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Today I begin the process of updating my site. My goal is simple: write more (i.e. 'at all'). The site is bare bones and will stay that way, but I don't have a mechanism to post blog content, so that's where this project will start. Also, gonna build in public, so: 1/n
2/n The current site is a simple static @jekyllrb setup. I'm a big fan of simplicity, so I prefer writing my own HTML & CSS and using Markdown for posts instead of implementing more feature-rich frameworks. I considered doing something in @reactjs since I've been learning more...
3/n of that at work, but it seems like a stretch since what I want is already only a few lines of code away. Redoing the site in React accomplishes the goal of getting more familiar with it, but sidesteps the actual goal for the site.
4/n I'll be documenting my thought process here, beginning with some history of my previous 'portfolio sites' and what I want to do differently with this redesign. First: every one of my personal websites has failed to entice me to add content consistently. Of course, what...
5/n that really means, is that I have failed. The website isn't the one telling me to fritter away my time instead of thinking deeply about something and then writing about it. I did that part all by myself. However, I think there's an element of preciousness that...
6/n featured too prominently in my prior efforts. Far too much mental energy was spent on the design, look & feel, and nitpicky details. My goals have changed over the years, so that may account for my change in outlook. In September, I'll be rounding out a full decade at my...
7/n current job, having started as a UI designer, worked my way up to Creative Director, swapped from marketing to product along the way, and learning new skills & growing my understanding of the role of design and how it weaves in and out of different aspects of the work...
8/n This professional stability has allowed me to let go, in a sense, of the idea that every little pixel matters. I think if the content is strong, a lot of the initial design foibles can be forgiven and subsequently improved over time. Which brings me to the heart of my goal:
9/n To make smaller-scale, incremental gains that add up to something great over time. Something greater than a huge, big bang-style reveal would yield. If many of my early posts are naive, amateurish, fluff, that's ok. As long as I keep at it, I'll grow.
10/n So after that rather verbose introduction, it's time to get to work. I'll add updates into this thread each day, documenting my progress with the public accountability that Twitter is so good at producing. ;)
11/n One thing I want to avoid, and I can feel it already happening, is the tendency to cease progress once I've hit a stopping point. The stopping point, in this case, was simply starting this thread. I thought, "Cool, that's done. Time to take a break."
12/n Granted, it is lunch time, but I was in the middle of working on the site when I decided to tweet out what I was doing. Now, an hour later, I'm eating chips and watching a YouTube video about woodworking. I'll get back to it and make sure I don't stop prematurely again.
13/n Ok, day 1 in the books. Here's some of the process and general thoughts:
14/n I saw the styles were pretty old. Not even a hint of Flexbox. For the writing, that isn’t really an issue, but I added some Sass mixins I’ve used more recently to modernize these and make things easier to work with when I start tackling the image-heavy Work and Art pages.
15/n One thing I did notice is how few styles were even in there. 220 lines, probably 50 of which are empty lines and comments. I think I’ll ultimately break these stylesheets up into something more modular, but for the sake of speed, I just put them all in 1 for now.
16/n I took look at what I currently had on the site: 1 page, no navigation, a simple “about me” intro, a short burb about what I’m currently working on (basically where I work with a link), and some links to my social media.
17/n Oh, and a snarky colophon in the footer. I have to work hard to limit the self-deprecation since that’s my default state. I mean, I know I’m a fraud, but I don’t have to tell the world, right? Ugh, see? I can’t stop.
18/n Not much there, which is probably for the best. So, what did I need? Posts. This is built in Jekyll, so I added the Liquid tags to include them pretty easily. Since writing is going to be my focus, They went right on the index page. Now…how will people see my other work?
19/n I needed some navigation. Luckily, the predecessor of this single page layout was a multi-page layout with navigation, so I just had to re-include the nav and update those items. I wanted to separate work from art since work implies ‘payment’, whereas I make art for myself.
20/n. I moved the bio from the homepage to the about page, combining it with what was already there. I’ve been using the current one for far too long at this point. That isn’t a reason to update something, necessarily, but I think it’s in need of improvement, so I’ll change it.
21/n I had a little painting of a number 2 pencil in the header, but I wasn’t sure it should stay. I removed it for now with the intent of giving some thought to where else it might live. It feels a little childish, so I may have to retire it.
