Hello! 👋Â
Last week I mentioned I was going on holiday and would send a mini-postcard from my travels before taking a break from this newsletter for a few weeks.
Well, as I write this, I’m on a flight to Japan. I have left sending a ‘postcard’ from Hong Kong so late that I’ve already left the country 😅
This leads me to my main point of this newsletter — one that may be obvious to many, but I clearly overlooked it before I left to go on holiday…
…Don’t commit to doing work you don't need to do!
I know, so obvious. I thought I could ‘squeeze in’ a newsletter or two relatively easily. But turns out I had plenty to organise — and signing into Substack to write an email was one of the last things I wanted to do.
So hopefully this isn’t too preachy a lesson, but if you find yourself in my position — where you have full control over how much work you commit to while you’re on holiday — don’t do what you don’t need to 🙃
People will understand. People will often be happy for you. They want you to enjoy yourself. They want you not to stress.
Not that writing this newsletter is in any way stressful; but adding it into the pile of ‘things to do and think about’ while you’re juggling organising things in a country or language that isn’t familiar to you, can definitely take the joy out of a thing that you normally look forward to.
On that note, I’m relishing the idea of coming back from holiday and having the proper time to attend to my work. But before then, I’m going to sign off and spend the rest of the month not thinking about it.
Instead I’m going to soak up the wonders of Japan, then have a few more days in one of my favourite places in the world, Hong Kong. (And yes, eat all the tasty food in both places.)
Thanks for being patient with this newsletter, and I hope you too have some time off this season.
See you on the other side,
Kathryn
PS. If you’d like to have a read of my latest pdf book, How to start (and keep going with) your creative project — even if you don’t know what it is yet, you can read it for free here.