A new season, my 30-day poetry challenge, and finishing The Bare Minimum Artist's Way.

The Cosy Creative Diaries: 002

Welcome to The Cosy Creative Diaries – a monthly recap of life as a freelance creative and social media manager trying to make work a little cosier ☁️

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A new season 🍂

As we’re heading into a new physical season (hello, Autumn 👋🏼), I feel like I’m entering a new work season too.

While reading Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, I realised I’ve been frenetically trying to do ALL the things instead of zoning in, slowing down, and becoming an expert at what I want to do most. Now, in an effort to stop spreading myself too thin, I’m streamlining my core offering and doubling down on what I do best.

What I do best happens to be creating really good social media strategies and implementing the hell out of them!

On that note, I have a few slots available for new social media clients. If you’re looking for someone super passionate about social media to run your socials, get in touch.

Creating cosy work rituals 🌧

The weather has been cooling down, and I’ve been on a mission to make work feel cosier. I spend most of my time at my desk, so why not make it feel more magical?

Here are 5 cosy things I’ve been doing lately:

• Drinking an extra cup of coffee just because it’s warm and comforting.

• Wearing my comfiest clothes to sit at my desk.

• Doing easier tasks from the couch before I dive into deep work.

• Lighting a candle on my desk for the vibes.

• Blasting that heater for the warmth (and the brown noise).

What cosy ritual should I try next?

30 days of poetry ✍🏻

I’ve challenged myself to write poetry EVERY DAY for a whole month to push myself creatively. It’s been hard, and it’s been sweet.

I’m about halfway through the challenge, and seeing people’s reactions to my poetry versus my prose has been interesting. I think people are a little bit afraid of poetry because they don’t always understand it or know how to interact with it, so they avoid it instead. I’ve been guilty of this in the past, too. This sentiment is apparent in the lower engagement on my poems compared to my essays. It makes me question whether I should bother putting myself out there, but then I remind myself that I’m not writing these daily poems for the likes and comments. I’m writing them to tap into a different part of my creativity, to grow and expand, not to be held back by metrics.

Finishing The Bare Minimum Artist’s Way 🎨

I’ve been doing The Bare Minimum Artist’s Way with

Internet People

over the last 3 months, and I completed the book last week 🎉

Why the bare minimum version? Because it’s The Artist’s Way, but without the pressure to do every single task or activity. For someone with ADHD who finds it hard to finish things, it has been the perfect mix of freedom and structure! I’ve loved listening to the Internet People podcast and following along as

MJ Mayes

and

Anna Seirian

work through each chapter. Shoutout to my favourite podcast!

Reading The Artist’s Way has been pivotal for my creative journey. As I’ve worked through the book, my confidence in my creativity and what I create has grown. I’m writing and creating more than ever, and life has been more fun! Instead of spending hours doom-scrolling on the weekends, I’ve been filling up my creative well through artist dates, lots of reading, and resting well. I’m learning to embrace the creative process and taking the step to be bad at something new and experimenting without feeling the need to be perfect immediately—something that does not come naturally to me at allllll. I’ve even started knitting and writing poetry!

Keeping a positive feedback note ⭐️

Remember that feeling when you were little, did something brilliant, and got a gold star on the top of your page or in the middle of your forehead? The best feeling! That’s how I still feel when I get positive affirmation as an adult.

The voice in my head is often screaming, "You're not working hard enough. You call that good? They're going to hate that." But then, I get a great piece of feedback from a friend, a client, or a colleague, and it makes me realise that what I'm doing is valued and appreciated.

Even still, it can be SO easy to forget these glowing comments amid all that negative self-talk. To combat this, I've created a little note on my phone where I paste positive feedback. When I feel a little down on myself, I open it up, and I have written proof that I am worthy of the work I’m doing.

10/10 would recommend creating your own note to document the nice things people say about you.

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Thanks for reading! Stay cosy ☕️