22/n Right. Content. This goal of writing every day is new for me, so I didn’t really have anything new to put on the site. I have a couple of blog posts I wrote for Fulcrum, so I decided to put those in to prime the pump, as it were.
23/n And it just dawned on me that I haven’t given any thought to potential writing topics. Off the top of my head, my interests include design, sports, software development, human psychology, comedy, music, fine art…pretty standard fare, for the most part. I guess I'll...
24/n ...just take the first step and see what develops.
25/n Ok, got some basics in there, but I think I want to add more. Dates and some Front Matter goodies for the posts would be nice. I might actually need to do some sketches for Work and Art pages. I could easily fall in the weeds with that, so I’ll try to keep those simple.
26/n Tomorrow I'd like to actually get the site up, warts and all along with my first post. I think the quickest way to do that is to simply 'git push'. My ego says that's not good enough, but reality says who gives a shit, just do it. We'll see who wins tomorrow. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
27/n All credit to @jackbutcher for the idea of building this in the public eye. The concept wasn’t necessarily new, but when I came across his feed, something clicked. Thanks, man. 
28/n Ok, done with work. Gonna grab some dinner and then get back at it. Goals for tonight:
1. Get additional front-matter items set up (maybe)
2. Style a quick image-focused page layout to use on the Work / Art pages. (maybe)
3. Write about something.
4. Publish the changes.
1. Get additional front-matter items set up (maybe)
2. Style a quick image-focused page layout to use on the Work / Art pages. (maybe)
3. Write about something.
4. Publish the changes.
29/n I'm using @basecamp to corral my ideas, todos, writing topics and so on. When I read @rjs' Shape Up last summer, my perspective on how to work effectively completely changed. It was like emerging from a fog. The focus on deep thinking and writing as an antidote to...
30/n ...agenda-less meetings and drive-by suggestions from the peanut gallery really struck a chord and I've been trying to stick to the asynchronous pitch writing philosophy ever since. The scope of this site is relatively small, but I can still draw from that well as needed.
31/n It's always hard for me to stick to the plan. I have 3 or 4 simple things to do tonight, but every time I work on one I find more to add. Many of these "wouldn't take but a moment", but I'll be cheating on tonight's todos if I veer off course. Adding them as todos for later.
32/n Cleaning up the Work section a bit. These examples are pretty old, lol. That's one thing about a 'continuous improvement' philosophy - there aren't many flashy visual elements to show off. "Hey, wanna see how I got rid of all these redundant typography styles in the App?" 
33/n That's a wrap on day 2. I only had 4 todos, but dammit, I did em all. The site is updated, published, & I wrote my first post. Feels good. Of course, I added 7 more todos in the course of trying to complete those 4, but that's par for the course. More on the way, I'm sure.
34/n As things begin wrapping up for the day, my thoughts shift to tonight's agenda:
1. Eat tacos.
2. Add some more examples to the Work section, simplify the images.
3. Try out a heavier font. Thin font is thin.
4. Fix the nav items looking funky on mobile.
5. Write something.
1. Eat tacos.
2. Add some more examples to the Work section, simplify the images.
3. Try out a heavier font. Thin font is thin.
4. Fix the nav items looking funky on mobile.
5. Write something.
35/n I caught myself looking at Google Fonts because I noticed I'm using Lato, which I've used a ton on past projects. My goal was to make the font heavier. Changing the weight from 300 to 400 does this. I believe the technical term for this is "farting around". 1 demerit for me.
36/n Looks like I'm bailing on adding images to the Work section. I have limited time tonight and I won't be able to make a dent, so I'm switching gears to fixing the issues with the navigation on narrow screens and writing today's post.
37/n Navigation issues fixed with a little reordering. I moved the social links to the footer and put the main nav items where the socials were. I also gave the background a little tint so it was so harshly white against the text. Also added today's post: https://campbell17.com/post/mental-inertia/
38/n Huh, looks like I'm adding a todo to update my meta description for shared pages. :)
39/n Day 4 begins. I'm wondering where the cutoff is for this thread. 
A big part of my working philosophy includes *continuous* improvement, so I'll have to decide when the building-in-public part stops. Maybe when the design updates slow down, I'll tweet em out independently?
