office cleanings, punctuation marks, and life catch-ups ✨
I got home from my travels in early October, and even though I was hoping to get straight back to work after so many weeks away, I floundered. I had some tight deadlines, but I just couldn’t get myself motivated.
One of the biggest reasons was that my work space was an absolute mess. I had done my best to clean it after graduation and managed to contain most of the havoc that my thesis had wreaked, but every surface was still covered with electronics, souvenirs, and papers. All I had was a little bit of free space in front of my keyboard (lol).
I thought I could get on with it because all of my deadlines were digital, until I realized that the redesign I was trying to do for my Information+ piece would require me to physically prototype because let’s face it I’m just not good enough at 3D modeling to directly prototype in Fusion360. (if you’re interested in that process, I’ve been documenting it over on my Instagram, and I also plan to do a write-up of it in a future newsletter.)
As soon as I realized that I needed to get out some paper and cardboard, I knew that I needed to clean up my office. We live in a (very modest) New York apartment, and my office is in the living room with a really cramped arrangement. That hadn’t bothered me for the last two years because I had been in grad school with access to all of the school’s facilities (including lots and lots of huge tables). But now that I was graduated with no more floor access, I yearned for an office layout that felt good to work, prototype, and make in (and maybe even watercolor and make a mess in).
In the middle of my cleaning and rearranging I realized that this was my punctuation mark. I’ve been writing a lot about how these last few months have really felt like an in-between, liminal space, in which I felt deeply lost about how I wanted to go forward and what I wanted to do next. But in my rearranging my workspace, I was stepping through the threshold into that something new. I was defining for myself how I want to work next, even as I remain mostly blurry on the what.
When I told my business/life coach this realization, she encouraged me to get something (an art piece, a new piece of furniture, etc.) to celebrate and mark the moment. And I immediately remembered this beautiful piece from Rob Draper I was fortunate enough to acquire at beyond tellerand last month, where I was drawn to (the intricate flowers of course lol) the boldly lettered “LOSE YOUR SELF”. What a perfect motto for my next years of work, a perfect reminder for me (who tends to overthink every action and decision and always worry about the meta) to let go, to allow myself to lose myself in the moment, to focus instead on enjoying and creating, and letting that joy direct me to where I want to go next. It sits right behind my monitor, so that I can always catch it out of the corner of my eyes.
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Life Catch-up, the podcast!
If you’ve enjoyed these newsletter that sits somewhere between life and career, you might enjoy my newest podcast with my dear friend Alice Lee!
Alice and I used to share a beautiful studio office in San Francisco (with a few other very talented friends!), and we used to have the best conversations about life and relationships and clients and our careers. Alice is one of the most thoughtful, intentional, creative, and kind people I know, and some of the nuggets of wisdom I’ve mentioned in this newsletter come directly from her.
We haven’t had the chance to talk on the regular since I moved to New York, and to remedy that we decided to make a podcast where we catchup about our lives and record it once a quarter for a total of 8 episodes.
Our first two episodes—Autumn—is out now, and I really hope you enjoy it. And if you do, I hope you’ll (rate, subscribe) hit reply and let us know!
💖,
Shirley
p.s. a few newsletters ago I mentioned that I’m restarting client work, and I want to thank those that reached out with kind words (and pledges!) because you really give me the encouragement to keep going. I’m happy to report back that I have successfully signed a couple contracts, and thus the worry for cash flow is for now abated—which feels like another punctuation mark as I step over the threshold into this something new ✨