Skip to main content

The Great Un-Working

In this episode. 2026—The Year of the Great Un-Working

Welcome to On the Fly. If you’re new here, this is a place for noticing—the small, easily missed moments that quietly turn out to matter. It’s part reflection, part curiosity, and occasionally part grease-stained bicycle rag. If you’re searching for life hacks, hustle culture, or a seven-step plan to optimize your morning coffee, you may have taxied onto the wrong runway.

But if you’ve ever felt the itch to slow down and look around—welcome aboard.

We begin 2026 by analyzing the blog post below. Traditional resolutions are often just "re-work"—tasks we assign ourselves to become more efficient cogs. In the 2026 era of Un-Working, a resolution isn't a goal; it’s an unlearning.

Join Jim & Chloe, our AI analysis team, with the help of NotebookLM, as they unpack, explore, and expand on this blog post.

Happy 2026!

If you’re like us, you spent the last week of 2025 doing three things remarkably well: 

  1. Avoiding unfinished projects.
  2. Eating things wrapped in foil.
  3. Quietly wondering how procrastination still isn’t an Olympic sport.
    Then–the calendar flipped, the air sharpened, and the “R” word floated into view.

No—not Resolutions.

Retirement.

Or, as we prefer to think of it here at On the Fly:
The Great Life Re-Creation Project.

This year isn’t about stopping. It’s about un-working—setting down what no longer fits and picking up what we kept meaning to get back to. Less urgency. More intention. Fewer meetings. Better questions.

Here’s what that looks like as we start the year.

From PowerPoint to Power Chords.

For years, music was something other people did confidently.

In 2026, I’m leaning into finger-style guitar—nylon strings, quieter moods, fewer heroic flourishes—music not as performance, but as practice.

  • The Plan:
    Lessons at the local music store. Supporting local business—and removing my ability to claim I “meant to practice.”
  • The Goal:
    To play something soulful enough that the neighbors stop calling the authorities and start leaving tips on the porch.
  • The Reality Check:
    I’m aiming for Spanish Romance. I’ll settle for not snapping a high-E string and losing an eye.

Dusting Off the Universe

There’s a telescope in the garage.

If you’re new here, you should know this: On the Fly has a soft spot for forgotten tools—the ones we bought with BIG curiosity and then buried under real life.

January skies are clear, cold, and honest. Perfect for reminding us that our daily worries are statistically insignificant in the grand scheme of the Milky Way.

  • The Plan:
    Connect with the local Astronomy Club. Spend time with people who think Andromeda is a perfectly reasonable Saturday night topic.
  • The Goal:
    Locate a galaxy without an app thinking for me.
  • The Likely Outcome:
    Three hours in the cold before realizing I’ve been staring at a distant streetlamp again. Ha ha!

Grease, Gears, and Giving Back

Cycling has been part of my life since I was fourteen. Around here, bikes aren’t just transportation—they’re teachers.

This summer, On the Fly headquarters may transform into a small bicycle classroom.

  • The Plan:
    Teach local kids basic repairs: fixing flats, indexing derailleurs, and mastering the fine art of not tracking grease into the house.
  • The Goal:
    Every kid knows the difference between a tire iron and a screwdriver.
  • The Vibe:
    Exploring new horizons on two wheels—preferably without fixing twenty bikes at once while everyone eats my snacks.

The 2026 “Newly Idle” Reading List (Any suggestions?)

Because un-working takes practice:

  • How to Do Nothing — Jenny Odell
  • The Music Lesson — Victor Wooten
  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry — Neil deGrasse Tyson

The universe is vast. For the first time in a while, we’re not rushing through it.

If You’re New Here, Start With These Questions

On the Fly isn’t about retirement.
It’s about reinvention at any age.

So let me ask you—directly:

What are you "un-working" on this year?
What habit, identity, or expectation has quietly expired?
What would you pick up if productivity weren’t the point?

A guitar. A telescope. A camera. A wrench. Or simply the habit of noticing.

