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Unfolding the Year: 2020

May Challenge

May’s theme is Perseverance, and I’ve got a really tactile, easy exercise for you to try this month to remind yourself of your own strength.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

April Reflection

Well! April certainly was… a Month, with a capital M, wasn’t it? I hope all of you lovely folks reading this are safe and well!

I’ve found myself trying to stay light and positive on my Instagram captions and Stories, but these blog posts are inherently more serious, and a little more vulnerable. It’s funny to change my tone in a way that feels so drastic here, but the intention of Unfolding the Year was always to be a place to investigate how our feelings, moods, and realities affect our productivity. So perhaps it’s not surprising that these feel so different to write than an Instagram caption, after all! Still, I appreciate you being here, whether you want the escapism of minimal planning photos or are interested in digging a little deeper here on the blog with me.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

May: Perseverance

I know I said this last month, but wow, when I planned the themes for this year, I had no idea how topical they’d really be. It’s still blowing my mind!

When I first came up with the idea of a month of perseverance, I was thinking about how the past few months’ themes have been cognitively challenging: from reflecting on your inner self to grappling with the concept of holding two conflicting things in your mind at one time. Internally, those are massive steps to take towards beginning to understand yourself better and I definitely think perseverance is the last step in that process: to keep going and keep practicing reflection, sitting in the grey area, and being present. That’s when it becomes a way of life rather than a habit you’re trying to stick to. When you know yourself and are honest with yourself, you can be more productive and creative all at the same time.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

April Challenge

April’s theme is “The Grey Area”: finding the both/and, the multiple interpretations, rather than assuming something is firmly one way or the other.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

April: The Grey Area

I chose all of the themes for my Unfolding the Year: 2020 project in December, and I’m pretty surprised at how “right” this month’s theme feels for our world right now.

There’s a lot of uncertainty and scariness out there right now, and it can feel overwhelming. In addition to, of course, social distancing and staying home to protect those most vulnerable, I highly recommend you first and foremost practice self-care, whatever that means to you. It’s the best way to care for ourselves and others.

This month’s theme is The Grey Area. It’s the idea that we have to move around from binary thinking — and/or, yes/no — and into both/and.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

March Reflection

Who knew last month how important (and unavoidable, for many of us?!) reflection would be?

I hope everyone reading this is safe and well, practicing social distancing and self-isolation, and finding some small moments of joy where you can in a very stressful world at the moment.

I’m personally not up for a massive reflection–transitioning to remote work is hard, and so is trying to comprehend everything that’s happening. But I did want to share a few thoughts on the general theme of reflection before we dive into the April theme.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

March Challenge

March’s theme is reflect — and this month’s challenge will help us do just that.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

March: Reflect

March’s theme is an action, goal, and ongoing practice that I hold very dear to my heart: reflection.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

February Reflection

I know everyone said their Januaries flew by — but for me it was February that really zoomed! Let’s take some time to reflect on what it was like to try to infuse creativity, and a little artmaking, into our productivity practice this month.

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Unfolding the Year: 2020

February Challenge

February’s theme is creativity, and in that spirit, we’re jumping head-first into this month’s challenge!