At the very end of Q2 this year, I quit my day job after 7 and a half years — without anything lined up for work. The past three months have been a total change for me, the first time in fourteen years I’ve had more than two weeks off. It’s been a mental adjustment in many ways, as well as an opportunity to recover from years of stress.

Far from being a blank slate, my life has expanded to fill the freed-up time to the point where I don’t totally see how I fit thirty hours of work in before. There was some concern I might feel disconnected, but between seeing friends for weekly walks, hanging out online at Homebrew Website Club, ongoing chats with friends on WhatsApp and Discord, and calls with family, I am talking to people outside my house most days.

Time tracking

📱 Daily hours browsing internet on phone

My daily time reading articles on my phone has gone up by about an hour compared to Q2 — and an hour above my goal. Frankly, I’m surprised (though pleased) it didn’t go up more 😉

• Goal: Less than 2.75 hours a day
• Q3 daily average: 3.75 hours a day ❌
  
• July daily average: 3.75 hours a day
• August daily average: 3.75 hours a day
• September daily average: 3.75 hours a day

Data source: RescueTime monthly reports

📝 Daily Minutes Writing / Plotting / Planning (on computer)

I took half of July totally off from working, and didn’t do much writing. I have been doing a lot of my work on paper, which is harder to track. (I’ve done it in the past but didn’t think of it for this.) This is definitely not representative of effort for this quarter 😉 I’m going to start tracking paper sessions for Q4.

• Q3 daily average: 6 minutes a day
  
• July daily average: 3.5 hours for the month 😂 = 7 min a day
• August daily average: 3.5 hours for the month 😂 = 7 min a day
• September daily average: 1.75 hours for the month 🤣 = 3.5 minutes a day

Data source: RescueTime monthly reports

🚶‍♀️ active minutes

In August it was too hot for several of our walks, and in September we hit wildfire smoke.

• Q3 daily average: 9.75 minutes a day = 68 minutes a week
• July daily average: 11 minutes a day = 80 minutes a week
• August daily average: 9 minutes a day = 62 minutes a week
• September daily average: 9 minutes a day = 61 minutes a week

Data source: Fitbit app active minutes by week

💤 Nightly hours of sleep

• Goal: 7 hours of sleep a night
• Q3 daily average: 7 hours of sleep a night 💪
  
• July daily average: 6 hours 45 minutes a night
• August daily average: 7 hours 10 minutes a night
• September daily average: 7 hours a night

Data source: Fitbit app hours of sleep annual view

Creative Work

I mostly took July off from creative work, and during August and September tried to make progress on both my writing and creating my new freelance business. I read several books about revision, tried writing myself an edit letter, and have used a variety of techniques to explore my book edits.

During September, I realized that not knowing more about the series arc was holding me back, so I put some more thought into the overall series plot and antagonists, as well as how each couple’s book could fit into the arc. This work still isn’t done, but I need to make some decisions during October so I’m ready to write book two during November.

Professional

After quitting my job at the end of Q2, initially I thought I’d want to find another job. But I realized that none of the positions I was applying for called to me, they just sounded doable. After a few interviews, I decided that instead of working for someone else, I would give it a try working for myself as a consultant.

I dove into research and learning, talking with fellow consultants in the industry, attending webinars about starting and marketing a business, and planning. I created a one-page website for my consulting business from scratch, re-learning how to write HTML and CSS. And finally, after months of brainstorming and not liking any options, I chose a business name 👏 Now I can get a business license and register a domain.

I’ve also been learning a lot about self-publishing, another type of entrepreneurship I’m eager to start on. After reading articles, listening to podcasts, and watching videos from multiple self-published authors, I’ve decided on a launch approach, and am planning to spend the rest of the year pressing towards that goal. I started posting on my pen name website weekly, though probably only hit that half the time 😉 I finally created an email newsletter for my pen name so I could add the sign-up form to my website 🙌 I had been agonizing over which service to use, and for this one decided to keep it simple and start with Mailchimp.

Health

I got on my husband’s health insurance, which was happily simple, and even better, is no cost while I’m not working!

