I quit my 9-5 without a plan forward

In December 2023 I quit my 9-5 without a plan forward. I quit because of burnout.

Since I love to code, my main thought in the beginning of this time unemployed, was to code web apps on my free time. I created illustrations that I could use as logos, or brand mascots in my web apps. And of course when you’re creating, you need to have a social media presence. So I quickly started an Instagram and X account.

When I started to share my design illustrations I quickly noticed that the response was positive, and it was actually more fun for me to create the illustrations than coding for hours.

So I have shifted focus now to designing, illustrations, and writing. But I still code, and maintain my main website in code by myself.

That brings me to where I’m now, building my presence on my social accounts and communicating with other creators. Creating new illustrations and valuable content. Sharing my learnings as I go.

My learnings so far

• Keep things organized
  When creating content, you deal with tons of files, images, and documents every day. It’s crucial to keep things organized to have a clean workspace and find files when needed.
  
  👉 Name files directly when saving them and put them in the correct place
  👉 Keep your content files on a separate hard drive to save space
  
  

• Schedule time to clean up
  Even if you keep up with the above learning, things can still get out of hand pretty quickly sometimes.
  
  👉 Your clean up time can be a quick 10 min at the end of each day
  👉 Or a longer session on Fridays before closing off for the weekend
  
  

• Focus time is crucial
  As a creator, you need space to be able to get into a flow state. That’s the time when you’ll be able to create the most valuable content and bring your ideas to real life.
  
  👉 My top priority here is to make sure no one can disturb me
  👉 I put my phone on “Do not disturb”
  👉 TV on in the background, lounge music or total quietness

Latest creations

Social media tracking

I thought it would be fun to include a tracker of the follower progress on my social accounts.

Instagram - We’re growing by every week 💪

X (Twitter) - A dip in followers the past week. The explanation is: I haven’t been posting anything 😂

Receive a gift for signing up

When you sign up to my newsletter, you receive a gift 🎁 as a thank you for joining (the blue cat without a watermark). You can use it for both personal and commercial use, for your own projects.

Disclaimer: You are not allowed to resell this illustration or distribute it as your own creation.