Holiday Downtime Means More Posts From Me

The holidays are weird when you are semi-retired and work for yourself.

Most of the people out there working in offices get a break from work. Everything just goes into slow motion. The offices empty out and inboxes go quiet. For people like me, building something on our own, the slowdown creates a weird warp or pocket of time when the hustle just seems to stop.

And so, here I am.

I have my oldest and his wife, along with the father-in-law in for the holidays, which is great. But here is the thing about some in my family: they are planners. They have activities, they have itineraries. Places to go and things to see. Some of those plans include me. A lot of them do not. Not because anyone is excluding me, but because I have learned to be honest about what I can and cannot do. Some activities just are not in the cards for me, and that is fine.

What that leaves me with is something I rarely have enough of since starting up this business and studying again, which is unstructured time.

No client calls to prep for. No prospects to follow up with because everyone is checked out until January. No deadlines breathing down my neck. Just me, my laptop, and the kind of boredom that makes you actually want to write.

So expect to see more of me around here for the next couple weeks.
I have been studying for my CGEIT certification, which is basically a fancy way of saying I spend my mornings reading about IT governance frameworks and organizational strategy. Exciting stuff, I know. But it is actually useful, and I have been looking for ways to turn that studying into content that might help someone else. Holiday downtime gives me the space to actually do that instead of just thinking about it.

I also want to get back to writing more consistently in general. Building a business while finishing a doctorate while managing everything else life throws at you does not leave much room for the kind of writing I actually enjoy. The thoughtful stuff. The stuff that is not an academic paper formatted to APA 7th edition specifications. Just writing for the sake of sharing ideas and connecting with people.

That is what Hive is for, at least for me.

So if you are also stuck in this holiday black hole or limbo, whatever. Maybe avoiding your relatives or hiding from the chaos of family gatherings or just looking for something to read while you drink your fourth cup of coffee, I will be here. Probably doing the same thing.

The business stuff picks back up in January. Prospects will start responding to messages again. Hopefully! The grind resumes. But right now, in this weirdo little window between Christmas and New Year's, I am going to write. I am going to study. I am going to embrace the boredom instead of fighting it.

Because honestly, boredom is underrated. It is where the good ideas come from. I am even thinking about trying out MindMapping thanks to @mondoshawan remidning me about it.

What are you doing with your holiday downtime? Drop a comment. I actually have the time to read and respond, lol.

Thanks for reading,
Joe

_{Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using MS Paint and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.}