Structure
To my disappointment, I was unable to attend New Adventures conference this year so while my Twitter stream was filled with people saying how buzzed and inspired they were, I was left wondering whether I could somehow conjure up some of that excitement for myself and turn it into something productive.
Thankfully, some of my friends at HuddsDigitals were in attendance and brought that energy back with them just in time for the first meetup of the year. Their energy coinciding with my starting to read Execute just the day before was all I needed to give myself a kick up the arse and really start to get the cogs moving again.
Something I've come to realise over the last few days is that in order to keep myself focussed and motivated I need to properly secure time throughout the week devoted to getting personal projects done. It's no good to say "I'll do [insert task here] when I get some spare time" because without setting out time, something else will always take precedence.
So starting next week, I've set myself 2 hours every couple of evenings where I sit in our office at home and get things done. Sometimes I will spend the time reading, other times I will make progress on a personal project. I don't want to strictly plan what I do with the time, I'm just going to let let inspiration guide me. Giving myself this space to do something creative will no doubt keep my inspiration levels to high level throughout the week.
I have many things I want to do this year. Kick off some personal projects, learn more about various design disciplines and progress my skill-set further than I have in years. I'm hoping this new structure will help me get there.