new amazing gas oven:
There is a great feeling when you walk around your own land and feel tired after covering only one-third of the walkway path.
With that amount of work, where I had to do speaking and writing for many hours each day (this is how my audit hours usually look like), I had no motivation or energy left for book writing or content creation. It felt very uninspiring and affected my mood. All my hopes were pinned on the December NY Black Hat conference and my speaking topic.
We made a great effort to sort out some of our belongings after long working hours, but overall, November felt kind of useless, tiring, and full of meaningless work—it was exhausting at the same time.
To make my life even more complicated, I bought an incubator and put one Silkie egg in it.
The logic behind this was that we had lost one Silkie rooster, and the little rooster (one of four, also a Silkie) fit really well into the flock society. So, we wouldn’t be risking much if the hatched chick turned out to be another rooster.
By the time it was due to hatch, we added another egg... and another... and one more! A couple of weeks later, there were nine more Silkie eggs 🫥 (as they had a higher chance of being fertilized, given all our roosters are Silkies and the eggs came from under Silkie hens). Then, I realized that a single Silkie chick couldn’t be raised alone—chickens are social creatures and feel very lonely when alone. So… I went and bought more one-day-old chicks for our newborn, assuming it would even hatch. But this is a story for December.
By the end of November, I had developed a well-optimized, fully automated incubating and breeding system for hatching multiple eggs at different times.
December
It started with hatching a new chick and my stupidity in buying six one-day-old chicks instead of two. 😂
At that stage, I realized I have an obsessive chicken addiction disease. By December 3rd, we had seven one-day-old chicks, all absolutely black—one was our Silkie chick, and the other six were a very rare breed called the Lamborghini of the chicken world: Ayam Cemani.
By a lucky chance and a little bit of planning, they accepted each other as their own despite being different sizes and breeds: there are arrows pointing to Ayam Cemani chicks and Silkie chick is in the circle.
The little Silkie chick was well protected and cared for by the Ayam Cemani chicks.
The biggest disappointment of December was that my work planning team completely ignored my schedule change request (from 2 months ago!). Instead of attending the Black Hat conference, I ended up with an 80-hour 2 consecutive workweeks, triple-booked audits, and an absolutely exhausting first three weeks of December schedule. It was so intense that I couldn’t do anything efficient or sensible at home, for my blog, or for work. I still feel like I’m recovering from that crazy weeks burnout.
I didn’t like my job, didn’t try to do anything new, and didn’t learn anything new. I just kept going on autopilot until my annual vacation started at Christmas.
In addition to that, I made another stupid decision and bought eight young pullets (hens), introducing them to my flock without any quarantine. All that in the desire to have these colorful eggs by the summer
As a result, by Christmas, we had three quarantined chickens with slight respiratory symptoms, and more showed symptoms by New Year’s Eve. It’s unclear whether this was due to the sudden cold weather, the sudden introduction of new chickens, or both. Now, we don’t have any eggs and likely won’t for another 30 days while the quarantined chickens are withdrawn from "production."
Anyway… maybe I know too much about USDA organic farming and food safety processes, or perhaps this was another form of escapism from work burnout and the frustration of how poorly the work year ended.
In the last week of December, I started Ali Abdaal’s part-time YouTube Academy and began filming my first 20 “crappy” videos for YouTube. Editing, as usual, was very challenging at the beginning.
We also had a brand-new Silkie chick hatch, which is now white-gray and super cute.
I found an amazing deal for a squat rack, Olympic barbell, and weights, which means… home gym project! Yay!!
At the New Year’s Eve event, we saw an amazing double rainbow, which, as Veritasium explained, is unique and special for each individual. I think it’s a great sign:
Looking back on 2024 and especially on January and December of 2024, I decided that in 2025, I am setting in 2025 clear work boundaries: no more work overload, no matter what.
I won’t accept back-to-back travel or work beyond 40 hours a week. My focus will be on the things that recharge me and give me energy—creative work, writing, training and hiring new talent, speaking at conferences, and teaching. These are my priorities, and I’ll try to ensure my schedule reflects that. By saying no to unnecessary demands, I can focus on what truly matters and what fuels my motivation, passion and my energy.
I just need to repeat it for many many times to hypnotise myself and remember that haha 😂
