Hello everyone,
A friend recently texted me that her “knitting life” was in disarray, which is to mean that she’s behind on projects and can’t find the time to sit down and get the work done because life is overwhelming right now. There is actual work (her job) to attend to, upcoming travel and, most importantly, a social life to maintain. Cue the anxiety.
My response to her was a) same — I’ve had the same pair of socks on my knitting needles for….checks notes…almost a year and b) if we’re comparing areas of our lives that are in disarray, I actually think my “reading life” wins. You probably don’t remember (but I do!) that I returned to New York from Oregon over the summer to find a pile of magazines that had accumulated during my absence. Well, that pile is still here. In the corner, staring at me. There is also a small stack of magazines and last weekend’s newspaper sitting in the hallway because I cannot bring myself to carry them inside and add to the never-ending mound. Instead, I am greeted and guilt-tripped by them whenever I leave and return to my apartment. A much better deal.
This all may sound dramatic, but I swear it’s not! First, reading is a key part of being a journalist, as I’ve said, and if I’m behind on my reading then I’m behind in my work. The most difficult part of reading-as-homework though is that, well, reading is fun and I would rather be reading than doing many other things in life. So then it feels hard to justify taking a walk to the park on a (78-degree) day in October to crack open a magazine.
Freelancing, in particular, lends to this idea that we need to be at our computers or reporting in the field. Anything else feels like time off. The truth, however, is that freelancers are always working, even when we’re at parties and networking events and eavesdropping in line at the grocery store. All of this is fodder to finding stories, one of the most difficult parts of being a journalist, independent or otherwise.
And! All of this circles back to feeling overwhelmed by looming projects, stressed about the things still unfinished. Last week a journalist asked how I manage large amounts of material when I write longform stories. Good question. For me, it’s about making one call at a time. This is the same conversation I had with my career coach a while back, which I mentioned here. Don’t do everything at once. Don’t even do one thing in its entirety. Write a sentence. Play with a word. Read five out of the 450 pages of court documents. I just attended a zoom talk featuring Katie Engelhart, who said it took her the entire day to write the opening line for this story (which by the way is so good and won a Pulitzer this year).
So in that vein, I’m trying a new tactic, which is to address one — just one! — lingering item on my to-do list. Today that’s to write a pitch. I don’t even need to send the thing! Just get some thoughts down on the page. This doesn’t mean that I will only do one thing today. In fact, I will do many (the first of which is to write and send this newsletter). But I’m experimenting with the theory that if I don’t overload my task list I may actually get shit done.
Don’t we hate how everything links back to productivity?
P.S. Happy Halloween! Do the things that scare you.
Thanks for being here <3
Britta Lokting
Endnote: Friends keep publishing!! We love to see it. Joshua Hunt has a great piece in the new issue of GQ about why everyone in Hollywood has veneers. Also this magazine was one of the ones in my pile, so not only did I get to read a good story but I can now say I made a dent(ure? lol) in my disaster of a reading life.
My knitting life is still in disarray. I think one thing at a time needs to be my mantra for December.