Hi Neko, since I retired from work I also don't write in my journal as much, I channeled my anxiety from work into it so it must be positive in that sense.
We moved and all my familiar things and dear objects aren't to hand so I get obsessed with finding them, and then realising I don't need them.
I find myself thinking of my friends more and have dedicated one morning every week for coffee and chat with my best friend.
I am writing more creative stuff than anti anxiety affirmations.
I record songs nearly every day for my own consumption on my analog recorder.
The fone is a worry to me but also it allows me to keep an ear out for you.
I listened to your book on audible and Jenny loved it as we drove to Melbourne.
I'm gardening and refurbished our fish pond.
I am getting more OCD ish but life is so beautiful and I feel privileged and grateful.
Every good muso I follow gives me tracks to look up.
Just got back from tour and I’m up at 5am reading this. Trying to resist thrift shopping on my phone or googling how to keep trays of food warm with tea lights (thinking of husband’s upcoming bday party also this month like Jeff). I also have an embroidery project undone in a basket. Also thinking about listening to Lady Chatterly’s Lover read by a British lady in the 80s. But I’m also looking around at my home city with new eyes thinking “if I wanna be tourist here, then I’m gonna goddammit” Xo
Years ago, my boyfriend put a small journal of 200something pages in my Christmas stocking. I called it the Fortune Cookie Journal because at the top of each page was a fortune cookie fortune. I am not good a keeping a journal. My science background makes every attempt sound like my lab notebook. But every Saturday morning, I'd sit with this journal and use it as a creative writing prompt. Each page contains one mostly unfinished fictional story based on the prompt at the top of the page. I finished the journal last year and the boyfriend could not find a replacement. So he made one by buying a journal and then handwriting specific quotes on every other page. I have more creative writing space in this journal and my little stories stretch over multiple Saturdays now. I am just beginning to wake up from my winter blues nap, which I think would be so much worse without this Saturday ritual. It's a small thing that keeps flame going.
Neko this is all so relatable. I’ve had chunks of solo free time lately as a self-employed musician and music teacher and what starts as a free-feeling “Ooh, what to do with my time? Practice some guitar? Or some piano! Or I could do this organization project. Or I could write! Or I could get out some art supplies! Or move my body… do some yoga! Go for a bike ride. Call a friend. Get out into nature. Mend those clothes. Run those errands….” then morphs into the feeling that every aspect of my self and my interests is lacking and in need of attention, and I end up frozen and in the scroll. The news is not helpful and it makes sense that a lot of us are feeling frozen up. This solidarity does help though…. Hello, I’m a fellow creative person who is addicted to my phone. Here’s to fighting the demons today and making it into some more healthful brain space.
My secret (one weird trick?... sorry, jk) to getting things done is prepare the tools/pieces/plans i need for the task... and then walk away for a couple hours or so. Sometime a couple days.
But then let the possibly slightly manic feeling die and instead slowly do the grunt work. Which becomes the joyous chore.
I like the idea of having prepped projects you can easily pick up and then leave. Having an art studio has been a wonderful gift to myself in this regard--it's the first time in my life (age 56) that I've had a space that is only mine with a locking door. My go-to activity after work when I don't feel inspired but I want my day to have "mattered" or added up to something is doing a one-page, hand-written "X-Page" journal format invented by that comic artist genius, Lynda Barry. You draw an X on a piece of paper (I use a spiral bound notebook with lined paper), and label three quadrants: SAW, HEARD, DID. In these you list elements of your day. In the fourth, draw a picture of yourself engaged in an activity of your day. I love this process and I love reading those I've made over the years.
I especially love the idea of doing this after work. I'm an intermittent journaler at best, and the chasm between work and creativity has grown vaster in recent years. Thank you for this idea!
I think about this stuff all the time! Lately what's worked is refusing to write on a screen, and doing it all in a notebook instead, which I keep in places where I'm prone to lazing out. Instead I pick it up and write. I also have a weekly list I exchange with an artist friend that I look at to remind myself what little art to do when I have a few minutes.
