On my lunch break today as I sat reading some RSS feeds, I came across a [Daily Blogging Challenge] that started on the first of March. As I clicked through to the organising site to find out more I discovered that each day they are sharing a prompt word that everyone taking part should use to kickstart their post for the day. I'm not going to commit to taking part everyday, but I liked the prompt from 1st March, [routine].

Routines have always been a bit of a comfort to me, mostly they just happen and I realise that I've settled in to one without considering what I'm doing. My morning routine for example is one that I've realised I've settled in to without really considering.

I wake up with my alarm around 07:00 and spend the next 45 minutes or so waking up. That involves a bit of snoozing, a bit of morning messaging, and a bit of bumbling around on the internet. Then I get out of bed and head towards the shower.

I'm usually dressed and ready to start my day by around 08:20. The next step is a glass of juice and my meds, followed by a sit down in my chair and a bit of time to have a quiet time with whatever reading plan I'm using in the Youversion app at the moment.

Around 08:40 I'll turn on my Mac and head to the kitchen to make coffee and sort out some food for myself before I settle at my desk to contrive the days business.

I didn't realise this was a routine I'd fallen in to until I came across Pablo Picasso's daily schedule and it started me on path looking in to the routines of other famous creators, something I'll be looking into and sharing here.

I’ve recently made some changes to the hosting for my blog and other websites as part of the consolidation of my many websites in to one. I had been aiming to have one website to rule them all integrating my portfolio and my blog into one site.

I’m in the process of creating a new theme to help accomplish that, but I realised that for a long time I’ve not wanted to post the short status posts and images on to this site. I used to use Twitter for that, and whilst I’m still on the site I rarely use it. I’ve also been a member of [Micro.Blog] since the kickstarter days, but lately I’ve found myself just observing with only the occasional reply and not actually contributing. So I’ve decided to give something a try.

I’ve setup a hosted Micro Blog, which will use one of my spare personal domains, and I’m going to try posting to there with the short status posts and images as I would’ve done on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll likely use it to share things links and things along the way. In contrast I plan to keep this blog as somewhere to post longer posts and in time to add my portfolio as well.

To simplify things, I’m thinking about using my Micro Blog and this blog as ways of generating some [Stock and Flow]. As Robin Sloan put it:

Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that reminds people you exist.
Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.
I’ve realised I’ve lost those concepts in my creative work. I no longer tweet and I don’t blog regularly, so if I can start to correct that I hope that the two blog formats can inform one another with more content.

As an extension of that I’ve also been thinking a lot about Austin Kleon’s book [Show Your Work], something which I’ve also not been doing much of lately. My hope is that I’ll be able to combine these two sites and ways of posting with showing some of my work. Be it personal or professional (when appropriate). We’ll see how it goes.

We have been in Lockdown 3 for a few weeks now as Covid-19 continues to spread through the population. The government issued stay at home notices again, but this time people don’t seem to be following things quite as closely.

It’s both frustrating and annoying seeing so many people still meeting up with friends, even travelling across cities to meet in the park for birthdays. Everyone it seems is able to find a way of exempting themselves from the rules.

I’ve decided to approach this lockdown differently as well. Maybe because it’s also a new year, I’m not sure. I’m trying to eat more healthily, snack less, and exercise more.

The nations favourite–or maybe least favourite judging by some of social media–PE teacher Joe Wicks, has been doing his live workouts again. This has been my workout of choice so far, I’ve not been doing it live as it’s at an inconvenient time for work, but I’ve been doing the recorded versions at a later time. I’m 6 for 6 so far, and I’d never thought I’d say this about HIIT workouts, but I’m actually enjoying them. Although not the ache or stiffness in my legs after.

I’ve also been taking more time to read this time. In the first lockdown I couldn’t concentrate on a book, I wasn’t able to focus for more than a couple of minutes and would find myself rereading sentences over and over. This time however has been different. I’m finding that familiar refuge in fiction again. Getting lost in another world that exists only in my imagination and one that doesn’t have the anxiety that comes with the world we live in right now.

I’ve also been watching the last season of Portrait Artist of the Year. It’s one of the few “reality” tv shows I enjoy. Previous series have always made me feel inspired, but this time around it seems to be more so. I’ve even sorted out all my old art materials with the aim of finding some time to pick up a brush. We will see what happens there.

As I finish writing this the sun is coming out. The covering of snow I woke up too this morning is still there, but I fear it may not last long. Time to dig out the wellies and go for a walk.

Over the years I’ve amassed a number of domains for various websites I’ve wanted to create. A few of those are related to my former freelance business, and two relates to blogs. This week I got a notification that 3 of them are up for renewal in January, it’s left me questioning if should renew them all or if it’s time to let some go.

I have the domain for this blog, philbowell.com, which I will definitely renew. I have philbowell.blog, which I used briefly for this site, and I have philbowell.design, which is what I used for the last couple of years of working for myself.

Since I started working as part of an in-house UX team, I’ve been intending to consolidate my portfolio into my personal site. One domain for both places. What I hadn’t thought of was how to handle the domains. A redirect seems to make the most sense, but the cost of renewing them is much higher than I expected it to be. Letting go of domain names is something that I don’t like doing and I’m trying to work out the impact of doing that. It’s a tricky conundrum.