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Nov. 5th, 2025 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Yesterday I realized the most recent version of my resume -- the one that had incorporated the most feedback from friends and colleagues -- had apparently been left on my work laptop (or OneDrive), so that complicated the application process for more than a few places. By the time I had given up trying to find a copy somewhere in my social media files, it was a bit too late to commit to the arduous process of applying to a couple places.
So today I'm planning to completely rework my resume. I'll copy the "latest" version I have in an Obsidian file, see if I can tweak the bullet points so they hit action keywords the ATS is looking for, and include "optional" information (like reference contacts) that I can easily pull up if I need to. It's a little embarrassing that I hadn't done this before, but I suppose that's why I'm spending the time this week to look at that kind of thing.
I haven't gotten a LOT of movement on my recent applications beside the usual auto-rejection. Once I have my resume in better shape, I'll take another pass at my preferred educational institutions, check for any local government jobs, and maybe even peek at Kaiser Permanente to see if there are any openings there. Most of these positions will require an end to remote work, but with luck I might be able to find a hybrid position or two.
I'm not sure where the day went yesterday, overall. I did apply to one position, cleaned out my email inbox, and started journaling again. I read the Grief Recovery Workbook and sat with the introduction to that. Husboo and I went out to the local park for some toss practice, and I filled in my local ballot and dropped it off at the local post office. But for the most part my productivity was a little piecemeal and unfocused. When that happens, it's hard to feel like I've made much progress on any one thing.
It might be a better idea to batch projects into distinct blocks of time. I'm picking up the Pomodoro Technique to make sure I'm devoting proper time to the things I'd like to do, so the next step would be scheduling my projects so there's a bit more organization to it. My ADHD makes it hard for me to gauge how long things take, and the Pomodoro Technique is actually a pretty good solution for that. Because of that, I now know a typical blog post can take 2-3 Pomodoros, and that a 2,000-word piece of fiction is typically written in 5. Thinking of my time in terms of Pomodoros encourages me to think of it as the finite resource it is, and helps me begin to understand how much work I can reasonably fit into a day or week.
I'm taking the time to try and "unify" my project management style so that it works across multiple trackers. My Bullet Journal is a great resource for reviewing trends, habits, and keeping track of the most granular goals for any project. But I need something for a higher-level view, where I can look at each project as a whole -- then see how my various projects relate to each other. Er, if that makes sense.
Basically, if I'm reading a book I can set up a tracker in my Bullet Journal for it, add it to my weekly project list, make a little to-do bullet for it day after day. But it can be a little challenging to gauge, say, how long it takes me to read a certain book, when I read it, what I took from it, and how I can practice what I've taken from it in my daily life. And if I have an annual goal to read 50 books, it can be a little hard to set up and track that in my BuJo.
This all needs some kind of digital component, and there are a number of solutions out there for that -- but they're all ad-infested or force you into a subscription to use their "proprietary" system. Todoist is neat and all, but at this point I'd much rather just build these systems myself. That way I can tweak as needed, abandon whenever I want, or deconstruct things to build a new system entirely. Much more malleable, that.
So now I'm organizing my Obsidian vault for that purpose. I'm starting out using the PARA Method (Projects, Area, Resources, Archive) to organize things. Projects are basically anything with a SMART goal; if I'm looking to get a specific thing done in a certain amount of time, it's a project. Areas are more generalized interests and hobbies, like baking, D&D, writing, or calligraphy. Resources are a repository for anything that I want to keep and review later -- sort of like a personalized Pocket or Feedly. And the Archive is where completed projects or deprecated areas go, so I can look up anything I'm not actively using later.
That's the dream, anyway. I'm beginning to see that a lot of my anxiety comes from trying to juggle way too many projects without a clear sense of where my time is going. Since I'm spreading myself way too thin, I'm making painfully slow progress on everything and pretty consistently dropping the ball. It's time to focus up, tighten up, and retrain myself to give my whole attention to one thing at a time.
Easier said than done, right? But this is the era of deliberate practice. Now that I have the time to really work on this, what else would I use it for?
So today I'm planning to completely rework my resume. I'll copy the "latest" version I have in an Obsidian file, see if I can tweak the bullet points so they hit action keywords the ATS is looking for, and include "optional" information (like reference contacts) that I can easily pull up if I need to. It's a little embarrassing that I hadn't done this before, but I suppose that's why I'm spending the time this week to look at that kind of thing.
I haven't gotten a LOT of movement on my recent applications beside the usual auto-rejection. Once I have my resume in better shape, I'll take another pass at my preferred educational institutions, check for any local government jobs, and maybe even peek at Kaiser Permanente to see if there are any openings there. Most of these positions will require an end to remote work, but with luck I might be able to find a hybrid position or two.
I'm not sure where the day went yesterday, overall. I did apply to one position, cleaned out my email inbox, and started journaling again. I read the Grief Recovery Workbook and sat with the introduction to that. Husboo and I went out to the local park for some toss practice, and I filled in my local ballot and dropped it off at the local post office. But for the most part my productivity was a little piecemeal and unfocused. When that happens, it's hard to feel like I've made much progress on any one thing.
It might be a better idea to batch projects into distinct blocks of time. I'm picking up the Pomodoro Technique to make sure I'm devoting proper time to the things I'd like to do, so the next step would be scheduling my projects so there's a bit more organization to it. My ADHD makes it hard for me to gauge how long things take, and the Pomodoro Technique is actually a pretty good solution for that. Because of that, I now know a typical blog post can take 2-3 Pomodoros, and that a 2,000-word piece of fiction is typically written in 5. Thinking of my time in terms of Pomodoros encourages me to think of it as the finite resource it is, and helps me begin to understand how much work I can reasonably fit into a day or week.
I'm taking the time to try and "unify" my project management style so that it works across multiple trackers. My Bullet Journal is a great resource for reviewing trends, habits, and keeping track of the most granular goals for any project. But I need something for a higher-level view, where I can look at each project as a whole -- then see how my various projects relate to each other. Er, if that makes sense.
Basically, if I'm reading a book I can set up a tracker in my Bullet Journal for it, add it to my weekly project list, make a little to-do bullet for it day after day. But it can be a little challenging to gauge, say, how long it takes me to read a certain book, when I read it, what I took from it, and how I can practice what I've taken from it in my daily life. And if I have an annual goal to read 50 books, it can be a little hard to set up and track that in my BuJo.
This all needs some kind of digital component, and there are a number of solutions out there for that -- but they're all ad-infested or force you into a subscription to use their "proprietary" system. Todoist is neat and all, but at this point I'd much rather just build these systems myself. That way I can tweak as needed, abandon whenever I want, or deconstruct things to build a new system entirely. Much more malleable, that.
So now I'm organizing my Obsidian vault for that purpose. I'm starting out using the PARA Method (Projects, Area, Resources, Archive) to organize things. Projects are basically anything with a SMART goal; if I'm looking to get a specific thing done in a certain amount of time, it's a project. Areas are more generalized interests and hobbies, like baking, D&D, writing, or calligraphy. Resources are a repository for anything that I want to keep and review later -- sort of like a personalized Pocket or Feedly. And the Archive is where completed projects or deprecated areas go, so I can look up anything I'm not actively using later.
That's the dream, anyway. I'm beginning to see that a lot of my anxiety comes from trying to juggle way too many projects without a clear sense of where my time is going. Since I'm spreading myself way too thin, I'm making painfully slow progress on everything and pretty consistently dropping the ball. It's time to focus up, tighten up, and retrain myself to give my whole attention to one thing at a time.
Easier said than done, right? But this is the era of deliberate practice. Now that I have the time to really work on this, what else would I use it for?
