Finding and designing meaningful work in flow

What I should do with my career (which translates to life as it takes up a considerable amount of it) is something I’ve been grappling with for months. Here’s a brief overview of the last 9 months deciding what to do next:

Skip ahead: I’ve launched a new brand to focus on freelance designing. You can check it our here →

The motivation: Do the work you love and enjoy in a flow state.

The rest of this post: my story between May 2023 and April 2024.

Taking a sabbatical: May 2023

May 2023 I made the decision to leave Deep Work. The design studio I’d founded in 2018.

I was convinced I was making the right decision and breaking for freedom from a high stress situation.

“Breaking up” with a brand and businesses I’d used to identify myself felt like ending a romantic relationship.

I was fortunate enough to have planned taking a break and was moving into my newly built campervan.

There’s nothing like 10 hour drives to talk to yourself and process your thoughts.

No longer remote in tech: June 2023

Still digesting the sudden life change. Douglas Rushkoff helped show me how remote work had removed some of the humanness from me.

Our use of technology is driving us against human connective-ness.

How fears of impending world doom had gone beyond just the rich. Allowing myself and others around me to make actions as justifications as a fight for survival.

A path forward was clearly not in tech and remote work.

Freedom: July 2023

Wake up. Exercise or movement. Kitesurfing or wingfoiling. Healthy food, new amazing people in my life. Others out of my life. Endlessly outdoors in the van.

Nothing decided my life anymore, I started to flow with what I felt like doing that day.

Even my wrist sported a white tan line where my Garmin smart watch ‘pushed’ me to exercise by keeping the score.

This is how June and July shaped up as I felt a layer of stress and constant fear being removed from my body.

My computer was a tool I used maybe once a week to organise a few urgent things.

A million miles from waking up and stressing over what I might be dealing with on Discord for the day.

Happiness: August 2023

Here’s me in August.

There’s no longer alarm clocks, just the sunrise.

There’s no longer a calendar, just what we feel like.

There is a Bene, and the best days of my life camper by camper.

I could live like this forever.

Optimising: September 2023

Knowing my life in the future would look a little different. I did still want to optimise a few things.

Logistically I needed a campervan on Spanish plates if I was to keep to my plan of spending more time in Spain.

And returning to Ibiza was a dead certain no.

I made plans to build a new camper and sold my apartment in Ibiza.

Importance of living: October 2023

My best friend’s Dad, who I was close to, passed away very suddenly. A close friend was diagnosed with cancer and it was time to let the family cat down.

I was busy building a new van but these life reminders kept me focused on making sure I made the most of life.

Back on the road: November 2023

With the new van built, now joined by Bene, I was back on the road. Next stop Canary Islands.

Career wise I’d made a financial plan to extend the sabbatical for another year.

I was convinced I’d do something cool, like build more vans, as my next career move.

Campers Forever? December 2023

Life felt dreamy making air fried nachos with friends in the van.

Surfing forever? January 2024

Surfing on Christmas and New Years day felt like I’d ticked a life time achievement award. Moments like the one below:

Day to day I was starting to struggle a little. I was trying to fill the day with activity as I felt unsettled. Making sure I exercised or learnt Spanish everyday.

I did not feel like I was choosing to do these things. More that I had to make sure I made the most of my sabbatical.

I got frustrated at the quality of the waves and crowds. Things that shouldn’t really matter.

There was no particular point, but slowly it was dawning that surfing everyday did not bring total happiness for me.

Meaning of meaning. February 2024

I had an epic trip to Cabo Verde with friends. Bene’s underwater camera captured the smiles beautifully.

A few weeks in an Airbnb and it become clear that Bene and I were fed up of deciding where to camp a van every-night and it was time to find a home.

It’s amazing how much living in a van is a full time occupation. Making multiple decisions for where to camp, eat, etc. day in day out.

I started to feel that maybe returning to work might be useful and give us luxuries such as a home, roots and a community.

Returning to the Canaries I started to work on work.

There was a pleasant surprise. Just starting something, being focused for a few hours a day, and my happiness significantly increased.

Turned out I was not getting frustrated by the poor waves and crowds on the water in Fuertventura. But, projecting my frustration from a lack of meaning in my life.

Searching for meaningful work. March 2024 onwards

I felt lost.

I’d drawn up conclusions previously that I didn’t want to work in tech.

Nor was I keen to work remotely again.

Design in web3 felt like the worse of tech - ponzi schemes to make founders and VCs rich whilst the world burns energy to fuel bitcoin.

On another side, I was aware of a paradox of choice. I could start anything.

I called friends (thank you for all your help!).

Read books.

Did career exercises.

The one thing that seemed useful was to just start doing stuff.

I explored a few ideas and made sure I retrospected at the end of each project.

Whats next. April 2024

Whilst writing this post, it felt dramatic and exciting to start. I felt I was going to write this amazing hero’s journey. Stepping out of a stressful business dynamic, finding human consecutiveness and returning strong and with the tools for a new career.

This story is still unfolding and there is not yet a conclusion.

What I have found so far:

• When I design I’m in a flow state. I immensely enjoy the process and creating pixels on a screen. I’m happy working on a computer creating/designing but not building a business and being on Discord.

• The world is competitive and focusing on my skills and experiences is the best route to being finically grounded. For example, building vans I’m starting low skilled with low margins.

• The indie maker / solo-entrepreneur option seems interesting, but even if I learn to code, build some apps, any product launch still needs to generate leads. I don’t enjoy generating leads (see endless social media promotion).

I found if I’m creating, and not running a business, I can design for hours and hours, feel challenged and not actually feel like I’m working.

I’m currently reading “Feel Good Productivity” and a lot of the ideas seem to fit the framework I’m following.

In my next post I hope to share my strategy. It’s being refined so that I’m not just freelancing.

Considering how the biggest problem to any job or business I take on is getting leads. My focus on designing is becuase I feel I might have a strategy to design for leads.

Conclusion (for now) 

I’m glad I changed my life and for all the lessons this sabbatical gave me.

I feel I’m now forever going to be on sabbatical. But, bringing in some meaning and enjoyable work into my days.

A trip to Tenerife in community with the Founders Kite Club helped tremendously. Talking and getting reassurances, and also being accepted for not starting a new business, helped removed a lot of feat. I’m now incredibly excited to start working!

I feel I went extreme in business and growing, rebounded into doing nothing, and have come back knowing I want balance.

Thank you to all the friends and family to support me. Specially to Bene for coming into my life and showing me how to live in flow. To all for filling my life with love.