On My Mind (GWTW811)

Getting Work To Work

It’s been a month since my last monologue and I’ve got a lot on my mind. That’s why starting this week, I’m changing the release schedule of Getting Work To Work back to what it was before I burnt out and paused the show last year: monologues on Wednesdays and interviews on Fridays. This allows me to continue lining up interesting conversations with people all over the world, but also process what’s going on in my brain and heart. But first, a story.

Jack Kent calls himself a cartoonalist—part journalist and part cartoonist—and at the end of the day, he recaps what he went through in a journal. On December 15, 2023, he shared his journaling practice in a video on his YouTube channel called Start A Journal Now! Unlock your inner potential! I was inspired and challenged by Jack himself in the comments: “Time waits for no one. You should fall back into practice! The hardest part of a habit is just starting it. How many times has a chore that you keep putting off just nag and nag at you? And then when you start the chore, it’s actually not that hard. Start that journal habit and you’ll see it’s pretty easy to keep up!”

Since that day, before I go to bed, I write down what I did. It’s often short, a few sentences, but the habit is there. Fortunately, I’ve only missed one day, primarily because I had just started a new job and I was physically exhausted.

Flipping through the days, I can see what was on my mind, but mostly what I did. I see the recurring patterns of being tired and bored, but mostly what I see is just how delusional I am. Let me explain.

One of the prevailing narratives that guides my days is that I’m lazy and unproductive. I make a weekly to-do list on Sundays, fill each day as full as I can, but also allow unknown and urgent tasks to derail an already packed day. There are days when I’m just too tired (as I often write about at the end of the day) and instead watch a show or baseball in the morning or afternoon. But most days, I tell myself one story throughout the day and at night, the truth comes out: I do way more that I allow myself to see.

Show Links

• Start A Journal Now! Unlock your inner potential!
• Surviving the Game (1994)
• Photo by Pelle Martin on Unsplash