I've been gradually scaling down my consulting. I started with a plan for consulting 3-4 days a week. Then I shifted to 2-3 days. Now I'm planning to target a regular schedule of one day per week, with extra for when there are important projects. I've been helping other team members pick up my skills, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with that. I think consulting one day a week will be a good next step in terms of giving me a deeper experience of self-directed time while still building on excellent client relationships.

What would be different if I work one day a week? I think this might be a new tipping point, since I'll have a larger block of focused time – up to four days, compared to the bursts of single discretionary days of a Tue/Thu schedule. I'll find out whether I can keep enough context in my head to make the most of spread-apart days, and if the mental leakage is worth it. Alternatively, I might experiment with working two afternoons a week, which still breaks up the week but allows for more responsiveness and momentum.

At the moment, I find it easier and more fun to work on specific people's ideas and challenges rather than come up with my own solutions for the gaps I see. That said, I'm starting to branch out and make things that I think people will like, and these have turned out to be surprisingly helpful. Still, I've got a fair bit more to learn before I can be one of those idea-slinging entrepreneurs.

What do I gain from consulting?

• The impetus to solve specific problems (learning a lot along the way)
• The fulfillment of working on larger achievements
• Taking advantage of other people's skills without having to do the coordination myself
• Feedback and ideas from other people
• Interaction with a good team
• A bigger safety net (financial and professional)

What other experiment modes do I want to try?

• Active leisure: learning, writing, drawing, cooking, exercising, etc.
• Product development: using writing, drawing, and coding to practise creating things outside the time=money equation
• Open source contribution/maintainership: learning boost from commitments?

I suppose I could toss myself in the deep end and try a 0% schedule earlier rather than later. I'm planning to take a few months to look into this add-on development thing, and that should give me some more information on what I need to learn and whether I can get the hang of it. =)

Much to try…