Choppy Water and a Sandy Beach
The end of 2017 marked the beginning of my annual file cleanup – which includes backing up files to hard drives, deleting old/useless content, and sorting useful content into its new home.
Without the distractions of my day job’s unforgiving requests and the usual tedious daily chores that are crammed into every spare minute, a day working through thousands (yes, thousands) of files was actually quite pleasurable. A clean workspace allows for a clean mind.
Something I lacked this year was an abundance of photos that didn’t involve product photography for work. My archives have been relatively bare for the past few years and I’ve been longing to pick up the camera as much as I used to.
So of course, once the Christmas celebrations had diminished, Nives and I took the opportunity to brace the crappy weather and make for a short day out in Baška for the first day of the new year. It was a pleasure to be back on a beach despite the bleak sky and harsh wind that kept us on our toes – reminding us of our adventures in Australia the same time a year before.
We combined a lovely stroll with taking photos, and the topic of some of our conversation of course, was our aims for 2018. I myself, am not much of a fan of new year resolutions, but I’m all for goal-setting and and having things to aim for.
I’m a fidgeter. A day spent doing nothing is far too much for me, and I have this ceaseless itch to keep working on some sort of project, create something new, or solve a problem. But for me to preserve my sanity, I need that downtime. I’m torn between continuing to work on things and go crazy, or do nothing and go even more crazy.
After some attentive thought, it occurred to me that I can (in some way) do both. I’m normally following a pretty loose schedule for the day – I wake up at a reasonable time, take it easy starting the day, and break up my work day with a shower, walking the puppers, eating and a Vox, Ted Talk or Vice video here and there.
I’m hoping that something more structured with rules and boundaries might do me some real good. So my one and only aim for the next 3 months is to craft the perfect day. My absolute requirements are as follows:
- Fitting in my usual 8 hour work day.
- At least an hour for personal projects such as writing (these blog posts I guess) and building my business portfolio.
- At least half an hour for fitness. I am longing to pick up yoga again!
- A couple of hours for winding down in the evening, which will include watching tv, reading, cleaning. All the positive mental things.
- Zero work on the weekends. I’d like to exchange this time for trips to new places so I can make more photos and fill in the album blanks.
This is definitely a timely project that will involve an immeasurable amount of trial and error, but I’m looking forward to the results and I’ll be sure to write up the development and results as I go.
Best wishes for a happy 2018 filled with health, happiness, and spectacular success for you and your family.