Neko, do you know Oliver Burkeman? He is so good at talking about the panic of free time. The posts about Toxic Preconditions and the Unproductivity Challenge especially.
Wow, Neko...this is so timely. I began my day today, after meditating and reading a short teaching by Pema Chodron, by writing a letter to my cousin, who I love, who I realized while writing is my oldest friend. I feel both calm and overjoyed, and trying, per my mindfulness practice, to just be centered with it. And also thinking about ways to keep that depression monster at bay, or give it a comfy bed on which to rest its eyes. I thought I might make a running list of things that I can do that make me feel full, things that, while my mind attacks itself, I never seem to think of because I'm embroiled in wallowing :) your short list of joyful and constructive practices is giving me the juice to start my own longer one, one that I can consult before the monster sets its teeth in my lean brain tissue.
Also, I suppose it may be helpful to give my depression a more endearing persona or character than "monster." It is me, after all...
As someone who has both ADHD and Autism, I can relate to the struggle of trying to find the desire to start a new project or continue an old one. It comes in waves for me. They'll be times where I'll find myself back in the groove of writing or researching or rolling through an artists back catalog for interview prep one moment, and the very next I don't want to do anything at all.
Can relate. I tell myself I’ll do the “fun” thing/project once I’m done all my work things/responsibilities but then, spoiler alert, those are never done, and even when they’re suspiciously almost done, I tell myself I enjoy my work, so why would I even need to do a separate, other, non-work “fun” thing? (I realize this is all fucked.)
As for making things easier to start: I schedule it, like on my calendar. Or if it’s something creative, I find a class or group to join for that thing so then I HAVE to go/do it because I’ve committed to showing up. It works. And I usually get to meet cool people too so win win.
I have this confluence of a growing collection of small, lidded tins from instant coffee and a lot of wallpaper scraps from my office renovation. I covered a few of these tins with the wallpaper to hold some Christmas gifts that I handed out this year. It doesn’t even really qualify as a craft project, but it brings me great pleasure to arrange the little template I made on the beautiful pattern of the wallpaper to get just the right flower and plant parts interview for each one. I don’t really have a job for them, or people to give them to at the moment, no bridal shower or baby shower or other such nonsense where something like this might find a home. I’ve decided that doesn’t matter. It makes me happy to find a new tin or container that might be good for this project. I think, eventually,a purpose will find me. Or it won’t.
Oh Neko! Not the greatest time to be alive, we have each other there’s more good than bad. I’ve lived through worse times. Make the good life you live an example.
"What to do" anxiety sent me to my crayons and coloring books when I was younger (and I don't mean when I was a child; I'm talking when I was in my early 40's) because you get to accomplish something, but it's not hard. It's just soothing + meditative + making aesthetic decisions that are very low-stakes. I want to get back to that. I need a brighter lamp for my bedroom first; the darkness is why I've reached for my phone or laptop instead.
I feel this. The bit about every moment being a pristine page, the guilt of not honouring it properly... My journal hacks are many, starting with using a pen you really love: I'm into fountain pens, which I fill with carefully chosen colours (I've been on a green kick for some years); I also love a warm-toned paper, unlined, so I use hardcover sketchbooks... I carry this kit with me at all times. I often write on public transport or in cafés. (No smartphone so I'm free from the grip of tech when I'm out.)
Anyway this is my preference, I'm not saying others should do the same exactly, but that for a start you should choose tools that give aesthetic pleasure in & of themselves.
In terms of not starting from absolute scratch with creative work, I like working in series, or with some of the rules already decided beforehand.
Also, if I’m totally stuck, I often tap into the spirit of randomness, wandering on the beach or through the city to see what I can see, hear, or find.
When I die, my epitaph will say "she died doing what she loved - making lists of things she thought she would get to."
Hi Neko, since I retired from work I also don't write in my journal as much, I channeled my anxiety from work into it so it must be positive in that sense.
We moved and all my familiar things and dear objects aren't to hand so I get obsessed with finding them, and then realising I don't need them.
