This week went by way too fast. Feels like I was just writing the previous newsletter. That’s what traveling and vacation does to your days. I’m writing you from my Downtown Jeaux headquarters. Today I brought my family with me. I’d like to not split these two times up, and instead, spend time with them while I write this. Hoping it could be something that flows well together. As I’m writing this, I look up from the screen to see Olivia feeding Rose her breakfast. She’s beautiful. Let’s begin.

Traveling with Olivia

I spent most of last week traveling with my wife. To New Orleans and then Biloxi, using Airbnb. A simple roadtrip with no real itinerary. It was just a few days, but it felt much longer. It was a nice getaway for us. It showed us that you can pickup and go have fun even if it’s just for a day or two. It doesn’t have to be a whole week scheduled off. Hoping to do something similar very soon. Getting away for just a day.

Work Life Balance

Since that trip, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m balancing my time. I’m being spread too thin, and each area of my life is suffering from it. It’s time to focus on scheduling my time better. Putting space between each area. I continue to study these type of things (productivity, time management, etc.), and by the looks of it, it’ll be a lifelong effort.

Update on Time Tracking

It’s been an interesting few weeks with attempting to time track. What I’ve learned is something I expected to happen: It’s easy to time track when it’s all you’re focused on, but when life gets busy, remembering to log each thing never happens. I’ll find new ways to correct this. I knew this would be a work in progress, so now I’m adjusting accordingly.

About Minimalism

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things I own lately. I remember it was just two years ago when I only owned 50 items in total. I’m scared to know what the number is now, and it’s way too much to even try to count. I don’t expect to get down to that number again. As a homeowner with a family, you obviously need more things, but I can still declutter and find the essentials for each area in the house. That’ll be a focus of mine going forward.

Instagram

I spent some time last week working on my Instagram. Getting the Story Highlights to have a simple and clean look. I wanted all the icons to white with a black icon (with the one for my wife being the only one with color, as the Zelda 8-bit hearts). I also wanted to make recaps for each month. I like the way this turned out.

Site Fixes

I stopped in the Apple store last week to check out a few of the new Macs. While I was there, I went to my website to see how it looked on a big screen. I didn’t like what I saw. My site is built for smaller screens like our phones, and it shows. The site’s width is too small, and the header has scroll bars on it for some reason. It will be the first fixes.

Previously

June:

• June 27th: We Are The Energy, Leveling Up video, workflow problems
• June 20th: My First Father’s Day, Building a Second Brain
• June 13th: Hard work pays off, Lightroom, Starfield, working out, Dijion, PS+
• June 6th: A Lens Blur, second lens, time tracking, Trade coffee, WWDC

May:

• May 30th: Yelling into the void, file management, MusicBox, television
• May 23rd: Turning 36, main photos page, so many photoblogs, and organizing digital stuff
• May 16th: New motivation, photoblogs, Slide strap, new logo, Kendrick Lamar
• May 9th: Becoming a pro, organizing photos, The Heart Part 5
• May 2nd: Make gifts, guest posts, a conversation with Jeff Goins, Mark One, My Apple Notes system, nashOS, Field Notes

April:

• April 25th: Field Notes and stickers, cheap projector, Elon buys twitter
• April 18th: Why Mondays, share your story, aiming for instant, Family Dashboard, micro tools, making music again, create like there’s no metrics, I deleted TikTok

See you next week!