It’s the art that survives
The public broadcaster desperately needs the public to believe in it. Between its own stumbles and ceaseless right-wing hostility, it is in danger of losing its way.
As we enter this new phase, I find myself falling deeper into my art practice again. I’ve picked up my pencils and paintbrushes. I’m watching more movies. Listening to more music. Staring at more paintings.
I remind myself that in the end, it’s the art that always survives. It’s the art that’s hung in museums. It’s the art that is celebrated.
They won’t be. History will reveal who they are and they’ll have no say.
Our creativity and art is our super power. Why else would they work so hard to control it?
The 3-2-1 Work Calendar
Their health effects extend far beyond official death tolls.
The problem with a lot of productivity advice
My biggest gripe with a lot of productivity advice, especially on burnout, is that it often feels like I’m drinking poison, and everyone has their home remedy they swear by.
“Spread out the poison throughout the day!”
“Start with the strongest poison first to get it out of the way!”
“Stop drinking poison on the weekends.”
But not many people are asking, “Have you tried not drinking poison at all?”
In this case, the poison is a constant full work schedule where everything feels like a priority.
A schedule where I don’t have time to do all my work at the quality I’d like, let alone have the mental energy for a personal life.
Over the last nine years, this very common work schedule has led me to at least four periods of massive burnout.
2025 marks my 10th year in business. It was the perfect excuse to shake things up. So, I sat down a while back and did an audit. It made me realize that I could approach it all differently.
I can stop drinking the poison.
Months: Green (Full-time schedule), Yellow (Part-time schedule), Red (Off)
The 3-2-1 calendar
Starting August, I’ll be testing out a new work schedule I’ve dubbed the “3-2-1 Calendar.”
We’re cycling between:
3 months of full-time hours (Green)
2 months of part-time hours (Yellow)
1 month completely off (Red)
The main goal is to create a calm work schedule that allows for deep work and rest periods.
Here how it’s going to look like for us
During Green/Full-time months: Frontloading the heavy work — 1:1 clients, writing blog posts, shooting video content, developing products, crafting social media posts, etc.
During Yellow/Part-time months: Finishing and scheduling content, checking in on past clients, responding to social media posts, and product launches.
During Red/Time off months: Absolutely nothing business related!
Some important caveats
We run our own business. If you work for a company, this might be challenging to implement. But if you own your business or freelance, it could be a viable solution to creating a calmer work schedule.
Our work is predictably seasonal. I run a men’s styling service that creates content on men’s style. We have clear peak and off seasons (people don’t shop much at the height of winter and summer.)
What it’s going to take to implement
This requires completely rethinking our approach to work, especially as a service-based business.
A shift towards digital forms of revenue. Client work can be unpredictable — especially if we have particularly demanding clients during months when we want to slow down. Exploring digital forms of revenue like digital products (courses, guides, templates), ads & sponsors, and affiliate programs means we can reduce the number of clients we need to book, as well as bring in consistent revenue during the yellow and red months.
Doubling down on automations. We’re doubling down on automations like scheduling content months ahead, email auto responders, to more complex Zapier integrations. The more hands-off we can be with the business, the better.
Shift towards “timeless,” evergreen content. This is tricky. Since fashion is a business that is so trend-focused, we don’t want to completely eliminate sharing what’s new and fresh. But we also don’t run a fashion news business. Our business isn’t doesn’t rely on a constant stream of new content. We can slow down, create great work, and schedule most of it in advance. Focusing on evergreen content means we don’t need to update it often.
Use the temporary nature of social media to our advantage. I find it hard to create great content (especially evergreen or longform) on the usual grueling week-to-week schedule many of us are accustomed to. Slowing down on the deeper content and scheduling it ahead of time now frees up time for us to create trendy content. These tend to be quicker and easier to make. And because social media content lifecycle is much shorter, this feels more sustainable.
This month, my team and I are working on setting everything up, primarily the automation.
I’ve also restructured my client schedule to create a buffer between working and off months in case a client goes over schedule.
I’ll post an update in about 4-6 months.
Burnout
Aspiring musicians are churning out tracks using generative artificial intelligence. Some are topping the charts.
After 3 years with my iPhone 12, I finally upgraded to an iPhone 15.
Partially because I wanted a camera upgrade to shoot videos, partially because my iPhone’s battery deteriorated to a max of just under 80%.
It reminded me of what I often experience with my work.
Every few years, I completely burnout.
All the symptoms — disassociation, procrastination, cynicisms.
It’s as if my work is an app that slowly chips away at the batteries capacity.
