Note from Tucker

Part of losing a job is losing a routine. You lose a whole mini universe of routines. Since losing my job over a week ago, I started feeling this.

My old habits disappeared: checking an email, checking a chat, checking messages, feeling the pressure to plan and email, attending meetings, and making documents. All of it vanished. Along with the routine of a bi-weekly paycheck, too — the worst part of losing a job routine.

But that pressure in the brain, almost perched on my shoulders and in my arms, still exists. I feel my routine still in my body. Like a phantom limb, it feels like a phantom routine. It hovers there.

Much of this is nice! To be free of a obligations! To have free time! But a whole bit of day is gone. Especially my afternoon and evening hours when my show went on the radio. Although, one of the greatest silver linings of being laid off from a radio show that ran in the evening, is that I have those evenings hours back. I can now cook dinner and be with my daughter in that timeframe.

Now I can make a new schedule. I fired up my task app and pulled out paper. I made a list of everything I want to do and need to do.

Most notably, I added 2 daily hours of getting in touch with people. Call it, “contact time.” I send emails, texts, write letters. Some are thank yous, some have questions, others are just hellos to old friends.

Here’s the adventure prompt: Have you lost a routine? Would you like to ditch a piece of your routine? Sit down and write out something you can do everyday: write creatively. Send out messages. Write letters. Garden. Go for a walk. Bike. Set aside time to plan your week. Fill the old routine with something new. Unlike a phantom limb, you can grow and regenerate something new that can fully replace what once was there.

Resources

• If you’re a creative person, a writer in particular, I highly suggest Jane Friedman. Her advice and wisdom might change your life. She can help you with creative endeavors and most importantly business information of being a writer. You don’t need a MFA, you need to read Jane Friedman.

Stuff I made this week:

• A new website! I’ve restored tuckerlegerski.com This will be my website going forward. I’m still making tweaks, but it is up and humming.

• My podcast is dropping on June 30th! Book Stuff’s first episode will be out. Listen on Apple or Spotify. I’m making this in partnership with the lovely people at Chicago Review of Books. Check them out to find your next great read and learn more about what’s going on in literature.