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

Every time I sit down to write one of these newsletters, I’m always thinking about how fast this week has gone. We’re already halfway through August and 2024 is creeping up on us 🤯 I think something I’m beginning to value more lately is my time. I was thinking about the number of hours I work in a week (which isn’t too much) and how I crave more time to work on my 5-9. Yet, without a good level of structure and routine, I would probably just put it off until I had to or until I achieved that energy boost.

Then the idea of slowing down comes into play. The perks of working from home don’t just include a comfortable environment, but also the people around it. I want to find better ways of being a little freer with my time and lifestyle and managing ‘work’ around it rather than the other way around.

It’s kind of how we usually talk about ‘work-life’ balance but in reality, this should be ‘life-work’ balance. More thoughts on this in the coming months, but there’s no harm in slowing down and just doing a single thing for one day.

What I’ve learned 👇🏼

• Turning off notifications can impact your attention span a lot. I find myself falling into the trap of doom-scrolling or staying up late to watch reels for no reason. I’ve previously had notifications turned off for most apps including Instagram. But I recently tried this with LinkedIn too and I noticed myself reaching for my phone way less. The best thing? I didn’t even miss out on anything.

• Leading on from the previous point, there is beauty in the joy of missing out.

• Everything is a process. I’ve created a new project for myself to re-design and migrate my website from WordPress to Webflow. I haven’t given it much time and attention in the past 2 years, so I’m excited about this but is also very energy-draining. So just telling myself that everything is a process, helps a little.

🍗 content nuggets

I haven’t been watching much content as I’m just preoccupied with work, personal projects and the gym. But a long-awaited interview of Ali Abdaal by Colin and Samir dropped this week.

I love the fact that there is no time limit on their conversations. This one in particular is a longer episode, but rightly so. I don’t think I’ve watched Ali as a guest on podcasts or channels, so I found this conversation very interesting.

He’s not trying so hard to be ‘the productivity expert’ giving him a very real and vulnerable demeanour. I think this is a conversation I’ll be coming back to time and time again.

🦋 casual magic

I met up with a few old friends from my BArch studio for brunch which was very wholesome and lovely. It made me appreciate the friendships that have stood the test of time and those that I want to keep close to my heart. You already know I’m a sucker for good food too so here’s a picture 😋

🔥 on the back burner

I’m getting back into the content groove so you can expect new posts that are in line with my three pillars; healthy productivity 🌻 digital identity 💻 and navigating university ✏️ Follow me on Instagram

— Sana x