It’s now deteriorated to under 80%.
And I’ve left my charger at home.
I can still technically do the work, but I’m completely drained before the days end and shut down.
I’m hyper aware of my fast draining battery now.
I’m now procrastinating my work in an attempt to conserve power and make it through the day.
I’m annoyed and resentful at how much battery my “work app” needs.
I spend all day looking forward to getting home to recharge.
All the advice I read says to take breaks, do things that you used to enjoy. But that advice is temporary.
Like the work, the things I enjoy (my hobbies, hanging out with friends, exercising) also use up battery power.
The solution requires two things: a fresh battery, and a new app that doesn’t damage the new batteries' capacity.
The Calmpreneur Manifesto
Changes in the economy and in the culture seem to have hit them hard. Scott Galloway believes they need an “aspirational vision of masculinity.”
Inspired by yesterday’s post and “The Calm Business Manifesto”, I spent a few hours this morning writing out my own Calmpreneur manifesto. A bit thought exercise, foreshadowing, and call to arms.
Here’s what I wrote…
The Calmpreneur Manifesto - Oct. 11, 2023
Anti-hustle - A calm business rejects hustle culture. By definition, you cannot move fast and juggle multiple things in a calm way. We adopt the motto “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
Life centered - The Calmpreneur plans his work around his life, not the other way around.
Profitable - A calm business isn’t afraid to mae money. It understands the more profitable it is, the more resources it can devote and reinvest in things to keep the business calm. This includes freelancers, tools, and automation.
Small and cozy in size - Big things require more resources to maintain. A calm business, then, needs to be as small as necessary. We have no aspirations to be billionaires or “change the world.” Bigger goals require bigger effort, and that’s stressful. (Big requires big!) Our goal is to create a career that allows us to live a calm, intentional, fulfilling life. That requires us to identify the real things that matter to us and focus on that, not just getting bigger.
No deadlines - Deadlines create anxiety. While it’s important to get work done on time, we approach it with a calm holistic solution. We learn how long tasks take an schedule enough time for the work to be done. Anxiety comes from unrealistic expectations of how fast something can be completed. If you want to wake up at 6am to feel refreshed and productive, you do it by going to bed at 10pm. Not by setting a jarring alarm to 6am.
Pays a living wage - People feel overworked when they’re underpaid. I believe in paying people a living wage (often more) when people I employ win, I win.
Timeless works - You are not the news, nor Apple. Your work doesn’t need to be the latest and most exciting. The goal should be work so good and timeless in its usefulness that you need to do less of it.
Embraces technology - Automation, A.I. digital products, mailings list, they’re all tools that allow us to create a business that needs us less and less. It serves us, not the other way around.
A calm business must be designed from the start - A calm business goes against conventional ideas of what makes a successful business. Therefore, “calm” must be planned and integrated from the start. It requires redesigning the type of work we do, the income we can make, and the expectations around all of it.
Be useful and help people - There is more than enough useless junk in the world. In order to create a profitable, calm business, we must make being truly helpful a goal.
The Calmpreneur
Chatbots can pass the Turing test—but they can’t yet handle an office worker’s inbox.
Ali Abdaal recently shared a video on what he calls “The Feel Good Business Model.”
Long time entrepreneurs might know this as a “lifestyle business.” One where work is planned around your life and not the other way around.
It reminds me of something I happened across that really resonated with me. The calm business manifesto by Kerstin Martin.
Some of my favorite points:
We don’t support hustle culture which often relies on lies, misleading information and, frankly, a lot of fluff to manipulate people into a purchase. Acting from a place of integrity, transparency and honesty is at the core of a Calm Business.
A Calm Business is a profitable business. Being anti-hustle doesn't mean being anti-money. We live in a world where money buys us ease, peace of mind, beautiful things, the ability to give back, and the freedom to make choices that are not as accessible if we are struggling to make ends meet. As Calm Business owners we enjoy making enough money to support our material needs, lifestyle and dreams.
A Calm Business is about everything you need and nothing you don’t. As such a Calm Business is well organized, lean in structure and uses a simplified technology set-up to improve and streamline processes. Which in turn reduces overwhelm and financial stress.
Reading this, I immediately started identifying (or at least desiring) the idea of the “Calmpreneur.” (I’ve come to find out this isn’t an original idea.)
If I count back to my ebay days in high school, I’ve been “in business” for 25 years now.
I’ve gone through many waves — from getting my first dollar, to opening and closing businesses, to breaking 6 figures multiple times.
