The November Project

I, as so many others, perpetually have too many projects I have started or that I am planing, but never find the time to work on.
When I come home from work, I want to work on my projects, but I am usually tired, and need to relax for a while. And before I know it, the day is over, and I didn't get much done, if anything at all. If only I didn't have to go to work every day, I would have much better time to work on my passion projects, my house projects, personal projects, and all the other stuff I neglect on a daily basis. This summer I realized that the only way to catch up on all of this, is to stop going to work.
This is why I decided to take November off. I dubbed it "The November Project". A whole month, dedicated to getting ahead of the curve. Working on all my projects, and getting as much as possible done.
I am very thankful that I am in a position, that allows me to do this. I am very aware that many people don't have the option to take a full month off work, and I am hoping to do it justice, by being productive, and not wasting this opportunity.

Let this be a promise and a pledge to anyone reading it, that I will do my very best to spend this month wisely.
Feel free to get in touch, to keep me on track, or simply ask about any projects that interest you.

Let it also be a deep and heartfelt Thank You, to the people who made this possible. My People Lead, my Project Managers and my colleagues who are covering the workload, while I am away. This would never have been possible without the great people around me. You are all very much appreciated.

The projects

First off, I'm hoping to improve on myself just a little bit. I have hundreds of books that I want to read but with my regular daily routine, they all just sit on a shelf, gathering dust. I am planing to get some reading done, and hopefully make it a habit to read more.
In addition to the mental self improvement, I am hoping to start exercising. Not mch, and not to get completely ripped. But a half hour walk, or a few minutes strengthening my core, will go a long way. I am hoping to also make this a habit. 20-30 minutes every day, will be a big improvement. I try to refer to it as "Mandatory Physical Self Improvement", as that emphasizes the importance of getting off my ass, instead of growing roots on my couch. (And it also sounds cool)

Businesses

Books
As I mentioned I have hundreds of books. Most of which I have gotten i bulk from people. This means some of them are duplicates, or just books I will never read. Those need to be sold or given away. I am planing to upload them to Vinted and maybe Facebook Marketplace, to get rid of them. That way they don't go to waste, and I make a small dollar from them. Alternatively they can be given away to family, friends or goodwill.

Side hustle
Over the last few years I have been looking at options for starting a side hustle, to make a little extra on the side. One thing I may want to try is to create printable designs and sell the digital files. I have several ideas for Zines and posters, that might work. I am considering using Etsy, or similar platforms, to sell the products.
The goal is to have at least a handful of designs for sale, and hopefully make a few sales. I don't expect this to make me rich, but if I can make a profit of any kind, that will be amazing.

Writing

Website content
I have set up this website, but it needs content. I have a whole list of posts, articles and projects I want to present here. And now I have the time to write them as well. The plan is to write and schedule at least 3-4 posts pr. week. By the end of the month, I should have 15-20 posts ready for the site. They will not all be live at that time, as I will schedule them to be posted over several months, which will give me great peace, knowing the site will be somewhat active for the rest of the year, and maybe even longer. I don't plan on having a strict posting schedule after that. Instead I will be trying to write posts, when I have something I feel like sharing, and hopefully the content here will be evergreen enough that people enjoy it, even when there is nothing new for a few weeks or even months.
But for now, for the November project, I will be working on filling the site with content, so it has a solid base, to live its own life for a while.

30 Shitty Short Stories
I have always been drawn to creative writing. Several years ago I decided to go for it, write more, and eventually publish my writing. I came up with the working title for a book: "30 Shitty Short Stories". The idea at the time was to write one short story every day for a month, and publish all of them in one collection. I wrote maybe eight or ten stories that month. I didn't like half of them. I didn't have time to edit them at all. And i never published anything.
Since then I have written a lot more stories, and I am still hoping to publish "30 Shitty Short Stories" eventually. I already have 30 stories that are written and edited. The project for November is to go through them, and pick the ones that are good enough to go in the book, and then start writing more stories, to fill the 'gaps'.
I also need to figure out how the book should look. To find out what cover art it should have, how big it should be, and so on.
I don't expect to have the book published by the end of November, but I need to have the design questions answered, and I need to either make or commission the artwork for the book. I should also have a few more stories written, and preferably edited as well.
I may even look into publishing the book for pre-sale. However, if I do that I automatically set a hard deadline for finishing it, which may put unhealthy pressure on the process.

Cleaning. A lot.

The Piles
I have learned that if you have a flat surface, something will inevitably end up there. Usually something that shouldn't be there. And as soon as one thing is there, that sets the precedence, and soon you have a pile of things you don't know where to put. With enough time, several piles of anonymous objects accumulate on all flat surfaces around the house.
The solution is to aggressively and without mercy go through the piles, one at a time, top to bottom and find the RIGHT place for all the things. Anything that has a place is packed in that place. Anything that doesn't is thrown out. Easy. (In theory)
The goal for November is to have cleaned the piles in my living room, my office and my library, to a point where the floor is completely free of anything that is not furniture, and the tables are clear of anything that is not relevant for the specific room. F.eks. my coffee table only needs a remote control, a coaster for drinks, and the books I am currently reading (To allow easier access to them than to the TV). Everything else needs to be put away.

The Digital
I have a lot of software projects that I have started over the years. Many of them are no longer relevant or interesting, and some of them really needs a cleanup and refactoring. But I still have all the code on my PC, in different folders. I need to get that cleaned out. Scrap the projects I no longer want to work on and refactor the projects I do. I am not going to have time to fix all the projects in November, but I can clean out the folders, and make notes on what projects I should consider working on in the future and what needs to be done on them. That way I have a clean workspace, where I can easily pick up a project and work on it.

I also have several notes on my PC and phone, with things I need to remember, projects I may want to start, thins to read up on, certifications to consider getting and much more. The problem is I never know what notes are where, and which ones are important or even time sensitive. I need to find all the notes and to-do lists I have, and consolidate them into one easily maintainable system, where I can easily track the notes, and share them across my devices, so I only have one source of truth.

Lastly, I want to clean out some of my email accounts. I have way too many from different things, and for different purposes. I have a hotmail, a gmail, accounts for my Slow Loris domain (which is being decommissioned) and accounts for the NorthLore domain. I want to scrap most of those. But that means updating all my accounts. Which in tern means going through my password manager, logging into everything I ever created an account for and changing the login information.
My password manager has just over 400 entries in it. I guess this is a great opportunity to also clean that out and close accounts I no longer need or want.

The windowsills and such
How often do you empty your windowsills and properly clean them? How about your kitchen cabinets and drawers? I know I almost never have the time to do all that. November is that time. Deep cleaning windowsills, shelves, kitchen drawers and cabinets etc.

The garage && Shed
These out-of-the-house areas are great for storing things you don't know where to put. But I have reached a point where I can barely get in my shed, because too many things are taking up tons of space. It needs to be cleaned out. Things that I will never use will be set for sale or thrown out. Things I need to keep, has to be packed away properly, in boxes, on shelves. The same goes for the garage. That is not quite as filled, but I assume it is a matter of time, before it will be. Cleaning, sorting, packing, stacking, and throwing old crap away will be another few hours of work at least.

The Status

As of the time of writing, we are 10 days into November. I have made some progress, and been fairly productive, but there is still more work than hours left in the month, so I need to double down and buckle up, to get as much done as possible before having to go back to work.

Again I want to mention that everyone interested are welcome to contact me, to learn more about any of my projects or the progress I am making. And of course to wish me luck, with The November Project.