I'm almost two years into my 5-year experiment, and I'm starting to realize that self-direction is difficult, interesting, and well worth learning. I most likely have the space I need–more than the space, I need, actually–to explore this, so I should do that instead of getting distracted by the satisfaction and immediate feedback of working on other people's goals. So I've been cutting back on consulting and ramping up delegation (to retroactively buy back my time), but I still have a lot to figure out. Philosophy seems to be a good place to start learning about liberal arts versus servile arts, and other things.

In other news: I got 20/20 on my citizenship test, hooray! However, my lost passport means that the application needs to be manually reviewed, and my travel records will need to be requested from the border agency. That's okay. I can wait.

Blog posts

• Weekly review: Week ending January 17, 2014
• Becoming my own client; also, delegation
• How to read blogs efficiently with a feed reader
• Improving and delegating more of my podcasting process
• Thinking about my reading
• Simplifying with Stoicism: examining negative feelings

Sketches

1. 2014-01-18 Reflecting on the Helpouts experiment so far
2. 2014-01-20 What do I want to be more intentional about learning
3. 2014-01-20 If I were a master of delegation
4. 2014-01-20 How could I get more out of my sharing v2
5. 2014-01-21 Understanding more about how I learn and share
6. 2014-01-21 Breadth and depth in reading
7. 2014-01-22 Work and its place in my life
8. 2014-01-22 What kinds of books suit me well
9. 2014-01-22 What do I look for when I read - What are my goals
10. 2014-01-22 Then what is blogging's place in my life
11. 2014-01-22 Taking a closer look at the impostor syndrome
12. 2014-01-22 Recognizing potential fears
13. 2014-01-22 Quantified Self Toronto - Sugar, Black Box, Photo Metadata, QS Sandbox, Data Theatre
14. 2014-01-22 Mapping what I'm learning - update
15. 2014-01-23 What's challenging or different about self-directed learning
16. 2014-01-23 Mapping a path to understanding Stoicism
17. 2014-01-23 Exploring negative feelings
18. 2014-01-24 Why are we so attached to deadlines
19. 2014-01-24 Which parts of my writing process have I thought a lot about
20. 2014-01-24 What do I look for in blog posts
21. 2014-01-24 Not about swapping one master for another
22. 2014-01-24 How can I do work that's more useful to myself and others

Link round-up

• The humility of the artist: You can't please everyone, and that's okay.
• Dark Arts of Rationality: Interesting way to compartmentalize beliefs and take advantage of deliberate inconsistency. =)
• Latin LOLCat: Wealth: Suis rebus contentum esse maximae sunt divitiae. The greatest wealth is to be content with your own stuff.
• An Emacs Demo: Always good to see how other people use Emacs
• I love you, John.: Aww… This is how my mom copes with my dad's quirks, and how my dad copes with my mom's coping mechanism. =)
• OptimizeMe Logs Your Daily Activities and Gives Detailed Life Analysis:

Focus areas and time review

• Business (47.8h – 28%)
  • Earn (14.1h – 29% of Business)
    • [X] E2: Add some white boxes for script 1
    • [X] E2: Redraw trailer for script 1
    • [X] Earn: E1: Consulting
    • [ ] E2: Draw TODOs for script 3
    • [ ] E2: Resync trailer for script 1
    • [ ] Earn: E1: 2.5-3.5 days of consulting
  • Build (24.8h – 51% of Business)
    • [X] Build: Draw headers for my mailing lists
    • [X] Build: Switch Mailchimp mailing lists to use straight blog feeds instead
    • [X] Build: Switch website to use straight blog feeds
    • [X] Fix mailing list subject lines
    • [X] Replace sidebar mailing list subscription
    • [ ] Build: Fill pipeline with other delegatable tasks
    • [ ] Build: Rethink website design (esp. responsiveness)
    • Quantified Awesome (4.5h)
    • Drawing (12.3h)
      • [ ] Draw the next step for Emacs-related sketches
    • Paperwork (1.1h)
  • Connect (9.0h – 18% of Business)
    • [X] Connect: Chat about writing
    • [X] Connect: Get in touch with people regarding Helpouts
    • [X] Connect: Go to Quantified Self meetup
    • [X] Connect: Help Joel find computer
    • [ ] Connect: Attend Visual Thinkers meetup
    • [ ] Connect: Chat about blogging
    • [ ] Connect: Handle lots of Helpouts
    • [ ] Connect: Talk to Ramon regarding coaching
• Relationships (1.9h – 1%)
  • [ ] Chat with Mel
  • [ ] Attend party
• Discretionary – Productive (15.3h – 9%)
  • [X] Prepare photocopies and documents needed for citizenship exam
  • [X] Study for citizenship exam
  • [X] Take citizenship exam
  • [X] trip home
  • [ ] Listen to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
  • [ ] Reflect on life without deadlines
  • Writing (8.2h)
• Discretionary – Play (6.5h – 3%)
• Personal routines (17.5h – 10%)
• Unpaid work (16.6h – 9%)
• Sleep (61.5h – 36% – average of 8.8 per day)