This is going to be another doozy of a weekend, but with a lot of fun things planned. At first I worried it might feel like a bit much, but as I planned the weekend, I noted where my actual downtime is occurring and it isn’t zero, so that’s always good. I got some books from the library, and I’m working on a new fall-themed puzzle. I like to go into a weekend with some intentions for my downtime!
We are only a few weeks away from November, which is often “NaNoWriMo” in my mind…I was sad to see that the National Novel Writing Month organization is no more — it disbanded this spring — but I am still thinking about doing my own version of the challenge: write a novel draft during the 30 days of November. Is anyone else thinking of doing this? To that end, I’ve been spending a few minutes a few times per week during October brainstorming and then outlining a novel. The concept that we’ve only got 2500 books (or 2600, if you listened to the version on the Happier podcast) left to read may figure in! There may also be sonnets. And there will be epistolary elements because WHY NOT.
I’m also pondering my year-long project for next year. I finished Anna Karenina in September by reading one chapter a day. I’m still trotting along on Beethoven, listening to my selection each day. I pondered doing Mozart next year — I’ve enjoyed having a listening project and I have never been totally fond of Mozart, but possibly that’s because I don’t know his work as well as I know, say, Bach. Beethoven has grown on me A LOT over the course of this year for sure.
Has anyone seen a “year of Mozart” type project? Or another already-created year-long project devoted to another major composer? I have done some initial searching on Mozart and haven’t found one but maybe I am not looking in the right places. At least someone has done a Spotify playlist of all his compositions I think. What I have liked about The Complete Beethoven has been the curation — someone listened to a lot of versions of each famous composition and chose a good one, or chose one for a good reason (the prisoner’s chorus from Fidelio sung by incarcerated people in a prison opera program, for instance).
Anyway, I welcome suggestions! Some year I will read all of Virginia Woolf but unclear when that will be.
Now, on to this week’s content. If you haven’t listened to the Jenny Marrs episode of Before Breakfast, please do! We talk adoption, patience, and managing multiple huge home renovations for HGTV simultaneously (and go back and listen to Oliver Burkeman from the week before as well). Best of Both Worlds featured “The Busy Woman’s Guide to Reading More,” which was fun to record. Our Patreon community had a delightful “Superficial Things” meet-up where we all shared our favorite skin care products, make-up products, etc. The meet-up is recorded for members; you can join ($9/month) here.
Before Breakfast also featured the idea that “Now is good.” In many cases, there is not going to be a better time to do something in the future. If someone wants to have a conversation, and they’ve already gotten your attention to suggest scheduling that…maybe you can have it now. I also suggested the idea that we “Put travel time on the calendar.” Getting between two places takes time. If there isn’t enough time built in, you’ll be late or rushed. So why not acknowledge that on the calendar?
At Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I talked (late last week) about how you can “Make your own weekend fun.” If other people just want to stay home, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean you need to. I talked about how to “Prepare for a grief anniversary” — the calendar will come around, and it’s good to think through how to spend challenging days. Today I’m writing about how “Self-help can be helpful.” In general, reading a self-help book can provide a very cheap dose of motivation. Behind the paywall I wrote about “How to make your work hours count more.” Some time is invested more wisely than other time.
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