A big part of my working philosophy includes *continuous* improvement, so I'll have to decide when the building-in-public part stops. Maybe when the design updates slow down, I'll tweet em out independently?
40/n Anyway, tonight I'm gonna take care of a few smaller tweaks and hopefully spend more time on the post. I think some of the more time-intensive aspects may have to wait for the weekend. I only get a short time on weekdays before other commitments intrude.
41/n The tweaks for tonight include:
1. Swap h2s into h3s on the older post
2. Add block quote styles
3. Add styles for a 'note' callout
4. Experiment with a text highlight effect
5. Darken the borders a bit
6. Separate last night's post into separate paragraphs
7. Write a post
1. Swap h2s into h3s on the older post
2. Add block quote styles
3. Add styles for a 'note' callout
4. Experiment with a text highlight effect
5. Darken the borders a bit
6. Separate last night's post into separate paragraphs
7. Write a post
42/n Ugh. The styling tweaks went quick, but the post took forever. Not my best work, but it exists now. That's a win.
43/n It's been a day, so no site tweaks tonight, just a post. Aptly titled, "Meeting Fatigue".
44/n Family movie night tonight, complete with grilled burgers for dinner and movie candy for dessert. Still making time to write a post and since this one has a video, I get to figure out my responsive iframe styles tonight. CSS Tricks to the rescue: https://css-tricks.com/fluid-width-video/
45/n It's Saturday so I have a nice chunk of time to spend on the site. Today's goal is to flesh out the Work section with better examples and add the first version of a work detail / case study page.
46/n Had a bit of trouble staying focused, so I added some images to my Art page in addition to the Work page todos. It took me longer to get the CSS Grid styles to my liking, but now everything fills in nicely. The time spent on unplanned additions means I didn't create the...
47/n ...new layout for the Work detail page, so that's disappointing. I'm taking a break for now, but might hop back on to tackle that. Otherwise it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
48/n Got back at it, yet again avoided the Work detail page. I have to break this habit of tackling easier second-order problems before I dig into the bigger ones. I updated the Work images, tweaked some styles, and wrote tonight's post. I could probably use the excuse that...
49/n ...I only popped back on to write my post and that anything extra I did was bonus nachos, but that would be a bit dishonest. When I sat down, I had the goal of tackling the Work Detail page. That didn't happen. Tomorrow, anything that isn't that page is going into the todos.
50/n Already making progress on the Work Detail page. I think initial layout will include a title, skills / expertise used, date range, intro paragraph, and a grid of images. I'll focus on create one version of the layout and leave populating the content for later.
51/n Yeah, I foolishly thought creating the layout for this Detail page would be time consuming. When I look at the writing and image asset creation I need to do to populate these pages, I'm reminded the mechanics is always the easy part. It's content that's hard.
52/n As I dig into rediscovering my work history so I can write compelling case studies, it's clear that the last 10 years are going to be quite challenging to sum up coherently. Working on 2+ major brands at the same time, doing different work for each, evolving my role over...
53/n ...years of management changes, personnel shakeups, strategic pivots, wins, losses, splits, mergers, and your standard corporate tumult (all with the same company)...where do I start? As I said, keeping it coherent will be key. I obviously want to keep it design-focused...
54/n ...but I've worked on so many things, some of which never saw the light of day. I might simply start at the beginning and take it project by project. Small increments, that's what I keep preaching to myself. By the end, I'll have it all.
55/n With Monday off, I feel like I lost a day despite having an extra day to spend on the site. Tonight I start writing case studies instead of thinking about writing them. Don't fool yourself into believing that thought always = progress (he says into the mirror).
56/n I managed to solidify an intro for what will be the toughest case study as mentioned previously: the recap of the last 10 years of work. It took a lot of noodling, but I like it for now and it leads me nicely into the next section where I start using actual examples.
57/n I refined my case study intro, but stalled after that. I frittered away some time tonight and I'm paying for it with flattened inertia. Annoyed.
58/n Made some nice progress tonight. More refinement of the intro and got a great start on whatever the heck the next part is. It's rough, but it's out of my brain and that's big because I was quite stuck. Also, a new post about the end of a tradition: https://campbell17.com/post/nine-eleven/
59/n Tonight's plan includes adding the ability to enlarge images and making a for loop for work and art items so it's a little simpler to add more. I want to strike a balance between continuing writing content and improving the site itself. Both are good. ABB: Always Be Bothing.