My job these days gives me the unique opportunity to meet people that have made massive amounts of wealth — some in 8-figures. Outside of being able to buy a few more things, nothing is really different.
They’re all stressed. They all wish they had more time. And a lot of them wish they had smaller companies.
I’m extremely proud of what I’ve built over the last 8 years. But how I feel about my business has drastically changed in the last few years. It was great to see point 5 in Ali’s video is about periodically re-evaluating the business and pivoting.
When you’re technically successful, it’s sometimes easy to view your business or work as an outsider.
To the outsider, I’m extremely lucky to be doing what I’m doing and make an amazing living from it.
But it’s also important to remember that you are the one IN the business day to day.
And if that business isn’t serving you behind the scenes, it’s time to reevaluate and shift it into something that does.
A simple life
I’ve been sad lately. It seems every day I’m bombarded with reminders of how ugly the world can be.
The older I get, the more I see how frivolous the things we worry about everyday — work, money, what celeb is dating who.
I often think about the times I was rich but felt poor.
I often think about the times I was poor but felt rich.
On my days off, I sometimes do absolutely nothing. I watch some Youtube. I chat with my wife. I lounge around. And it’s glorious how very little those things above mattered.
In times like this, I just want to disappear from the world and wander in my own little bubble.
Away from the need to document every little thing I’ve deemed cool on Instagram, in the hopes it will get me new customers.
Away from the endless arguments on Twitter (Sorry, X) and threads.
Away from the feeling I have that I need to keep up with celebrity, fashion trends, and what slang kids 30 years younger than me are using.
I would wake up without an alarm and have a slow morning. I’ll throw a cashmere coat over my hoodie and head out for coffee and a croissant.
Sometimes I’ll walk it back home. Sometimes I’ll sit there for 2 hours.
I’ll spend the day walking around, observing the world. I’ll sit with my sketchbook and fountain pen, and record the feeling I see in the form of a drawing.
I’ll come back home and walk my wife through my illustrated day.
We’ll make dinner and invite friends over.
Sometimes the dinner will last an hour. Sometimes we’ll all sit around for 4.
When everyone is gone, we’ll curl up on the couch and fall asleep to some nostalgic horror movie.
On days when I’m sad, I try to remember how little I really need to make me happy.
Everything changes, everything stays the same
Every morning I start my day by writing into my Journey journal. I’ve been writing in it for 7 years now.
What I love about the app is that it shows me entries from that day from the previous years. Which means I can see, sometimes, if I’ve been consistent, 7 entries of what I was going through.
The most fascinating thing is how much and how little has changed.
In almost every situation, I’ve achieved the things I dreamed about years ago.
In other situations, I worry about the same things. My health. Money. My relationships. Will I ever have time to rest?
It’s such a great reminder of how time is going to pass regardless.
The things that worry you won’t matter in 1, 3, 7 years from now.
At the same time, it’s a nudge to just live the life and do what you want now, because time passes by very fast.
And the worst thing you can read are entries of you wishing for the same things every year, hoping that day will come.
EDC Salt
A while back I realized that most of my mediocre meals dining out could be resolved with a little bit of salt. (I know, groundbreaking revelation.)
Maldon used to sell little travel tins of their famous flaky sea salt, which I thought was genius! Unfortunately I never pulled the trigger on one and it looks like it’s no longer available.
The good news is, you can buy blanks of the sliding tins they use on Amazon for dirt cheap! So I made my own.
Protip: I marked which direction the case slides with a Sharpie to make it easy.
I also stash mine in an EDC bag arrow pointing down, so that I don’t accidentally open it trying to pull it out.
Reflecting on 30 days of blogging
I hit the 30 day streak of daily blogging!
Some thoughts:
It was mostly easier than I thought. Before I knew it, I was on day 28 and 29.
The pressure to blog daily forced me to phone it in a few days. I would say that the quality wasn’t there all the time, but maybe that’s a good thing. I found in the past that thinking every post needed to be epic stopped me from posting at all.
I’m not sure if I want to continue to post everyday But I like the idea of writing something everyday, but posting when something is ready.
Gratitude
I want to write so much about my Paris trip but I think I need more time to process.
I do want to share something I wrote in my journal today about it:
“I'm so happy that I get to do this for a living. I want to remember to practice so much gratitude for things I get in my life.
I keep trying to remind myself that life is so so short, and people rarely get to experience the things I get to experience.
And that it's such a rare rare rare thing to get everything you want in life.
And I feel like I constantly get it.
My person. My work. My success. I'm so lucky.”