Expressionism, is that you?

Do we really need to plan out everything, or we can go with the flow with some things.

I’ve imagined I’ll run this newsletter as I run channels in content marketing: monthly/quarterly content schedule planned in advance.

The truth is I never touched the fancy Notion kanban with all the brainstormed and neatly labeled ideas.

I just open the laptop and pour in what’s happening in my head at the moment, or was boiling for a few days.

I guess I’m tired of having an agenda. I have it for every job-related channel I own.

When I entered the content marketing field a few years ago, I was naive in my romanticizing of this job as some creative tinkerbell magic evening spells.

Quite funny, and if you think about it a little bit more — sad.

For years, I was imagining (some people would say - manifesting) how I earn a living by writing, reading, and editing.

Not really in magazines, because I could never stand them. My mother wasn’t into them, so I’ve never been trained to buy any of it. I did try in my grown-up years, but it just didn’t stick.

Not really at publishers either, because I could never read half of that garbage being published. Yes, I was trained into literary elitism. Studied comparative literature, and figured out I’d rather keep my book time as escapism.

Yet, I ended up doing what I wanted. I just didn’t know this format exists. If it even existed back then.

This is not a moment where I cry how my job is boring and I’m unfulfilled or something like that. ‘cause it’s not.

However, constantly researching, briefing, restructuring, editing, writing, rethinking — it’s tiring. (as is your argument how the em dash is pro AI)

Sometimes, I don’t want to know anything new for days. I literally can't process a single new piece of information.

Earlier, I used to get into guilt trip reading during those days, and spiral down to the bottom of anxiety how my brain won’t be braining ever again.

Now, I understand how creativity works, and I just let my head cool off, and let the magic happen.

Walks, deep cleaning of my fridge, cooking, folding laundry, or talking it out with friends. Finalizing it with a shower to clean out all the bad vibes, et voilà.

(I’m just reinventing hot water here, I learned everything from Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer)

That’s the funny part about the brain — you start working on one thing, and it affects something completely different.

I was doing a lot of internal work to cope with some private stuff for years, but on top of that, I’ve learned how to better manage my work output .

And that, my dear friends, is quite a happy flow.

Love,

B.