I started the week on the back foot, succumbing to a fever on Wednesday afternoon. I had been feeling off-colour for days so it wasn’t unexpected, but it sure was badly-timed. For weeks now, I can sense that I am over-worked but there are a few projects simmering away right now, so an overhaul of the balance of things will have to wait at least a couple of months.
Running a part-time independent practice is hard, and I think it becomes harder when there are multiple small-to-medium sized projects running together rather one large one. The code-switching between projects keeps becoming progressively harder, even if they technically require the same number of work hours. Make no mistake, I am very grateful for the work that has come my way in the last year or so. They have all been projects that I whole-heartedly wanted to do, but keeping so many balls up in the air has been tough, and has become tougher as the months have gone by. It has also taken all the time away from my self-initiated work, like the newsletter and zines. I realise that it is all a champagne problem, especially because I already have a stable income irrespective, but I want to build better frameworks for myself for the future. Rest and play are more important to me now than they were, say, ten years ago. As is quality time spent with loved ones.
While I was sick, I listened to quite a few episodes of Hello, Type Friends and Ohno Radio. Hearing about other folks dealing with similar challenges of work-life balance and building financially and creatively sustainable practices was a small comfort.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
1.
Right before I fell sick, I was able to announce my workshop at City Scripts on social media. Quite honestly, I was overwhelmed by the response I received, and it made me feel like I, perhaps, will be able to run this workshop more than once, which was my hope for the idea.
2.
Alongside the workshop, I am also putting together a display of photographs and provocations from India Street Lettering in the form of a small exhibition, which will also have a station to watch Letter by Letter, the film that Harshay and I made about the street lettering around MG Road. Thankfully I had done most of the preparation work early so I was able to send off the exhibition material to IIHS on time.
3.
I had a couple of dental appointments. The one that I was dreading went absolutely smoothly, and the one I was wholly unafraid of had a hiccup. So it goes, I suppose. I am supposed to go back one last time this week to round off all the overdue dental work I had been postponing.
4.
On Saturday, the wood type I had purchased last week arrived. It all came in one carton and mixed up, so I have to slowly make time to organise and catalogue all of it before I can think of a fun mini-project to do with them. Maybe it can be something that my Dad and I can work on together.
5.
Some of my working hours this week have gone into drawing alternates and writing OpenType features for a script face that I am working on. Working on that was a sobering reminder that my health is not quite back yet.
6.
I spent an excruciating couple of hours doing tax-related errands: resending documents for my digital signature renewal, addressing my accountant’s queries about the book-keeping from the last financial year for the upcoming tax filing, and preparing materials for the monthly GST filing. Over the last two years, I have tried to be as meticulous about these things, trying not to let this administrative work get sidelined entirely. I have even tried to find some joy in doing it was a monthly ritual where I bring order to chaos. But it just has not stopped being a gigantic pain that I constantly feel behind on.