slowing down
how i'm prioritizing rest these days
The summer slump is officially over for me.
Work has been picking up & I’m taking on as much as I can.
Now that I have this new-found-full-time-freelance pressure of making ALL my own money without the help of a 9-5, I’ve been busier than ever.
& tbh I love that feeling of being busy. Of having a full day that feels productive, that feels valuable.
But that’s how burnout happens.
That’s how your work begins to fall flat.
That’s how you over-work & undervalue yourself.
So I’m always trying to keep that balance between work & rest.
I can sense when I’m starting to feel more tired from my work than energized & I know this is when I need to prioritize resting & resetting.
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Sometimes it’s easier said than done.
Sometimes resting while your business is on fire (whether that’s a good or bad thing 🔥) seems impossible.
Like, how could I take an uninterrupted-couple-hour-long-break right now when I could be doing [something more productive]?
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I’m here to tell you it’s okay to take that time for yourself.
It’s actually completely necessary.
Take the time to do slower activities- writing thoughts, walking without listening to a podcast, consuming more long-form content, sketching more.
What the rush, anyway?
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How I’ve been prioritizing rest during this busy period ⬇️
yoga. dusting off this old daily practice of mine. also taking the time to light some palo santo before & meditate after like I used to.
cooking. making time to cook more nourishing meals. making time to go to different grocery stores that might be less convenient but have better stuff, more often.
reading. newsletters & blogs count too. but I read a little every morning so I don’t jump right into working all day.
scalp massages. best used when I have so much to do, I don’t know where to start. start with a 5-minute scalp massage. (I’m on a hair growth journey, tbd if this works but it feels nice)
How have you been prioritizing rest?
F I E L D N O T E S ↓
An interesting desktop performance by Chia Amisola. Really into this kind of digital media use- screen recordings, popups, photo booth videos, playing with composition using windows, etc.
Check out more Screen Walks here.
Been thinking about this idea of ‘brand as TV’ ever since a video popped up on my fyp about the Progressive commercials & how Flo & her new co-star got into literal beef that would enrage viewers.
Like episodes in a season, creating a series on TikTok gets people hooked on that ongoing story. It creates those ‘love em or hate em’ characters.
Check out more on this (with examples!) from Hyper’s newsletter.
An incredibly inspiring Berlin-based artist, Martin Cole.
River is similar to Cosmos’ new site, public.work. They both utilize this never-ending scroll feature to show you similar images.
Do you like this scroll effect?
The winner of the Tiny Awards (which was where I found the previous site) was just announced! The Tiny Awards are a celebration of hand-made, silly little websites. You already know I’m obsessed with seemingly pointless (but not really) personal websites. Here’s the winner.
Currently reading: What is Post-Branding? So far it’s so good but OMG it’s making me question everything 😅
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Talk to you next month :)
