S P A C E
I'm making space in my life for creativity and connection through live classes and intentional decluttering.
Hey!
Every few months I make space.
I only spotted the pattern recently.
This is how it goes:
I subscribe, read, listen, watch as much as I can.
And then it becomes too much.
So, I stop.
Unsubscribe.
Opt out.
Sometimes it’s around a specific topic—like AI, marketing, or animation.
Sometimes its more general—like I’m just seeking stimulus and input and inspiration.
And it’s not just information I do this with.
It’s with people.
It’s with physical space.
It’s with physical objects.
We recently hosted a doodle party at our studio for Kor Water. I collaborated with two other Amsterdam artists on 96 custom water bottles. Damn fun. Lots of work. Awesome.
We had to make space in our studio for the event (this feels like a metaphor for life).
And afterwards, it gave us an opportunity to intentionally reorganise the studio—to make physical space for what we wanted more of.
I’m now sitting closer to the window—sunlight is good.
We have a lot of desk space for drawing and painting.
And it allowed me to iterate on my filming rig setup. It’s the best its ever been. And it takes up the least amount of space.
The rig is perfect for live classes.
Which is what I’m making space for in my life right now.
It’s part of my new theory I’m testing out. Which goes like this:
I love doing stuff live—classes, workshops, keynotes, podcasts. It connects me to the magic.
I’m more authentic when I’m live.
I can connect with the people that consume my content when I’m live.
I can still create content on demand (recordings and edits) from the live sessions.
I did this with my first solo live class a few weeks ago—a class all about Bullet Journaling—a powerful and flexible productivity method you practice in a notebook. Check it out here.
We normally make space in order to fill it with something again.
Maybe space to breathe.
Maybe space to work on a side hustle.
Or space to learn a new language.
Or to look after a new baby.
Sometimes we don’t know what’s going to fill the space we make.
And that’s okay.
Trust your intuition.
Space is always good.
Whether it’s digital space, attention space, physical space, emotional space, time space.
A few places I’ve made space recently are my email inbox, my subscriptions, my studio, my rig, my storage room, my bedside table, my calendar, my interests, my Discord servers, and my ongoing projects.
It’s like pruning.
You need to cut some branches so that other branches can grow and flourish.
A quick past, present, future:
I did that fun Kor Water collab.
I’ve been creating moments on Remx. If you’re an artist, give it a go. It’s like Instagram, except people collect your moments—whatever you choose them to be—and you can download the email addresses of your collectors.
I’m live with Alina Gutierrez Mejia on Wednesday for an episode of The TapTapKaboom podcast.
I’m chatting about the intersect between doodling and mental health at a high-school on Thursday.
Rich