Anne Truitt Zelenka

I’ve arranged a mini-sabbatical for myself. I’ve stepped back from GigaOM writing and will be writing for Web Worker Daily on a less frequent schedule than I had been.

At the end of December, I was sick and tired, partially from viruses my girls brought home from school but mostly from stress. I needed to make a change.

Here’s what I’m planning to do on my sabbatical, which will go roughly through the end of February:

• Get back to blogging from a place of inspiration with a purpose of learning and connection.
• Improve my health habits, including adding some exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables, and cutting back on alcohol and caffeine.
• Continue to try new recipes out on my family at dinner time; get back to blogging them at The Everyday Cafe.
• Spend more time with my kids.
• Practice painting on a daily basis. I use acrylics right now and am still struggling to produce the effect I want, though I know what I’m going for (large still lifes of flowers or fruit on a glowing background, perhaps using a palette knife and paint straight from the tube for thick, tactile colors and shapes).
• Explore some new businesses opportunities that have recently bubbled up for me.
• Reconnect with online and offline friends and, I hope, make some new ones.

I had thoughts of going to San Francisco in February to see friends and to check into some future possibilities. Now that I know RedMonk’s having a 5th birthday party on Feb. 6th, I have yet another reason to go.

And in March? I don’t know yet. In 2007, I mostly had too much to do rather than not enough, so I’m sure something will come up. My leaning right now is towards entrepreneurship — not freelancing or consulting but really developing and marketing a service or product. I miss designing software and websites and web apps. I want to make something happen, make people’s lives better with everything I’ve learned about how the web can connect us and enrich our lives.