Last month, I wrote:

In October, I’ll focus on consulting. In my discretionary time, I’ll focus on lots of drawing and thinking. I want to build that habit of daily visual thinking, and then I’ll use that to learn even more.

And boy, did I ever! I put together a PDF of 105 thoughts from October 2013 that compiled my notes from thinking through different things, and you can see a list (including some small sketches I didn’t include in the PDF) after the blog posts below. Not only did this give me plenty of practice in visual thinking, it also helped me focus and accomplish a lot. I hammered out a pretty decent drawing workflow that made the most of my new gear. I learned a lot about learning. I tidied up. I set up better backups and did some system administration chores I’d been procrastinating. Good stuff indeed.

November is going to be busy but good. I’ve got two projects going on at work, including some animation and voice recording. (That’ll be interesting to sort out with the cats and the heater…) I need to sort out possible tooth surgery for one of our cats and take care of other pet-related matters. We’re working on decluttering and organizing the house. Lots of things going on, and I want to continue doing my daily-ish drawing habit too. Let’s see how it works out!

Blog posts

• Decisions
  • The power of no: being completely* unhireable until 2017 (and possibly longer)
  • Decision review: Seven months at HackLab
  • Cheat uncertainty by sweetening the potential outcomes
  • What’s on your back burner?
  • When it comes to juggling multiple interests, it helps to limit your expectations
  • Growing slowly, adjusting the speed
• Learning
  • What do I want to learn about learning?
  • Visual book review: How to make a complete map of every thought you think (Lion Kimbro)
  • Next steps for system administration
  • Mindmapping chat with Billy Waters (@vitaminsludge)
  • I don’t write about everything; How do you manage your private notes?
• Drawing
  • Sketchnote Lessons: How do you want to grow as a sketchnoter?
  • Thinking out loud about how to help other sketchnoters go professional and how to help people get their ideas sketched
  • Drawing practice: Daily drawing
  • Learning more about illustrating my blog posts
  • Visual thinking: build your visual library
  • Sketchnote Lesson: Metaphors
  • Daily drawing update: So far, fantastic!
• Sharing
  • Blogging tip: Test your ideas and get more feedback in order to make your posts better
  • Test what you know by sharing
  • Growing this blog
  • Jetpack subscribers: Terribly sorry about the test posts! Disabling, please use Feedburner to subscribe instead
  • Integrating visual outlining into my writing process
• Gardening
  • Gardening plans for 2014
  • Gardening review: 2013
• Reviews
  • Weekly review: Week ending October 4, 2013
  • Weekly review: Week ending October 11, 2013
  • Weekly review: Week ending October 18, 2013
  • Sysad stuff – Weekly review: Week ending October 25, 2013
  • Monthly review: September 2013

Tons of sketches! You can browse through them at sketches.sachachua.com or check them out using this list:

