Thanks to an earlier project, I just spent 4 months on paternity leave with my first son (March -> June). It was the first time in my life I’ve had so much unstructured time without any pressure to figure out what’s next. Here’s what I did:
1) I bonded with my son
2) I supported my wife while she worked
I was able to do this without feeling the sting of the opportunity-cost of each second with them. Many older people & country songs have informed me that these are “the good ole days,” and I was able to cherish them more sweetly by reducing the external pressures on my time.
Ok, fun stuff:
3) I worked out a lot. I can:
- Do a standing backflip
- Run a 6-minute mile
- Walk on my hands further than ever (down my driveway & back)
- I’m in the thousand-pound club (bench + squat + deadlift), with a 280-lb bench
I spent lot of time lifting in my home gym, following stretches on gymnasticsbodies.com, and just running more consistently. I was surprised by my progress. I think it’s because I viewed the time spent exercising as a treat – I saw the workouts as indulgence, not as a means-to-an-end.
4) I started 2 long-term projects
- A swimming pool chemical calculator app: pooldash
A sales-productivity tool: afterpitch- Update: this one failed quickly, I was wrong about it being long-term (whoops)
I’m going to make small updates to these projects each week, and hopefully I’ll see compounding returns in a few months!
