Making a list, checking it at least five times
Three life admin tasks that helped curb my anxiety, how to comfort someone over text, and a book of colour palettes and essays.
Just as things are reopening in Sydney, it feels like there have never been so many reasons to stay home. Succession is back! As is the Bachelorette Australia, with the world’s first bisexual lead and Australia’s first Indigenous lead. (In this house we love Brooke Blurton!) Drag Race UK has also returned, and is just as joyful as ever. And Love Island Australia is… on? So, whatever, I’ll watch it.
That said, I’m happy to report I didn’t actually spend the entire week watching TV. I took sweet Paddington to the beach and laughed as his fluffy paws turned into soggy Grinch feet after braving it against the world’s smallest wave; I discovered a perfect truffle brie in my local Woolies; and I ordered an espresso martini at the pub, which I’ve been in the mood for since learning that New York has finally got on board with them, after I genuinely struggled to order one there for years. Good for them, and good for you, if you’ve recently decided to jump on the bandwagon. (Sorry to bartenders around the world!)
Here’s everything I have this week…
Three Small But Productive Admin Tasks That Helped Calm My Anxiety
For reasons unknown (I was procrastinating when I should have been writing this newsletter) I was in a very productive mood on Sunday morning. Sitting at my laptop with a pad of paper beside me, I spent 45 minutes doing three things that helped alleviate some of the anxiety I have about a busy upcoming six months.
It was my dad’s birthday over the weekend, which inspired me to finally add all of my family’s birthdays into my Google calendar. Obviously, some of these birthdays don’t fall within the next few months, but it’s a comfort knowing I now have annual birthday save-the-dates in the same place I record all my upcoming plans. I’ve also started slowly adding friends’ birthdays to my calendar. As less people use Facebook, there’s nothing wrong with needing a prompt to remember someone’s birthday is coming up.
I made a list of all the annual leave I plan on taking in the first half of 2021. I have five (!) weddings between January and April next year, some of which have now been rescheduled twice. Once I had the list of days I need to take off work, I cross-checked my leave balance and worked out how many bonus days I’ll have to play with.
Finally, I wrote a list of every event I’ll need a formal or formal-ish dress for in the upcoming months, and started an Instagram folder where I can save things I might like to buy or—more likely—try on in-store to check my size, then rent. Last year, I found myself trying to buy/rent/borrow outfits last-minute and it made the lead-up to some weddings way more stressful than they needed to be.
Some Thoughtful Tips On How To Comfort Someone Over Text
I’ll always click on stories about responding to grief or composing thoughtful texts. After all, bad things happen, and unless you’re deep inside someone’s inner circle, conversations following bad news about breakups, job loss, or illness will often take place over text. So, it helps to be prepared.
While I didn’t love all the advice in this Lifehacker piece—I found their reply suggestions to be unnecessarily formal—there were a few tips I thought were helpful. I really liked the suggestion to manage expectations with the person who’s texting you, by letting them know if you’re in a meeting/on a call/driving somewhere and can’t properly respond right away. It takes 10 seconds to tell someone you’ll reply as soon as you can give them your full attention, and it means they’re not left wondering why you haven’t replied or—worse—don’t know why your response was so short.
And Finally, A Very Good Book Written By A Very Good Person
My exceptionally talented friend and former Man Repeller colleague Edith Young wrote a book! It’s called Color Scheme and it’s just as clever as I knew it would be. If you’re familiar with Edith and her work as a writer/photographer/designer, you’re likely also familiar with her art historical palettes—the inspiration behind the book.
In Color Scheme, Edith manages to make art history interesting (sorry to any historical artists reading!) and accessible, while turning pop culture moments—like Tonya Harding’s figure skating costumes and what Pete Davidson wore during SNL’s Weekend Update—into the art they deserve to be. Consider it the perfect, actually readable, coffee table book you’ll want to leave lying around whenever people you want to impress are coming over.
See you next week—same time, same place.
Gyan x