Yes, folks, that’s right. 2021 is the year I’m finally trying … bullet journaling.

As a self-proclaimed lover of to-do lists, it’s actually surprising I didn’t get into bullet journaling earlier. It’s the perfect intersection of my obsession with organization & planning and my constant search for a creative outlet.

I’m about two weeks into bullet journaling, so I thought I’d share some early thoughts.

What is bullet journaling?

The bullet journal is an organizational system developed by designer Ryder Carroll. The foundation of this system is rapid logging, which relies on symbols — usually, bullet points, open circles, and dashes — to represent tasks, events and notes, making it quick and efficient to organize one’s to-do lists and upcoming appointments.

Another big component of bullet journaling is the concept of migration. The idea here is that you won’t always get through your to-dos. So, migration is the process of going through your unresolved tasks and deciding if the to-do item:

• Should be rescheduled for the near future: maybe you didn’t get to something on your daily to-do list, so you want to tackle it the next day. In this case, you’d transform your task bullet into a right arrow and then make sure you include it in the following day’s to-do list.
• Should be rescheduled for some time farther in the future: maybe you decide a certain task isn’t really all that urgent and you want to “put it on the back burner”. In this case, you would transform the task bullet in a left arrow, indicating that it’s a to-do item you still want to accomplish but just a little farther down the road. Then, you can add it to your future log (more on that, later).
• Is no longer something you want to accomplish: you may decide that some tasks are no longer necessary. In this case, you would simply cross out the item on your list.

The system was created as a way to “declutter your mind”. By getting all your to-dos down on paper, you can more clearly plan, organize and concentrate on your tasks.

Interestingly, the original system of bullet journaling was designed to be pretty minimal. However, it has since evolved (due to users, rather than the original developer) to include a more artistic, heavily designed component.

How is a bullet journal organized?

While the structure of a bullet journal can depend on the needs of each individual owner, there are some main components that are recommended, if you’re just getting started:

Index

The first few pages of the bullet journal should be reserved for what is called an index, though it’s more accurately a table of contents. As you fill up your bullet journal with various to-do lists and calendars, you will go back to your index to include the page numbers and titles for those new entries.

The idea is that if you need to go back and reference something, you can easily find it by looking up the item in your index and finding the page number. This also means that you should be numbering your pages, if you’re not working in a journal that already has page numbers printed.

Future Log

After your index, it is recommended to dedicate two facing pages (known as a spread) to your future log. The future log is an opportunity to note down events and tasks that are coming up in future months (i.e. not the current month). You can decide how many months to include in this future log.

I started my bullet journal in January. I divided my future log spread into six boxes: February; March; April; May; June; and July-December. In a normal year, I would have plenty of events to fill in throughout the year (plays, vacations, weddings, etc.), but this year, I really just had birthdays and holidays.

When I get to June, I’ll probably create a new future log spread to break out July – December into their own boxes.

Monthly Log

At the start of every month, you’ll have another spread for your monthly log. As its very basics, it’s recommended to include a calendar and a to-do list for that month. 

In the original system, Carroll recommended dedicating the left hand page to the calendar by simply numbering the days in the month and then writing in any upcoming events or tasks for those days.

And then, the right hand side can be dedicated to the to-do list to write down any tasks you know you need/want to get done that month, even if you haven’t decided what day you are going to tackle them.

However, you can organize this monthly log in whatever way best suits your needs. I looked up different options on Pinterest and found a layout that I liked, which gave more real estate to the calendar and included separate boxes for events, tasks, goals and highlights.

Daily Log

Next are the daily logs, where you write down your tasks, events and any notes. Again, the recommended symbols to use are bullet points for tasks, open circles for events and dashes for notes. You can also nest symbols, if, for example, you have notes related to a task or tasks to get done in preparation for an event.

For example, say one day you have a doctor’s appointment in the morning; you need to go grocery shopping, talk a walk, and call your mom; and you noticed it’s going to rain in the afternoon. You may organize your daily log like this:

You can play around with how you organize your daily logs. The first week, I simply created a pretty minimal list each day, putting the next day’s list under that until I filled up the page and moved to the next page.

