Hey y’all 👋🏼 I hope you’ve been enjoying Sana’s Notes so far, if there is anything you’d like to hear about from me, just hit the Reply button and let me know! I hope you enjoy this week’s catch-up.

— Sana Tabassum

🍎 food for thought

Another day, another dollar. Not much has happened this week so I’m shaking things up for this newsletter and telling you all about my ideas and plans for the next few months. This is exclusive to this newsletter sooo you get the chance to have a say and be part of this journey. Just hit reply if something I say sparks an idea or if you have another opinion to offer, I’d love to hear from you!

What I’ve learned 👇🏼

• This week, like most, I learned the importance of resting the hard way. Every now and then I get awful headaches and yesterday this played out like it was scripted. I assume it’s down to a lot of reasons like not sleeping well, spending too much time on my phone (aren’t we all guilty of this?) and trying to do too many things in one go. Ultimately, this led me to just sit on the sofa with a cosy blanket and watch a movie till it was time to go to bed. Avoiding this is number one on my list and it starts with being strict on how much time I spend on Instagram and YouTube.

• I’m still at the beginning of my YouTube/filming journey. I think for a long time I’ve tried to make this process as easy as possible to eliminate any friction and actually motivate me to sit down and film. In the process, I’m not too sure whether the content I am producing is actually any good or not. I definitely want to up my game at short-form content, and the most important part of this is writing a script or having a well-thought-out idea. I’m keeping my eye out for any copywriting courses or content creators who specialise in this without the clickbait-y ‘I grew to X followers by doing this’.

• There’s no time like the present to do the thing you want. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been going back and forth in my head to try to figure out the next steps for :scale studio. Is it going to be a hybrid course or a self-paced one or will I make it free and so on? But ultimately the thing I want to do is help students with things that university does not teach you. Whether that’s time management, ways to plan an essay, how to render or even how you present during a crit, I think there can be a centralised space for this. I’ve been talking with some of my close creator friends and I think it’s time to make the leap.

🍗 content nuggets

So, not your typical architecture-related content but I found this YouTube video on iOS17 extremely helpful. I think it’s the first time in a long time I’ve followed along whilst watching a video and really actioned some of the steps.

A vlog I enjoyed recently was by Steven Bartlett who is documenting his life ‘Behind the Diary’. This one was all about his trip to the US, booking and filming with guests and it blew me away how packed this guy’s calendar was. Yet each conversation is personal and engaging. I want to get so much better at talking and asking the right questions - hopefully to do a podcast of my own someday.

🦋 casual magic

The cold weather is creeping in and I for one am not looking forward to shorter and darker days. But I am very grateful for the space I’ve crafted myself in my home and for the flexibility of my freelance work which means I don’t really have to commute anywhere. Although I spend way too much time at my desk, it definitely feels a lot more sustainable since I can just take my laptop and work wherever I like.

I really want to try my hand at working in public or even with a friend so if you’re in London, drop me a DM and let’s co-work!

🔥 on the back burner

A project which is only in the thought stages right now is this thing I’m calling Open Studio. Essentially it’s a concept where students from all over London can come to a space and work on their projects with other students, mentors, architects and designers.

We’d hold practice crits or design roundtables and eventually, guest lectures to help you navigate university. It’d be like having all my content accessible in person. I think this would make a huge impact and build some kind of tangible network or community.

I still need to flesh out the idea, figure out how it would work and identify potential collaboration opportunities so if you are working or know of a practice or organisation that could help me with this - please send me a message or reply to this email.

— Sana x