These October weeks wind up feeling very full. The good news is that it’s Friday. We made it! And it looks like sunny skies this weekend, which is good for various planned outdoor events. My 6-year-old is going to various things as a Squid Games guard. Yes, this is wildly inappropriate for a 6-year-old but he was so insistent and by kid #5…I am picking my battles. (Kid #3 will be going to various things as a green fairy and she now has a lovely manicure to match!)
Content this week: Over at Before Breakfast, I interviewed Roy Schwartz, co-founder of Axious and co-author of Simplify, about making life more streamlined. The book is pitched as figuring out how to manage life and work in the age of AI and it has some interesting ideas, so please check that out.
In the shorter episodes, I talked about how you can “Just aim for 90 minutes” — a tip from the Ultraproductive interview the previous week. For many people, a solid 90 minutes of focused work during the day would make a big difference in productivity, and 90 minutes is more doable than, say, 3 hours. I talked about how “You need a side quest” and how to “Add people to everyday life.”
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about “A smarter way to think about your weekends” — my formula for providing a little structure without a weekend feeling too busy. I also have an essay called “You chose this” — a little mantra that might help with the less-fun parts of otherwise fun jobs (or any other activity).
Behind the paywall I wrote about “How not to drop the ball” — my strategy for dealing with various projects that aren’t urgent, but need to get done at some point. I’m happy to report that this month I got my new drivers license, got my car (!), filed my taxes (Ok, that did have a hard deadline), and I’m hoping to book the 6-year-old’s birthday party shortly. I did not take my ring to get re-sized because mysteriously it fit for a day, so then I’m like…huh. Could I just try to replicate those conditions? Stay tuned (I’m sure everyone is very excited for an update on this project).
Did you know that I write a weekly newsletter? Every Saturday morning I send an essay on time related topics to about 30,000 people’s inboxes. (Once a month I send to my larger list that is about 60,000 people). You can sign up by entering your email on the box on my home page.
And if you enjoy my writing, please pick up a copy of my new book, Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance. Book critic KJ Dell’Antonia called it “her best yet.” I enjoyed writing it!
And finally, as promised, here’s another sonnet from my 2-lines-a-day writing project. This one is called “October morning.”
I catch a hint of smoke — someone has burned
a wood stack overnight. The morning air
is crisp and cool, as if the seasons turned
quite suddenly. I turn a corner where
the asters bloom, this blue amid the gold.
The dogwood’s red is bright against the gray
October sky. The swollen clouds will hold
their rain for now, or might just blow away?
The world is full of magic, I believe —
a little more each day. The pumpkin grows
from seed. The bees, all autumn-drunk, will weave
around the dahlia’s petals. I compose
this poem, but I know a thousand words
cannot quite match the caw of circling birds.
