One of the greatest episodes of Black Mirror Season 4 is “Hang the DJ”. (Some plot points revealed ahead, but no huge spoilers.) It opens with a woman and man on a first date. They were set up by a dating program—one that offers the greatest chances of finding love…
Read MoreI’m writing you from the sunny window of a 242-year-old public library in 30-degree Connecticut. My partner and I left California for a cross country adventure on January 2nd, and now we’re here to spend time with family for a while. But before embarking, we were on a tight schedule to prep our home for subletters. There's nothing like a hard deadline to get a space in tip-top shape. Or at least good enough shape…
Read MoreIn the past 350-ish days, the category of life I’ve decluttered the most is my money. If you’ve been reading my light updates, you know I embarked on a year-long spending rest inspired by this book, and that I’ve been budgeting through YNAB*. As the experiment comes to an end, I thought I'd share some final thoughts, major milestones and powerful realizations…
On my quest for a deeper sense of minimalism, I’ve begun to recognize what small needs I require not only for my space, but also for my brain and body...the minimums I require day-to-day for a small sense of peace and flow. In the past, I’ve split things up into different lists of attempts and requirements — like a morning routine that’s usually too time-consuming, or a house cleaning list that I procrastinate on…
I say this a lot: I’m a Recovering Perfectionist.
Perfectionism has stood in the way of…
Creating art.
Growing my business.
Better serving my clients.
Joy.
Confidence.
Love.
Basically, all the good stuff…
Read MoreOne of the reasons I write about decluttering and creativity is because they’re intrinsically connected — but not just because a decluttered space (and brain and task list) has the power to move us hugely forward in our creative lives. They are both also part of a much longer list of 'Shit We Have Trouble Doing’…
Read MoreSecret: There's no "right place" to store anything. Okay... I'm not advising you store, say, yogurt in the bathroom. Because gross. But beyond temperature requirements, you can pretty much do anything you want. Every space and brain are different. And if you want to store your sunglasses inside of a poster tube in your linen closet--and that works for you---who am I to tell you not to…
Let’s chat a little more about a subject that’s plagued my stress levels for decades: m-o-n-e-y. It’s taken me hundreds--if not thousands--of false starts, budgeting attempts, app tryouts, and internal battles to finally feel like I have control of my dollar bills. So I wanted to share with you the three things that, since last fall, have completely altered my financial life for the way better...
Read MoreIn theory, I’m into the concept of New Year’s Resolutions. A few years ago I decided to embrace the idea of new chapters, fresh starts, and healthy changes as best I could. Let's use all the chances we get, right? But what I’ve realized this year is that the word ‘resolution' itself doesn’t imply much more than, well, resolving to do a thing — which is basically just a thought, an idea, an intention. And look: intentions are a greeaaat first step. But resolutions don’t also imply action—which is what must come next…
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