Feeling overwhelmed can be quicksand
Productivity — at least for me — is traveling near quicksand. At times, I slip into cycles wherein I take on more work than I can healthfully handle. The ground looks firm enough. I can totally make it through, and get it all done. So why not keep going?
But then the ground shifts and sucks me in. Projects grow in scope. I start saying yes to new projects and committee assignments without reflecting on which projects I do and do not have the resources to complete well.
Feeling rushed, I default to saying yes. Because I like helping. Most teachers do. When feeling rushed, I don’t stop to test the ground in front of me. I keep moving forward in an attempt to push through — to make it out of the quicksand quickly.
And then the ground continues to give. The more I struggle to complete the projects I’m juggling, the more firmly the quicksand holds me. Full days without breaks lead to working nights to “catch up.” Working evenings leads to tired days. More unreflective yes-ing. A cycle. Quicksand.
Reflecting and journaling are my pathways out. My pens are the branches we were taught as kids to use to pull yourself out of quicksand.
Writing with my fountain pens is certainly a hobby. Writing is also a lifeline. Journaling and reflecting help me decide which projects I can take on — and which I can finish with quality.
Three reflective questions help me quite a bit:
1. What parts of my day are least enjoyable?
2. What projects am I working on during those parts of my day?
3. What can I stop doing without impacting someone else this week?
Priorities come together from journaling on these questions. Priorities lead to getting bits of projects off my desk — either finished or delegated. And with each project I hand off, the quicksand dries out. Onward and upward.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. The standout combination this week is my Pilot Custom 74 Forest Green, with its lovely EF nib. Novelty aside, I’ve fallen back in love with the 74. The narrow section encourages me to grip close to the nib. A lower grip adds control to the hairline EF lines. Excellent for lists, detailed notes in meetings and reading notes, and lesson plans. High five worthy as my backup daily driver, too. 2/3 left.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (EF) — Empty. Slag Grey brought out the best of this EF nib. Smooth, disciplined lines. Subtle shading. Reliable writing pair. Five stars. Task management, scratch notes, reading notes, lecture notes, lesson plans, meeting notes.
TWSBI 580-ALR (Predator Hybrid) — 3/5. Beautiful combination. The EF lines are dark, show off healthy amounts of shimmer, and sheen rarely. M lines are bright blue and add a lot more sheen. Together, this pair feels like two pens. A great virtual meeting pair — but not for meetings with parents as the TWSBI looks like a vape pen. Lesson plans, scratch notes, meeting notes, reading notes, and most of the week’s journaling.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (F CI) — ?? Firehose of a combination. Bleeds on Stalogy paper. Shades and halos on more ink-resistant papers like Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River. Worked best for slow writing projects: reading notes, journaling, and virtual meetings. Excellent accent color, but unsuitable for marking papers as Marsala risks feathering and bleeding.
Wing Sung (EF) — 1/3. Goldilocks of wetness. Dry enough to avoid smearing. Wet enough to show off Rose Noir’s excellent shading and haloing. My go-to accenting combo: reading notes, lecture notes, lesson plans, and even some journaling. The Wing Sung’s snap cap also made this pair great for scratch notes and pocket notes. My pocket carry throughout the week.
Lamy Safari (B) — 1/2. The shimmer grew sparse as the week wore on. Still wrote reliably every time. Excellent shading. Worked well for headings and reading notes. Also used for lesson plans, and a little journaling.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). It feels great to have arrived back into a rhythm. 13 new pages this week. I landed on page 81 by week’s end.
The two-page weekly spread starts things off. I like a grey ink to keep the spread simple and distraction-free. So: Birmingham Slag Grey, the Visconti Homo Sapiens and a great Orions ruler.
Teaching requires straight and squiggly lines
Three pages of lesson plan outlines follow. Two are fully process writing for lessons in my ancient history class. The third is a color-coded tracker of my research students’ practice presentations. I leaned on two colors that do not match — Rose Noir and Rikyu-cha — to make the list for each section easily spotted.
The remainder are meetings notes and revised homework schedules. Rose Noir is a feature player in every meeting note. Winner-winner.
Journal. Stalogy 1/2 Year Editor (A6). Four new entries across eight pages. Small A6 pages. Woo.
My entries were a healthy mix of one longform reflection, two short one-paragraph jottings, and an original poem. My new year’s resolution is to write more poetry. Artsy. Well, aspiring to artsy.
I tapped both the TWSBI and Wing Sung for short entries. For their inks.
Kyanite du Népal is a great journaling ink. The shimmer and sheen and excellent flow combine for a wonderful writing experience. I say the same for Rose Noir’s shading.
I turned again to the Wing Sung for my longform reflection on Tuesday night. I switch inks to Candy Marsala when my reflection changed topics. Why not?
Sabimidori, inked in a Franklin-Christoph 31, carried me through the rest of the week.
Written dry. The Visconti Blizzard lasted until Thursday afternoon. A surprise given the vac-filler’s large ink capacity. My suspicion is that I did not get a complete fill. To Visconti’s credit, I only used the plunger once.
On the positive side, now I get to swap in a new ink. Enter: Sabimidori.
Newly inked. My eagerness to use Sabimidori was inescapable.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. I applied a gift card from one of my students to order Taccia’s Ukiyo-e Hokusai-Sabimidori. My first pen purchase of 2022. In January. Patience and I are on opposite sides of the street.
I’m a sucker for an historical theme. I am, after all, a history teacher. Sabimidori is pitched as an ink that captures the dominant colors in Hokusai’s woodblock print, The Village of Sekiya on the Sumida River. This art is part of a broader series depicting 36 different views of Mount Fuji. Cool.
Love a woodblock print
The blues and greens of Hokusai’s work show up in this ink, which writes blue and dries to a teal-green with subtle copper sheen. Together, all three dominant colors from Hokusai’s work make an appearance in Sabimidori. Cool and nerdy.
The ink is great, too
Outgoing / trades or sales. No outward movement this week. So there.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. Brian Jacques’ Redwall books have taken over my evening reading. They’re easy to read, well written, and light. Emphasis on light.
As I listen to my body, I’m hearing that heavier or darker stories would be best for another month — perhaps starting in March.
I found a great deal on a collection of all 22 books in ePub format.
I’m beginning at the beginning, with Redwall. Matthias has gone full serpico in the land of the sparrows. His quest to recapture the sword of legendary Martin the Warrior continues. Page 348; the lead up to the novel’s third act.
Nonfiction. I dedicated my nonfiction reading time to converting reading notes from Peter Pomerantsev’s strong This is Not Propaganda into my commonplace notebook.
The week’s nib choices leaned EF or quite broad. The contrast made recording commonplace notes fun and easy to parse. Bonus.
Fun, easy and noteworthy
Music. I rediscovered The American Dollar. Their song [name of song] was presented in one of Spotify’s “for you” playlists while driving to work on Tuesday.
Instrumental with a metal edge. With a handful of ambient albums for those who enjoy minimalist soundtracking while they work.
The American Dollar is heavy on guitar but mellow enough to encourage you to focus on what you’re working on. Definitely worth a shot. And they’re workplace friendly.