Drawings

1. 2013-10-31 Why do I prefer asynchronous communication, and what can I do about it #connecting
2. 2013-10-31 What do I want to explore #plans
3. 2013-10-31 What do I want or need to store on my backup drives #tech #backup
4. 2013-10-31 Understanding gaps #learning
5. 2013-10-31 Reflections on cats #life #cat
6. 2013-10-31 Possibility - Hire or partner with an extrovert to interview people #business #idea
7. 2013-10-31 Imagining an awesome day #life
8. 2013-10-31 How do I want to tweak four months of tilting the balance towards consulting #experiment
9. 2013-10-30 Why does note-taking matter to me - positive #notetaking #my-learning
10. 2013-10-30 Why does note-taking matter to me #notetaking #my-learning
11. 2013-10-30 Why do I prefer bottom-up thinking to top-down thinking #my-learning
12. 2013-10-30 What kinds of thoughts are interesting or useful for me to explore on paper #my-learning
13. 2013-10-30 Playing with style - how do I want to explore #drawing
14. 2013-10-30 How do I break a large topic down into small questions that I can handle #my-learning
15. 2013-10-30 How can I make the most of purchases #decision #business
16. 2013-10-30 Destructive scans - is it worth cutting apart my books #reading #decision
17. 2013-10-29 Visual Thinkers Toronto #visualtoronto #sketchnote
18. 2013-10-29 Bike versus subway #decision #life #exercise
19. 2013-10-29 Accelerate your learning through visual thinking #learning
20. 2013-10-28 Setting up virtual machines with Vagrant #tech #vagrant
21. 2013-10-28 Setting up my development environment VMs #tech #vagrant
22. 2013-10-28 My roadmap to becoming a better geek #tech #plans
23. 2013-10-28 Mindmapping chat with vitaminsludge #mindmapping
24. 2013-10-28 Drawing on paper versus drawing on my computer #drawing
25. 2013-10-28 Deployment procedures #tech
26. 2013-10-27 Time Management for System Administrators - Thomas A #sketchnote
27. 2013-10-26 Planning for the trip #travel
28. 2013-10-25 What do I want to do with my business #experiment #business #plans
29. 2013-10-25 Weekly review #weekly
30. 2013-10-25 How I organize and publish my sketches #organization #sharing #drawing
31. 2013-10-24 What topics do I want to make progress in daily or weekly #my-learning #plans
32. 2013-10-24 Sharing my mindmap #sharing
33. 2013-10-24 Quantified Self Toronto #sketchnote #quantifiedto
34. 2013-10-24 Personal information architecture #sharing #organization #learning #my-learning
35. 2013-10-24 My processes for reviewing info #my-learning #reviewing
36. 2013-10-24 Mindjet 14 vs Freeplane #tech #mindmapping
37. 2013-10-24 Google Helpout #helpouts
38. 2013-10-24 Current state - backups #tech #backup
39. 2013-10-24 Assorted metaphors
40. 2013-10-24 Assorted business words
41. 2013-10-24 Asking myself better questions #learning #questions
42. 2013-10-23 Thinking About Getting Better at Asking Questions #learning #questions
43. 2013-10-23 Sketchnote Bullet Journal (Ryder Carroll) #sketchnote #notetaking
44. 2013-10-23 How to Ask Questions the Smart Way (Eric S. Raymond) #sketchnote
45. 2013-10-23 How can I find the right balance of thinking, learning, doing, and reviewing #my-learning #balance
46. 2013-10-23 Evernote Fujitsu ScanSnap #tech
47. 2013-10-22 What do I need to do in terms of system administration #tech #sysad
48. 2013-10-22 What can I do to get more value from online courses #my-learning
49. 2013-10-22 Plenty of sleep #life
50. 2013-10-22 My new sketching and thinking workflow, and mindmap comparisons #process #drawing
51. 2013-10-22 How can I tap the value I create #business #experiment
52. 2013-10-22 Different methods for (assisted) learning #learning
53. 2013-10-21 When do I pause or stop when thinking about something #my-learning
54. 2013-10-21 How can I think on paper more effectively #my-learning
55. 2013-10-21 Fitting multiple thoughts on a page #drawing
56. 2013-10-20 Cooking notes #cooking #life
57. 2013-10-19 How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought You Think - Lion Kimbro
58. 2013-10-18 What I want to learn about gardening #gardening #life
59. 2013-10-18 Weekly review #weekly #scratch
60. 2013-10-18 Note-taking techniques #notetaking #tips
61. 2013-10-18 Note-taking system #notetaking #tips
62. 2013-10-18 Indexing #notetaking #organization #tips
63. 2013-10-18 Gardening notes #gardening #life
64. 2013-10-15 Reviewing what you've learned #learning #reviewing
65. 2013-10-15 Current mapping limits and challenges #my-learning #mapping
66. 2013-10-15 Applying computer science to learning #learning
67. 2013-10-14 Mapping what you know #mapping #organization #learning
68. 2013-10-14 Mapping out learning #mapping #organization #learning
69. 2013-10-14 Long weekends #life
70. 2013-10-13 Watches #life
71. 2013-10-11 Weekly review #weekly #scratch
72. 2013-10-11 Starting from enough #life
73. 2013-10-11 Adjusting the speed #experiment
74. 2013-10-10 Small paper #life #Scratch
75. 2013-10-10 Relaxing #life #productivity
76. 2013-10-10 Playing with lettering #life #scratch
77. 2013-10-10 Late at night #life #scratch
78. 2013-10-10 Doodles medicine #doodles
79. 2013-10-09 What do I want to learn about learning #my-learning #plans
80. 2013-10-09 Thinking about visual outlining #learning #sharing #writing
81. 2013-10-09 My passport misadventures #life
82. 2013-10-09 More thoughts about delegation #delegation
83. 2013-10-09 Doodles #doodles
84. 2013-10-09 Daily drawing updates #daily #scratch
85. 2013-10-09 Cats #cats #doodles
86. 2013-10-09 Breaking down my visual vocabulary #drawing
87. 2013-10-08
88. 2013-10-08 Hacklab Dinner - four courses, actually! #cooking
89. 2013-10-08 Backburner #productivity #plans
90. 2013-10-07 Where are my people gaps #connecting
91. 2013-10-07 Sketchnote Media for thinking the unthinkable #sketchnote
92. 2013-10-07 Sharing circles #connecting #sharing
93. 2013-10-07 Reflecting on friendships that work well and ones that need figuring out #connecting #Friendship
94. 2013-10-07 Kinds of email #connecting
95. 2013-10-07 JetPens #life #decision
96. 2013-10-07 Delegation #delegation
97. 2013-10-07 Alan Kay #sketchnote
98. 2013-10-06 Weekend cooking #cooking #life
99. 2013-10-06 Possible pasts #life
100. 2013-10-06 Daily drawing - thinking on paper #drawing
101. 2013-10-06 Consulting and focus #experiment
102. 2013-10-05 Logitech H800 #tech
103. 2013-10-05 How can I help people save time #business
104. 2013-10-05 Gardening thoughts #gardening #life
105. 2013-10-04 What would be my ideal daily drawing setup #drawing
106. 2013-10-04 Weekly review #weekly #scratch
107. 2013-10-04 Low energy versus high energy #productivity
108. 2013-10-04 Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky #game
109. 2013-10-04 Imagining the future(s) #life #plans
110. 2013-10-04 Drawing and scanning morning pages #drawing
111. 2013-10-02 How do you want to grow as a sketchnoter