However, the following week, I created almost like a weekly log spread, with columns for each day, allowing me to prepopulate my lists for upcoming days in the week.

Collections

Sometimes it’s beneficial to organize tasks by theme/project rather than date. For example, say you were planning a vacation or party. It would be helpful to have all the tasks centralized in one place. And then, of course, you could subsequently copy those tasks over to your monthly or daily logs.

Collections can take up a whole page, just a portion of a page, or perhaps a whole spread.

For example, one of my big projects this year is creating a chore routine and schedule. I listed out all the various chores that need to get done around the apartment; decided on the appropriate frequency for each chore; and then determined the best schedule to get each chore done. 

In my bullet journal, I dedicated a whole two-page spread to this project. I go back to this spread often to remind myself of my chore schedule.

What supplies do you need?

At the very minimum, you need some type of journal and a writing utensil. But, as I’ve mentioned, there is this whole design and art element that a lot of people include in their bullet journaling, which require some additional tools. 

Here’s what I use on a regular basis:

• Journal
• Pencil
• Pen
• Markers and/or color pencils
• Ruler

And here is some guidance on selecting your materials:

Journal

If you’re going the minimal route, any type of journal will work. However, if you’re interested in creating boxes and grids, I would recommend getting a dot journal, which is what a lot of bullet journalers use. The dots act as great guide to keep your lines straight and your boxes a consistent size.

However, there are a lot of dot journals to choose from, and I made the mistake of thinking they are all the same. If you are going to be using felt tip pens and/or markers, opt for a journal with thick paper! I neglected to do that with the first journal I bought and both my pens and markers bled through.

I bought a new journal and ended up going with the 160 gsm thick page dotted notebook from Vivid Scribbles.

In this journal, there are already three pages for the index, the pages are numbered and the paper is thick. I haven’t had any bleed-through, but I do have a little bit of ghosting with my marker use (when you can see a hint of the color on the other side of the page).

Pens

If I’m drawing boxes or doing block lettering, I may start in pencil to test out the layout I like, using a ruler to keep my lines straight. But I will always trace in a felt-tip pen. And then I write my to-do lists in pen, as well.

I have a whole collection of fine-tip sharpies, but I find that those still bled through, even with the super thick paper. Therefore, I’ve opted for the Paper Mate felt tip pens.

Markers

I use markers a lot to add color and visual interest to my pages and spreads. I already had some simple washable markers by CraZArt. However, as I mentioned above, I do see some ghosting, so I may try out some alternate brands to try to decrease the amount of ghosting. I’ve read that water-based ink vs. alcohol-based work best to prevent bleeding and ghosting.

For now, if I’m doing a spread with a lot of color (such as the chores spread I created), I’ll opt for color pencils instead, as those don’t show through on the other pages.

My early thoughts

So, far I’m really enjoying bullet journaling! I’ve always liked working with to-do lists, particularly hand-written to-do lists. There is something about physically writing down and crossing off my tasks that help me better organize my thoughts.

To some, the whole art and design element of bullet journaling may sound counterintuitive — if bullet journaling is supposed to make you more efficient, why would you spend so much time designing your pages and spreads?

For me, not only are my heavily designed spreads a nice creative outlet, but I also find the process of doing them pretty meditative. However, I will admit that they do take a long time. So, I dedicate a lot of time to designing and creating pages or spreads that I’ll go back to often (such as my chores spread), and I keep my more ephemeral lists (e.g. daily logs) more minimal.

Also, psychologically, if I spend a lot of time on something, I’m more likely to commit to it. By dedicating so much time on that chores spread, I’m more likely to keep up with the routine (and so far I have!).

While I don’t think this system is for everyone, I can see bullet journaling being beneficial to anyone who is a visual learner, likes working with to-do lists and needs a creative outlet.

