[AE.Personal] The Gentle Art of Not Hustling
So I mentioned yesterday at the outset that I've been working on some new work/life balance and productivity hacks, which I elaborated on a bit over on Twitter, specifically talking about my use of the Pomodoro technique.
That thread begins here.
So in this newsletter I alluded to some changes I’ve been trying out with my routine to try to get some kind of work-life balance, though it’s really more a matter of focus and motivation.
https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1434894741586460673
I also said that you'd know it was going well if I updated this newsletter throughout the week.
This morning I woke up feeling like I'd tempted fate because my head was completely empty of thoughts and full of concrete fog. I went to bed Sunday night knowing what I was going to write about Monday morning, so it was easy to make a resolution that the Erin Endeavor would be the first thing I would do to kick off my workday each morning.
I had a plan for what I would do the rest of the week, on the days where I hadn't gone to bed with an idea to sleep on: set my first Pomodoro timer and open Google news and the Twitter trending page and see what suggests itself.
Today I did that and... it's not that there's nothing to write about. There's no end of things to write about, and no beginning of words I'm able to write about them.
I suppose it's a necessary counterpoint to any talk about tools and techniques and tricks with timers or journals or outlines or affirmations: some days the well is dry and the fields are fallow, and that has to be okay, because even if it's not okay it's still going to happen all the same.
During the weeks when I was practicing these focusing techniques, my success came in large part because I gave myself permission to work on what I felt like working on. Part of making a living as a creative online -- which for my money is making a living by being creative, online -- is having more than one thing going at a time. But when everything you do is a hustle, you're always hustling and nothing feels relaxing.
Today is a day for being gentle with myself and my words. If they're shy I'm going to let them be shy. They will come when they come. I hope you are all able to be gentle with yourselves today, and that you are as gentle with yourself as you can be.