Friday Flurry #4: Guilt, fashion and general dread
If you're a worrier who feels weird about fashion, you're not alone.
Welcome to Friday Flurry, my weekly round-up. These posts, which are a mixed bag of what I’m doing, reading and thinking about, are exclusively for paid subscribers.
Happy Friday!
Do you remember being a kid and hanging on for Friday, because it meant the weekend was coming? The faster it came, the better. Adulthood has stolen some of the fun. Now instead of just joyfully leaning in to that Friday feeling, there’s a tinge of “oh no, but I still have so much left to do.” Sad.
I’m back in New Zealand this week and thankfully the weather has been cold and wet enough to counteract any sadness or regret I might feel about leaving for a warmer climate next Monday. I’ve also tried to cram three weeks’ work into one, around kids and jet lag, so I’m a bit of a miserable tart. Read your Friday Flurry with this caveat in mind.
What I’m (not) reading
I haven’t read as much as I’d like this week. In particular, these two books are calling to me from the lounge “Why won’t you read us, Alicia? We’re waiting for you!” I’m desperately hoping to report that I will have chewed these up by the time I talk to you next. However, I did finish…
Kudos, by Rachel Cusk
I whizzed through Kudos, the third of the Outline series by Rachel Cusk and, much like the other two, I adored it. If you’re looking for short reads that won’t keep you on the edge of your seat with stress, but will mysteriously keep beckoning you back by explaining things you didn’t realise you thought… give the Outline series a go.
“There is no better hiding place than somewhere as close as possible to the truth, something all good liars know.”
What I’m doing
Realising my recovery limits and reducing stress
There’s a Greg McKeown line I like: "Do not do more today than you can completely recover from by tomorrow.”
I like the idea, but I’ve always been terrible at applying it. That’s partly because I have this well, when I can tap it, of insane productivity. I can summon a force that enables me to produce an overwhelming amount of stuff in a very short period of time (like writing, or filming) or to do a lot of performing (training, speaking, etc) back to back with high energy.
I used to rely on this, and plan my life and work around it. Over the last few years, though, I’ve found those kinds of big pushes harder to recover from. I’ve started trying to reduce and buffer periods of high production and performance.