I find myself thinking of my friends more and have dedicated one morning every week for coffee and chat with my best friend.
I am writing more creative stuff than anti anxiety affirmations.
I record songs nearly every day for my own consumption on my analog recorder.
The fone is a worry to me but also it allows me to keep an ear out for you.
I listened to your book on audible and Jenny loved it as we drove to Melbourne.
I'm gardening and refurbished our fish pond.
I am getting more OCD ish but life is so beautiful and I feel privileged and grateful.
Every good muso I follow gives me tracks to look up.
And reading more, especially indigenous writers.
Also learning hieroglyphics is a good challenge.
Thank you for posting.
Love from Adelaide.
This is the retirement I dream of.
It is early days but it feels good so far. 🙏
Just got back from tour and I’m up at 5am reading this. Trying to resist thrift shopping on my phone or googling how to keep trays of food warm with tea lights (thinking of husband’s upcoming bday party also this month like Jeff). I also have an embroidery project undone in a basket. Also thinking about listening to Lady Chatterly’s Lover read by a British lady in the 80s. But I’m also looking around at my home city with new eyes thinking “if I wanna be tourist here, then I’m gonna goddammit” Xo
YES!
How can anyone focus on a project when you have a dog in dire need of belly rubs? Coco, that belly is divine.
Years ago, my boyfriend put a small journal of 200something pages in my Christmas stocking. I called it the Fortune Cookie Journal because at the top of each page was a fortune cookie fortune. I am not good a keeping a journal. My science background makes every attempt sound like my lab notebook. But every Saturday morning, I'd sit with this journal and use it as a creative writing prompt. Each page contains one mostly unfinished fictional story based on the prompt at the top of the page. I finished the journal last year and the boyfriend could not find a replacement. So he made one by buying a journal and then handwriting specific quotes on every other page. I have more creative writing space in this journal and my little stories stretch over multiple Saturdays now. I am just beginning to wake up from my winter blues nap, which I think would be so much worse without this Saturday ritual. It's a small thing that keeps flame going.
Neko this is all so relatable. I’ve had chunks of solo free time lately as a self-employed musician and music teacher and what starts as a free-feeling “Ooh, what to do with my time? Practice some guitar? Or some piano! Or I could do this organization project. Or I could write! Or I could get out some art supplies! Or move my body… do some yoga! Go for a bike ride. Call a friend. Get out into nature. Mend those clothes. Run those errands….” then morphs into the feeling that every aspect of my self and my interests is lacking and in need of attention, and I end up frozen and in the scroll. The news is not helpful and it makes sense that a lot of us are feeling frozen up. This solidarity does help though…. Hello, I’m a fellow creative person who is addicted to my phone. Here’s to fighting the demons today and making it into some more healthful brain space.
My secret (one weird trick?... sorry, jk) to getting things done is prepare the tools/pieces/plans i need for the task... and then walk away for a couple hours or so. Sometime a couple days.
But then let the possibly slightly manic feeling die and instead slowly do the grunt work. Which becomes the joyous chore.
I like the idea of having prepped projects you can easily pick up and then leave. Having an art studio has been a wonderful gift to myself in this regard--it's the first time in my life (age 56) that I've had a space that is only mine with a locking door. My go-to activity after work when I don't feel inspired but I want my day to have "mattered" or added up to something is doing a one-page, hand-written "X-Page" journal format invented by that comic artist genius, Lynda Barry. You draw an X on a piece of paper (I use a spiral bound notebook with lined paper), and label three quadrants: SAW, HEARD, DID. In these you list elements of your day. In the fourth, draw a picture of yourself engaged in an activity of your day. I love this process and I love reading those I've made over the years.
I especially love the idea of doing this after work. I'm an intermittent journaler at best, and the chasm between work and creativity has grown vaster in recent years. Thank you for this idea!
Lynda Barry 4 lyf!
Her work is a gift to all!
I think about this stuff all the time! Lately what's worked is refusing to write on a screen, and doing it all in a notebook instead, which I keep in places where I'm prone to lazing out. Instead I pick it up and write. I also have a weekly list I exchange with an artist friend that I look at to remind myself what little art to do when I have a few minutes.
