Maker Journal January 2026

January feels like a reset.

I didn’t build much this month, and that was intentional. Instead of shipping, I slowed down and focused on learning—especially around AI. There’s a lot happening in this space, and I finally spent proper time getting my hands on Gemini and the broader Google AI stack. Honestly, some of the tools really impressed me.

Since I already have the Gemini subscription, I also played around with their video features. I didn’t manage to fully burn through the credits (time is still the real bottleneck), but it was enough to spark a few new ideas.

Another big part of this month was reviewing what I’ve already built. I spent time looking back at the products I shipped in 2025, trying to understand what’s worth keeping, what should be improved, and what I should probably let go. It was a long process with a lot of internal debates with my AI, but it helped me make clearer decisions on where to focus this year.

I also kicked off the first Product Weekend of 2026 earlier than usual. Normally, I wait until after Lunar New Year—around February—to get back into building mode. This year was different. With AI speeding things up so much, I couldn’t resist starting early. I’ll share more about the end result, MD2Page, soon.

On the freelance side, I’m currently in talks for a project that could be a great fit for AI-first development. If it goes through, it’ll likely become my first freelance project that’s officially built with AI from the ground up. Curious to see where that leads.

That’s pretty much January. A quieter month, but a necessary one.

February, I’m planning to go deeper—less dabbling, more hands-on building with AI. We’ll see how it goes.