On increasing focus in my career

This post was published on March 13, 2026

Note: this is not the most well-structured blog post I’ve written, but rather a recording of my not (yet) completely organized thoughts.

Last week, I was at the Test Automation Days conference, both as a member of the program committee, and as a last-minute substitute workshop facilitator. As is typically the case with conferences, I had a lot of conversations, catching up with people I’ve met before, as well as getting to know people I haven’t. One of the questions that invariably comes up in these conversations is

“So, what are you up to these days?”

I typically start my answer with a lame attempt at humour by saying “well, do you have half an hour?”. Poor jokes aside, it is true, though: I am working on a lot of different things these days. So much so that I’m sometimes feeling like I am spreading myself a little thin. For example, at the moment of writing this I am involved in

working part time with a consulting client here in the Netherlands
running workshops and training courses for several clients
in the final stages of a corporate mentoring engagement
wrapping up the creation of a video course for a new platform
talking about and preparing for several public speaking gigs
reviewing submissions for several conferences

And then there’s the writing, the reading, the watching videos, the conversations to help out fellow testers, and more. Now, I enjoy doing all of these things (well, except for editing videos of me talking, that is painful), but it is a lot. In fact, I think I would be better off doing fewer things, going deeper on those, spending more time on fewer things and ultimately, raising the quality of the work I deliver.

Which means that something, or rather several things, will have to go. First on the list: creating video courses. I’m absolutely going to finish the one I’m working on now, but that will be the last one I do. Creating video content takes a lot of time, and in all honesty, the return on investment isn’t great. Plus, while I enjoy seeing the result go live, I could do without the process of writing transcripts and recording and then editing video. Did I tell you I despise editing video footage of me talking already?

As of today, my main focus will be on further building my training business. Why training? Well, for several reasons. First of all, it’s the kind of work I like doing best. That in itself is reason enough, but there’s more… It also gives me the most flexibility, and that’s something I’ll really need in the near future, but more on that in a moment. Another reason for focusing on training is that it puts me in front of lots of different people, teams and companies, which is a great way to build my network. And finally, and as I’m running a business, not insignificantly, running training courses, especially in-company, also pays the best, by a long shot.

I will keep working on some of the other activities, but it looks like I’ll have to practice saying ‘no’ a little more often. For example, I enjoy reviewing conference submissions, but it takes time I could spend on other things, too.

I am going to continue my current consulting engagement, because it is interesting and there’s plenty of opportunity to run in-company workshops, but it’s not very likely I’ll take on additional consulting gigs in the near future.

If a corporate mentoring gig comes up, I’ll happily take it, but I am not going to go out of my way to find one.

The public speaking will stay as well, but here too, I will consider and take what comes my way, instead of actively pursuing speaking gigs at meetups and conferences, especially those abroad. I do have a few in-company speaking gigs coming up in the next couple of months, as well as a keynote at an online conference. I enjoy speaking, so I will continue doing talks, but again, pretty much only when I am invited to do so.

Finally, I will keep spending some time every week reading and writing, reading because I need to and want to stay on top of what is happening, writing because it is both a great way to organize my thoughts and to share those same thoughts with the world. Depending on opportunities, public speaking will be part of this, too.

In short, the only part of my business and service offerings that I will actively build and grow is my training business. What I’m looking for is spending most of my working time preparing for or running training sessions, with a few hours a week spent on outreach, coordination, and other logistical matters that come with running a training business. Ideally, running these sessions will also give me the opportunity to visit different places in the world, something I am able to do already, but I would love to go to more places, especially outside Europe (most training work I do is within the EU right now).

If all goes well, and that’s what I’m slowly working towards and have been working towards for a while now, that will leave a decent amount of time during the week for things outside of work. Most notably, for cycling.

I have always enjoyed cycling, but until recently, I only really brought out my racing bike every now and then. A few months ago, that changed, and I am now working my way towards riding ever longer distances (I’ll never be a fast rider, and that’s fine). I’ll ride my first century next month. In May, I hope to complete the cycling version of one of the most famous Dutch sporting events of all time. If that goes well, I have my eyes set on a much longer event in 2027.

The only problem with cycling, and training for long-distance cycling events in particular, is that it takes time, a LOT of time. I go out for a bike ride three times a week, with my shortest rides being around 2 hours. A typical weekend ride, right now, is 5-6 hours, and that will only grow as I get closer to the events I would like to complete.

I don’t want to spend all my hours outside of work on a bike, and neither does my family. So, I decided to slowly start changing the way I work and the way I spend my time to make room for spending hours on my bike. That, to me, is the ‘freedom’ I talk about when I tell others why I am an independent consultant.

Anyway, ramblings over. If you’re looking to bring in an experienced trainer to help your team grow their test automation skills, let’s talk. I’d be happy to discuss options.