Fatherhood, First Talks, and Finally Trusting Myself: 2025 in Review

If you'd asked me at the start of 2025 what the year would look like, I don't think I could have predicted just how much would change. Some years are about big career moves or business milestones. This year was about something far more important.

The Big Stuff

In April, my wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world. I'm not going to pretend I have the words to properly describe what that's been like - eight months in and I'm still figuring it out. What I can say is that she's been an absolute gift, and she's completely reframed how I think about everything else.

Add to that celebrating our first wedding anniversary, and it's been a year where the personal stuff has rightly taken centre stage. The rest of this post covers work, content, conferences, and all of that - but none of it comes close to those two things.

Being More Intentional

Earlier in the year, I realised I'd developed a proper doom scrolling habit. You know the one - pick up your phone to check something specific, and 45 minutes later you're watching videos of people you don't know doing things you don't care about. It was getting ridiculous.

After reading Aaron Francis's post about it, I bit the bullet and bought a Brick. I've been using it since the beginning of October with a pretty strict policy - all my social media apps lock down from 6am every day. If I want to access them, I have to physically unbrick the device. Right now I'm averaging around 11 hours 52 minutes of the device being locked per day, and I'm looking to push that further.

Is it making a difference? I think so. I've completely removed Instagram and Facebook from my phone - after a month or two with the Brick, I realised I simply wasn't using them anymore. Maybe 2026 is the year I kick the doom scrolling habit entirely.

This ties into something broader I've been working on: being more deliberate about how I spend my time. I've started taking Wednesdays as a dedicated day for content - putting together social media posts for the week and writing a blog or two. It's not glamorous, but having that structure has helped me stay consistent in a way I wasn't managing before.

Jump24 and the Business Side

It's been a good year for Jump24. The team shrunk a little - people moved on to new roles or decided to go out on their own - and I'd be lying if I said that wasn't difficult. I'm always a bit sad when someone leaves. But when they're moving on to something bigger or better, or taking a leap they feel ready for because of their time with us, I can't help but be proud of that too.

What I'm particularly pleased about is our retention. The company's been going for 11 years now, and we've got two team members who've been here for a decade. Most of the current team have been with us for over two years. When we hire, we seem to bring in people who stay the journey and grow with us. That means a lot.

We made a profit this year (our year end is August, so it spans across the calendar year), and we've had a strong start to the new financial year. I'm hopeful 2026 brings more new clients and wins.

If there's one thing I'd tell my January 2025 self, it would be to trust myself more. On the business side, things panned out well - the decisions I was second-guessing at the time turned out to be the right calls. I need to back my own instincts more. Eleven years of running this business should count for something.

Content and Community

I kicked off the year with a trip to Amsterdam for Laracon EU, which was brilliant. It's always great to catch up with friends I don't see often enough, but beyond that, it's genuinely inspiring to see how the Laravel community continues to flourish. Simon Hamp's talk on building mobile apps with PHP stood out for me - what Simon and Shane have done with NativePHP this year has been impressive, and I'm excited to see where it goes in 2026.

On the content side, I've kept up my weekly top ten Laravel and PHP posts on LinkedIn and Twitter. I've now done 80 of these in a row, which honestly surprises even me. The main driver has been wanting to stay relevant and keep Jump24 front of mind for people, but I've genuinely learned a lot through doing it. When I can match these posts with blog content, I get to put what I'm reading and writing about into actual practice.

I also started doing video versions of the weekly posts, which people seem to enjoy. Learning video content has been interesting - I've been setting up a proper filming area (nothing fancy, but it works). The real goal for 2026 is to build up the confidence to do some livestreams. I'll be honest, I'm nervous about it. Will people watch? Will anyone care? But I keep coming back to Aaron Francis's piece on "what if you tried hard" and his guide on publishing your work - maybe I just need to get over myself and do it.

Speaking of pushing myself: I did my first proper talk this year. PHP Stoke in January, on coding standards with ECS. It went well, and it's opened doors I didn't expect - I was asked to appear on the PHP Architect "Alive and Kicking" podcast, which was filmed in November. Looking at the stats now, it's had 81 views. Is that good? I genuinely don't know. But it's 81 more people than if I hadn't done it at all.

The AI Thing

One thing that surprised me this year was how much I've come around on AI. I was genuinely on the fence about it for a long time - sceptical, if I'm honest. But having used it daily for several months now, I can see how transformative it is when used properly.

For content planning and research, I've been using Claude and ChatGPT. I'll throw ideas at them, have discussions about thoughts I'm working through, and use them to research topics I'm exploring. For coding, we've settled on Cursor and Junie as our tools of choice, and I'm currently weighing up Claude Code as well.

It's not about replacing thinking - it's about speeding up the bits that were slowing me down and taking away tasks I wasn't enjoying. I never thought I'd say this, but it's become genuinely useful.

The Honest Bit

My fitness has really struggled this year. Some of that's down to having a newborn - the tiredness is real - but I haven't done enough, and I don't like how I feel right now. That's something I'm determined to change in 2026. If I could go back to January, I'd tell myself to keep up the running, even when it felt impossible.

The one thing that has worked for me is golf. My handicap's come down, and while I haven't played as much as I'd have liked, when I do get out there it's been brilliant for clearing my head. There's something about walking a course that helps me think through business problems, or just switch off entirely for a few hours.

Looking Ahead to 2026

2026 is already shaping up nicely. We're heading to Laracon EU, and this time I'm taking my wife and daughter - which feels like a proper milestone. Laravel Live UK is on the calendar too, and who knows, maybe we can make Laracon US happen. We'll see.

Beyond the conferences, I want to push myself more on the content side. More video, maybe those livestreams I keep putting off, and continuing the consistency I've built this year. I'd also like to read more - not just technical posts, but books that help me grow personally. That's something I haven't made time for, and I should.

Most of all, I want to keep the balance I've found this year. Family first, business second, everything else after that. 2025 taught me what really matters, and I don't intend to forget it.

Here's to 2026.

I'd love to hear how your 2025 went - the wins, the struggles, the surprises. Drop me a message on Twitter or LinkedIn, or if you're doing your own year in review, send it my way. Always good to reflect together.