Spoiler alert: this post won't be one of those self-congratulatory success stories.
I finished my studies on September 5th, and since then... everything has been chaos. Exciting chaos yeah but chaos nonetheless.
🧨 The spark
Earlier this year, I built a web app for a friend’s Optics thesis project.
That small success gave me the confidence to say to myself:
“Ok, I liked this project that was different from usual, why not take advantage of my curiosity to offer my skills to others! 2026 will be the year I go freelance!”
If it works = great.
If it doesn’t = I’ll at least have learned a lot and had fun building things.
So far, so good... but then came the mistakes.
🫡 Where things went wrong
First mistake: I waited too long.
Sure, I was busy finishing my master’s degree and my software architecture apprenticeship, but I could (and must) have planned things better.
Once my studies ended, everything started happening at once:
- I began developing my personal project (👀)
- I got hired full-time as a software engineer
- I started doing administrative steps to become a freelancer
But of course, freelancing means visibility, right?
So I thought:
“I need a portfolio! Let’s pause everything and build one. Fast!”
Portfolio done. Phew. Time to breathe.
Wait! Now my current personal project also needs a landing page!
Guess what? Another pause, another website to build.
⚡ The realization
Everything kept piling up. It’s not burnout cause I’m still motivated, passionate, and full of ideas.
But I finally realized one simple truth:
I’m not bad at working hard.
I’m bad at organizing myself.
So now I’m learning the "hard" way.
I’m building Notion dashboards, task trackers, reminders, and project databases for everything (even personal life stuff like buy a new mouse 🤓).
💭 The lesson
Online, I often see people who seem to have it all figured out: shiny portfolios, perfect side projects, clean workflows.
But the truth is, there are also plenty of us out here just trying to keep up, learning by doing, and figuring out systems as we go.
So it got me thinking:
👉 If I had been better organized from the start, how far could I already be?
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