One-month anniversary of leaving employment and starting on my own. It was a good week, and I helped out a lot in terms of consulting. Milestone: First deposit into my account! This is great. The business is now in the black. If I manage my costs well, this will reduce the risk of other projects quite a bit.

I also managed to exercise enough self-control to spend some time on planning the visual book reviews and summaries aspect instead of getting wrapped up in all the useful things I could do with my current clients. I’m working on getting better at living in the moment, focusing on what’s at hand. This is easy to do when consulting – clear tasks, great progress. I need to get better at pulling my mind away from that and focusing on, say, learning more about drawing or looking for ways to get started with business. I’m like that: if I’ve got a presentation or a programming project, it rattles around in my brain even during the “off” moments. The better I get at mentally wrapping things up and resuming them later, the better I’ll be able to handle more complex challenges. Ideas still sneak in, but that’s okay – I’ve got a good capture system (pen! paper! phone!).

Next week, I’m planning to spend Monday to Wednesday focused on learning skills, adding to my site, and experimenting with ideas. That will help. I’ll try drawing and planning at home.

I’m also tempted by the idea of hanging out in the Art Gallery of Ontario, surrounded by all those colourful canvases. Maybe I’ll go on Wednesday evenings when admission is free, and see if I build enough of it into my schedule that a membership becomes worthwhile. I want to draw with more colour, and part of that means getting more used to it.

I also want to get back into the swing of writing more. There’s something odd about the timing of my evenings – it’s not quite as smooth as my usual writing routine. Maybe it’s just getting used to new rhythms of work. I’ll save up some posts over the next few days, and I’ll figure out new routines for writing and sharing.