It should be obvious by now that I love making charts, graphs, and diagrams. As a Valentine’s Day present, I give to you a reproduction of a mood chart that lived on the Banks’ family refrigerator for many months last winter. My wife and I found it quite helpful.

A little back story: the winter of 2011/2012 was a stressful time in my household. My wife was finishing her first semester of business school (which was VERY intense), our daughters were not yet 1 and 3, no one was sleeping more than a few hours in a row, and I was running Shoegnome as a part time endeavor while also working a thankless day job. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you remember similar dark days of no sleep, no energy, and no time… Emotions were high and tempers were essentially non-existent. Eventually school eased up for my wife, I quit my job, and our daughters oscillated back to being more cute than trouble. Minnesota Winter became Minnesota Spring and everyone finally started sleeping more.

Life is much happier now, though I’m reminded this week how every February in Minnesota I get a bit depressed and forget that there are seasons when I don’t feel constantly cold and cooped up. This chart, well… I’ll stop talking; you either get it or you don’t.

Since this blog is about being an architect, I should connect it back to some common themes. That’s easy. Print two copies of this chart. One for home and one for the office. The work chart will help you keep some perspective as you learn BIM or other new skills. Oh and when you’re living in the thrall of this chart, the grammar of it is 100% perfect. Try saying your mood out loud.

Additional note that’s not for my readers:

Carolyn, Madeleine, and Phaedra I love you three all so much. What came after this chart got pretty wonderful, didn’t it? And that was just the start.

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