September 22, 2023

Cat’s Meow – Book Edition: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

angelleconant Cat's Meow, Creativity, Living, Words books, cat's meow, children's book, comics, creativity, watercolor 0 Comments

a purple watercolor cat is wearing glasses and reading a book with a cup of tea by its side

Just popping in to recommend the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.
It’s not like any other time management book I’ve read – there are no ‘tips’ or ‘tricks’ to exercise while cooking dinner or write a book while running a marathon. It’s more about recognizing that we have limited time and tough decisions need to be made about what is going to get done and what isn’t. It’s helped me focus on what’s important in my creative pursuits but also life in general.

This book is a part of the reason I’ve been pretty quiet here on my website – it really changed how I look at my creative work and I’ve been (slowly) more productive in the things that are truly important to me. One of my biggest lessons from the book is not to try to do too many things at once. I have so many creative projects and I used to think that if I touched each one that I was somehow still making progress on all of them at once. But that wasn’t the case and this book helped me to see the truth of that. Now I am actually making measurable, exciting progress on the children’s book I’ve wanted to write for years.

Unfortunately, this means that my comics, which I was really using as drawing practice for the children’s book, have intentionally fallen by the wayside. As has my music creation. And my other writing projects. Sometimes the hardest decision is choosing between two things we REALLY want to do. One day, I’ll have time again for my other creative pursuits and I look forward to that day. But for now, I am enjoying getting closer and closer to my goal of publishing my picture book.

August 26, 2020

I Have a Superpower

angelleconant Living, Words books, feelings, reading, romance, stories 0 Comments

To be fair, I think a lot of other people have this superpower as well. And I think I’ve known about it, vaguely, for quite some time, but I don’t think it’s been this clear until today.

I have the power to take on a character’s feelings when I read a book and sometimes when I watch a TV show. So if a character’s heart has been hardened by trials & tribulations and is filled with anger, I am pissed. If a woman is furious with her thieving, cheating husband, I am angry with my husband (sorry, honey). And if a character has lost a loved one and is desperately sad, so am I. But it’s not all ‘bad’ feelings I get from these fictional characters. Good feelings pass along too. I just finished reading a romance novel and as I read it over the past few days, I was walking on air and feeling blissfully content, as if I had just fallen in love for the first time too. And if I watch a New Girl or Parks and Rec episode, I am imbued with the indomitable optimism of Jessica Day or Leslie Knope.

This power is partially what Jonathan Gottschall was talking about in The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (which I’ve mentioned before – it’s a good book, you should read it). Stories are extremely powerful for all humans. Combine that with my empathic nature and BOOM – you have a woman who has to choose very carefully what she reads and watches. As they say, you are what you eat and we eat with our eyes first.

With all the heaviness that has been overwhelming in reality lately, I’m choosing to feel blissfully content when I can and read me some romance novels. 😉

August 22, 2020

Color-coded Joy

angelleconant Home, Living books, colors, joy 0 Comments

I’ve got a list of things I want to do to make our home more lovely and cozy and fun to live in. Some of the things on the list require lots of planning and time but color-coding our books took very little time and I was absolutely giddy during the process.

Sometimes when life gets especially heavy or stressful, I forget what brings me joy and pleasure. I know that joy & pleasure are essential but sometimes I just can’t remember what it feels like or what I might do to capture a quick moment of joy. So color-coding my books and discovering that the process as well as the outcome brought me joy was a lovely surprise. I hope it brings you a little joy too. 🙂

March 22, 2018

Cat’s Meow: Austin Kleon & 10 Ideas a Day

angelleconant Art, Cat's Meow, Creativity art, books, cat's meow, creativity, ideas 3 Comments

Welcome to one of my new blog series! It’s called Cat’s Meow and it’s just that – the cat’s meow. 😉 It’s essentially a place for me to gush about all the things I’m loving right now. So let’s jump right in!

I’ve just read Austin Kleon‘s book, Show Your Work, and it was quite excellent. I enjoyed his first book, Steal Like an Artist, but for whatever reason Show Your Work really spoke to me at this point in my life. It is chockablock full of good information and ideas (many of which I’ve stolen, at his suggestion, of course). And while I don’t agree with everything in his book, I definitely agree with the idea that people can’t see what you’re doing if you don’t put your stuff out there for them to see. So I am committing, right here and right now, to sharing my work and showing my work more often. If you haven’t checked out his work, I highly suggest you give it a try. And it’s not just for artists either – it’s for anyone trying to be creative (which is everyone). Plus, he’s a fellow Texan! 😉

And Mr. Kleon was actually the one who turned me onto the other thing I’m loving right now: 10 Ideas a Day. This is apparently a pretty old idea from James Altucher but I’m glad I finally heard about it! When I was a little kid, I was an idea machine. I had ideas flowing out of me all the time and as I grew into adulthood, that waterfall had turned into a small dribble. After only 3 days of writing down 10 new ideas each day, I’ve come up with a multitude of ideas and revived my creativity and excitement for creative expression. It really has turned me into an idea machine and has jump-started so many different projects and gotten me excited about old ones. I’ve been writing and documenting my one-off ideas for years now, but sitting down to focus on coming up with ideas was transformative for me. And I realized that so many times when I was jotting down a one-off idea, I’d end it with a question mark and the idea would sit on that paper and never see the light of day. NOW, with my ’10 Ideas a Day’ Journal, I end all of my ideas with a period. I’m much more likely to make it happen (if it’s a good idea) and take action.

So what about you – what are you reading, listening to or excited about right now?