A gentle close to the week

Start with a sentence, not the book / Issue 1,162

Oh, hi friends!

So I hand you an instruction manual. It’s more like a book. About 40 pages long. Tiny print. Confusing diagrams. 

And when you hold the manual, it feels heavy. It is heavy.

How will I ever get through this?

But you’re trying to be nice, and I gave you this manual, so you open it to the first page.

Start here, it says.

Well, that’s clear enough.

So you get real close to read the first sentence, and the text actually matches the diagram, which doesn’t seem as confusing anymore. 

And each sentence is a little easier to read, and each diagram comes into focus, and soon you’re flying through the first 10 pages, then the middle 20, and somehow you’re on the last page. You’re almost done.

How’d that happen?

One sentence at a time. 

***

How we get through a week, a project, a tough time.

If the book is heavy, start with a page. If the page is too much, find a word. 

Slow and easy — that’s the angle we’re looking for. 

My Three Favorite Things This Week

Congratulations to Laura Belgray for the release of her hilarious new book, Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-Ing Worst. We chatted for my podcast back in August, where she shared her love of being unapologetically lazy, keeping open space on her calendar, and the challenges of writing this very book. Amazing to see it out in the world! (And on Live with Kelly & Mark!!) Pick up the book here, and podcast chat over here.

I love trolling Facebook Marketplace for interesting vintage furniture, despite not actually needing anything at the moment. But an invaluable tool, which I forgot existed and which is probably old news to everyone else, is Google Image Search. SCARILY ACCURATE. Upload a photo of something and it will pull up photos on the Internet of similar items. Go and click the little “Search by Image” button in the middle.

Can a Piece of Tape Help You Sleep I’ve wanted to mention this article for weeks but thought it was too weird but here I am. I’ve been trying this “life hack” — which involves “gently placing a piece of skin-friendly tape over your lips to keep them shut while sleeping to encourage breathing through your nose” — and it is REVOLUTIONARY?! I used to wake up feeling so dehydrated and foggy-headed, even on a “good night’s sleep,” but this little trick has me waking up before my alarm (rested!) and I haven’t felt compelled to take a nap in weeks? Is this sorcery? Am I delusional? I don’t really care because I love my night tape. And this is the place where we (I) share weird things in the hopes they might help your life just a bit. Give it a read and maybe a try and let me know how it goes?

And with that, have a gentle and weird close to your week, my friends!