Some Thoughts

Hello friends,
How are you all doing?

For the first time in a long time, I feel free and happy and here's why:

1.) I finally got my vaccine appointments.
2.) I recently came across a book that came just at the right time when I really needed it.

It's "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, and it had such a huge impact on me. I haven't had enough time to implement everything I read, but just the ideas presented have already changed how I view my work day and in general, how I choose spend all my time.
The book basically talks about how we're constantly wrapped up in busy work that doesn't require a lot of skill, but makes us feel somewhat productive, like answering emails or being or feeding social media. But this type of work is not what's going to produce any meaningful result. The author basically makes a case for prioritising deep work instead and evaluating how much of that "shallow" busy work you can eliminate. That includes saying no to things and making yourself unavailable at times.
That idea really resonated with me because I've been increasingly feeling like I'm pulled away from my actual job (making art) and constantly doing these small things and jobs that I'm not necessarily excited about. Email has been the number 1 thing to cause me anxiety, and every morning when I open that inbox, my heart starts beating in the face of all the possible new tasks that are waiting for me there. I somehow felt obliged to take on at least a part of them, because "that's just what you do". When someone wants to interview you, you say yes. When someone wants to feature you in their magazine and you have to write a 3-page article, you say yes.
But the book gave me the justification to finally just say no. Those things are not my priority. I have the ability to design my day however I like any any task that's making me feel bad is there, because I chose to do it. And I'm just going to ruthlessly default to NO from now on. Opening my inbox is actually kind of fun now because I know that it's not going to change anything for my daily life. And my automatic response really helps, so that I can immediately lower expectations and don't even have to reply.
Now I can make more time for painting and pursue the things that are actually important to me, like working towards my second art book.
That is, after I finish my current project (which actually is a lot of fun and I'm glad I took it)