digital sarah art joy

help, the novelty is gone

~ 4 minutes to read

just a few weeks ago, I wrote about doing 16 weeks of weekly worklog collages and notes, and ended with saying that I would keep going. I'm 4 weeks in to this next 6 week group, and I'm two weeks behind, and the work is starting to feel like w-o-r-k (which is to say that I'm feeling resistance). I think it's fair to say the novelty has run out.

apparently the novelty of sharing here too has dwindled. Other than that post, I've only posted weekly worklogs this month. (However, I also made and started using lists and have been updating some of those throughout the month, but those updates are not reflected in the archive.)

(one month later)

oh, hello draft that I started and then abandoned! It's been a busy month; I've done a lot (I think?) except write in this here blog. I definitely did not complete another 6 weeks of weekly worklog collages. I truly like them, and am now faced with a familiar problem: how to dive back into something when the novelty is gone? Perhaps the 2 week breaks were not enough? Maybe this SEVEN WEEK BREAK???? WHAT. How the heck. What the hell. Fucking time man. I swear I just put off making my weekly worklogs like... three times? Not 7? Nearly two months? Have I been that busy? If I had collages and notes to look back on then I'd be able to tell???? Ugh.

I'm now remembering that I made a post halfway through the year where I wrote about what I'd done so far. Maybe I could do that for the end of the year.

gah - that's a distraction - the question at hand is what to do about them weekly work collages??? I think I should keep making them. What if I did the opposite and got rid of the breaks totally? What if I posted them at the end of their week instead of on a week delay?

Ultimately, what I like about them and value about them:

What I'm struggling with:

One of my wants/goals is to get more comfortable speaking/being on camera. So what if instead of a weekly collage, it's a weekly audio or visual recap? I also made a spreadsheet to track my Harada method goals (I should write a post about that), so I could share a review of that?

But I really liked the ~ creative ~ and ~ aesthetic ~ aspect of the collages. What if I just got better at documenting what I do throughout the week? That's something else that I want to get better at doing, too.

What if I throw out the "rule" about it being a worklog.... so I can include non-work photos? No, I want a worklog. And I already have a pretty generous definition of what work is. I think I just have to get better at documenting myself working/my progress. A photo an hour? A photo a work session? That feels doable. A beginning & ending photo for a work session, and maybe a middle photo if I can swing it. (Stops to take photo of me writing this.)

Sarah's hands on her laptop typing

I think I feel okay with throwing out the notes part on the blog though. Or at least lowering the bar a lot. A list of things I worked on? great! More detail if I feel so compelled? great! Random seemingly unrelated notes about other things like what I was distracted by? great! There are literally no rules!!!!

Okay, and also, I think I'll try just posting every week at the end of the week. And if I miss one? No biggie. I can choose to include it in the next one, if I want.

Oooooh, another lil struggle was the workflow of breaking up the collage into multiple photos so I can post it as a carousel. It wasn't that annoying or difficult, but it was kinda annoying! I think I'd rather just make non-connecting carousels, so essentially multiple collages. Instead of one long carousel collage. That feels fine. I liked having 3 though. And then the bare minimum post could be just a photo, a single slide.

Okay 2026, let's see how many weeks of yours get a weekly worklog collage. Where the bare minimum looks like just a photo and not even a collage + a list of things I worked on that week. And the most beautiful scenario looks like 3 collages and detailed, interesting, useful notes about the work I did that week.

so, what have we learned?

maybe: when the novelty runs out, leave the damn thing alone for a significant amount of time (two months), then come back to it and revamp it to be new again.

maybe: distill things down into what you value about them and why, then go from there.

maybe: lower the bar, lower the bar, lower the bar. at least at first, or at first again to get back into the swing of things.

and in case you need the reminder: there is no shame in starting something, falling off, then getting back to it. there is so much to be proud of in starting something, falling off, then getting back to it. <3

#creating