Announcements

• Dr. Katy Peplin and I are running our workshop: “Will This Work for Me? Experimental Approaches to Scholarly Life” on Friday, October 16, 2026. Learn more and sign up here.

• Working on your reappointment materials and feeling overwhelmed? Trying to get those publications out before tenure? Is your advisor emailing you again to ask where your draft is? I’m accepting new Success & Accountability Coaching clients this fall. Let’s work together to get your work done while keeping your well-being intact.

If you listened to last week’s Honing In episode with numerologist and writer bee scolnick, you know that I’m excited to be newly 40. bee and I talked about the transition of a big birthday and how it can be a portal into decision-making, particularly around how we want to spend our time and energy.

One of my favorite moments in the episode is when I pull up a blog inspired by the work of Sarah Knight that I wrote in 2019: Giving a Fuck is a Personal Resource. Today I’ll be sharing an updated response to that blog from my freshly 40 vantage point.

Sarah Knight, author of some of my favorite personal productivity books, swears like a sailor and is witty as hell. In her breakout book The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck, Knight considers giving a fuck to be an expendable resource. We expend our “fucks” when we spend our money, time, or energy on things, therefore depleting our “fuck budget.”

If we’re spending our “fuck bucks” (lol) willy-nilly, by, for example, saying yes when we want to say no and getting locked into a time/energy/money-consuming activity, then we’re going to end up exhausted and resentful.

In 2019, on my second listen to the audiobook (narrated by charming Knight herself), I wrote a list of things I wanted and no longer wanted to give a fuck about, and I thought returning to it would be a perfect way to ring in this new decade of my one wild and precious life. This birthday feels empowering and full of opportunity to be more intentional about where I spend my time, energy, and money. Most of the things on my “Give a Fuck” and “Don’t Give a Fuck” lists from 2019 still ring true, but some have shifted. I still give a fuck about being a good partner/friend/pet parent and about art and creating (interestingly, I ended up making a podcast where I interview creative thinkers!). I still don’t give a fuck about having kids or shaving my legs, but over time I’ve become more interested in exercise and music, which I previously felt meh about. I invite you to revisit my blog post to develop your own give a fuck/don’t give a fuck lists, and keep reading after the paywall break below to see my updated lists for 2026.

Today’s newsletter is one of my quarterly bonus posts for paid subscribers, but I’ll be back in everyone’s inboxes next Wednesday with a free newsletter for all. Until then, may you spend your fuck budget on the things that matter most to you!

Take care and talk soon,
Dr. Kate

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