When You Hit a Wall, Paint the Wall
I love to paint. It’s actually a newly discovered hobby. We have been living in our home for close to two years now but haven’t put much effort into refreshing the house. Until now. I have been learning React and building an app to solidify what I am learning. Lately I have been hitting some roadblocks in my project and just can’t seem to get around some issues that I am having. As a result, I have finally started painting my office.
The new activity has definitely saved my sanity these past few days and it also made me realize how thin I was stretching myself. After the General Assembly program ended I anxiously kept learning something for fear of losing my momentum. I’m sure a lot of people can relate to losing motivation when you are tired. Add the usual family duties and job hunting to the schedule and I have just as little free time as I did while I was in the program.
Frankly, I stopped taking care of myself and it is showing. The simple act of painting has helped calm my brain down and my body has started to relax. I missed this. Being able to just lose yourself in something. No anxiety. No pressure. Just flow.
I’ve made some side goals to ensure I don’t burn out:
- Pick two days a week to step away from the computer and let my brain digest what I have learned.
- Check in often with my husband to make sure I am not causing him to burn out trying to juggle more so that I can devote more time to programming.
- Do something non-tech related that will force me to relax and unwind.
I’m going to keep it simple since I have enough balls juggling in the air. Now, time to get back to work before I tutor the web dev students tonight.