Optimize with Jacqueline

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Twelve posts and a little over a month in—what a ride it’s been.

I started Optimize with Jacqueline in the middle of May without any prior experience. I had never created a website. I had never made a Pinterest pin. I had never edited a video for YouTube. I had never written a blog post or published a 3D printable design.

When I say it like that, I feel pretty proud of myself.

In just a few short weeks, I’ve created 12 blog posts and entered my second month as a blogger. My original goal was to give this six months and see how it goes. I planned to post once a week, but I was so full of ideas (and honestly, just having a blast) that I doubled it to two posts per week.

Then burnout hit.

That creative rush was amazing, but I realized I needed a breather. So I took a mental health day from work just to do something fun for myself. And you know what? It helped. The blog has been an incredible outlet—not just for creativity, but for self-expression and exploration. I’m hoping it’ll keep that creative spark alive even when I retire one day.

As an engineer, I’ve always loved documenting processes, collecting data, analyzing it, and writing up reports. My favorite PowerPoint decks tell the story of an experiment—the journey and the outcome. Maybe I’ve been blogging all along, just in a different format?

Going forward, I’ve realized that two posts a week is a bit much with my current workload. But one post a week? That feels sustainable, exciting, and fun.

Thank you for being here with me on this journey. I’m excited to see where the next five months take us. By then, the holidays will be in full swing—a natural time to pause, reflect, and reevaluate. Maybe it’ll even spark a new creative wave, especially as I start making handmade gifts for the people I love.