It's been such a shitty couple weeks for me with COVID fatigue settling in again, I'm gonna pass on the cocktails and just chug some Jamaican Overproof White Rum straight from the bottle. Don't judge me.
I logged into my Notion dashboard this morning and saw it staring me in the face. "Draft and publish newsletter." It was scheduled for Friday, but since I hadn't logged in or even thought about my task list for a few days, it never even crossed my mind.
And while I felt a pang of guilt not keeping my commitment to you guys, I knew that taking a break this weekend was essential for my mental health, and I figured you'd understand. (You get it, right?)
In some ways though, it's fitting. Because the topic I wanted to talk to ya'll about in (what should have been) yesterday's newsletter is taking a damn break once in a while and simplifying your existence.
Sometimes life gets so overwhelming and all you need is a break. But you look at your schedule and you see all the deadlines and think, "I just gotta get through this and theeen I can take a break." But that day of "getting through this" never fucking comes.
So fuck it. Let's take that damn break right now. Call who you need to call. Cry, if necessary. Tell them you're in dire fucking straits and you need to push that deadline, cancel that meeting, bail on drinks, whatever. You'd be surprised how much others understand. We're all going through the same shit, so we get it.
And the biggest favour of all that you can do for yourself - when you come back from that break - is take serious stock of your schedule and commitments and ruthlessly cut out everything and anything that isn't essential. Do what's absolutely critical until you get your bearings back, then slowly and methodically add back things that bring you joy, peace or fulfillment.
I know it's easier said than done. Jumping off the hamster wheel of life is tragically difficult. But trust me, it will be hard to feel guilty when you're catching up on sleep. So just try it out. And let me know how it goes...
Something for you to check out…
One book that seriously helped me focus on simplifying my life is Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Highly recommend reading it or, you know, just watching the YouTube summary.
What I’m up to these days…
No real updates this week. I'm just trying to take more breaks. And journal. And ruthlessly cut projects and commitments from my life. You know, the little things.
OMG, have you seen this?!
Timely reminder…
PS. I’ll be taking a scheduled quarterly break next week, so the next newsletter will be on April 11. Til then!