7 Things Special: 21 Things I loved in 2024
Year-end roundup for creativity, books, and peace with tech
Welcome to my roundup of things I loved over the past month year! If you’re not interested in 7 Things, you can specifically toggle off these emails in your account settings.
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I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who became paid subscribers over the past few weeks! Your support allows me to continue offering free weekly posts to all, and to operate seasonal challenges like 31 Days of Creative Resilience which starts this Wednesday, January 1.
Now onto the year-end roundup, with highlights from this year’s posts along with recs for tools and practices to support you into the new year ⬇️
7 things for nourishing creativity:
Find “your” sketchbook through this quiz (mine is the Midori in B6 Slim). The more you love your notebook, the more you will want to use it. Materials matter!
Keep your hobby from becoming your job. Pressure to capitalize is a creativity killer.
Determine your minimum and maximum creative time for daily rhythms, or maybe even work in sprints. When Kening Zhu recommended sprints during our advising session I was skeptical, but since leaving my 9 to 5 I am relishing the energy and flow that sprints provide.
Catalog your inspirations. I did this as a birthday exercise and it was a great reminder of what I’ve paid attention to over the years, beyond trends and algorithmic recommendations. More on this topic this Friday!
Consider taking a break from classes to better hear your own voice. After stepping away from classes in 2024, I have a lot more clarity with where I want to go in my practice and have signed up for two classes in 2025 to support my desired direction.
Dedicate physical space to your art without losing yourself in the writer’s cabin fantasy. A corner of your kitchen table with your materials out and ready will do.
Related reads:
7 things for a calmer digital life:
I wrote about my internet compulsions earlier this year and am happy to report fewer compulsive behaviors as the year ends. Maybe you will look at this list and wonder how somebody could possibly need all these tools and hacks to moderate their tech usage, but it is totally worth exposing my experiments in case some of you find this list helpful. Different things work for different people of course, but these are changes that have stuck for me.
Start your day gently with Finch, a gamified self-care app. Sometimes I just want to click around on the phone without consuming something and chill games are great for that.
Common tip, but I highly recommend leaving your phone outside of your bedroom at night. Get an alarm clock! I love the sunrise clock for quietly waking up. I also have my Kindle on my nightstand if I can’t fall asleep or don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
Read and review via Readwise and Reader, a highlighting organizer app and read it later app built by the same company. I’ve been a subscriber since 2020 and can’t recommend it highly enough. I subscribe to most Substack newsletters via Reader so my inbox is manageable.
Dumbify your iPhone with Minimalist Launcher1. You can override the home screen and choose just six apps for a text screen—my six are Phone, Messages, Photos, Notion, Reader, and Google Maps. It’s not a perfect setup but it has made a big difference in using my phone with intention. Combine it with hiding apps in Siri search or suggestions.
If the dumbphone UI is too drastic, try putting your phone in grayscale mode. Especially recommend for late night reading or scrolling so you’re less visually stimulated before you go to sleep.
Delete the Instagram app. I’m still on IG sparingly but I will download then delete the app when I need to post anything. For all other purposes I use the browser. Antigram is a great Chrome extension to hide IG stories, reels, or explore page.
Ok but actually, Youtube is the biggest internet hole! I use Unhook to hide the home feed, SHORTS, explore, trending, etc. I still watch Youtube on my TV where none of this is hideable but the Chrome extension helps immensely when trying to get work done in front of a computer.
Related reads:
7 things (books!) to read:
Out of 71 total books read this year, these were my favorites.
A Year in Practice by Jacqueline Suskin is a holistic self-help book with seasonal rituals and prompts to guide one’s creative practice. This book completely shifted my relationship to productivity, and I intend to align more with the seasons next year. I invite you to join along through seasonal challenges for paid subscribers!
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney and his friend and art critic Martin Gayford is an art book filled with Hockney’s pandemic paintings and reflections. His enthusiasm for seeing is contagious.
All Fours by Miranda July is a highly entertaining novel about an artist in perimenopause. I hesitate to give much more away than that, but know you are in for a wild ride with some inevitable tears at the end.
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss is a ruminative essay collection on money and capitalism. The line "the hardest part of working isn't the work, it's the passing" is a core reason I quit my job this year.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum is a cozy slice of life novel where a burnt out corporate worker opens a bookstore. I really love contemplative books like these where nothing really happens (like my favorite movie of the year, Perfect Days).
The Night Parade by Jami Lin is a beautiful memoir using Japanese narrative structure with folklore and mythical tales to tell a story of mental health and grief. Icing on the cake: Jami’s sister and artist Cori Lin illustrated the book!
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer is an immersive novel of five characters who meet at art camp and go on to lead different lives. My favorite line: “But if the point was something else, expression or release, or a way to give private meaning to the loss of your son, your child, your boy, then yes, he should draw and draw.”
Related reads:
Have any year-end favorites or recs of your own? Comment them below:
I don't have specific Android recs, but y'all are blessed with way better dumbphone apps and ability to override controls.
Thanks for all these recommendations!
I’m a huge fan of lists, resources, recommendations, and end-of-year posts, so this truly is a treasure trove! 🤩
Definitely need to check out Readwise/Reader. I’ve never heard of it! I see it can integrate with Notion—have you tried that? If so, I’d love to hear how you like it. I updated my quote library database in Notion this fall, but hadn’t looked into a way to help out my Kindle highlights mess!