Beans, tomatoes and milestones
finding creative flow in the face of phone-hypnosis
If you’re anything like me, the only thing that stops you from achieving flow state is a cocktail of self-doubt, procrastination and a lizard brain that has been absolutely wrecked by social media.1
But in a small victory against distraction, I’m proud that I’ve been writing this Substack for ONE WHOLE YEAR. It has been an exciting time for my creative practice and for getting my art out into the world: read on for some of this year’s milestones.
Before that, let me share some practical tips for tackling phone-hypnosis that have helped me find creative flow. Read these tips, and think how humiliating it is when you compare our brains to our forebears2 — Rembrandt didn’t have to deal with this nonsense.
TOMATO TIME
Pomodoro technique: the big one. The only quibble I have with PT is that they’ve missed a trick with the name. Please support me in the alliterative rebrand that I’ve been trying get off the ground — I’ve been using Tomato Time since 2020, primarily for my day job.
Usually PT/TT tells you to work in 20 minute spurts, but I’ve always done an optimistic 50 minutes because it was the length of my school lessons. If I could do it then, why not now?
WHITEBOARD
Tomato Time leads us to my whiteboard lists. I write my daily To Do lists on a whiteboard — to avoid using my phone — and being a natural doodler, I’ll draw icons to represent tasks. You’ll never guess the icon that means “focus on your work”!
BEAN COUNTING
As much as Tomato Time is helpful for me, I associate it with my full-time job. I set the timer on my watch when I sit down at the laptop, and it buzzes at the end of each Tomato. I’m not keen to do the exact same thing for my art.
Enter, Hank Green. He has created the delightful free app Focus Friend (no ads!). I have adopted a Bean who enjoys knitting, but who has trouble focusing. If I set a timer and we both agree to focus on our tasks, she will produce socks, which I then trade for home décor items. It’s the perfect partnership! And it’s ADORABLE.
I use Focus Friend to lock in on tasks related to creativity, home, or self-care. I set timers of any length — from 5-10 mins to an hour — and it helps me tidy up, open my sketchbook, listen to a podcast, get ready to go out, get ready for bed, or anything else.
I don’t use the timer for every single thing, but it is a good tool to snap me out of a “freeze” where the desire to do something bumps up against inertia (i.e. mindless scrolling). By pressing the timer button, I’m telling my brain to quiet down and settle on one task. Those moments are honestly a relief. I don’t believe we’re meant to be constantly productive, but neither should we feel scattered and restless.
How do you make time to find flow state? Do you use any tricks or apps to control your screen time? Are you going to try Tomato Time or Focus Friend? Let me know!
One Year of Substack: Artist Milestones!
I had a comic published in an indie anthology.
I survived another Hourly Comic Day.
I created a print comic Crow & Craig (which was sold on the shelves of Gosh Comics!)
I launched my own shop and website.
I moved home and set up a home studio!
I made zines to sell at a communal table for the first time.
As well as all of that, I’ve finally invested in an iPad and have been developing my skills in long(er) comics. In the last edition of my newsletter I shared an original, 3-page ghost story in honour of both Halloween and my Substack anniversary. I’m proud of it, so if you missed it, please read it here: A Modern Haunting.
Thank you for joining me here in my newsletter. Let’s finish with something silly: “The Tomato Mafia”. See you in two weeks!
I don’t have a diagnosis of anything, so I’m not going to stray into uninformed ADHD talk!
This is my first time writing down ‘forebear’ and all I can think about is literal Bears.
I've always wanted to try Pomodoro, but with my kids it's really hard. And a FREE focus app with NO ADs omg downloading rn
Congrats on 1yr! And alliteration for the win!