JOURNALS

Did I feel a little rebellious coding during lunchtime today instead of eating a proper meal? Absolutely. The adjustment to balancing a new job and studio work is ongoing, but I felt quite productive and focused. Sorting the file system in the morning helped clear up the digital clutter that had been growing for weeks.

Having an organised workspace, both physical and digital, boosted my productivity. I managed to create a clean and efficient bootstrap pen plotting template in the morning. I finally had my onboarding meeting at 4 pm, so I needed to keep myself occupied until then. Sorting my emails was tedious but felt necessary. It was good practice updating my mailing filters and rules.

Interestingly, today was also a day for experimenting with my pen plotting templates. I cleaned up older templates, ensuring they’d be ready for future projects. This is always a task that, while it can be monotonous, pays off in the long run. Around lunch, I took a quick break but got back into it right away, tweaking the templates and customising them further. Time flew by, and that’s always a good sign.

One of the tasks that felt most rewarding today was adapting the code templates to the work repo. As much as I enjoy creating new code, sometimes the joy is in revisiting older projects, refining them, and making them more efficient. This reflection and refinement process aligns with my current goals: gradually ramp up for the larger projects on the horizon.

A minor frustration today was not taking enough photographs throughout the day. I’ve been meaning to improve on this, as documenting work visually brings extra context to my journal entries and tweets. Maybe I need to set up automated timers or reminders for that, might make a world of a difference. Meanwhile, just wrapping up the first workday felt like an achievement. Getting settled in the new job was smoother than anticipated, but there’s still the long road ahead.

Sifting through my library of design books came in handy, as always. They stir up inspiration and sometimes present challenges that a software solution can address. Grateful for the resources and the progress I made. Even more so, I’m grateful for a solid first day at the new job and the feeling that things are falling into place.