Okay, trying out my new format for at least one week.

Did I enjoy the week?

Yes!

Professionally, things continue to be quite interesting on the contracting side. We are sprinting to launch a new product at Dimagi, and the speed and rush of rapid product development is always fun to be a part of.

Apart from that, I’m also working on some difficult and technically complex data pipeline/warehousing work for Dimagi (and soon for UNICEF—another organization I consult for). Both projects are in a greenfield stage, have the potential for massive long-term value, and involve a large amount of deep technical design work. So I’m enjoying that.

Personally, I’m back in Cape Town after a long hiatus, and am back into the Cape Town lifestyle—spending 9 hours outside and active this week, including getting up Table Mountain and getting in the water twice.

So yeah, overall it was a great—if nondescript—week.

Am I happy with how I spent my time?

Yes!

Week 52 time breakdown

The week was dominated by Dimagi/consulting work and playing outside, while just putting in enough time to keep the lights on for my side projects.

It was another short week due to travel so this was planned; and explicitly declaring that I won’t make substantial progress on side projects has been quite good for my day-to-day stress levels.

What’s up next?

(I added this question to the two from last week because it’s something I always think about on Monday mornings, and I think useful to just declare explicitly here.)

My plan is to largely continue the trend of focusing on sponsored work again this week.

I do also want to spend a bit of time on Place Card Me adding some spring/floral designs to the site. People have been making a lot of those recently and I think it’s a gap in what I offer that might lead to a few more sales and a better experience for my users.

I do hope that these retros get more interesting than just “I’m an employee/freelancer” sometime soon, but if they don’t… well… sorry.

I’m continuing to get value out of the process (for now) so I’ll keep writing them (for now).

cheers, —Cory