Last week, I wrote about needing to make a change in my routine to jumpstart my productivity. I shifted away from my modus operandi of working through to-do lists and instead created daily schedules, with time allotments for each activity.

The idea was that I would perform as much of an activity in the scheduled time slot as I could and then move on to the next activity. There was no pressure to finish any given task. And having the schedule meant I knew what I should be doing at any point in the day.

So, the big question: Did it work?

Well, yes and no. Yes, this new routine did help increase my productivity. But no, I didn’t ultimately follow the schedules.

Here’s a recap of how the week went and some learnings.

Identifying tasks

Before I could start scheduling out my days, I needed to list the various tasks, activities and projects I was interested in taking on. Yes, this sounds like making a to-do list. However, this was NOT a list of everything I wanted to accomplish that week; it was simply a list of activities I could choose from to populate my schedule.

Making my list of activities also helped me identify those few tasks that would have to be done to completion and couldn’t just be dropped when the time slot ran out (e.g. grocery shopping).

Creating the schedule

With my list of tasks complete, I set about creating my schedule for the first day. I decided to create my schedules day-by-day — rather than for a whole week — because I didn’t know how much of any given project I’d get through that day, and if it was a high-priority task that didn’t get finished, I wanted to be able to slot it into the following day’s schedule.

I started with activities that were time-sensitive (e.g. grocery shopping), high-priority (e.g. job hunting) or a big interest to me (e.g. Hawaiian language practice).

I also wanted to test out different approaches to scheduling activities and breaks. There are various recommendations regarding how often you should take breaks and for how long. For this first day, I tried the 25-minute working & 5-minute break routine.

Following the schedule & learnings

The first day, I was able to follow the schedule pretty closely, though I had to do a little rearranging, as I found my meals took longer than I had allotted, when factoring in the food prep. I also found that I personally didn’t like the short work/break time chunks. For the other days, I scheduled longer periods of working with longer breaks.

Learning 1: Longer breaks work better for me, even if that means a longer day.

Because grocery shopping was an activity that I needed to do to completion, I scheduled a generous time slot for that task. Even with the commute, shopping and putting all the groceries away, I didn’t end up needing the full two hours. Now, I could have just taken a break for the remainder of the time slot, but instead I used the extra time to return to a task I hadn’t completed earlier in the day. And I’m glad I did — it kept my energy up and I felt satisfaction from getting more done.

Learning 2: If I finish a task in less time than allotted, I should use the extra time to take on an unfinished project.

I purposely created daily schedules that included a mix of housework, career-focused tasks, creative activities and personal development projects. There was also a balance of physical and mental work. I found that this helped prevent burn out and kept my energy and focus up.

Learning 3: Including a variety of tasks helps keep me interested and energized throughout the day.

For the most part, the idea of the schedule was to do as much of an activity as I could get through in a given time slot and then move on to the next task when the time was up. However, for some projects, especially creative ones, I found that I didn’t want to move on because inspiration had hit. 

Learning 4: It’s ok to adjust the schedule to take advantage of creative inspiration or mental focus on a task.

Thoughts

By the end of the week, I was no longer following a strict schedule, but I did have fully productive days.

It seems that for me, working with the schedule method was a good way to reinvigorate my productivity. But once I got into the habit of a full “work day” of sorts, I no longer needed to craft specific schedules; instead, I could use my intuition to know when to move on to a different activity.

Moving forward, I’m going to do a hybrid version of the to-do list and schedule method. That is, I’ll have an idea of the top projects I want to work on every day and when it would be best to work on each activity (e.g. for me, mental tasks are better in the morning vs. the afternoon). And I’ll be mindful of trying to switch between mental and physical tasks, as well as allowing myself to have decent breaks.

And if I ever feel like I’m starting to get lackadaisical with my productivity again, I know I can always go back to a strict schedule to get me back on track.

I have been trying to stay busy since we started sheltering in place last month. This was partly motivated by my fear of losing momentum and partly as a desire just to make the time going by more quickly. And really, I had no excuse — aside from the loss of theater activities, the shelter-in-place situation was not all that different from my normal sabbatical/stay-at-home mom arrangement.

