Weeknotes Reset (Sep. 12 '25)
I wrote weeknotes for several years and stopped at the end of 2024 because they were no longer serving a purpose. I can’t really write about my work for Performant here — our clients and the projects are terrific, but the work we do is theirs — and the rest of my updates started to feel like a recurring (and frankly boring) task list along the lines of: went to meetings, took my child to extracurricular activities, and did house-related things.
That’s… fine, and part of the purpose of writing weeknotes is to have accountability. But I was listing things that I had to do and would complete no matter what. I’m not likely to skip work meetings, errands, etc.
I stopped posting weeknotes after we had lived in the US for a year, so the major transition period was over. We were fully moved in and had settled into the neighborhood, my new job, and the local school system. Things are pretty terrible globally, and our new living situation has become familiar and routine enough for me to begin to engage more directly in the community. I’m dealing with the ever-increasing chaos and uncertainty by contributing – at the local level – to causes I care about. I’m hanging onto the idea that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Being who I am, though, I started to fill any “downtime” with service. After a day of work, I have committee meetings and action items. Last week I got covid and didn’t even realize it for a couple of days because I was busy, and then I was isolating, and then M got sick, and we had to stop.
Well, not work — or even service, really — but we had to slow down for a few days. And I started to think about how my constant fight is to take breaks — to not drive myself into burnout — and I realized that this is actually an area where I can use some accountability.
What if instead of making a list of all of the things I did in a week, I started to write up my breaks? Maybe I’ll remember to carve out some time for them? That’s the real challenge, after all — stepping out of productivity (a.k.a. "do all the things") mode and taking time to rest and to take care of my brain. So I'm going to try a weeknotes reset. Here's my first attempt at a non-work weeknote:
- The weather has been mostly nice – except for Saturday's tornado warning and massive thunderstorm – and I went for a walk around the neighborhood during lunch yesterday to get some sunshine and to step away from my desk. Nothing happened. I had some quiet time to myself. It was lovely. This morning was cool, and I walked M to the school bus (which is not typical, but we’ve had too many cooped up covid days). On the way back, something trotted up from behind a house — a cat? No. A fox! We both startled and stared, and then it dashed across the street and disappeared behind another house. I didn’t take a photo because I didn’t want to look away or scare it by moving, and after it ran off, I thought of the Annie Dillard essay about her encounter with a weasel and how this was nothing like that.
- I usually take a book to read during M's soccer practices. Because the weather has been so unusually lovely, I've been sitting on a park bench on the far side of the field. One afternoon, I read some Proust. An older Indian woman walked by and lit up when she saw me, and we had a nice little chat. Another afternoon, I started a book by Yi-Fu Tuan. During the last two practices, I haven't read much. Instead, I've been hanging out with the parents of one of M’s good friends from school who is new to the team. I like both parents a lot, and it’s been really nice to get regular time to hang out and talk while the kids do their drills and scrimmage. This week while chatting, the mom friend/neighbor and I walked their young dog – an adolescent with puppy energy. It's a bit of a torment for the pup to be in a place with so many kids and soccer balls and to have to stay on the sidelines, so we walked and talked and it was a nice break.
- M is an extrovert, so the hardest part of covid is isolation, and we FaceTimed frequently. Screensharing and co-watching works really well over FaceTime, and we watched the Swiss men’s team win a FIFA qualifier 3-0. I also made a “get well” Wooble for the kiddo. It’s the first thing I’ve crocheted in a while, so I’m glad it turned out.
