I’m halfway through!
My sabbatical started January 1. I quit my job and set aside two months to focus on my bid for the White House. Just kidding. To focus on my presidential project.
Things got off to a bit of a slow start. Turns out that even without a day job, life still manages to get in the way from time to time. Everything abruptly came to a screeching halt as I was hitting my stride. After successfully dodging covid for three years, it finally caught me…
Covid is a real asshole, you know?
How it’s going
Excluding that week (plus) of being derailed, here’s how I’m doing on the goals I set:
✔I will spring out of bed at 5 a.m., full of pep.
I managed to practice Yoga With Adriene bright and early for twenty-five days in a row. Maybe not always full of pep. But certainly peppier than before.
✔My “job” will be my project.
Drawing. Reading. Creating. Connecting. Learning. Exploring. Experimenting. Playing.
Yup, yup, yup. On track!
✔I’m not going to look for a job and I’m not going to entertain or seek out freelance opportunities.
Ok, I haven’t looked. But I’ve been thinking about what’s next more than I want to admit. I can’t help it.
✔I’m going to enjoy a cozy hermit life.
I envisioned smugly and cozily watching the snow fall while I work… but that really only happened once.
✔Collaborate.
I participated in live history trivia with Dead History — pitted against actual historians. I actually racked up some points, but lost most of them in final Jeopardy. I don’t even care that I got that question wrong — I can’t even tell you how proud I was that I could summon the name of someone from Maine from the time period. Shout out to Kurt from Kurt’s Historic Sites for his big win.
On February 9, join me for a crossover presidential trivia event with LearningPlunge. Their awesome trivia. My doodles. I can’t wait. Sign up to play. (It’s free!)
✔Doodle daily.
✔ Post a new blog every week.
I’m on track with my goal, with the following posts:
✔ Break bad habits and replace them with healthier ones.
Yeah — I got back into yoga. I eliminated added sugar. But being sick sure created gobs of time for mindless scrolling on social media.
✔ Make more merch.
I decided that each Monday would be Merch Monday and I’d add an item to my store weekly. Mixed results. Turns out, I don’t want to work on the store on Mondays… and no amount of alliteration changes that.
In any case, I added a onesie, pins, and a rubberstamp so far. And not on Mondays. Not very impressive. But better than nothing.
✔ Buy a real damned keyboard and monitor.
YESSSSS! I’m kicking myself for taking so long to do this. I’m so much faster and more efficient now.
✔ Build skills.
I’ve watched loads of YouTube and Skillshare videos. Check it out! It’s not elegant, but I sorta learned how to morph words.
I declared the end of the week to be FLOTUS Friday, where I will create new first lady doodles in Adobe Fresco to try to get comfortable with the program and the brushes. I also discovered that when a drawing sucks, I can share the animation of drawing it and somehow it seems to suck less. Let’s keep that secret between us. My first ladies page is starting to fill in nicely.
✔ Read a lot.
One of my biggest gripes about my new boss is that she’s ordering books too fast for me to keep up. It’s like, lady, chill! I have a big pile already!
To be honest, I’ve read more than I expected already. This includes a couple I started but haven’t finished yet. (And I left one book off this list that I didn’t enjoy enough to recommend.)
✔ Underschedule. But schedule.
Hell yeah! I’ve reconnected with so many people I haven’t seen in years. It’s been incredible.
✔ Donate blood.
I donated once and already set up my next appointment!
✔ Freshen up my website.
My merch page is looking a little cleaner.
I updated The Doodler page.
And added more ladies.
Lots left to do!
Make progress on my book.
Ok, this was THE THING I wanted to accomplish and I haven’t even touched it. Nor did I update the book page on my website. BUT! I did enroll in a 10-week program with a book proposal coach and I’m super-excited. i think it’s going to be a game-changer.
One month to go!
Keep following along to see how it goes. And, you know, maybe drop me some encouragement below if you feel like it.
