SUMMARY: A puttery kind of day. Some thoughts on what it is that I like to do, the three main things being learning, improving, and sharing. It felt like a low-yield productivity day, with more supporting tasks (example: SSL certificate investigation) than finished ones.

Today, I took a break from the usual by 1) staying up later to 1230PM 2) Waking up at 830AM and 3) Checking my computer before I left the house. I got quite a bit done yesterday, but some of it was impulsive: staying up late working on tweaks to desktop wallpaper did not need to happen. However, I did need to do it at my home computer, which is about 10x more powerful than my laptop. If I’d gone home earlier yesterday, I might have squeezed it in.

After starting the day at 830AM, I did dishes and threw in some laundry while food was cooking on the stove. After eating, I had to check my computer this morning because I needed to perform, I thought, a software reset on my Garmin GPS, which has stopped functioning. It turns out it is dead, so I have to send it in for repair ($59 flat fee, which is not bad). I also had to look up some account numbers. I allowed myself to check email and stuff, and add some updates to Wunderlist. It’s now 9:45AM.

0830 to 0900: Eat, shower.
0900 to 0945: Mail, look up accounts, throw in laundry.
0945: gotta get outta the house.

Today is actually a social day, with an event in the evening I have signed up for. We shall see. I’m not exactly sure what I should focus on today first, either. I need to review my notes from Monday and see where we are. And that, I should do out of the house.

0945 to 1000: escape the house!
1000 to 1030: get food, coffee, settle in.

I said I was going to review my notes. Uh, I’m not actually sure where they are. Do I have a repository of notes? I guess the closest thing to that is these journal drafts, or possibly my 9×12 notebook. Let’s check the notebook first, since I have it behind my laptop. The last entry is August 1st, which is Monday. I wrote down things that were on my mind. I’ve taken care of the client things, and the only remaining thing that’s bugging me is “finances”. That is, bringing in the dough! I have some recurring billable work that I have queued up for this week that will help alleviate that.

Now let me review my Wunderlist for projects. There are two or three ongoing revenue-generating projects there, some marketing stuff (new business card, for example), some speculative programming projects. I find that the mood I’m in right now is that I am on top of current projects and now have entered a speculative project zone. What should I work on? I feel a lack of clarity there. I need a different kind of map.

As it so happened, I found my “DAVIDSEAH.COM PORTAL STRATEGY” document tucked in my notebook. I’d put it there knowing that I’d invariably stumble upon it at some point, and then I’d be reminded to look at it. Some terms that jump out at me is that davidseah.com should be like a “cool department store”, and that “continuous blogging” has been my practice since writing it. That’s one of four things; the other three are “active programming and development”, “client projects”, and “money making activities”. I’ve actually be doing all of these things, so wow, I’m following my own strategy document! The one thing that is arguable is whether or not I’ve been doing “active programming and development”. I’ve done some client-related programming, but this isn’t the same as developing my own software. I should schedule in a 15-minute chunk of exploration in.

I’m also recalling a thought I had in the car this morning, as I was driving into Starbucks for another day of work. That is I think I like making things like a manufacturer…I like having products that are tangible and can go on a shelf. Probably because I like BUYING stuff, and I like making presents. It tickles me deeply and makes me smile. This is probably why I like crafty women too…women who make stuff are very intriguing :)

There are three ideas that are coming together here:

• MAKING THINGS that are complete in themselves, like a packaged product – this is about the packaging of an experience that is positive, a kind of wonderful gift that anticipates your needs by knowing you deeply. Or you knowing that the package is just right for you.

• PREFERRED CREATIVE WORK STYLE of having something that’s “complete” and ready to hand-off to someone, as opposed to doing work for hire – I think this is the way I prefer to work. I like making things, putting everything I can into it to the point it can get out there and do something, and then doing it. What I have lacked until recently is the balls to do it publicly. The past six years of blogging have prepared me for it, though, as I’ve come to realize that everyone has their own audience.

• SHARING CONTINUOUSLY AND OPENLY is a powerful motivator – An interesting side effect of this continual blogging experiment has been that I’ve been feeling less isolated creatively; I’ve been keeping myself company. I also know a couple of people out there have actually subscribed to this journal, despite my dire warnings, and this is cool. But I still blog here for myself, to keep my own continuity in my thinking. However, I think this continuous sharing is having another affect on me. Not exactly sure what it is…but it feels related to the other two things.

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p>The sum of package making, creative working style, and continuous open sharing is the foundation of what I’m doing. What does it mean? I don’t know. It may be the basis of my “global microbrand”…my audience are other people who like making packages or packaging cool (to them) things and like to share how they’re doing it with people like them. Somewhere in there is the idea that we all want to make AWESOME things, and be better at what we do, and learn new things. #MISSION

1030 to 1045: Write down above thoughts, based on notebook.

Here’s my todos for the day: 15 minutes at least on…

• Wallpaper Tweaks based on Feedback
• Reskin Website for Client, First Look
• Design a tactical map for strategic goals

1045 to 1145: Doing the wallpaper changes, submit revision 1145 to 1200: Surf email, facebook, google plus, bah

I’m feeling pretty tired now. I’ve also been sitting for the past hour (sun washed out my screen, so I moved.) Time for some puttering, which is the term my friend Colleen uses for…well, actually I’m not sure EXACTLY what it means, but I imagine it is something like “undirected exploration of interesting-at-the-time things that catch my attention”. Could use some of that to refill the ole’ well of motivation.

I’m feeling kind of tapped out, creatively. I am feeling the strong need to do something that isn’t very mentally demanding. This might be the perfect time to go to the gym. The past two days, in fact, I’ve been feeling that I should start going again, because it feels like an antidote to all this mental work. In fact, that suggest a hierarchy of personal need:

1. Work on stuff that matters: future revenue projects, clients
2. Learn how to make cooler, better stuff
3. Get to a place where 1 and 2 are occurring daily
4. Get enough socialization / exercise

It’s interesting that exercise seems to fit under “socialization”…perhaps this is just “get out of my head time”. When the introverted brain is put completely to work, it actually needs some time off. Not much, but some.

1200 to 1215: putter above with the writing, pick something to do for the next 15 minutes. I think I will actually go home and do some cleaning, then head out later to run errands.

1215 to 1245: Grocery Shopping to Home
1245 to 1315: Microwave “Hungry Man” Fried Chicken Dinner, putter with desktop wallpaper on home machine (better color)
1315 to 1345: Look at StartCom SSL registration. Seems broken with Chrome browser. Feeling sleepy from lunch and sitting.

SSL is a pain in the ass to manage. I am checking my installation to find where the “mixed content” problem is occurring; that is mixed secure and insecure items. It turns out that any image referenced as “http://” is going to be insecure, so I spent a bit of time removing hardcoded http:// from the theme, plugin, and widget areas. Unfortunately, wp-supercache isn’t SSL aware, so it will end up hardcoding them in the cached copy. Whoops. Also, the existing security certificate I have isn’t really good for the main domain; it’s good for “davidseah.com”. I will have to upgrade my security certificate. Bah.

Will have to think this one through a little more.

1345 to 1515: Investigate SSL certificates, reinstalled keys, documented process, partially SSL-ified davidseah.com theme. 1515 to 1600: Fell asleep. So tired today. 1600 to 1645: Decided to dump out screens after all

Gotta get ready for this evening event.

1730 to 2230: Social Event @ Currier Museum, including transit time.
2230 to 2330: Grab some food on the way home, surf net, check Star Trek Online, upload final wallpapers.

Get ready to go to sleep! It’s too late!