my personal retreat

a few people have asked what this is so i figured it was time to write it out. i’ve found that one of the highest values of writing out my thoughts is being able to direct people to them.

so. my personal retreat.

what is it?

it’s where i take some time at the beginning of the (gregorian) calendar year to focus on me.

where/when did it start?

in january 2015, my roommate, annemarie and i just went to a coffeeshop (RIP darwin’s ltd on mass ave. in cambridge, ma). i don’t totally remember why we did it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

what do you do?

if you want to see the long, detailed explanation of what i do, it’s over here. below is the agenda/checklist version:

day 1 (1 jan 2017): review 2016

• review and finalize my infinite growth vision statement
• review and reflect on how i spent time in 2016 (details on this in the long version)
• review annual budget

• guiding question: did my time spent align w/ my values?

day 2 (2 jan 2017): plan for 2017

• reconfigure calendar and time protocols
• plan budget
• organize files

day 3 (3 jan 2017): project launches

• review 2016 writing for book theme(s)
• figure out tech infrastructure for my weekly email newsletter (probably http://tinyletter.com)
• start running list of book reviews (inspiration)
• figure out infrastructure for writing group (probably http://groups.io)
• start things i read timelines on github (hopefully based on willob’s custom timeline tool on this page)
• figure out infrastructure for emoji faces book project
• write out vision and initial framework for secret project with annemarie

writing data

writing 15:34
spell-check, link-finding, & formatting ??:??