I started out strong. I got my resume together and started applying to jobs. I ramped up community engagement activities for the podcast, using this quarantine to try some new things on our social media. I cooked a lot more! And I started getting inspired to revisit creative projects I had been meaning to take on during this sabbatical.

But week after week, I’ve felt my energy — and, in turn, my productivity — diminishing. It’s hard not to feel like I’m doing less and less as this shelter-in-pace continues. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this, and it’s not even surprising. There have been article after article about how it’s okay not to be productive during what is essentially a traumatic experience.

But what if you want to be productive? Not become you feel pressure to keep up with others’ productivity but because it generally eases your mind, helps distract you from the news and does indeed make the time go by more quickly.

For me, the desire is there, but I’ve been feeling like I need to find a new method to keep me on track.

Trying a schedule vs. a checklist

I am the queen of to-do lists. I get such satisfaction checking things off my list. And this is the way I’ve worked for ages.

Of course, there are issues with the to-do list method. While I try to be mindful of not overloading my daily checklists of activities, sometimes things take longer than I anticipated, so I still end up not completing my list. This can result in a feeling of failure and being overwhelmed at the number of things still left to do.

So, this week, I’m going to try a different method: creating and following a schedule with time slots for each activity. I’ll get done as much as I can during each time slot and then stop and move on to the next activity.

Of course there are drawbacks to this method, as well. I may end up with a lot of unfinished projects. Or I may get to a time slot for say, a creative pursuit, and find that I’m in the right mindset to tackle the activity.

So, I think there will have to be some flexibility. For example, some activities — going grocery shopping or doing the laundry — can’t just be dropped once the time period ends if you go over the allotted time. So, when those types of activities are on the schedule, I’ll be sure to both pad the period with extra time and follow it up on the schedule with an activity that could easily be moved.

And, of course, having a baby at home is another huge curveball that can totally kill productivity. But that’s actually why the schedule method may work better for me during this time. I’ll get as much done of a certain activity in a time slot as I am able (even if it’s hindered by attending to a crying baby). There’s no pressure to complete the task.

Figuring out the schedule

Today, I’m going to work on putting together the schedule for the rest of the week. I know I want my daily schedule to be a mix of career-focused tasks, housework and personal development activities.

And I think I’ll start with typical work hours, leaving myself the evening to unwind and relax (which will be equally as hard, actually). I also want to attempt some other work-from-home tips:

• Maintaining a “getting ready” morning routine and actually getting dressed
• Not watching T.V. while working 
• Scheduling breaks

I’m not sure if this method will help my productivity any more than the to-do list routine, but I figure change is the best way to possibly reenergize me. I hope to give this a try for at least a week or two and then assess how well it works for me.

My plan is to return to work at some point this year. For the past few months, I’ve been trying to decide what that will look like. Will I work part-time or full-time? Do I want a permanent job or contract/project-based work? How far am I willing to commute for work? Do I return to my former field or dive into a new industry?

And, of course, this novel coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place order has had a huge impact on my job-hunting plans. I had just decided to give video and commercial acting work a try before pursuing more traditional office jobs; and then the outbreak in the Bay Area escalated and we were ordered to shelter in place.

Now, my focus is on pursuing roles that can accommodate employees working remotely. It doesn’t necessarily mean I need to return to my previous industry of digital marketing and advertising. But it does limit the new fields I can consider. Some of the careers on my sabbatical list are really a no-go right now — interior design, real estate, theater. But there are some roles that function just fine in remote settings.

But it also has me wondering — how are the pandemic and quarantine measures going to affect hiring? I set out to do some research.

Are companies still hiring?

In short, some are and some aren’t. While certain industries have been hit hard and forced to majorly downsize their workforce, other industries are not as affected by (or are even growing during) this pandemic.

