Kitcher’s Café is a monthly newsletter where I share a hybrid of personal and business updates. If you’d like to be the first to receive this monthly update, join the list here.
Dear Friend,
It's only just the beginning of fall but already I feel that this may be a season of "wintering" for me. With an unexpected death in the family, and accidentally biting off more than I could chew with volunteer activities and extracurriculars, I'm feeling a bit worn down.
My chosen theme of the year is "radical self-care." I admit that I slipped a bit, but noticed the slippage much earlier than past me would have. I am also prioritizing artistic pursuits (as you'll see below) which means I'll be dropping something else in order to make space for me.
I take the term "wintering" from author Katherine May who wrote "Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat During Difficult Times." So if you see a little less of me in different areas this season, it's just my way of managing my energy. It's ok to change your mind, and it's ok to back away from things that are no longer a great fit. I will follow my own advice and be mindful about which things I keep and which I decide to let go of this fall.
Austin Kleon's Advice in Action
From the books I mentioned last month, I've created multiple spaces around the home that are designated for analog-only vs. digital activities. We currently have two of each. As you can probably tell by now I'm a little obsessed with desks. These are our two analog stations.
I've also signed myself up for a watercolor class, which I've been wanting to take for some time. Although my art is pretty unrecognizable, in two sessions I've already seen some improvement. And I am embarrassed to share such beginner work, but I will take Austin's advice and "show my work" even though it is all still very much a work in progress.
Debunking Productivity - EDSAD Framework
Last week I did a talk with Nest by Revel called "Debunking Productivity." A blog post will be coming out soon with the same content but the gist of the talk was how the word "productive" is not effective because it indicates volume without taking into account value.
Instead, when going through your day ask yourself what activity would be "constructive" to your desired outcomes. Reframing with this word opens up more possibilities than the more narrow definition of "productive," even though Webster's dictionary considers them to be synonyms.
You can also use the EDSAD framework to make sure that the activities you're doing are useful. EDSAD stands for Eliminate, Delay, Simplify, Automate, and Delegate. Can your project, task, or process be improved by any of the above?
Grandma's Home! + A Neighborly Stitch Night
When Spotify made its recent mix suggestions to me, I knew I had to fully embrace my old-lady Lana-ness when it gave me a mix called, "Grandma's Home."
So in the full spirit, I hosted a stitch night with friends and neighbors! It was a fun opportunity to get items out of the "repair bin" or start something new while sewing (or knitting, etc.) and chatting. Get-togethers don't have to be grand to be good. (Two good books around this idea are "The Turquoise Table" and "The Art of Gathering.")
Project Management and Social Media
Two new work tools I'm using are Notion for project management and content management, and Sked Social for helping clients schedule out social media posts. Notion is a bit on the complex side, but can be great for people who like flexibility in their tools which can do a lot of things in one. Sked Social has been one of the easier social media planning tools I've used and is pretty good so far.
Have any other tools you live by?
Tracking Books and Shows
One personal project I'm taking on for my own sanity is consolidating the many lists I have for reading and watching material. I had two old Excel sheets with books I'd read, an Amazon wish list, a bookshop.org wish list, and a libro.fm wish list... I've decided to combine them all into GoodReads.com for my reading and am using JustWatch.com for all movies and shows.
How do you keep track of your read and watch lists?
That's another month over in Kitcher-land. How are you? Are you wintering? Feeling invigorated? Overwhelmed or on track?
Until next time,
Lana