What I’m Learning, Using, and Loving
Welcome to my Monthly Index.
This is the space where I take honest account of what worked, what didn’t, and what I’m carrying forward into the next month.
April felt faster and longer than a normal month, if that makes any sense at all. It was a month of restructuring, rebranding, and quiet focus. I published a couple of new sites, rebranded my portfolio to actually reflect the work I’ve been doing, and launched this blog as a place to track all the chaos that flows in and out of my brain on any given day.
It was a full month. And I’m glad it happened.
What I’m Learning: PMP Edition
I’ve been deep in PMP studying, and what’s been working is a combination of Andrew Ramdayal’s Udemy course, his YouTube channel, and Prepsaret’s mock exam questions.
Andrew is a genuinely good instructor. He breaks concepts down clearly, shares practical shortcuts for the exam, and makes it easy to stay committed through the long haul. What’s stuck with me most isn’t a framework or a formula. It’s a mindset shift he comes back to repeatedly: project management isn’t about managing projects or things. It’s about managing people.
At the center of that is the concept of servant leadership.
Leading servantly means taking yourself out of the equation and putting the needs of your team, your organization, and your project first. That sounds straightforward until you’re someone who’s already carrying a lot, doing most of it alone, and wondering when the reward catches up to the effort. I think anyone who has ever run their own business or taken on independent work knows exactly what that tension feels like. I’m still sitting with it.
What I’m Using: Tools That Are Actually Earning Their Keep
As a freelancer, the right tools aren’t a luxury. They’re infrastructure. Here’s what made the cut in April.
Notion keeps me organized and houses all of my freelancing templates, processes, and working documents in one place. It’s become the operational backbone of how I run things day to day.
Notesnook is my digital notebook, and it lives as a desktop application on my PC. No browser tab needed, works with or without WiFi, and at three to four dollars a month it’s one of the most underrated tools in my stack. Sometimes the simplest solution is the right one.
Moxie handles everything on the client side. Contracts, client portals, proposals, payments, time tracking. All of it in one place for twenty-five dollars a month. If you’re freelancing and you’re still piecing this together across multiple platforms, I’d genuinely recommend taking a look.
What I’m Taking Into May
Just go for it.
Even when it’s messy.
Even when it’s not perfect.
Just do it.
Because it will be messy. Things will go wrong. But the wrong turns are where the real lessons live. They’re what keep you growing and what keep you moving.
That’s the mindset I’m carrying into the rest of this year. The right things are coming. The right doors, the right people, the next opportunity. I’m ready for it. And I’m pushing forward until I see it.