Hey, y’all 👋🏼 It’s great to see there are over 100 of you here now! 🥹 I want this newsletter to be a space where you can directly communicate with me, so please don’t hesitate to hit the reply button!

— Sana Tabassum

🍎 food for thought

There’s a life lesson that goes along the lines of, when you feel grateful, ground yourself in gratitude. I’m not one to keep a journal or practice meditation 🧘🏼 but I understand how powerful it can be for some. I do the occasional venting on my Notes app when I need to but generally, I face the feeling of overwhelm with slight panic. This has been the busiest month for as long as I can remember, even more so than when I was an architecture student!

For a little context; I’ve been working freelance with some really great hours and a wonderful team. It means I have time to work on my own projects and build the lifestyle I want, with financial freedom and the best part is that I get to learn new things every day. Of course, I am still looking to get my foot into the architecture industry, but for now, I’m taking it as it comes. 🕊️

What I’ve learned 👇🏼

• There is always time for a break. Even when I feel like the work day is going too fast, it doesn’t hurt to take a quick break and just switch off from everything. And in those 5 minutes, the world isn’t going to end 🌎

• A change in environment can do wonders. Sometimes when I’m sitting at my desk and I feel myself getting tired or distracted or working slowly

  , I take my laptop and go sit in the garden or in the kitchen and even on the sofa 🛋️ It really helps

• A little bit of structure and routine can get you out of the mind fog that comes with being a graduate, endlessly looking for the next job and trying to find your feet.

🍗 content nuggets

As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I’ve been reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. Sharing some of the golden nuggets from that book is surprisingly motivating me to read it too 📓

On productivity ⬇️

• Finding a productive rhythm can be done by lowering the stakes.

• Healthy distractions. Distraction is not procrastination but a strategy in service of the work. It’s how people say the best ideas come to them in the shower or while exercising. We need to do the smaller, mundane tasks to keep that productive cycle going. It might seem counter-intuitive but it’s the only activity that actually has results.

• The mission is simply to complete the work at hand in order to move on to the next. Instead of focusing on how long your task list is, focus on the task at hand and then the next one and so on.

My favourite bit of content this week is this reel 🎵

milesmusickid

View more on Instagram

If you haven’t seen this kid on your feed already, he is a genius! I just love how wholesome these videos are and it’s kind of a reminder that we should always let our inner child show through anything we create 🥺

🦋 casual magic

My casual magic for this week has to be about :scale studio ❤️ This time round, I didn’t have anyone else to rely on in terms of delivering the content. Part of me was really nervous about the response and how active the students would be. But everything went pretty smoothly. I was buzzing with energy for the introduction event and that vibe carried throughout the sessions ⭐

The only goal for this was to help students be more confident in their skills and present these through their CVs, and portfolios and encourage them to build an online presence through LinkedIn. Hearing their ideas, and talents and seeing that I had made a significant impact, really let me breathe a sigh of relief.

As you read this, I’m graduating today !! 🎓 So many thoughts and feelings, but I’ll share those with you over on my Instagram and of course in next week’s newsletter 😉

🔥 on the back burner

I’ll be doing another cohort of :scale studio after seeing the success of it this past week. This will most likely be some time at the end of August 🤞🏼 I’ve learnt a lot from these sessions and I’ll be using the feedback to make the next studio better and stronger 💪🏼 You’ll hear it first of course.

There are also some really exciting projects in the works, although they’re quite long-term but I’m slowly coming out of a cloud and backlog of things to do so hopefully I can share more in the upcoming months.

That’s all from me this week, lots to do and lots to look forward to 👋 

See ya!

— Sana