Beginning of February
It’s been a while again since my last blog post. I’m trying to figure out the right cadence for my updates as well as thinking more about what I want to include in these posts. I think for now, for simplicity’s sake, I’m keeping just the “What I’m working on”, “Inputs”, and “Outputs” sections to help myself keep track of what I’ve done over the course of the year when I look back at these posts. I often forget what I’ve accomplished because I’m more often forward looking to see what’s next and what else I have to do, which sometimes makes me feel like I’m on a never-ending treadmill. I’m also keeping the biweekly cadence and posting on Mondays.
What I’m working on
I’m making decent progress on the commissioned painting I’ve been working on. The first review is due soon and I feel confident about making the deadline.
I’m working on the third painting of the California Highway One series. I use it as a break from the commissioned piece.
I sketched and did the underpainting for two more paintings in the California HIghway One series but I haven’t really started them yet. I am trying to limit the number of things I start.
Inputs
I started reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, which was recommended to me. I have the tendency to want to do different and many things because I think they’d be moderately interesting to do and I know that I could do them. But I think the lesson here is that just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should do them because we have finite time. Instead, I should prioritize the things that really interest me and focus less on all the things that I could be doing. It’s helping me reframe how I spend my time and feeling less stressed about missing out on things that I think I’d want to do. It’s also helping me focus on one or two projects/tasks at a time because I was beginning to start and take on all these projects at once and making little progress on any one thing.
Outputs
Two weeks ago I took a road trip down to Death Valley with a friend, and we had a lot of fun together catching up, sightseeing, and hiking.
