to think_23.11.2020
I’ve been in Basel now for about 6 weeks. After a 10 day quarantine, and another 13 days living out of my bags in temporary locations, I moved into our apartment. Our empty, desolate, echoey apartment. But hey — it was ours. A place to call home — our first home together, in fact.
We’ve been slowly filling the rooms with necessities and niceties. Our studio is coming along, too — which is great. Ending last week I started to gear up my thoughts and kick off the research I’ve been simmering on. This is why I’m here, isn’t it. To take respite from the 9–5 work life, envelope myself in the swiss german culture, and focus on independent studies.
And so, I must first thank Nicole for again inspiring me, and keeping me honest. Her words at the beginning of last week really forced me to evaluate my progress. And by progress, I mean to say “lack of progress.” But I can’t lament on when progress begins. This is all self initiated work, and it takes time, focus, and energy to jumpstart a new life after moving across the ocean with some clothes, a computer, and a few books.
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Like I mentioned, I started to gather and read into research materials last week, and driving into the week of 23rd November, I am structuring a sprint schedule and sprint board from which to focus my studies. Retaining an agile mindset and delivery process will be beneficial for a number of reasons. A) I’ve never driving personal goals in the agile methods and B) it’s good to retain the process that I implore professionally. I need to create and retain healthy work habits — and so this is my focus for that goal.
The difficult part is going to be one of the most important aspects — being sprint reviews — I don’t have a leadership team with which to review, and gain guidance. I’ll have to add this to my backlog > Who in my life, or life in general, may I reach out to for mentorship / guidance?
Are there any contacts at local university programs who may be interested in engagement? Anyone doing similar research with whom I could partner?
Are there any designers in the swiss expat group? It would be great to build a community / a network locally to keep one-another motivated and inspired.
Find people with common interests and share process, procedures, focus and maybe pull together monthly roundtables / critiques.
