10/09/25
september with its "back to school" feel, the cooling down after summer, brings back a little bit of energy. it's when i personally feel the New Year's energy the most. i'm inspired to try all sorts of things and this year it started gently and reasonably.
first i thought about what i'd like to start/re-start. restart an art practice (following the advice from "we need your art" by amie mcnee). start any sort of exercise, kind of using that same method (two weeks of smallest actionable steps). alright, two small projects - manageable!
second - i made a sort of accessibility tool, something i've definitely read about when it comes to optimizing autistic workflow, overcoming inertia etc. i made a set of tokens representing daily activities. repeatable tasks that are easy to forget, but tedious to be writing out daily in the planner (or worse - tracking in a tracker! shudder). now they're little squares with cute images on very stiff cardstock. tangible, visible. i can arrange them in an order that makes sense, or flip them over/set them aside as they get done. not forget about anything and not feel bogged down either, with these non-threatening little guys.
if you want inspiration, i'll list my categories below. they're very general, just a visual shortcut reminding me of areas of life i want to pay attention to. but you can have them as granular/specific as you need within each category to help with specific tasks. and of course have your own custom categories!
but as usual when the energy returns - i'm getting carried away. soon i was tempted by esperanto. soon my artistic practice expanded from drawing into bigger collages, other arts and crafts, and even had me take out the mandolin. that sort of thing requires serious practice (even if just for the calluses). soon i'm chatting in servers and feeling encouraged to revive the blog - so that's time spent on writing. now there's also the magical practice knocking at my door. i am uncertain on how to continue.
i tried to make a little schedule that would make sure nothing falls by the wayside but it does not work (as it never has, hence the need for activity tokens in the first place). full list of current interests outside of the daily tokens (or potentially all fitting into "hobbies"):
esperanto is already kind of fading as an attraction, so that's one thing less if i decide to nip it. drawing is a kind of fall-back activity, when creativity in general doesn't work too well, so maybe i don't need to actively pursue that right now. if i could get back into the rhythm of regularly reading in the evenings that would take care of that - attach it to the evening routine... backgammon kind of takes care of itself, i pop in for a few online games during daily Coffee Break. and writing for the blog is adjacent to journaling... plus i can write a few posts in one batch when i'm feeling inspired, doesn't have to be a daily investment of time. that's still Many things to remember about/pay attention to/try to find time for. all while trying to take it easy lol help!
(i'm sure things will settle down into something organic and sustainable. but right now i'm in the middle of this stirred up glittering mess. it's very "aaah!!")