Setting up for 2024

Given I only managed to post my 2023 intentions in August it feels a bit soon to be posting again — but here we are with some intentions for 2024 — all written alongside the annual sorting week.

Part of my sorting this year is to get a proper AI reading and thinking approach together which I will post here when it’s finished. I want to spend some proper time reengaging with the current thinking around technology and society and this seems like the right theme to base this around. I am hoping some enquiry questions will emerge from this but lets wait and see.

In terms of enquiry — I also really want to progress my fantasy system idea — more on that here.

Another part of my sorting is a properly brutal rose pruning session in the garden — you really do need to be cruel to be kind here — so I shall take some before and after pictures and then wait with trepidation to see what affect it has!

I’m also using this week to reflect a bit on my use (or non- use) of social media. As someone who has been active online for over 10 years its time for a bit of a reset — I’ve written this piece as a but of a reflection and farewell.

I’m also doing some thinking about my leadership — it feels a huge luxury to have our new leadership team in place and I want to make sure that I step out of people’s way and give them chance to occupy their own spaces. I have been very internally focused since becoming CEX — or thats how its felt — and I want 2024 to be about exploring more effectively outside of the organisation. I also need to reconcile with the fact that there are some spaces you can’t hold as CEX as the tension between different forms of power is just a bit too much — I know thats a bit obscure as a statement — its something I will unpack more going forward.

More personally, last year I wanted to work on shifting from a sense of always being slightly behind my todo list to being able to properly anticipate things. I focused in on anticipation as a way of doing more than just planning more effectively. To me anticipation is about throwing yourself forward in time and considering how you want to feel not just what you want to do.

These things are always work in progress but I am making progress with this intention and it will carry through to 2024. In doing this I’ve been thinking a lot about how you create the personal and professional rituals that provide you with the framework to anticipate things — and as a byproduct get off the treadmill of short term thinking that we often get trapped in.

Anticipation in this way is about being in the now and actively enjoying the process of looking forward — or at least gifting your future self a bit of kindness as you lay the groundwork for her. So here we go with the new, recovered and discarded rituals for 2024:

• I’m going to continue my morning yoga ritual which I love and starts the day (for me) beautifully — I also want to explore creating another liminal space at the end of the day to help box off work when I get home.
• I’m going to dust off my end of the week ritual to close off the todo list and use this to create space in the weekend
• I’m going to have YET another go at a 500 word writing ritual but this time to underpin it with a better reading habit which I am using this week to set up

I’ve also been thinking about impatience — something I have in spades and how to better manage it. Wanting to go at light speed does mean you miss the journey and I need to work on this if I want to slow things down a bit. This probably means examining a bit why I always want to be in motion — so one for some pondering.

Finally, the picture on this post is of my 2023 weather scarf — 2 rows a day for the whole year. I have really appreciated having a project that demands you do a little and often. Its not the most attractive object but I shall wear it with pride! This year I am planning a weekly embroidery journal….lets see how that goes…

Originally published at https://www.curiouscatherine.info.