Monday evening: my final video call of the day ends. It was pleasant but I’m shattered. I got up to brush my teeth and my girlfriend gave me a funny look, “are you going to bed already?” At this point I realised it’s only 9pm. I now had two hours to do something else. I was overjoyed.
How did I end up here?
A few months prior I’d joined a new project at work. A fun one with inspiring teammates. We’d travel for work, spend our day with the customer, then sit in the hotel bar and work some more.
Back at home my other responsibilities could be tackled. Planning for our broader project and team. My direct reports. Documentation. Meetings. All of these leaked into my evenings and often, my weekends.
Reading this you’ll see the glaring omissions: hobbies, interests, exercise, good diet, friends, family, and learning.
The two hours returned to me that Monday night put their absence into sharp focus. I had become conditioned into working until bedtime and closing my laptop meant going to sleep.
Why write this?
It’s been about two months since that Monday. During that time I’ve thought a lot about day-to-day changes I need to make. It also caused me to reflect on my long term plans, what my forty year old self will be doing with his time, and how I might meaningfully change the world around me.
Short term steps: I’ve gone back to GTD in an attempt to organise my life and make wiser use of my time. I’m still figuring out responsibilities I can drop at work, leaving room to make impact in the others. I’ve had limited success reinstating an exercise habit, but need to try harder. My art habit remains stalled. I am reading, learning, and writing, and this is directed toward some long term goals.
Long term goals: OK, these aren’t clear yet but my aim with this blog is to figure that out. There are plenty of ideas that I’ll research and write up as I go. I’m likely to talk about climate, biosecurity, land mines, teaching of software & coding, plus certainly some ramblings.
I’m hoping this leads me to a clearer direction. It might end up an interesting read.