Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022.

I'm back doing some weeding in my digital garden in Obsidian again on New Year's Day and came across a private post I did last year today...

Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022.
Photo by Anders Drange / Unsplash

I'm back doing some weeding in my digital garden in Obsidian again on New Year's Day and came across a private post I did last year today (ref 2021-01-01_1024 2020 Reflections).

It was the obligatory End of Year post spent commenting on all the things I did this past year and where I spent my time.

In 2021, I clocked over 2800 hours:

  • 800 hours or 29% for World IA Day
  • 616 hours or 22% on IAC21
  • Nearly 400 hours to the DIA Apprentice program
  • About 530 hours of actual paid work contracting
Donut chart showing the top 3 areas where I spent my time: World IA Day 29% (801 hours), IAC 22% (616 hours), and DIA Design Guild 14% (381 hours).
Donut chart showing the top 3 areas where I spent my time: World IA Day, IAC, and DIA Design Guild.

How does this compare to 2020? About 700 more hours clocked doing pro-bono, volunteer work.

Revisiting this, thinking about how I'm spending my time, I'm not questioning whether the time spent was worth it because I know that it was spent helping people, doing what I can, no matter how little, to give a little light, a little hope, on a never-ending quest to find purpose, identity, and place/space.

I wrote last year that

2020 has led me to see clearly who I am, where I am in life, and how I am lacking and persevering.

I've survived 2021, yet another year, in a world of toxic positivity, misinformation, disinformation, and dysfunctional communication. SO MUCH TO UNLOAD there so I'm just going to step quickly away.

Sometimes I think that I'm not moving fast enough.
Sometimes I think that there's just too much to do and not enough time in the day.
Sometimes I just want to give it a rest and spend a day or two binging a drama. And so I do.

Happy New Year, 2022. Let's take a step back this year. Next thing you know, I'm doing crazy things with World Information Architecture Association and DIA Design Guild.

Beautiful, uplifting video edit from AvenueX of 2020 Chinese dramas