itshalfempty

The last month has been a complete whirlwind. As I reflect on the first month of my career break, I’m realizing that it’s kind of crazy how busy I’ve been and just how much I have gotten done. I’ve been told it’s normally for people in my position to take a couple weeks off to relax before jumping in to the next thing - I guess I missed that memo!

An abbreviated list of some of the things I’ve gotten done this past month include:

1. Walked >50 miles
2. Finished a book I started last year, plus 1.5 more books
3. Caught up on all of the laundry
4. Cleaned out the fridge, pantry, and decluttered the kitchen
5. Decluttered our office
6. Replaced several light fixtures in the house
7. Baked bread, banana bread, and muffins
8. Started flight training – I’ve got ~5.5 hours of flight time and finished ~50% of my ground school lessons
9. Got some siding repair scheduled + completed
10. Planned a vacation
11. Tested backups of all the things

Keeping a routine

I know from past experience that once I fall out of a routine, it becomes really hard to get it started again. I’ve made it a point to be pretty diligent about putting some structure around my days which really helps me stay organized and productive. In a way, I’ve maintained some of the structure I built into my days while I was working, with a daily to-do list I put together first thing in the morning, and a list of weekly goals I establish first thing every Monday.

The one difference now is that I’ve gone back to using a physical notebook. I’ve always preferred using a physical notebook over digital notes. Over the years I’ve tried taking electronic notes and I’ve never found that it works well for me – I feel like I retain information better when I write it, and there’s a satisfaction to crossing something off a paper list that you just don’t get when you mark something as completed electronically. I used Obsidian for my notes while at was at Square, but that’s really only because I found that it was pretty helpful to keep track of links to docs, links to Slack conversations, and screenshots – all of which are pretty hard to do on paper.

I’ve also been trying to build some habits into my days (and weeks). Some have been really easy to incorporate (~1hr of physical activity every day, ~30m of reading, etc.), while others have been more of a struggle to form a habit around (specifically, spending some time on the piano every day).

Building a house work backlog

I’ve set up my own instance of plane.so, which I’m using to track a bunch of house and personal projects. Once a developer, always a developer, I guess. Just like any software backlog, the list just keeps growing! But it’s been really helpful to have a prioritized list when I sit down at the start of every week to plan out what I want to tackle.

Cooking

I’ve made it a goal to cook all of our lunches and dinners during the week. So far I’ve been able to keep to that plan! It’s been nice to spend some time during the week to put together a meal plan for the following week, which makes it easier to put together a list of meals that:

• Works for the schedule of whatever we have going on during the week (in terms of prep / cook time)
• Meets our nutritional goals for the day as a whole
• Maximizes ingredient use across meals

Generally I pick one or two new recipes to try in a week, and fill in the rest of the meals with our “staple” meals, or with a loose plan for what to make. For example, “Veggie burgers + roasted veg” was what we ate last night, and I just figured out the specifics while at the grocery store based on what looked good.

I also gave Brian Lagerstrom’s meal prep method a try last week, and it was totally life changing. It takes very little time to prep and blanch a bunch of veggies, and then they can be tossed into a meal really quickly. I don’t have a microwave, and I was worried about reheating veggies without one. Turns out though that a few minutes under a broiler is generally enough to warm veggies and give them a little bit of a char - so problem solved!

Learning to fly….again

I knew that having a clear schedule would really help accelerate my flight training, but I guess I wasn’t prepared for just how much time it would take. While I’m aiming to fly only 2-3 times per week, I spend a lot of time when I’m not flying studying for the practical test, getting familiar with procedures, and in general just consuming information about flying.

I’m sure the time investment will change over time. But true to form, I want to progress as fast as I possibly can. I’m 2 weeks in to my training so far, and at this rate I’ll be done with ground school in the next couple of weeks.

Looking ahead

At this point, I still don’t know for how long I want to take a break from my career. Nor do I know how long I want it to last for. I was worried that I might get bored – but at this point I can comfortably say that won’t happen in the near future. My days have been really busy and generally fulfilling. It’s also been really nice to spend more time with my wife and be able to enjoy our weekends more. I’ve really enjoyed the change of pace and am looking forward to continuing as I have been as I work to get my private pilot license.