Monday 15 August 2022

My wall art graffiti project from 2020, just before covid


So this post is a long time coming. Back in early 2020, just before lockdown hit us, my wife and I decided to take on a bold project by transforming our property's boundary wall into an art project. Our house was on the edge of a park, frequented by weekend warrior cyclists riding the Braamfontein spruit to Alberts Farm in Gauteng, which I used to ride as often as I could. 

So my wife and I thought it would be cool to show our appreciation for the spruit and cyclists by creating a mural using our property's boundary wall as the canvas. 


We contracted a cool graffiti artist, Nic, who goes by @dekor_one, check his work out!

Here's the journey that was, became and still is.... alas we moved to Cape Town the same year, and only got to spend 9 months appreciating the project...two years on and the artwork is still fresh!


Sunday 14 August 2022

My 2022 mid-year review of Life/Work streams

Tis the period of mid-year performance reviews in the workplace, so I decided to inspect my own personal performance with my time tracking metrics covering the dimensions that make up my life and work streams. 

I've been tracking these metrics for a number of years already and at least once a year, share the analytics and insights from this lifelong experiment. I created the term Personametry which basically is about telemetry (metrics) about the self (personal). Feeding Personametry is a framework I've created for myself for personal and professional development, my RAGE model.

At the start of 2022 I shared insights from my past six years of tracking and also followed up another post zooming in on the 2021 year, highlighting the main time sinks and the impact on other related streams. I set a goal of turning things around in 2022 to get to a state of balance I enjoyed prior to 2021.

With half the year over, 2022 is fairing much better than 2021 - as I've been very intentional about the changes. 

Here are the headlines (comparing 2022 with 2021 for the first 7 months, January to July):
  • Work hours is down 28%
  • Spirituality is up 53%
  • Family time is up 27%
  • Social time is up 75%
  • Overall "Me Time" is up 16%
Holistically then, my process of re-calibrating in 2022 is having the desired effect. I'm spending time in the areas I've prioritized without significantly compromising on a major stream like my work (work obviously provides for the lifestyle I'm grateful for).

For more insights, check out the embedded slideshow :-)

In terms of my overall happiness sentiment and tracking my aspirations and goals as governed by my RAGE model, I'll share in a separate post in September '22. I've started to warm up more and more to Mo Gawdats' happiness formula which has helped me in coming to terms with the turbulence I've experienced with my job/career decision to disrupt and reinvent myself...stay tuned for the next write up!