According to Forbes, unsurprisingly, there is a huge demand for health-care related workers. There is also a lot of growth in other industries that are booming as a result of the shelter-in-place mandates, such as video conferencing, online teaching, delivery services, video game companies and grocery stores, to name a few. Tech giants, whose work can often be done remotely and whose huge cash reserves help weather economic impacts, are also continuing to hire.

How should I adapt my job search?

With many people experiencing layoffs and other loss of work, we may see the job market flooded with candidates. Now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure LinkedIn profiles and resumes are up-to-date and compelling.

For the type of work I would pursue, I would almost certainly start the role working from home. According to Fast Company, it’s good to highlight your experience with remote work, to prove you can be productive outside of an office setting.

How should I prepare for interviews?

The biggest change in the interview process during the pandemic is that most interviews will happen over the phone or video conferencing. According to CNBC, you can set yourself up for success for a video interview by testing your tech and remembering to still dress appropriately (at least on the top!).

For me, personally, I will also need to create my narrative around my sabbatical. Why did I take so much time off of work? What did I do and learn? What skills did I gain? What are my career goals now?

What else can I do?

Fast Company offers a few tips outside of actually applying for positions that can help with one’s job search, including nurturing your online network and focusing on professional development.

For me, I think this can be particularly useful to boost my visibility in some of these industries I’m new to. For example, I plan to repost my blogs about the podcast as articles on my LinkedIn profiles to highlight my experience there.

I will also explore online courses that can help me develop or improve skills.

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My job search may be more prolonged than it has been in the past, which is why it’s good for me to start early. I will likely apply to many different industries and types of positions, which will mean a lot of work creating different resumes. And ultimately, I’ll have to decide on the best set-up for me to work remotely, while also considering how I’d like to work at the company once normal operations resume.

Well, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say: it’s been a week.

It goes without saying that this coronavirus has turned the world upside-down. People ordered to work from home. Public gatherings cancelled — which in my theater world means play after play (including my own) cancelled or postponed. The loss of work for many of my friends who rely on performing gigs or who are in the service industry. People encouraged to limit in-person contact with others. Ridiculous hoarding of toilet paper!

In the short term, not much has changed in my own life. I already wasn’t working. And taking care of Artie, a lot of my time was already spent at home. Now, with Ryan working from home, I just have more company. Though I did lose my one big activity that gave me a break from my mommy duties — theater.

As for my sabbatical? Well, not much has changed in the immediate future. As I’ve written about in my last few blogs, my sabbatical has already been in flux in the wake of becoming a mother. It became clear that I would likely need to go back to work at some point this year. But I’ve been debating which path I’d follow upon my return to the workforce.

A couple weeks ago, I did some exploring on The Mom Project to see what opportunities were open in my previous industry; and there were a few roles that interested me. However, I’ve also been thinking about some of the paths I set out to explore in this sabbatical and if I should pursue those instead of returning to my old field of work. Ultimately, I decided that there was one area — commercial acting — that I wanted to explore before going back to a typical 9-5 job. I committed to pursuing paid video and commercial work for the next few months.

And it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to immediately go back to a marketing job or some other office job. With most companies mandating remote work and with the economy being so shaky, it’s almost certain that there is a hiring freeze for most of the roles I saw on The Mom Project. I just can’t imagine a company being willing to hire someone at this time and trust the new employee to work from home.

However, it may be longer than we expect before things go back to normal. I had given myself a deadline of mid-June to explore commercial work before applying for office jobs. But now, it doesn’t seem certain that things will have changed by then. What if I get to the point when I’m ready to pursue office jobs but companies still have a freeze on hiring?

These are the anxious thoughts that have been plaguing me lately. But there is really nothing I can do about it. So, it’s time for me to outline the things I do have control over.

