August Personal Curriculum
Semester Theme: Protect my attention because it’s my greatest creative asset.
Attention · Writing · Wellbeing
Why These Subjects (August Edition)
Over the last few years, my attention has slowly become fragmented & quite embarrassing. I want to create, yes, but I am so damn tired from day-to-day life & the constant nonsense being stuffed down our throats that when I get time to write, I am an empty shell.
It’s not because I don’t know what I want to create—I have three more Something Like Love books half written, three more Red Note books started, a dark romance duet partially written, & several other projects in varying states of progress. (The WIPS are always whispering.)
So, my friends, August is going to be an experiment in reclaiming that.
For one month, I’m stepping away from short-form content. I’m not quitting social media—I still plan to share my work through experimental Trial Reels—but I need to shift my relationship with everything. Social media needs to become, for me, a promo platform, not a place to linger. I can't look at another Thread telling me I need to spend half my day on social media engaging in content so the algorithm gods will reward me. If this means my content will never go viral, so be it. Trading my time in this one precious life of mine is too high a cost.
Instead of scrolling, I want to spend that reclaimed time reading books, catching up on long-form essays I’ve saved for months, writing poetry, revising novels, doing my MCU rewatch in preparation for the new Avengers movie, & building a quieter, more creative life.
August Syllabus
ATTN—Attention Studies
Post reels.
Reply to comments.
Log out.
No Instagram scrolling.
No TikTok.
No Facebook scrolling.
No Threads. (dear god, what a cesspool…)
Substack
No browsing. I find this platform to be my favorite. It doesn't leave me drained & questioning my humanity, but it still sucks time. And if I am spending said time scrolling the notes feed instead of reading all of my saved articles, it is still a thief. So I’m planning to spend my time here only on saved articles until my reading queue is empty. Long-form before discovering something new to add to the pile. And honestly, the feature where it can be read to me is a lifesaver.
Replace scrolling with…
books
essays
magazines
poetry
films
shows I am behind on (hello, Loki!)
notebook time
WRI—Writing Studio
Daily drafting or revision. One scene at a time. I often feel like, oh no, I only have 15 minutes. But those fifteen minutes over & over day after day add up. I really need to work on my all-or-nothing ADHD freezes. I also signed up for nightly focus sprints on the Pro Writing Aid website, so I am committing to them.
Instead of consuming tiny pieces of content (reels, captions, threads, notes), I create them or read the art in my poetry magazine collection. I am woefully behind.
On the wellbeing front, I plan to commit to daily meditation, yoga, weights, & walks if the temp drops. I find I always discover a key to an issue in my writing while walking, or come up with new scenes. I walk with no headphones, mind wandering, focus on the green & the feel of pavement beneath my shoes. We can’t keep distracting ourselves every moment. We need to become more interesting than our algorithms.