On the adoption of weeknotes

What i was up to this week #1

What is this?

I’ve recently re-read Tracy Durnell’s Using personal weeknotes as a tool for attention, and i’ve decided to do the same! I realized i was reading hers all the time and always found some value in them, so here goes.

Weeknotes are a little summary of my week, published in public. They’ll include some stats to keep me accountable about projects (typically writing, publishing, notes, …) and some random collections of links, thoughts, pictures.

I’m very much doing this for the exact same reasons as Tracy, so check out her post above if you want to know more. And check out her blog in general, she’s great!

Now, i don’t want to spam anyone, so i’ve made a different category for them. In short, if you don’t want to see those, and only want to receive my usual essays, click this unsubscribe link and toggle the Weeknotes setting.¹

keep the top 2 to get my regular essays

Reminder of my posting frequency if you’re afraid of spam (i very much am): at most 2x a month for regular essays, and at most 1x a week for those weeknotes (ie 4x a month, if and only if, i remember to do them, and don’t loose interest).

Let’s get started:

Highlight starting this weeknotes practice

Looking forward to watching Murderbot (my reward for writing and getting this out!)

Stuff i did this week

because there’s nothing like self-promotion to start the week with :))

• i published an essay about the character of Gretchen in Severance. As i said in this note (spoilers in both links!), i have a lot of gripes with season 2 in its pacing and its handling of the mystery elements. However, Gretchen truly isn’t one of them. She was perfectly written and is one of my favorite parts!

• i researched stuff for 4,5h

• i wrote for 4h

• i spent 50 minutes writing and publishing notes (for a total of 6… could do better!)

  • i’m very bad at self-promotion and short form taling, but i really want to improve that!

• I discovered Calvin Drifter Studio and his Procreate tutorials. He’s great at explaining, and the level of difficulty is just right for a complete beginner like me.

cute little people i did with Calvin’s help

• I’ve started to make sticker templates for my new planner! I bought an Erin Condren planner, and they’re perfect for adding lots of stickers to. I’m playing with my Silhouette machine and getting stuff ready (the planner starts in July).

  • the hope is to make stickers at home, with my own designs (well, reproduced from tutorials, but still)

  • great discovery: watercolor brushes! They make very simple designs look good and like they’re more complicated than they are — but they’re super simple to use! Once again, i’m using Calvin’s pack, but there are a ton available on the market

Silhouette is an amazing program — sadly the screenshot tool isn’t as good lol, couldn’t get it to print screen properly, and i’m not fighting that on a Sunday!

• failed to get Lorde tickets… i was third in the Ticketmaster queue, but my browser just crashed and didn’t load the seat selector thing so it sold out in 2 minutes before i could get anything :,(

Random stuff i'm thinking about

• about hobbies: everyone is saying - don't do it for other people, don't be performative, do it for yourself... but honestly if i don't do it for others, with some pressure to make it complete enough that i can show it off, then i just won't do it at all. It's great that you can make yourself be free of external stimuli and stuff, but i would like you to stop shaming me for not being able to. It takes effort to do tasks, even if i enjoy them, and i don't want to be "less than" when i read a book because i'll write a review, or draw a picture so i can post it on Substack.

• what it means to be pseudonymous on this blog, what i tell and what i lie about, and why was it so hard to choose a name? Will probably be my next essay.

• a retex on swimming and the 0 to 1650 program (0to5k in the pool). I've finished week 3 out of 6, so you'll see that post in a few weeks! Or maybe i’ll hype myself up and make little doodle to post on Notes instead?

• why do people keep trying to writing fiction on substack? Little ranty note bc i hate to navigate stories on here

• reminder: Mother’s Day is next week in France!

• Substack's Pricing Model is Fine, Actually, ie why it's not a good idea to tip writers, actually (duh). I see this idea thrown around way too much, but i really don't see how it can work, and not bring writers back to a newspaper model where they are each paid 2 pennies per post.

  • Just look at how Medium writers are faring: it's not at all better to have that "general" sub that gets distributed among the people who read. Same thing for youtube: the big players get all the money and everyone else is fighting for scraps

I need advice on…

• 🖨️ recommendations for a printer!

  • I’m thinking of going for Epson ET-8550 because it’s:

    • available in Europe

    • a “tank” machine (i’m done buying cartridges!)

    • able to do big formats (not that i’ll use them, but i like the idea lol)

    • not too too expensive (600€ is the top end of my budget)

    • good quality for pictures (and stickers!!)

  • but if you have any other recommendations, please leave them below or reply to this email :))

Currently reading

A Drop of Corruption, book 2 of The Tainted Cup (60% in)

I loved book 1, even though i'm not usually one for detective stories — the fantasy elements drew me in and kept me interested. For now i'm not convinced about ADC, i don't get the same pull. I think it’s because they aren’t talking about mushrooms and fungi and contamination as much, it’s much more of a normal story and i’m kinda bored.

Endnotes

Well, that was it. Thanks for reading if you did, reminder you can unsubscribe just from the weeknotes by clicking the button below and toggling “weeknotes” only :))

If i sparked any thought, question, answer, please leave them in the comments, DM me, or reply to this email (only I see email replies).

See you next week.

Edit: i’ve abandoned this idea of weeknotes after all, it’s a bit too much to do, and it’s hard to keep it focused without a clear direction. I’ve found that it’s actually better to post those little things bit by bit on Notes as they happen, instead of making a round up!

1. You can also do the opposite, but honestly the essays are the much nicer stuff i put out, this is mostly a personal accountability exercise!