Focus diaries, April 2026
How to find joy in a job that is not your passion.
This month’s projects
Apart from this project, I have other activities. I like sharing what I have been doing during the last month here so you see it is possible to have plenty of projects and passions without losing yourself. The secret is a simple, solid but flexible organisation system.
Started working at a cheese refiner
Art direction for a social media company
Print design for a cultural center
Production of a very special music album
Got back to the garden since everything is green and growing wildly (learnt to use a brush cutter, germinated seeds and planted potatoes)
Finally found the perfect set up for my office, fitting a corner for each of my activities
Discovered the joys of selling vintage items online (feels like a casino)
Made my first day as an Art teacher at an art academy for kids (so exciting!)
Some thoughts about working outside internet
What took most time and energy this month was my first experience in the fromagerie (cheese refiner). It is not a big one but those who are familiarised with factory work will understand how draining it is during the first weeks. I’d love to say “days” but my body seems to refuse to get stronger for now, surely because of being narcoleptic. I have recently red a theory about how people with poor quality sleep are enable to grow muscles. That would explain my constant pain but I am too lazy to explore. I prefer believing the contrary.
It can look like I am again, getting away from my path, but this is contributing to one of my very long term project: The French Focus Retreat. I am basically building a place where people can escape and cut with a noisy world to focus on their project(s), surrounded with nature and CHEESE. So yes, working at a cheese factory (local actually) will help me providing the best selections ever, knowing what I am talking about and also being able to explain the huge amount of time and work it conveys.
I am lately trying to depend less on computers and internet to earn money, and there for sure I am checking both boxes.
Happy I got to accept pain, boredom and inconfort right before that though, as mentioned in my last article, since this is being the real test for my capacities and I feel like I’m been getting even better at it. Not sure how, but I ended in the atelier where nobody wants to end at: Atelier Fermiers (raw milk cheese delivered every week by local farmers). Because it is where everything is still handmade and slow. I like it but it is hard. We can be doing the same time for 7 hours, the exact same gesture (we call it “care”). On one side, your body gets extremely tense, on the other, you have no choice but to stay with your thoughts. Accept that this is the most productive you can be. No double activity (listening to a podcast for example). No. This is it. You are doing this “simple” task again and again. And you’ll have to repeat it soon, until 8 months pass.
Of course you can make the gesture better, optimise every step. Breathe better, act better, go faster, but it won’t really affect your day. If you finish before, you clean earlier (and what a massive daily cleaning!), and you wait until the time as come to go home. So you take your time like everybody else, and it almost feels good.
As soon as I got the gestures right, I started working in my mind (pre thinking this article for example), forcing myself to focus on one though for an hour, making a mental numbered list of what I’ll do when I get home because of course, I can’t take notes. This part has actually been quite challenging 😀 We are so used to technology helping our brains that short term reminders feel impossible.
Those are are dutch and from the internet but very similar to the french ones I take care of. I call it my daily cross fit :D
I want to make clear that this is a job I find difficult and I admire very much any individual that is capable of working there for years. However, my lucky situation (I have access to other kind of jobs because of my absolute freedom: no kids, no credits, a home to come back to, a garden to work at if I really need it and of course family and friends to support me), allows me to find some positive in this experience:
I am not using my creativity during the day, keeping it for my projects. I, of course, can get creative finding solutions to given issues during the day, but this is a very old profession and it won’t change any time soon. And you know what? It feels liberating. The hustle is physical only and this is new to me. I try to think about the time where my body won’t hurt anymore, will I be happy? When I’ll have learnt everything I can learn and nothing will be new anymore, will I be happy?
The surroundings are amazing. Well, we are almost neighbours, but they are closer to the mountains, so my morning commute is stunning. Something I’ve observed is that days are made of several tiny choices that can split groups. The ones who chose to have their coffee in silence staring at their phones, in the dark meeting room and the tv on vs the ones who take the opportunity to sit at the outside table and get some sun on their skin. I belong to the second one of course. Same with lunch, group one will stay in the same room, with the same phones and tv while I take it as a tiny travel and go have my lunch and nap close to the river. Semi vanifying my car was the best idea ever. It turns any moment into vacations.
Lastly, I find the joy in the fact that there is a thing to do, one correct way to do it, and that’s all. There will be no review, no “can you make the logo bigger?” or decisions based on personal taste. This is liberating too. Of course I am lucky that everybody is very nice to me and the environment is not toxic. But when I get very bored, the only thing that can save me is to make it the best I can. That behaviour reminded me a book I red long time ago. I don’t want to read anything on the internet about it since I want to keep the souvenir intact, but if you struggle to find joy in your jobs, it will help you for sure.
A book: “So good they can’t ignore you”, Cal Newport
If you are wondering how to find a work you really love or simply what to do with your life, this book will feel like a joker.
Cal Newport gives 2 powerful advices in this book:
Develop rare and valuable skills and I would add that can be applied to any employment or activity, instead of focusing on the job title itself.
Have a captivating mission that fuels you and drives your career.
Allow me to give you my rare and valuable skills that are applicable to any job, as an exemple:
Reliable
High focus and attention capacity
Curious (not scared to ask questions) but also proactive
Very conscious for delivering the best quality in a given time
Patient, soothing, sunny and funny
This list is my why, not the job title, not the product or service I am selling. My why is how I make people feel (colleagues and clients). And those are the skills I have decided to work on for the rest of my life.
I can both apply and develop them while working as an art director, an organisation coach, a cheese refiner or just being a friend.
I have put a little exercise together for you to give it a try.
An exercise: The mental quality check list
Make a list of the qualities you are conscient of that have been appearing through your career
If you can’t find any, check with your friends and colleagues. You can ask: “How does it feel to work with me”. Focus on the effect, not the action. As an example: “soothing” and “everything is in control” is what I got the most.
Pick your favourites and make a short list that is easy to remember. You can write it somewhere you’ll see it every day and read it every morning to make sure it sticks.
When you have it in mind, take some times during your day to analyse your actions. Are they reinforcing any of your valuable skills? If yes (and I am sure they do, maybe even several of them), imagine a mental “check” appearing close to your list item.
Bonus: it works even better if you imagine a sound (I love video game sounds like Mario’s star), it feels more like a reward.
I have been doing this during this last week and my toughest moments and I find it a great way to reinforce neural paths and make yourself aware of the good you are doing around you.
I’d love to know if you’ve tried! I feel a but like a crazy person when doing that kind of things but I am convinced that it helps.
Have a great and organised month, hopefully. If not, I’m here for you.