60/n Ok, that's done. Tomorrow I have a ton of writing and image making to do. I'm going to switch tactics a bit and go shallow, but wide. I have 6+ cases to write and I could spend weeks noodling on 1. I want to have something for all of them by Monday.
61/n Never a bad idea to add some clarity.
62/n Never a bad idea, part 2: discoverability.
63/n Getting back at it tonight, I've set the goal of creating 3 examples for each case study. That's 21 images. The key is to not be too precious about it. Wish me luck.
64/n Lol not even close. With zero plan, the goal sort of falls apart. I also gave myself an unrealistic amount of time to do it (the hour after lunch before I have something else planned). However, I did get the first set of 3 done, so that's a start. King starter, over here.
65/n These tiny time crunch challenges are actually really useful and sometimes bear the highest amounts of productivity, especially if you can string a few of them together back to back. Don't give up if you only have 20 minutes between those meetings, there's treasure in there.
66/n Tonight I'm making more sets of 3 images. So far it's going a lot faster since I have last night's baseline to follow.
67/n This has been a really hard week, motivationally. Despite possessing a fairly even-keel personality, I tend to experience some sizable ebbs and flows of personal productivity. This is why momentum and inertia are so critical for me (and probably many others).
68/n Oddly, writing my thoughts in this thread seems to calm my Lizard Brain and give me enough positive emotion to get something done, no matter how modest. So I got that goin' for me. Which is nice.
69/n (nice.) So, to that end, tonight's plan is to finish off the remaining Work Detail image sets and restart that process for the writing itself. Oh, and I've fallen behind on writing a post every day, so I'll make sure to get to that. My last post involved a weed whacker.
70/n I added 3 more sets of images in the Work section before realizing the first entry still has placeholders. I'm gonna switch to writing tonight's post and take those on tomorrow.
71/n Not much productivity the last day or two. Tonight I started a draft post, updated my Spotify embed include, posted my weekly music roundup, and made a few todos for some future functionality I want to add. This weekend's plans include more case study progress. Lot's more.
72/n I have to consistently remind myself what the scope of this project is. It's really easy to get swept up in grand illusions and ambitions, but I set out to make a place online where I can publish some blog content and examples of my work. The more grounded I stay, the...
73/n ...sooner I can call it done, leaving me to focus 100% on new content. Won't that be a nice day, indeed.
74/n I've been slacking on my Case studies because they're harder than writing regular posts and making cosmetic updates. Gonna move the needle tonight and hopefully get some momentum rolling the rest of the week and into the weekend.
75/n An entire week without any meaningful progress or even an update in this thread. See what I mean about inertia?? It's amazing to me that I still struggle to optimize my natural cycle of productivity. I know I operate best when there's a forcing function (who doesn't?)...
76/n ...but staying active when those forces subside is the tough part, which makes an even stronger case for the importance of routine. I have a lot of writing to do today.
77/n I just saw it's 1 month since I started this thread, so let's look at some positives:
1. My original goal: Write more. Achieved.
2. Build in public, which is what this thread is for.
3. Be less precious & afraid to publish.
4. Make small changes & push often.
1. My original goal: Write more. Achieved.
2. Build in public, which is what this thread is for.
3. Be less precious & afraid to publish.
4. Make small changes & push often.
78/n ...and some negatives:
1. After initially writing daily, production tapered off after about week 2.
2. Updates to this thread followed a similar pattern and became less detailed.
3. I hit a wall writing case studies and haven't recovered yet.
So...
1. After initially writing daily, production tapered off after about week 2.
2. Updates to this thread followed a similar pattern and became less detailed.
3. I hit a wall writing case studies and haven't recovered yet.
So...
79/n ...The ability to focus 100% on writing new posts is hindered by the wall of the case studies. This isn't surprising since writing a compelling summary of the last 10 years of my career isn't a knock-this-out-over-lunch kind of thing. However, there's an amount of...
80/n ...rededication that needs to happen to get those to DONE, so spending time unlocking the path to that is what I'm going to focus on next. The task of "Write the case study" is too unshaped and broad, so I'll start by breaking that into smaller scopes and see what develops.
