#14: week-beginnings, clusters and constellations
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Good morning,
I’ve been doing some focused book writing recently (How to Read the News), and so I thought I’d give some language to my current little tricks and processes. These change with the seasons. This is a writing season.
Note: I very broadly define news as information that is new to you, and helps you live your life, since really, that’s what news was supposed to be once upon a time.
If you’ve read any of my news lit stories, you know that I’m all about intention-setting before consuming the news and for what to do with the information after. Lately for me, the before-intention is: stay curious and in wonder, and the after is: allow it to enrich your writing and creative work.
I don’t have it in me to consume much more than a quick update of what’s in my feeds because it saps my curiosity and my creativity. And given how dominated the American news cycle is by draining nonsense, I choose the mini global briefing in The Economist app each morning. That’s it.
Anyway, here are three new words I’ve attached to my process to achieve the above goals!
Week-beginnings
Week-beginning: a chosen time to begin your week with wonder
I’ve never enjoyed the weird social contract people seem to have about lamenting over the weekdays and looking forward to the weekends, and especially sharing complaints about Monday. It all sort of comes from this idea of valuing busyness over productivity and efficiency over effectiveness. (Here’s a nice little video summary of The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss if you’re unfamiliar with the idea.)
So I decided to take ownership of “starting” my week on my terms, in my way. Since my goal is wonder, I decided to start my weeks on Saturdays because they are filled with space, which, I know, is such a tiny adjustment on google calendar but has had a very profound impact on my mind.
Here’s how it works. I reset all my calendars to show Saturday as the first day and Friday as the last. On Friday nights, I prioritize deeply resting for 1 single night, which is different than the screw-it-and-collapse mentality I’ve had most of my life.
Knowing you only have 1 night to “recharge” makes you want to a) feel good about being “done” with your tasks for the week and b) give yourself what you actually need as opposed to a weekend of escapism. It also lends itself to care work, which takes effort and generally falls on weekends for most of us. So sometimes Friday needs a date night, other times it’s me-time, other times it’s tons of sleep, other times it’s a celebration. Usually before bed, I also take inventory of what I’m proud of myself for doing that week and what’s closest to my heart for the next. I’ve found that compared to a Monday-morning to do list, which comes out very obligation-focused, this quick jotting feels very honest, gentle, and kind.
And then I wake up on Saturday…curious! It’s my time to explore random things I’ve been wondering about, pressure-free. (I believe news and information is food and it should be treated as such, so it’s sort of like, the equivalent of brunch, if you will. What would excite and nourish you? Dive into that with reckless abandon.)
Through Sunday night, I read and write a lot, but never on assignment, plus engage with my friends, family and Buddhist community. Then I ride this inspiration into Monday, by which time I’ve intentionally read a lot of stuff, and feel pretty alert and curious, which is way better than foggy and in debt. I also find that if I don’t learn new things about other people regularly, I spend too much time thinking about myself.
I don’t know how to explain it well, but there’s a subtle and profound difference in spending the weekend “catching up on the news” because it’s the end of something (which the Sunday newspaper ritual conditioned us to do) vs. nourishing your own wonder, separate from the news cycle, as a way to begin a week of exploration.
For example, my last week-beginning included:
Watching Welcome to Plathville on Hulu and then wandering through pieces on the Quiver-full movement
Reading a few books (I read multiple at the same time) including Food Rules (potential comp title), Marie Curie’s biography written by her daughter (more on this soon, it’s incredible) and Well-Behaved Indian Women (for a story in the works)
Other times it includes more longform but I was in a book and google mood this weekend
Clusters and Constellations
Cluster: stories related to each other by topic
Constellation: stories related to a question I have been thinking about
If I’m full from my week-beginning, I don’t really have the urge to waste time on the internet (ie: if you ate well, you don’t need junk food!) and since the week is a mere 5 days, it never feels too long or like drudgery and I just read small bits from the places I subscribe to, plus newsletters.
I’ve definitely found that I make better choices in these 5 days if I spent the week-beginning exploring. Similar to how I make better food choices after I’ve done a workout.
All the while, I save some links in Evernote, in clusters if they relate to each other, and I annotate things that struck me or that I should come back to. If I don’t have time to read, I at least drop links into clusters for another time.
Since my after-intention was to write/enrich my creativity, I see if a cluster can turn into a constellation. I keep a running list of questions at all times (ranging from “What sort of housing options would make me feel excited about the future?” to “What is the future of the rural church?”) and these often give birth to new constellations.
For example, this week’s clusters:
Christianity
‘Christianity Will Have Power’ in NYT on 8/9
these redesigned Bible sections by Alabaster
Diana Butler Bass’s newsletter on The Price of Power re: above article
Therapy
this 8/3 Vice feature on backlash against the Holistic Psychologist
saved Instagram posts from this community (I’ve been following the insta-therapy world for a while)
a few episodes of the Therapist Uncensored podcast
Office Life
Adam Grant on the future of jobs/firms in The Economist 6/1
this YouTube video on The Importance of the Not-To-Do-List (which I clustered with office life because it occurred to me that an office is literally just a not-to-do-list zone)
Morality/Activism/Efficacy
*will become a constellation once I know what my question is, have many other links saved
Boycotts Can’t Be A Test of Moral Purity by Zephyr Teachout in The Atlantic 8/3
The Anonymous Professor Who Wasn’t in NYT 8/4
Motherhood
*exploring many angles on this subject with friends, will likely become a constellation if I sustain interest
Regretting Motherhood (book)
this video from Topic on moms who choose not to live with their kids
a bunch of pregnancy summit videos (via my MIL :)
Kamala Harris (& her identity)
Everyone Can Do Something (interview with her niece) from The Juggernaut 6/19
Opinion: Who is Kamala Harris Running For? from The Juggernaut 6/24
Why Joe Biden Picked Kamala Harris from The Atlantic 8/11
Lots of googling
And here’s one that became a true constellation I’ll continue to build on and write more about soon because it connects to a question I have.
Q: Why do or don’t people decide to pay for journalism? (Has many other nodes I’m exploring, one of which is fake news.)
Ethan Zuckerman in The Atlantic: on what will happen to other issues if Trump and coronavirus dominate the cycle
Nieman Lab: People are using Facebook and Instagram as search engines
Current Affairs: The Truth is Paywalled but the Lies Are Free
this Twitter thread on the above
Anyway, hope this little window into my news-world sparks a little more interest in the book, because I’m very excited about the chapters that have been coming out lately.
Of course my methods don’t need to be yours, but if you think a little about your intentions, you might come up with ways to feel free and at ease with the news cycle.
And now you know that if you get this letter on a Wednesday, like today, I’m almost at the end of my week, and it was a good one, filled with wonder and writing!
Jihii
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