Knowing that for the coming weeks (or months), we are all going to be encouraged to stay inside and limit contact with others, I wanted to brainstorm sabbatical-related projects that I could take on:

• Practice audio editing (per last week’s blog!)
• Set up my acting website
• Test out new forms of content creation like videos or new podcasts
• Write more scripts and/or stories
• Get more social media management practice through the BYOM podcast channels
• Test out remote recording for the podcast 
• Try live-streaming
• Revisit web development

I have a feeling this whole ordeal is going to change the landscape of employment in the future, where more and more employers are going to look for remote employees (just think of the overhead they’ll save!). So, I’ve really been focused on opportunities and other types of work that can be done remotely. 

It’s interesting that the majority of the ideas I brainstormed centered around content creation. It seems to be a perfect intersection of a career path that I’m drawn to and an industry that lends itself well to remote work.

And this is the perfect time to focus on creation. A few articles have been circulating among my theater network about how Shakespeare wrote some of his strongest plays during outbreaks of the plague. It will be interesting to see the amazing creativity that blossoms out of this period of social distancing and quarantine.

It’s a time of uncertainty, and it’s impossible to make long-term plans. All I can do is wake up each morning and ask myself: “What can I create? What can I explore? How can I grow today?”

I was talking to a friend about the fact that I am thinking of returning to work some time this year, and she suggested checking out The Mom Project, a website that helps job seekers find “opportunities with family-friendly employers that respect and support work + life integration.” In short, this is a job search website with open roles from companies that support factors like life/work balance, schedule flexibility, etc., which parents of young children often require. 

I decided to set up a profile this past week to see what type of opportunities were available. The process is pretty quick and easy for most; though I did find some steps difficult since I’ve been considering switching fields. 

Setting up a profile

Career Story

After some initial questions gathering basic information (contact info, location, current employment status), in the next step, you fill out your career history. And I immediately found myself stuck on the first question:

The question is very much geared toward candidates who are looking for opportunities in their current field or an industry they have worked in previously. So, this is clearly not aimed at people who are looking to enter a new field. 

Now, I am on the fence about whether or not I am going to return to my previous field or if I want to get a role in one of the new fields I’ve been exploring. For The Mom Project, I decided to set up my profile and career background for the former goal.

However, I was still unsure how to answer this first question because my previous jobs covered multiple areas listed, particularly: Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service. Luckily when you click on each “superpower”, it drills down to more specific skills:

Marketing

Sales

Customer Service

Based on these more specific skills and what I would be most interested in doing if I do return to work in a previous industry, I selected Marketing as my “superpower”, with Digital Marketing, Editorial and Content Management, and Social Media Management as my three capabilities.

This section also asks for the specific industries you’ve worked in (for me that was non-profit, arts, and tech) and your experience level (junior, mid-level, or senior).

Flex Factors

This section of the profile set-up is where The Mom Project really sets itself apart from other job search sites. Here, you are asked your preferences on things like:

• Freelancing vs. permanent employment
• How many hours a week do you want to work
• Remote vs. in-office

To my suprise, when I got to this section, I realized I didn’t know a lot of my preferences in these areas. I’m not sure if I want to be full-time or only part time. I’m also not sure if I prefer freelance (where I wouldn’t feel tied down to something) vs. permanent employment (for stability). 

Interestingly, I was pretty set on location, and it’s different than my preference pre-baby. When I think of going back to work, I really just want to be in an office and not remote. Mostly, that is because there is no way I could be productive if I’m home with the baby. And if I think about the alternative, where I take the baby to daycare, well at that point, since I’m already out of the house, I might as well just commute to the office. On top of that, having been off of work for almost a year and a half, I really miss just being around people and the social aspect of working in an office.

Fleshing out the profile

After answering the questions above, your profile set-up is done. However, there is some additional information you can enter in order to make your profile 100% complete.

The biggest thing is filling out your work history. This is where I wish there was a LinkedIn integration, where you could import the information. Unfortunately, you have to enter everything manually instead. Similarly, there is a section to list your education background.

There are also questions around how much travel you can accommodate and how much control you need to have over your own work days and hours. Here is another section where my preferences have changed. I used to love to travel for work and — as long as I didn’t have local theater commitments — would take advantage of work trip opportunities as much as possible. However, now with the baby, it would be difficult to travel much.

