You may recall that back in January I laid out a few goals aimed at, among other things, not overcommitting myself and acting more consciously. Before the month was out I’d blown both, somewhat impulsively agreeing to take on two volunteer projects for a local non-profit.

I’m glad I did it. I learned so much from both projects, it was completely worth it. I learned about managing projects with volunteer-run teams. I learned more about working with my company’s software than a year of research taught me. I learned new technical skills. Somewhere in there I also decided to change jobs, taking on a role with more responsibility and different skills, and that’s also involving a lot of new learning.

I love learning, but it’s a lot of work. It takes focus. It means that I have less energy to devote to creative projects. It doesn’t stop me from producing — I’ve been making things almost feverishly, but it’s more to calm my mind than to enjoy the process of creating something. Which is how I end up with entire stacks of long stitch books.

Today my volunteer team handed off the second project to the NPO. The first project launched a month ago.  I still have a lot going on with work, but it’s manageable. For the first time in years, I don’t have any external commitments; I’m saying no to all requests. Focusing on my own projects.

I’ve been culling all my streams of incoming information, like Twitter and RSS feeds and other aggregates, getting them down to the people I care about or who inspire me. Cutting out those things I use to fill the gaps with, those motor-memory checks for updates. It’s kind of disconcerting to realize how I rely on some of these distractions — the habits I’ve created around them.

Not sure yet what’s going to fall out of all of this.