Big changes to the routine
In March, I made a drastic move of swapping my 4 am studio time routine, with a night owl routine. Today, I’ve swapped back. So I thought this week we could talk about routines. I also thought of making a tweak to the format.
Let’s Chat!
The goal has always been to make these Sunday newsletters more conversational, and what better way to do that than make it an actual chat? Here’s the idea, I’ve created a chat for us to discuss this week’s topic: “The ‘perfect’ routine”
In the chat, I’ve created some talking points and will continue to do so throughout the week. I invite you to reply to any of them, or even create your own. The discussion will be open for a week.
Next Sunday, I will summarise the conversation including some of your thoughts (with links to your substack or socials, as an encouragement for you to join the conversation)
Next, I’ll introduce a new topic, thus we’ll create a new cadence of Chatting and summary. If you’re the type of person who would like to participate in the chat, I can’t wait to hear from you, and if you’d rather just read the summary then you can wait to get the Sunday newsletter in your inbox. Something for everyone!
And as always, there will be something extra for Paid Subscribers (P.S)1
P.S ,
Reasons to swap back, what I’ll miss, what I’m working on.
Some reasons I’m swapping back to a Morning Routine.
Coffee is better in the morning
Writing is better in the morning
While it’s possible to arrive in the evening with the right creative energy, it’s delicate and fragile to manage a day, and while I can manage it most days some days I’m just exhausted when it comes time to work. In contrast, I’m always fully energized at 4 am with as little as 4 hours of sleep. (I can nap later if I need)
I swapped to work around my baby’s routine, and now the baby is more capable of working around this routine.
What I’ll miss…
The one thing I’ll miss about the night routine is connecting online with people around the world via Zoom meet-ups, which typically happen between 12 and 2 am my time. But I’ve decided to make some exceptions to try and join such things once or twice a month.
It’s nice to have the option and ability, to make this shift when needed. It’s one of the main reasons I picked this profession, to have the flexibility to spend time raising my kid. It’s an extra benefit that the profession itself (picturebook maker) is so tied to the act of raising a kid.
What I’m working on
I’m juggling a few books at the moment, (how I juggle could be a future topic if you’re interested in that). I’m currently on a deadline to deliver roughs for a Non-Fiction book, this one’s a bit different because there’s quite a lot of text on the page, and I’m enjoying working both the text and images into the page. It’s a skill that’s quite like making comics.
I also got a gig to do some editorial illustrations and I made roughs for that. I do appreciate getting these quick jobs in between longer book deals.
Leave a comment about what you think about the Chat/Summary format. And see you in the chat!
(I couldn’t resist borrowing this abbreviation from another substack, I’ll credit them as soon as i remember who’s it was)