The joy of making real-world things.
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The pocket notebook changed my life forever. It was the tool that got me off my phone and thinking on paper again. It was the catalyst that started me down the path of YouTube, writing, and tech-criticism. It woke me up to the reality that the world around me is designed to keep me in autopilot and the page is where I would find myself in the cockpit again. If not for the investment in a Field Notes journal and a leather wallet cover, I might still be spending 5.5 hours a day staring at a glass screen. As the world increasingly becomes digital, I find myself with a strong compulsion to veer toward the physical: to make things with my hands, to write with my pen, to type these words on my typewriter. I like seeing the human in craft. To touch something, to see it, to feel the imperfections a machine could only dream of replicating. While experimenting with my new block-printing hobby, I got an idea: to make a series of hand-printed, hand-made pocket notebooks tucked inside hand-crafted leather covers. And I’ll shoot straight with you, I’ve been obsessed. I spent more hours than I'd like to admit researching paper, scouring OfferUp for heavy-duty paper cutters, and watching bookbinding content this week. Of course, this led me down a rabbit hole I had no idea I was falling into. Next thing I knew I was buying a leathercrafting toolkit and a double shoulder of veg-tanned leather to start making pocket notebook covers by hand. This definitely wasn’t in the cards for the month and yet here I am, saddle-stitching and making moves. But when inpirations calls, I follow it. The author Steven Pressfield once said "ideas impregnate you, they're like a baby in the womb. It’s your responsibility to bring them to life or The Muse won’t entrust you with that responsibility again." So, here I am, honoring my duty and I'm loving every minute of it. I'll have more updates on these as I fine-tune the design. But I've got to say it's thrilling to be learning new skills and creating tangible things that I know will be used by myself and others. There is nothing like a passion project to get you excited to jump out of bed. I would love to hear from you about something you're excited to work on. I can't be the only one obsessing over a personal project, right? Prompt: What are you most interested in learning more about right now? How can you further your studies of it? |
The Creator Cycle
Self-mastery with pen-and-paper systems.
The fastest way to learn new skills is to fail fast. But you can only learn through your failures if you're aware of them and can get comfortable with pushing past those challenges. Last week, I shared that I was learning leathercraft so I can make notebook covers for my hand-made pocket notebooks. To help accelerate my learning I took notes during the entire process in a pocket notebook. I took a few seconds to jot down any mistakes I made and what I might do differently next time to fix it....
Journaling every day for the last two years has completely changed my life. But most people struggle to build a consistent journaling habit and never see any of the benefits it has to offer. Today I'm sharing the exact strategies and tactics I use to make journaling an automatic part of my day so you can build a habit that sticks. This is a longer than usual newsletter but, it's packed full of tactical tools you can implement immediately. Recently, I relistened to Atomic Habits by James Clear...
I was reminded of a powerful life lesson Tuesday morning while reading The Book by Keith Houston. A section on the history of illustrations in bookmaking stood out to me. The Chinese were the first to discover the power of mass-producing images with the invention of wood block printing. Take a block of wood, carve out the negative space, ink the wood that remains, and press the relief image onto paper. A simple, yet revolutionary concept that allowed an image to be created once and reprinted...