Stop using AI like a search engine. Click here to see what happens when you treat it like a creative partner.

I’m Patrick Ball. Stay curious. Ask better questions: clear skies—and tailwinds.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

Night Before Christmas

I n this episode, Night Before Christmas . . .  (In the spirit of Edgar Albert Guest) I’ve wrestled with the tangled lights the way I always do— With just enough patience left to see the project through. I climb the ladder carefully; the years have taught me how. To take my time with every step and keep a steady brow. We hang the faded ornaments I’ve known since I was small, the chipped, the cracked, the tilted ones—I love them best of all. Santa’s lost a bit of paint, the stars’ leaning right, but oh, it casts a holy glow across the room tonight. The kitchen hums with activity, with laughter, and with cheer, as voices drift like echoes from a long-forgotten year. The floor is strewn with paper scraps, the clock is ticking slow, As Christmas finds its own sweet pace and sets our house aglow. The hallway grows a little still; the lights are dimmed, and low, Small shoes are lined in messy pairs to wait for morning’s snow. The fire's warm, the room is full, the world is deep and wide,...
2 comments
Read more

Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way

🎩   In this special episode. How to Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way It’s 2026! Yes— this is the year! A different kind of start—you feel it right here? No lists! No demands! No fix-all-your-flaws! No “New You by Tuesday!” No rules! No laws! Those resolutions? Bah! Dusty and dry! We’ve tried fixing everything —so let’s ask why. Why rush and correct and improve and compare, When noticing quietly gets you right there ? So here’s a new project—no charts, no clocks, No boxes to check in your mental inbox. It’s bigger than busy and smaller than grand, It’s called Un-Working —now give me your hand! Un-Working’s not quitting or hiding away, It’s setting things down that shout “Hurry! Hey!” The hustle! The bustle! The faster-than-fast! The gotta-win-now or you’re stuck in the past! That’s the work of Un-Working— plop! —set it free! The titles! The labels! The “Look-At-Me!” The crown that kept sliding and pinching your head— You never looked comfy . . . let’s try this instead: Pick up a tel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Boy on a Beam

In this special bonus episode, Boy on a Beam. In a world long ago, when the days moved quite slow, Before buzzes and beeps and the fast things we know, A boy sat quite still on a very fine day, Just staring at nothing . . . and thinking away. No tablets! No gadgets! No screens shining bright! No earbuds stuck in from morning till night. No lists, no charts, and no chores to be done. He just sat there thinking—that's quiet-time fun! His name was Young Albert. He sat in his chair, Thinking of things that weren’t really there. “Suppose,” said Young Albert, with eyes open wide, “I ran super fast with my arms by my side! Suppose I ran faster than anyone knew, And caught up to sunshine that zoomed past me—too! If I hopped on its back for a light-speedy ride, What secrets would I find tucked away deep inside?” “Would stars look like sprinkles, all shiny and small? Would UP feel like sideways? Would BIG feel like Tall?” He giggled and wondered and thought, and he dreamed, Till his head fel...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Thought Experiment–Revisited

In this episode. The Thought Experiment–Revisited The Boy on a Light Beam In 1895, a sixteen-year-old boy did something we rarely allow ourselves to do anymore. He stared into space and let his mind wander. No phone. No notes. No “Optimization Hacks” for his morning routine. Just a question: What would happen if I chased a beam of light—and actually caught it? That boy was Albert Einstein . And that single act of curiosity—a Gedankenexperiment , a thought experiment—eventually cracked open Newton’s tidy universe and rearranged our understanding of time itself. Not bad for an afternoon of daydreaming. Imagine if Einstein had been “productive” instead. He would have logged the light-beam idea into a Notion database, tagged it #CareerGrowth, and then promptly ignored it to attend a forty-five-minute “Sync” about the color of the departmental logo. He’d have a high Efficiency Score—and we’d still be stuck in a Newtonian universe , wondering why the Wi-Fi is slow. In a post I wrote back in...
2 comments
Read more