Starting the Year With Less
Finding focus after a year of too many open tabs
Update: I drafted this in early January and I’m just now sending it. Despite how much has happened since 2025 began, I’m hoping this message will still resonate.
Happy New Year! If 2023 was an earthquake (moving across the country to new jobs) then 2024 was the aftershock. All in all, we had a great year settling into our new locale. Highlights include buying a home, starting the kids in school, and gaining some footing in our careers and friendships here.
I’m a fan of beginnings in all things. I get a thrill from the possibility, the planning, and the dreaming, all of which often overshadow the reality of the work commitment for that shiny, new thing.
In 2024 I found myself in the strange-to-me position of establishing myself as an artist in a new city. Among other things, I was looking to make connections, get hired to teach, find a way to make some income, find studio space, and make time for working in the studio. And with the reality of being home with my kids most of the year while trying to fit these things into small windows of time, I had very little time to do it.
Correction. I had very little time to do it thoughtfully.
Career-wise, 2024 felt like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. I started countless projects and said yes to everything. It was exhilarating, and it was exhausting.
Despite my yes-man mentality, or maybe because of it, a lot of my year was really good. I achieved many of the things I was hoping for. I successfully made connections, I found a way to make some income, I was hired to teach, I found studio space, and I even made some new work, although regrettably much less than I would have preferred. (Prioritizing time in the studio is a big goal of mine for 2025.)
I dreamed really big and followed the momentum of those dreams to a big decision point when I realized I was overwhelmed. Slow down, Dana. Upon the advice of my good friend, Kaylan, I paused and reflected.
Where do I want to spend my time?
What do I value?
What is my goal?
In the last few weeks of December, and continuing on for the next couple months, I’m working on narrowing my focus. What can I set down so that I can do less, but do it better (see below)?
I’ve just begun and I’m already starting to feel lighter. Light enough to feel inspired to write this email. Hopeful enough to share it with you.
Wishing you and yours a safe and happy 2025. Replies come directly to me.
—DC
Before I go, I wanted to share a few of the resources that are influencing how I’m thinking of starting the year with less.
Rethinking social media use
Gosh, if this isn’t the time to rethink how we use social media! I was just talking to P about how social media is my number one news source and how that doesn’t feel right to me—and then when I click over to an article that grabs my attention there is often a paywall. We’ve started researching which news sources we do want to get news from with the plan of subscribing.
I recently read this essay, The Social Media Sea Change, from Anne Helen Peterson and I was inspired. I’m not nearly ready to delete the social media apps from my phone, but I agree with her points, specifically how “app time is time, app energy is energy,” and on “not posting as privacy.” Both of which align with my personal beliefs, even if they haven’t gotten me off the apps yet.
In 2023/2024, my Instagram posting went way down and it was a huge relief. The stress of creating content for my career as an artist was just too much. I’d spend a day procrastinating in the studio because I was thinking about what to post online. I’m an artist, not a content creator. I’m happy to have left that behind.
Do Less; Do it better
This is adapted from Cal Newport's Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, which was a recommendation from Kaylan. Disclaimer, I have not actually read the book, but Kaylan did, and this year she has shared with me the three principles from the book 1) Do fewer things; 2) Work at a natural pace; 3) Obsess over quality.
As a self-identified and recovering perfectionist, I’m not completely aligned with these on a surface level. If you have worked with me in person you’ve probably heard one of my favorite work mantras, done is better than perfect (thanks to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In). I read that book as a second-year HS teacher and badly needed to hear that it was okay to just get things done. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving that one behind. The principle I’m focused on is do fewer things.
As an artist we set the bounds for our own career. Many artists make money in a way where their income is earned from multiple small income streams. I did that for several years as I was trying to make it as a self-employed artist, and I realized that I was happier as an employed artist, so that I could balance fewer things.
Easier said than done, of course, but that has been the driver behind my pursuit of working as an art educator and artist. My long term goal is to work mainly those two jobs, one as a full time art professor and one as visual artist, rather than the numerous small jobs I am working now. It’s a long-term goal, but I can still practice skimming off projects and jobs that don’t serve that long-term goal as I am able.
Closing the loops
I was gifted a copy of The Artist Map: Weekly Studio Planner and Art Career Support (thanks again, Kaylan!) and there is a really interesting exercise on Closing the Open Loops on Art and Life. Open loops are things that you’ve started but then set down and have yet to finish. They take up energy and space in your brain and can slow you down (think of them like open taps on a computer).
Over this period of trying to set down projects that don’t serve my goals, I’m going back and looking at these open loops. I’ve started (or planned, entertained) several art-entrepreneur projects over the last 8 years, for example an artist planner, an art resource sharing website, an artist book club, a blog, curating art for other spaces, this newsletter, an artist meet-up social group, an artist run gallery, summer art camps, private art lessons, art portfolio tutoring, art studio rentals, and on and on.
Many of these are on an indefinite pause, but one of the things I’m looking at over these few months is if they need to stay paused, if they are active, or if I should shut them down. Finally letting go of some of them completely has been freeing.
Thanks for reading. In the comments, I’d love to hear: what is something that you’re carrying on your to-do list that just doesn’t get done? You re-write it each week and just let it take up mental energy. Perhaps it is an indication that it’s one of those things you could drop for the next year. Tell me about it.
I am so grateful for your friendship in our similar energy...being that we both love fresh starts/new ideas AND can hold each other accountable in not carrying/pursuing too many things at once. So simpler agendas and more studio time in 2025!