Finally, there is an open-ended “About Me” section that can also act as a cover letter, talking about your past experiences, as well as what you are looking for in your next job.

Searching for Opportunities

In the “Marketplace” section of the site, you can look for open roles. Here, you can click the “Possible Matches” filter, which I assume generates a list opportunities that align with the preferences you selected when setting up and completing your profile. Alternatively, you can manually set your filters and search preferences.

What I like most about the search results is that every opportunity lists the compensation. This is particularly important for me because I have to weigh the compensation against the cost of daycare.

When you click the Learn More button for an open role, you get the job description, of course, but also information about start date, travel requirements, remote work options and number of hours a week.

The majority of my “possible matches” were categorized as projects, as opposed to permanent positions. However, some of those projects were year-long contracts, which often are positions where your contract just gets renewed every year, so it’s practically a permanent position. For example, when I worked as Facebook, a number of people on my team were contractors, so they technically worked for a vendor company (and therefore had to get their contract renewed every year), but were pretty much permanent members of the team, as they had been there for years. 

Thoughts

Again, setting up a profile on The Mom Project was pretty quick and easy, especially if you are looking for opportunities in your existing or previous career field. The flex factors section is particularly useful for parents of young children.

I wouldn’t say I was super passionate about the available opportunities. However, there were a number of open roles that I could see myself being satisfied/content doing, and while they did not seem particularly energy-inducing, they also did not seem energy-draining.

I’m still in the early phases of deciding when and how I want to return to work, but I find that searching through job sites like The Mom Project:

• Gives me an idea of what opportunities are out there;
• Prompts me to start thinking about my preferences around hours, remote work options, etc.;
• Acts as a good litmus test of what type of work and roles are appealing to me after a year and a half of career exploration and personal development.

I know it’s cliché, but time really flies. It’s been 2.5 months since Artie came into our lives, and five weeks since Ryan returned to work. I feel like we’re all finally finding our groove, which means that I’ve had a lot more time to dedicate to myself and think about what’s on the horizon for my sabbatical and other personal projects.

Diet & Fitness

This doesn’t have anything to do with my career exploration, but this was the first postpartum personal project (read: non-baby pursuit) that I took on. Throughout my pregnancy and in the weeks following childbirth, I felt like my body wasn’t my own. This was a frustrating and constraining feeling after enjoying months of a sabbatical that was centered around reclaiming myself, my passions and my pursuits.

I’ve been watching and tracking what I eat, and I’ve incorporated strength training and cardio workouts. Aside from the health benefits, it’s also been a great way to ease back into the practice of goal-setting, planning and tracking progress.

Acting

Even if it never ends up being a profession, theater and acting will always be my passion. And I wasted no time getting back on stage. Last week, I started rehearsals for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Bay Area Stage Productions in Vallejo. It’s been nice having regular, built-in time for artistic development.

I’ve also gotten back into the swing of auditioning, in an attempt to line up shows for later in the year. The big question I’m still mulling over is how much I’m going to explore professional acting pathways this year.

Podcast

The Bring Your Own Movie podcast had to go on a brief hiatus, as everyone involved got really busy. But we will be back very soon! In fact, the team just got together today to produce live Oscars commentary on the podcast’s social media channels. It was a nice, lightweight way to reintroduce ourselves to our fans and start producing content again.

We also discussed recording plans for this year’s episodes and other podcast-related projects we might want to pursue. It feels good to be putting on my producer hat again.

What Else?

Well, as I have mentioned in some of my recent posts, I really am considering returning to work some time this year, even before I’ve settled on that next career path. That might be returning to my old industry for a few years or maybe entering one of these new fields.

Here are some to-dos around this topic I’d like to accomplish in the next few weeks:

• Meet up with a friend to hear about a position open at her company
• Research day care options for Artie to understand the costs
• Make a list of my must-haves for going back to work (minimum salary, benefits/perks, location, schedule, etc.)