Neko, do you know Oliver Burkeman? He is so good at talking about the panic of free time. The posts about Toxic Preconditions and the Unproductivity Challenge especially.
https://ckarchive.com/b/wvu2hghkkz6xgb9r552rqtn0grxxxh8
https://ckarchive.com/b/zlughnh4mlwwqu7qrr9qehw09qg00c6
Wow, Neko...this is so timely. I began my day today, after meditating and reading a short teaching by Pema Chodron, by writing a letter to my cousin, who I love, who I realized while writing is my oldest friend. I feel both calm and overjoyed, and trying, per my mindfulness practice, to just be centered with it. And also thinking about ways to keep that depression monster at bay, or give it a comfy bed on which to rest its eyes. I thought I might make a running list of things that I can do that make me feel full, things that, while my mind attacks itself, I never seem to think of because I'm embroiled in wallowing :) your short list of joyful and constructive practices is giving me the juice to start my own longer one, one that I can consult before the monster sets its teeth in my lean brain tissue.
Also, I suppose it may be helpful to give my depression a more endearing persona or character than "monster." It is me, after all...
As someone who has both ADHD and Autism, I can relate to the struggle of trying to find the desire to start a new project or continue an old one. It comes in waves for me. They'll be times where I'll find myself back in the groove of writing or researching or rolling through an artists back catalog for interview prep one moment, and the very next I don't want to do anything at all.
I'm very excited for the announcement tomorrow!
Can relate. I tell myself I’ll do the “fun” thing/project once I’m done all my work things/responsibilities but then, spoiler alert, those are never done, and even when they’re suspiciously almost done, I tell myself I enjoy my work, so why would I even need to do a separate, other, non-work “fun” thing? (I realize this is all fucked.)
As for making things easier to start: I schedule it, like on my calendar. Or if it’s something creative, I find a class or group to join for that thing so then I HAVE to go/do it because I’ve committed to showing up. It works. And I usually get to meet cool people too so win win.
I have this confluence of a growing collection of small, lidded tins from instant coffee and a lot of wallpaper scraps from my office renovation. I covered a few of these tins with the wallpaper to hold some Christmas gifts that I handed out this year. It doesn’t even really qualify as a craft project, but it brings me great pleasure to arrange the little template I made on the beautiful pattern of the wallpaper to get just the right flower and plant parts interview for each one. I don’t really have a job for them, or people to give them to at the moment, no bridal shower or baby shower or other such nonsense where something like this might find a home. I’ve decided that doesn’t matter. It makes me happy to find a new tin or container that might be good for this project. I think, eventually,a purpose will find me. Or it won’t.
Oh Neko! Not the greatest time to be alive, we have each other there’s more good than bad. I’ve lived through worse times. Make the good life you live an example.
"What to do" anxiety sent me to my crayons and coloring books when I was younger (and I don't mean when I was a child; I'm talking when I was in my early 40's) because you get to accomplish something, but it's not hard. It's just soothing + meditative + making aesthetic decisions that are very low-stakes. I want to get back to that. I need a brighter lamp for my bedroom first; the darkness is why I've reached for my phone or laptop instead.
I feel this. The bit about every moment being a pristine page, the guilt of not honouring it properly... My journal hacks are many, starting with using a pen you really love: I'm into fountain pens, which I fill with carefully chosen colours (I've been on a green kick for some years); I also love a warm-toned paper, unlined, so I use hardcover sketchbooks... I carry this kit with me at all times. I often write on public transport or in cafés. (No smartphone so I'm free from the grip of tech when I'm out.)
Anyway this is my preference, I'm not saying others should do the same exactly, but that for a start you should choose tools that give aesthetic pleasure in & of themselves.
In terms of not starting from absolute scratch with creative work, I like working in series, or with some of the rules already decided beforehand.
Also, if I’m totally stuck, I often tap into the spirit of randomness, wandering on the beach or through the city to see what I can see, hear, or find.