High Five #15 - All over the (new) place 😎

[5 min] New office and juggling multiple projects

Hey,

it’s been a long pause since I last checked in.

We’re three months into 2023, and according to my initial plan, I was supposed to be sending at least a third post by now. Lemme explain the delay and bring you up to date on what’s up (I appreciate the patience).

The title of this post has an intentional double meaning.

I’d like to break down two things that are sort of related. The first one is a new physical place where I spend most of my days now. The second, not as fun, is diving into why I've been literarily all over the place for the past few months.

[This post was written by a human 🙋🏻‍♂️]

The New Place

I spoiled it on my socials a bit already, ops. 🤭 We have a new shared office with my former colleague, Marian.

For those who don’t know Marian, we used to work together at STRV. We were both designers and later co-led a design team together for a few years (you may remember our infamous Medium article).

Over time we became closer to each other on all levels, and others even called us this dynamic duo because we complement each other well. Besides work, where we’re a great mutual fit, we’re also both skaters, gamers, have similar tastes in things, and share the same values.

We both left STRV last year and focused on our things separately. I took the design path and started freelancing. Marian started doing more coaching, mentoring, and an occasional design too. We stayed in touch, met a few times, and bounced back ideas.

Then, we literarily moved closer to each other.

We both got new apartments just a block away, and we thought: “Why would we work from home when we can get a small shared office somewhere close by? We could spend some days in a week working, chilling, or watching skate videos together”.

About three weeks later, we were already building furniture in our new shared space. (You probably saw some bits on my Instagram or BeReal).

We rented one room, 20m2 (215sq ft) and got two desks, two monitors, two office chairs, one couch + chair, some shelves, a mini-fridge, plants, and a looots of design books. Imagine two skaters and designers who love minimalism decorating a room.

The place is amazing. We’re excited to come in every time, and even two months in, it still feels like brand new. Everyone else who stops by likes the vibe too.

I'm saving high-quality photos for a bigger reveal when we feel comfortable. But don’t worry, a full video tour is coming, and we’ve got some moving, building, and skate-desks-hanging footage too.

You’ll love the final look as much as we do!

The Chaos

Now the less fun part that I wanted to share as well: Not gonna lie; it’s been chaos on my side ever since 2023 kicked off. 🔥🐶🔥

When things started moving (including the new office), I got into a state of mind where I wanted to do everything, everywhere, all at once. Great movie, btw.

I get these sometimes when I get too excited, and I'm overwhelmed by the energy, motivation, and drive to do and create. I just can’t choose 1-2 things to focus on, so I do a bit of everything. But then, I'm all over the place juggling multiple things simultaneously and mixing priorities. Everything feels important at the moment.

I wanted to do it all. Client work, personal projects, decorating the new office, planning my YouTube channel, Showreelz 2.0, and many more. My usual focus, concentration, and disciplined approach got aside, and the (creative) monkey mind took over.

That’s precisely what happened to me over the last three months. But it’s not the first time I experienced it, so I knew how to get back on track.

Here’s my checklist (you can try it too):

1. I get some time off, which helps me to get away from every day’s rush of events, and allows me to look at things from a distance (high-level).

2. During time off (or after), I write about everything happening around me and what is on my mind. Just leave it all on a piece of paper or notes app.

3. Then, I use mind mapping to take different perspectives and go into prioritizing, organizing, and listing mode to make better sense of it all.

4. Part of this mind mapping is forming an action plan, which consists of specific steps I want to take.

5. And as a final step (and actually the first), I take the first action in the action plan. This is important to get a feeling of control and start regaining focus and discipline.

That’s why you’re reading this post at this very moment. Sharing it with you was among the first actions on the list.

Getting caught up in planning and organizing is easy, but real progress is made when you start taking action. Taking those first steps builds momentum and creates a sense of accomplishment, which can fuel further progress.

It feels great to hit the publish button again. Now, I'm off to the next thing…

Have a great week, and talk again soon!

A.

PS: Thank you so much for your response to my last post. It’s among the most read and liked since I started here on Substack. It’s great to see these personal stories resonate with you! #no-AI

---

Links & inspiration

Stuff I'm currently digging:

🔤 Book - Greenlights - An unconventional memoir by Matthew McConaughey. I read it on vacation and like the narration compared to other memoir books.

💻 Website - Sturdy - Brand new studio website (one page), with an interesting project grid layout. You may also like their launch video.

🎵 Music - QFF and DGTC by Skrillex. Not sure if you noticed, but the king🤴(and my role model) is back with two new albums. What’s your favorite song?

⭐️ Branding - Logggos - Discover inspiring logos sorted by industries, themes, typography style, branding color, and more.

🧩 Figma - Chartline - Plugin for creating beautiful realistic chart lines with ease.