Slowing down...
"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time." Voltaire
I just read Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter, The Imperfectionist, and it came at just the right time for me.
His radical idea for 2023 is that we should consider ‘cutting ourselves some slack.’
If you’re the kind of person who’s drawn to the kinds of subjects I write about – and more generally to questions of productivity, and making the best use of your time – there’s a high chance you’re also the kind of person who’s generally rather too hard on themselves. And that a good resolution for 2023 might be to cut yourself some slack.
If this sort of advice makes you recoil with some blend of derision and horror, believe me when I say I know where you’re coming from. That’s how it most readily strikes my ears, too: as cringe-inducingly self-indulgent. Or, alternatively, as good advice, but for people more troubled than me. “Don’t be so mean to yourself” feels like something worth saying to someone who self-harms, for instance. But to someone whose main issue is drawing up wildly overambitious daily work schedules, then feeling bad about not achieving them? Really?
Except, of course, that spurning all advice to treat yourself more kindly as self-indulgent BS (as I have learned, and continue to learn) is exactly the kind of attitude you’d expect from someone who could do with treating themselves a bit more kindly.
(Now just to be clear, if you ask me, there are plenty of people who extend far too much indulgence, self-pity and cheap forgiveness to themselves: just spend five minutes on Twitter if you don’t agree. But the good news is that if you’re worried about turning into one of them, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you won’t.)
The sad truth is that is I wasn’t still unwell - this lupus flare started in the middle of February last year - and exhausted from a very minimal effort Christmas - I would have taken no notice.
There’s a lot I want to do this year, and I simply don’t have the time and energy for all of it.
So I’ve reluctantly decided to cut down on writing here, and at Write With the Accomplice.
Here I’m going to share something new every two or three weeks, and there I’m planning to post on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
It’s really about prioritising submitting Novel 3, and writing Novel 4. I have limited energy, and thus limited usable time. So very sadly, something has to go.
Maybe there’s something you need to let yourself off the hook for? It’s all too easy (for some of us) to push too hard. Sometimes letting go, and unclenching the frontalis muscles ( which are used in the frown!) can allow you to relax and enjoy the horizon…
Ann
If you would like some editorial help with your novel draft. please do get in touch and we can have a chat. Check out my Facebook Page, at The Accomplice and message me there for more details, or get in touch through my substack email.