While I still have a week of "work" in front of me, my thoughts are extending past all the nonsense I have to take care of before leaving, and onto what I will do once I am not obligated to do anything. Obviously, doing nothing is going to work against my desired outcomes, so I have to do something.
What is that though?
The short- to mid-term plan is to rebuild my business so that it is able to support me. In order to do this, I have to effectively grow it about 4x from where it stands today, which is not going to be an easy task, given the current economy and state of society. The conditions aren't conducive to someone like me building a business at this moment.
But, before I go diving into rebuilding, I need to get myself in order first. The last month has been stressful, the last week and a half even more so. I need a bit of a wind-down period, but I don't want to bring myself to a stop, and I want to make what I do value-adding to the longer term goals I have. There are a couple of clear items on my agenda.
- Clean the house
- Top to bottom
- All cupboards
- Unused clothes donated
- Clean the basement
- Block the windows for winter
- Put everything in the right place
- Tidy the Laundry room
- Make sure all the winter equipment is ready
- Prepare dinner each night
- Do the grocery shopping during the day
- Teach Smallsteps to cook a couple dishes
- Make it all healthy
- Business tools
- Clean up tech stack
- Make sure I have programs
- Rebuild website
- Talk to the accountant
Looking at the list, I am guessing that it is going to me a couple weeks, because while some are going to be ongoing activities, nearly all of them require extra preparation in some way, as well as possible involvement of others. Though, I am quite looking forward to being left to my own devices a bit. I have been working in teams for a lot of the last years, and that generally comes with a lot of compromise. Working by myself sounds refreshing - for now.
My plan with these activities is not just to clear my head and prepare myself for what is to come, but also help the family and get things in order for them. We have been so busy over the last years, that little bit by little bit, things have fallen through the cracks at home, and now I have the opportunity and time to take a step back, look around, and investigate what will make our lives easier. The added benefit, is that it will make my life easier once work-life starts again too.
Our place looks pretty clean most of the time, but I want it to be organized better than it is. Things have got out of place, and it needs a bit of a defrag to get it back in order, and then some new rules to keep it there. Life would be easier if the basic rules were in place and followed, so that there was more bandwidth to spend on more important tasks, like spending time together.
At least for some period of time, I am able to do a lot of the tasks that would have earlier been done in the evenings or on the weekends, so that these times can be better spent on family activities, or things like getting to the gym. Perhaps with a little less chores for everyone else, all of us will be a little better off.
Each day, I am going to set myself tasks to do, and use it as an opportunity to build more rhythm into my life. For instance, I am going to write during the day as much as possible, so that I can go to bed earlier at night, without feeling that I haven't done enough. I am not sure if it will work, but I am going to try. Also, I am going to rediscover trading also, because I have barely paid attention to it for the last couple years, and it has cost me. Again, I just don't have the mental bandwidth for everything, so I have to prioritize.
Will it make a difference?
Maybe, maybe not. But, doing the same thing is a pretty surefire way to not make a difference.
If you had your days free, what would you do?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]