New year, new directions?

We are in the middle of the dead days, as Marcus Sedgwick describes them in one of sequences. It seems like a time for soem reflection, partially based on an intepretation of Steve Poland’s What startup to Build? post on Techcrunch. This is not to say that I an necessarily thinking of building a startup but the recurring notion of focussing on a problem struck a chord whilst I was out walking this morning.

I have found myself spinning out in various directions due to existing work and personal commitments and things I am interested in. Some of these overlap in odd ways and some do not. I have largely stopped doing anyhting personal in the last few weeks for a variety of reasons but having had a couple of days off and looking at a backlog of unpublished posts on the blog, I’ve begun rethinking some of these. I have one or two things about Drupal and messaging to be published and to explore in the next few days. Admittedly these are slightly more work related but I am also interested in them.

I am also trying to do somethings for other people. I am admittedly way behind where I would like to be on these and have used the last couple of days off to have a think about how I tackle these and play ‘catch up’ to produce the work that  I would be happy showing rather than just trying to get a post out or a function finished. There are things that I can fold into work from these projects and I am determined to get on with them next. When I do, I can post about them.

As some acquaintances know, I have a notebook full of ideas which I have collected in the last few years. The intention of these has always been to build them into something useful and to explore how large scale things and ideas can be rebuilt for the individual. At this moment I have no idea how I am necessarily going to complete them but I do see the next few days and January trying to clear up things and tie off soome loose ends.

This does mean that I will have to rationalise the things that I will get involved with. Admittedly I overcommitted last year and I am trying to honour these commitments, but many of these are in areas that I am interested in. So decisions, decisions. I started doing some of the things that I do because I was deeply frustrated with a job that I was in and followed my own curiosity. It took me into new areas and langauges. I managed to build things but perhaps it came out of balance. I got frustrated because I could not build all the things that I wanted to.

I am hoping to go back to work refreshed and invigourated as well as recomitting to the current projects. I do not want to just finish them but build something with which I am happy. Some older projects may get rebooted in the scheme of things as they become relevant to work or other projects but they may also disappear. At this moment I amnot 100% sure what will happen to them but there is a rather dusty development section which needs spring cleaning. I may also move it to a secion called, tentatively, Kitchen Table, which comes from the notion of cottage working and also that fact that my desk is an old kitchen table.

I am excited but nervous. Spring cleaning, moving on is not easy and I am sure that I will see old projects and not want to get rid of them but I need to. I need to whittle away cruft and prune to renew growth and have fun again. I am also learning to sit on my hands and not to start anything new for a couple of weeks at least whilst I finish the current bits of work I have said that I would get on with.

I believe that most of these compliment each other and the problem that I am interested in should become clearer and more focussed in due course.

Onwards and forwards.

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