Jules John

Yes, that includes subtitles, too. 

I am one week into (almost two weeks as I finish this piece) a glorious six week summer holiday which started as a whirlwind mix of partying, karaoke, and movie-going.  I’m grateful to be able to celebrate the year’s end like this, as previously I have ended the teaching year with a major crash landing. I think that when the adrenaline of the job finally drops off, the body has a natural reaction to finally curl up and be sick. I’ll be honest, I did somewhat fight through a real need to crash, but I managed to get a solid week of fun out of life whilst more or less abusing my body. (Sorry body!). After the initial celebration, I was able to have a few rest days to catch up, with lots and lots of sleep, and without actually getting sick. Excellent!  However, after the week that was, I have entered a nice chill pace of life which I’m happy to sit on for the time being.

It’s another acclimatisation. I suppose the natural flow of things, and the comedown was always inevitable. You really squeeze the juice of life when you’re out and about, but sometimes I find it harder to avoid distractions amongst the silence of time at home. I certainly don’t feel the need to scroll Tinder or TikTok whilst I am on a date, or hanging out with friends, but the background whirr of anxiety starts to amp up when I am by myself. I think that anxiety partly stems from, of course, the addictive nature of the attention economy we find ourselves in, but it is certainly something we can take measures to control as individuals. Working towards balance in this world will itself be a balance of system-wide changes, and grassroots individual rebellions. 

With regards to combatting my anxiety, I do take formal measures such as therapy and a small dose of escitalopram which helps, but besides these I think another good antidote to the doomscroll malaise is the act of developing a sense of purpose in your personal life. Like a hobby, or, something of a mindful plan.  A cue the drumroll, please…‘SMART plan’, because we know that all plans don’t really guarantee success. Whilst somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I do think looking into some planning tools can really help us follow through on becoming who we really want to be. 

I have been journalling for upwards of 10 years now. It’s mostly just day to day reflections, but I do set a few yearly goals in each journal. And for this year that was (2025) I set the lofty goal of updating this very blog once every month! Which, evidently, did not come to pass. I’m not really the type to beat myself up if I don’t reach a certain goal or milestone I have set for myself, but I do want to spend the rest of this piece dissecting a couple of key problems which I think held me back from achieving this goal. 

Problem 1 ~~ Perfectionism

The truth is, I have been stuck on the same piece for about two or three months. It’s a bit of a mishmash of critiquing productivity culture, and also reenvisaging how we engage in leisure activities. However, I think the scope of the piece has gone far beyond the intended purposes of this blog. I was bringing in multiple references from primary and secondary texts, podcasts and philosophers, and, of course, weaving in Michel Foucault’s discipline and punishment wherever I could. And, somewhat ironically, I was working hard on a piece that was about leisure, and joy, and gaining energy from creative pursuits. I don’t know, I think your proof’s gotta be in the pudding itself. I want my writing to be my life embodied, not some type of stale recipe or manual. It just wasn’t it. 

Solution 1 ~~ The 80% Rule

Simple is best! I kind of forgot that writing a blog can be this casual ‘sounding-board-for-your-thoughts’ type thing. I think for the most part, perfectionism kind of gets in the way of most creative pursuits. Sure, we can hone our craft and develop over time, but it’s just gotta feel good along the way. Even this *this right here* feels good. Low stakes writing is a joy.

Problem 2 ~~ Length

I have always known that length isn’t the be all and end all, and I suppose I was initially aiming for roughly sub 1000 words in my previous piece. The problem is, the piece just kept getting away from me. It currently sits closer to 3000 words, and that is after a good amount of editing and trimming down. I knew that the piece could be split into coherent sections, but I didn’t think to actually do that (which I might do going forward!), and instead kept snowballing it into something ‘bigger’ and ‘better’.

Solution 2 ~~ Brevity and Action. 

On this note, I want to officially ‘lock in’ my writing goal for 2026. It will be similar to my 2025 goal (a blog post every month), but with the new and improved, streamlined addendum of keeping it to 1k words or less. I even like that as an unofficial tagline! I think 1000 words is ideal both in terms of how long it takes me to write, and how long it will take others to read

Summary

I think a defining tenet of where I wanted my creative output to be headed in my late 20’s and into my 30’s is that you can be a working professional and make art. In fact, I think it is important for so many reasons: for the individual’s creator’s mental health, to share multiple perspectives into our societal discourse, and to practice good work-life balance and happiness – which all people deserve across the globe. 

Anyway, no-one reads blogs anymore, but, I think if they were to read a blog, they would prefer to read one that’s 1000 words or less. 

And yes, you bet I’m going to break my own rule from the get-go. 

Signing off at 1040 words.

With love, 

-Jules