It’s been a bit of a relief to finally be able to think about future plans again. There’s a lot for me to research, consider, and figure out … and I can’t wait to share it all with you when I do!

Well, it’s my first post of 2020, and as it’s the beginning of the year, I expected this entry to focus on my resolutions for this sabbatical in the next 12 months. But I find myself at a loss.

Right now, it’s hard to picture what I will be doing next week, let alone months from now. It’s hard to even decide what I want to focus on. And by now, we all know the reason for this: BABY.

Ryan returns to work tomorrow, and it’s going to take at least a week or two to figure out what our weekday routine will look like now that it’s just me and Arthur at home during the day. How fussy will Artie be? How regular of a routine can we implement? This will all affect how much time (and predictable hours) I will have to dedicate to my career exploration.

So, what will this sabbatical look like in 2020? The answer is: to be determined. Before I can create some career exploration plans, I need to figure out the baby schedule. This year, I’m going to need to accept that things are going to go slowly. It will figuratively (and eventually, literally) be a year of baby steps.

Last year’s resolutions

In drafting this week’s blog, I looked back at my new year’s resolutions post from last year. This was actually the first time I reviewed these resolutions since I originally wrote them. And it’s nice to see that I actually fulfilled (or at least touched on) most of them:

Interview people in my fields of interest

I didn’t end up doing this as much as I thought I would, but I did interview a few people. As you might remember, I sat down with Tasi Alabastro to talk about his work as a content creator. And I also talked to my husband, Ryan Lee Short, about making major career shifts.

Additionally, I had the chance to informally pick the brains of people in the interior design field through my studies, internship and part-time job.

One of the biggest things I learned from the few interviews I did is that this format isn’t actually the best way to get a feel for the field, as everyone’s experience is so personal and individual. Instead, it’s important to interview many people in the field to get multiple perspectives and a more holistic picture of the industry.

However, I did encounter an unexpected learning: my blog readers really like the interview format. I may continue these throughout this upcoming year for that reason alone!

Create a circle of like-minded people

This is the one resolution I didn’t pursue at all — to find other people taking sabbaticals or planning a major career change and meet up with them regularly. Essentially, starting a sabbatical support group.

I would require a lot of time to take the lead on something like this, which is probably why I never did it. But this year, I might be interested in revisiting the idea.

When I was pregnant, I was (and still am) part of a Facebook Group for women who were also having November 2019 babies. It was comforting to hear from other people who were going through the same thing. It helped ease a lot of anxiety and made me feel not so alone.

Explore part-time work

Well, this is something I achieved! I did my home staging internship over the summer, and started as a part-time interior design assistant in the fall.

And I discovered that this is one of the best ways to get a feel for a new career field, especially understanding what the day-to-day is like.

I do want to continue working, but right now it’s hard to know when I’ll be able to return. Again, I’ll just need to be patient and let myself first focus on figuring out the baby routine.

Make time for non-career focus areas

Specifically, there were four things I wanted to dedicate time to:

• Health and getting into shape
• Staying more connected with my friends and family
• Getting my home organized and decluttered
• Exploring new artistic outlets

I achieved some of these. At the beginning of 2019, I lost a lot of weight, completed a fitness challenge and started a regular exercise routine. Of course, some of that petered out once I got pregnant, but I’ve restarted my efforts again for this new year.

The pregnancy got in the way of that second focus area of staying more connected with friends and family. However, I’d say the impending baby really drove my work in the third area — getting my home organized. 

As for exploring new artistic outlets — I’d say I did that a little, but not as much as I planned. On the performing side, I did sketch comedy for the first time. I also made my directorial debut with the staged reading this past November. But I didn’t do as many new projects with film/video or writing than I expected.

2020

Again, I’m not going to create any sabbatical resolutions for this year. I think this year, more than any other before, I actually need to be comfortable with the fact that I really can’t make concrete plans, that things are going to be pretty unpredictable, and that I’m just going to have to take baby steps.