What I Explored This Week 12/27/2024 - 01/09/2025: Paper planners, homesteading, and more Japanese music
I’m sharing my future works in progress, things I’m in the middle of, by sharing what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
And I know, this post covers more than one week. I’m keeping the title the same though, because I like consistency.
CURRENT EXPERIMENT - FIGURING OUT HOW TO USE PAPER AND PEN (AGAIN) FOR PERSONAL PLANNING
This video has good tips on how to find your experimental planner style. I’m transitioning back to paper planners for personal tasks and am looking for how to do this in a way that works for me and all my tasks.
This is another video I found helpful for my transition back to paper planners. He’s actually using paper then going to an app, but I found the way he thinks about planning projects helpful, because it’s what works for my work tasks. I plan the project, all the tasks and when they need to be done, and then schedule time to work on the project.
That’s easier for my brain and I started to do this for personal tasks in the last few months but not consistently. This video inspired me to be more consistent and actually use projects for planning.
CURRENT RESEARCH TOPIC - HOMESTEADING, OFFGRID LIVING, PRACTICAL LIFE SKILLS
I’ve watched so many videos about homesteading. My husband is really interested in it and I am too. Not sure it’s for us but I’m gathering information anyway. My brain likes to plan way way way ahead so I’m watching and looking for ways to do it that fits us. I’m not sharing all the videos we’ve seen because it’s just too many. But I like this channel because she has the same flexible and practical way of managing her life that I do. (And funnily enough, her family is going to Southeast Asia for extended travel in 2025, similar to what we did in 2023.)
WHAT I’M READING
“We should get together” book by Kay Vellos
This book is about how to make and keep friends as an adult. I was kind of done with this topic after researching it for years and years as a teenager - because I wanted to know how to make friends even back then - and all the information and advice was starting to sound the same.
But this book piqued my interest. Instead of giving advice, the author went looking for the answer to share the results of her research and what she did with it. I finished the book and my biggest takeaways were to treat friendship as seriously as a romantic relationship, be clear on what you want from a friendship, and a good friendship takes effort.
RANDOM GREAT FINDS
Crayon Advisory Behind the Scenes
Doing the Things for the Communication
Historically, the last two weeks after extension season has been a slow wind-down from extension season. Wrap up the last few returns that didn’t get done by the deadline. Update workpapers that were tossed by the wayside. Catch up on emails ignored during extension season…
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4 years ago · 1 like · 2 comments · Megan Justice
I found Megan Justice’s Substack Crayon Advisory Behind the Scenes when I checked on who liked a Threads post I made recently. (I check who liked my posts to see if I want to follow them. Sometimes I find interesting people and this was one of those times.)
Megan Justice has a newsletter looking behind the scenes of her tax advisory practice. And this article “Doing the Things for the Communication” reminded me that I want to make infographics for my clients to have clearer communication of deadlines. And it gave me an idea of what the infographic can look like, so thank you!!
Atarashi Gakko! - Tokyo calling
This is another great Japanese song. My husband heard it first and showed this to me, thinking I would like it. And I did! The music video is so fun. I caught a few references like to Dragon Ball and Godzilla and I’m sure there were more I don’t know about. And of course, I had to watch all their other music videos and songs (all great too!)
Paul Scrivens https://talentedunderachiever.com/unfinished-projects/
I discovered Paul Scrivens on Threads and his concept of World building. And it called to me, I think this is what I want to do. What I am doing without knowing.
This phrase is really inspiring me to be more me: “Track insight density instead. Which ventures consistently generate new patterns? Which combinations create the most breakthrough potential? Let these guide your portfolio decisions.”
And this phrase reminds me of my weekly snapshot of what I’m working on. This sounds like what I’m doing: “Remember, documentation serves pattern recognition, not the other way around. When capture methods feel heavy or slow, simplify them. The goal isn’t perfect records. It’s maintaining a living library of insights your pattern processor can access for breakthrough combinations.”
I’m still interested in frameworks and experimenting with making my own to clarify my thinking into clear ideas.
And what Mel says in this video reminds me of the world building that Paul Scrivens mentioned. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is but I’m sensing a connection there.
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the week. Take care!