I continued weekly walks with friends, two days a week, although we had to cancel a good number due to heat and smoke. I am a big fan of combining exercise with hanging out with a friend — it makes it much more fun, gives me an excuse to see my friend every week, and I’m way less likely to bail if I have plans with someone else 😉

We just got our booster shots!!! 💉 I’m especially excited because DH was potentially exposed on my last day of work, so we had to spend my first free week isolating on different floors of the house 😢

I’m still having trouble with a suppressed appetite from my medications, but my weight has stabilized! My digestive issues haven’t resolved either, alas, but I’m continuing to see my nutritionist. I’m now focusing on eating a lot of protein, which can be tricky as a pescetarian; I prefer to save fish for special occasions, but have been turning to it more to meet my daily protein goals.

I went in for an annual heart check-up, and it sounds as though my EKG came back fine.

My sleep has improved some, though not a huge amount. I’ve been waking up naturally around 8-8:15 every day, though I have my alarm set for 8:30 so I don’t sleep too late on accident — it’s really important for me to wake up around the same time every day to not screw up my sleep schedule. I was great about going to bed around 11:30-12 for a few weeks, then slipped to 1-1:30, and now have pulled it back to more like 12-12:30. This feels like a decent spot to shoot for, though earlier would be better.

Fun + Rejuvenation

This has been a focus area for me the past few months: giving my body and mind time and space to recover. I’ve been embracing things I love: baking, brunch, and reading.

I’m getting a bunch of reading and thinking time most days. Since I left work, I’ve had the mental energy to read (and finish) more non-fiction.

I’ve continued attending most Homebrew Website Club meetings. I also hosted a second pop-up discussion!

I went apple picking with some friends, then made a pie with the apples 🥧

Home

I rearranged my office so I could have a more interesting Zoom background 😂 I moved my second desk behind me so I could have my pretty pink wall as the background instead of a beige wall. As part of this spur-of-the-moment project, I took down my complicated gallery wall, which had been bugging me, although I haven’t quite finished hanging a simpler version.

DH and I finally tackled the spare storage room, and I sorted through all the things I’d stashed throughout the course of the pandemic to donate. I’ve given away some clothing through Buy Nothing, but we’ll also be dropping off a ton of kitchen stuff.

We put half down on a new electric furnace and heat pump, as well as an electric water heater replacement. Those are on backorder, so we probably won’t get them till the new year. And then we’ll be off natural gas!!! 🙌

After signing on for a landscape remodel back in February, and being pushed back from our originally scheduled June install, we finally had our new path and backyard plantings installed at the end of September! There was a brief window of panic when we heard they were ready to start on our property in less than a week, and we hadn’t gotten it cleaned up yet — we borrowed a weed whacker from a friend’s mom and hired a couple laborers to cut back all the weeds.

Household

While I’m no longer bringing home a paycheck, my husband’s salary means we don’t have to dip into savings for me to have this time. Of course, this quarter has involved two very expensive home projects that have used a bunch of our cash buffer 😂🤷‍♀️ I also followed up on some financial tasks that have been on my to-do list, including updating DH’s allocations in his 401k, and fixing our tax withholdings so we wouldn’t get a huge bill.

We had a death in the family, and DH had to fly out of town for a few days. It was weird to be apart for the first time since the pandemic started, plus stressful that he might get exposed again. Later, we drove out to Eastern Washington for a (fortunately outdoor) memorial / family get-together.

Meta

I started keeping a backlog to-do list in Excel. Checking and updating it hasn’t become ingrained yet, but it is helpful to have one spot for all of it to live.

Although I’ve long used Google Calendar for personal events, I don’t check it daily like I did my outlook calendar. I updated my kanban board to leave room for me to write upcoming events on the side. To incorporate certain elements into my week, I tried setting alarms reminding myself to “explore” new music and “read nonfiction,” but those have been less than successful 😂

Each week, I wrote weeknotes to remind myself of everything I’d done, to help myself see that I was making progress even if it wasn’t that tangible or visible yet. I’m going to try to continue doing those during Q4 this year. I’ve also continued participating in Cave Squads, which I find most useful for the accountability of posting weekly check-ins / updates to the group.