i am continuing to apply to jobs because i miss work and desperately miss a steady paycheck, but in the meantime i have been keeping myself busy with a plethora of personal projects.

i’ve not written in depth about this, but the summer was a real slog. the heat got to me more than usual, and i had a tough time finding my motivation. as soon as the temperatures started cooling off i felt like i woke up, and when i did i realized all the personal admin i had been neglecting. the last month or so has been spent getting some of these things back in order.

first, the emails. for years i prided myself on having between 100-150 unread emails in my personal inbox, mostly newsletters or articles i had sent to myself to read “later”. with my dwindling attention span this summer that number ballooned to over 1,600, the highest it’s ever been. it’s substack newsletters and linkedin job alerts and modern love columns and articles from the atlantic and the new york times and who knows what else, and i have been making a concerted effort to read and delete and shave that number down by 20-30 each day. as of today we’re down to just under 1,200, with that number decreasing slowly but steadily. it’s going to take me a while to get back to where i was, but it’s progress.

next was my podcast feed. i know i listen to too many podcasts, i have been aware of this for many years. and yet i’ve mostly been able to keep my feed somewhat under control, only being a few days behind in listening. i somehow got really behind in july and don’t know how since i wasn’t really doing anything, but it happened anyway. i’ve been catching up where i can and cutting down on shows / episodes where i need to, and i finally have a better hold on this. i’m still about a week behind, but goodness i feel better.

another big undertaking has been the camera roll on my phone. a few years ago i did a very thorough clearing out of the photos on my phone, and while i’ve continued to delete here and there i knew i needed to start from february 2022 and work my way to the present. i think i was somewhere just north of 11,000 photos when i started, and i’ve made it to present day and got the number down to 8,900 which feels much more manageable. is it still more than i need? sure. but they bring me joy and they’re reminders of great memories so i’m feeling good.

next up: the postcards. one of my goals for this year was to write one postcard a week, partly because i missed the act of writing and sending postcards and partly because i had amassed a giant collection and needed to get rid of them. my writing was sporadic through the first half of the year, often waiting to the end of the month and writing 4 or 5 to drop in the mail along with my rent check. something shifted after i got back from denver and i suddenly had all this motivation, and i’ve probably written and sent 30 postcards in the last month. because i’m me i still have a solid stack, but it’s not causing me nearly the amounts of anxiety as it was a few weeks ago.

the one that i am probably most excited about has been my return to running. 2024 has been a stop-and-start year for me when it comes to running — i ran a bit in the spring, returning after an 11-month hiatus, and then dropped it again in the summer, only logging my annual birthday run between april and october. i missed running and i also couldn’t face running in the heat, but once the temperatures dropped i was excited to hit the pavement again. because i took such long breaks i restarted the couch-to-5k plan to get back to basics, and it’s been so nice to enjoy it again. i’m only a few weeks into it again, but already i can feel the mental and physical lift it has given me.

and finally, i have started working on my year-end blog posts. i always do a year in review on here to see how i’ve done meeting my goals for the year, and over on my substack i recap my favorite books, movies + tv, podcasts, recipes + shopping, and articles from the year just gone. i enjoy putting these recaps together but they do take some time, so i usually get started around now to ensure i’m not rushing at the end of the year. each post has its skeleton and in various stages of completion, and i am feeling good about how they are coming together.

i was talking to my father one day in late september and rattled off my list of projects and he was silent for a few seconds before saying “that’s too many projects” which made me laugh. it’s been good for me to have multiple things to work on because i’ll do each thing for a specific amount of time and then move on to something else, and like i said before the weather has done wonders for my motivation.

i still have a pretty long road ahead of me on each of these, but i’m happy with the progress.

xx