Finding my rhythm
A structured work day, joy in hobbies & finally moving closer to a cohesive business storefront.
After writing last week’s letter, I felt a significant shift in my approach to my business. Since I left working in medicine and spend most of my time at home, I realise just how much I love working. There’s something about coming to the end of the work day and knowing that you’re moving the needle closer to a goal or outcome that’s an extremely worthwhile endeavour.
But there’s a balance that I’m striving towards. Working as a doctor meant that I had little time to do much else other than eat and sleep whereas my initial approach to freelance work has left me with too much free time.
This shift I'm experiencing follows advice that my partner, Riad, gave me months ago. If only I had listened to him back then!
Shifting to a more focused workday
He advised that I treat my weekday like a typical 8 hour work day, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing as of this week. I awaken between 5:30 and 6 am, devote about 2 hours to my hobbies then start working at 8 am. I take a break at 12 for lunch then work again from 1 to 4 or 5 pm. On the days that I go to the gym, I work until 3 pm.
Adding this structure to my day has been extremely valuable as I’m mostly focused on my business and less prone to the allures of distraction. This also complements my recent habit of mindfulness and reduced screen time on my phone.
What the heck do I do?
I was recently tasked with answering a formidable question: What do I do?
My answer:
Every business relies on processes and procedures to function.
These processes are the routine ways that everything gets done and are grouped together to form systems.
I help businesses make those processes more efficient by designing, managing and optimizing their digital systems.
My goal is a profitable, enjoyable and sustainable business for my clients and this goal is achieved through systems.
I know it’s a lengthy answer, and I’m going to come up with something more succinct with time but, for now, I think this is a good follow-up to, “I’m a Notion Consultant or I’m a Digital Business Manager” especially since people usually then ask, “What’s Notion?” 🙃
A cohesive storefront for my business, finally!
As an online business, my storefront consists of my digital presence in the form of a website, blog, shop and social media. This concept didn’t fully click with me until I attended an online masterclass by an Instagram expert. She said:
Your Instagram profile is your business storefront. Are you attracting the people that you want to attract on your storefront?
Prior to this week, my presence online was attracting a lot of varied interest. People who came to my Twitter profile wanted help with note-taking and personal knowledge management and those who landed on my website realised that I also built Notion workspaces.
This led to a very scattered presence which is why I am so very happy to have my website, blog, newsletter and shop aligned with my vision!
As you can see, I’ve kept my green, naturalistic theme going with photos that I took from a trip to Mayaro, Trinidad, right after I left my job (to celebrate my newfound freedom! 😂).
Even my YouTube channel is looking more aligned now as well.
Once I have more income coming in, I look forward to hiring a brand designer to take this to the next level, but for now, this works and I do love it — it’s my pride and joy.
Tending to hobbies like Hirayama
Perfect Days (2023) has been my absolute favourite movie of the year. I’ve watched it 4 times thus far and every time, I notice something new. Hirayama is a janitor in Shibuya, Tokyo. He lives a simple and modest life steeped in mindfulness. His day is punctuated by moments of presence and his daily life revolves around his job and hobbies: reading, gardening, listening to soulful music and photography. My dream life.
He uses his phone purely to accept and make phone calls! A shocking sight to behold nowadays where we are tethered to our mobile devices unlike any other time in history.
Hirayama’s care towards his hobbies made me reflect on my own. I realised that they had in fact become non-existent in practice but alive in theory. I love reading, photography and learning in general but before watching Perfect Days, these hobbies took a back seat to the excess of time spent consuming content on YouTube and social media.
Not anymore!
Reading
Last week, I shared that I started reading the Bible. I’m now in chapter 10 of Genesis and I still can’t get over how callously Cain just decided to kill Abel! My goodness, that was crazy. I think I’m gaining a better understanding of sin as I can now envision how life was prior to it.
I now also understand why Bible study plans exist—this book is dense!
Learning
I also started learning Japanese last week using Duolingo. Mostly inspired by Perfect Days but also because I’d like to visit Japan some day. I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it since I previously attempted to learn Spanish using the same app but failed miserably.
Using my free time to tend to these hobbies has been fulfilling in a way that I’d forgotten due to how engaging media is today.
My days are so much more mindful and I have sufficient time before and at the end of the work day to be away from my monitor and re-charge.
See you next week
Over the course of this week, I’m going to be working on the ways that I can show up on social media sustainably that will move me closer to meeting and working with amazing clients. I already have some good ideas to start testing!
Have a lovely week,
Renee