Category: WorkCategory: Work

Neil Mason posted his “MAKE. MOVE. MEET.” framework, a daily set of actions to move yourself forward. We are the sum of our daily actions, so if our only action is tending to social media or checking stats, well, that won’t get us far.

As Mason writes, if you do these things five days a week, “you’ve taken 780 actions this year: 260 things made, 260 things moved, 260 humans reached. Compare that to the version where you don’t do anything daily.”

Read the full post here.

I went on a six hour hike with a friend this weekend, which is a great way to cut six hours of screen time from your week.

“When anyone asks which social media network I’m looking to join next, I tell them NONE. I have this website. A few newsletters. An email address.”

I wrote that back in 2022, and every day it’s about “progress, not perfection.” I still catch myself scrolling, mindlessly scrolling YouTube Shorts or even Substack Notes.

But then I get outside. Or record some music for 10 minutes. Make some art. Just cuz it’s not my full time job doesn’t mean it won’t compound.

I’ve been walking 10+ miles per day since May 26th. That’s 76 days of multiple adventures, sometimes 20 minutes at a time (which is how long it takes to walk about one mile).

If you don’t think it compounds, I still walked 860 miles, and burned through three pairs of shoes in that time.

Imagine three hours a day of drawing, reading, writing, rehearsing, frolicking, dreaming, practicing. Our minutes are finite, and we don’t know when they expire. A few minutes at a time is better than no minutes, and certainly better than giving those minutes to Facebook or Instagram.

The sky isn’t falling, and most people don’t even know what “a Substack” is, let alone Pangram.

This was the common theme that carried through our two “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?” Escape Pod Zoom calls. While, sure, there’s a lot of hot takes from multiple fronts within the Substack eco-system about this subject matter (read Substack CEO Chris Best’s piece here), we need to step back and remember that there’s a big real world out there.

We probably don’t need to quit using Substack today, but as always, don’t put all your eggs into any one platform. Export your email list. Back up your work. Even better, put the bulk of your work on your own site, so if any platform goes away tomorrow, your work is safe.

Then write for the people who showed up, who read your emails and bookmark your blog. Have more conversations than hot takes, and focus on the existing relationships you already have in your creative orbit.

If you’re going to leave social media, you need somewhere to go. Somewhere to put your attention.

Like leaving the house – where are you going? Leaving a bad relationship or workplace – you need to physically and mentally go somewhere else.

So leaving social media isn’t just about newsletters and websites and screen time, because honestly we’re taking multiple hours per day and putting them somewhere else. Where do we move that attention?

For me, that’s been walking. I’ve started a movement practice, as Cody Cook-Parrot speaks of in their book The Practice of Attention (affiliate link).

Take a moment now to consider what forms of movement feel accessible, enjoyable, and grounding for you. Maybe it’s dancing alone in your kitchen, stretching when you rise in the morning, biking along a trail or to work, tending your garden.

I can just slip out the door for 20 minutes, see a neighbor, pet a dog, see a cat, listen to the crows – things that much more enjoyable than the firehose of “content” I get from scrolling.

Just as we don’t stare at social media for three straight hours, I also don’t walk for three straight hours a day. But a mile here, an hour walk there, and by the end of the day I’ve covered 10 miles. This is something (at the time of writing this) I’ve done for 63 days in row (and covered 720 miles).

So maybe try spending 10 minutes writing lyrics, or painting, or writing, or humming a melody into your voice notes – what could add up to hours per day that would “feel accessible, enjoyable, and grounding for you?”

Where could you put your attention? What could your “720 miles” look like for your creative journey?

The shows and movies we loved used to come on VCR tapes, or discs. We’d watch hours at a time, one program, show, or movie at a time.

Now we watch a flurry of brief story lines, bloopers, sports high lights, movie scenes, dancing, crashes, breaking news, podcast interviews – hours of “content” ingested a few seconds at a time.

It’s no wonder we’re exhausted after just 20 minutes of “relaxing.”

Then we spend hours per day trying to cram our work into that whirlwind, and we’d be lucky if a few people will even see it.

That’s why I think it makes more sense to find those “few people” in other places – local and online communities, reaching out, collaborating, interacting with the people doing the same level of work in our creative orbit.

Sure, maybe we “only” reach a few people from all that, but this effort is foundational, building the skills and sense of how to navigate the human to human world of making all this work.