Report from Week One

It snowed again today, a light dusting. Winter is here, challenging me with the cold and the dark. 

Working in a home office without the need to “punch in” or even to get out of my pajamas until noon or later means I need the internal drive to be professional. While some people love the casual atmosphere of working from home and can be productive in the same clothes they’ve slept in, I’m setting the goal of behaving as if I am formally reporting for work. Otherwise, it’s too easy to hibernate in mind, body, and spirit.

So, checking off accomplishments for the week: one project completed, turned in, and invoiced. The second larger project started for the same client. New edits arrived in today’s mail, so I’m targeting completion by the end of next week. 

New business and professional development: my blog is up and running and I’ve contributed something every day. As this blog evolves, I will see where the writing goes and where I can contribute to the greater blogosphere. Books, poetry, music, movies, news, events are some things I will be exploring.

Website development: this project has been on hold since early fall, and I want to get moving on it again. The delay has been really helpful as my design ideas have changed based on some new career goals. I’m going to let go of the set notion I had, particularly as I hadn’t been able to convey those to my web designer clearly. Priority for the weekend is to get those concepts moving.

Writing: So many of my personal writing projects have been stalled for legitimate reasons, but not so any longer. So the commitment is another challenge - more specifically, how to move toward those personal writing goals. (Aside from “just do it.”)

Art: I”m exploring with art and photography after a long, long hiatus. For now, I’m taking one photograph a day, with the reality that I’m taking more than that as I learn about my digital camera. (Check off another challenge from the list this week.) 

Yesterday, I switched the flash from “auto” and “off,” and loved the results. Still haven’t found my cable to connect to the computer, so that’s a definite challenge for this coming week. 

My list continues, but it is enough for me to know that I have been able to keep my expectations in the box (as I posted on January 3) and have some forward momentum. 

All in all, a pretty good start for a new year.