So I never make new year's resolutions because frankly they suck. I mean I do have goals in
life but I just feel like January is kind of an arbitrary date to set goals every year.
I usually set new goals when it makes sense to, for example when I'm starting a new job or
the beginning of a school year. So December 2020 just happened to be this turning point
in my life both personally and professionally. Some of you may know that I'm an architectural
and design project manager at a hospital. Throughout my career I've always been interested
in finding better productivity techniques, being more efficient with the way I work, but
now as a project manager this literally is my job. So a few years ago I started listening to this
podcast called Cortex. It's hosted by Myke Hurley and CGP Grey. Sometimes it's just really great to
hear how other people are productive and/or not productive and have challenges that are similar
and different from mine. And it's funny some of the processes as well as apps that they suggest
have been things that I have personally been using for years and sometimes I listen to be like oh my god
these are really great tips and sometimes I'm just like ugh who doesn't know this. Wow if Grey
and Myke end up watching this video they're going to be like who does she think she is. Anyway...
So there's been a lot of Cortex episodes on the idea of yearly themes I'm not going
to get too much into introducing exactly how Cortex got there but basically a few years ago
Myke and Grey introduced this system called the Theme System, which basically is:
instead of setting new year resolutions you set themes. A theme is much more vague and generalized
but it's still specific enough for you to head in a particular direction. In combination with this
idea, which is the whole concept of journaling - that's where the theme journal comes in.
There was an iteration of this that was released 18 months ago. I didn't get that one
by the time I realized it was on sale it was already sold out. This time that was
also the case but luckily this time I know a guy. So normally I hate paper I pretty much only ever
read ebooks. I take notes with my iPad or with my phone. I basically try to scan and digitize
everything as much as possible. So why did I decide to buy a paper journal? Well mostly because
I think it's a great system. Oh I should mention this is so #NotSponsored. And also I actually
kind of like pens. In design school I had to go through years and years of lettering training:
writing letters in a neat professional style on paper, even though we didn't need to use
it at the end of school because everybody uses a computer now, but nevertheless it was a good
skill to have even though I still have pretty bad handwriting. Personally I feel like the act of
writing actual words with a pen at least for some people like me helps solidify ideas even more,
which is why there's my iPad back there it's an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil.
So what is the Theme System? "Instead of resolutions we set an overall idea of how
we would like to approach each year or season. This becomes almost like a guiding principle for
our work and or personal lives for that period." Again these are broad generalized goals where it's
specific enough where you have a direction you can head into but it's kind of like a fail-safe
version of a resolution. It's broad enough where it can be tweaked. You don't have to be like I'm
going to lose 30 pounds this year and if you only lost 29 pounds or didn't lose any then you failed
and and it makes you feel bad, but if you have the year of health then maybe you improved your
mental health. Maybe you were sick and now you're less sick. Or even if you're not less sick,
if you made a conscious effort in that direction then you technically didn't fail at anything.
And 2020 was definitely a year that really taught us that you can't predict the future.
You don't know what's going to happen. You can set a new year's resolution and
it could just completely backfire on you, because things change in your personal
life as well as the world. Sometimes goals and themes have to be shifted, but a broader more
loosely defined theme makes it easier to redirect. So you know what's funny? I set a goal in December
2020 and my theme changed within the first two weeks of 2021, which is why there are actually
four different spots where you can put four different themes in the year either if you
want to have a theme for each quarter or if you change your theme four times in the year.
If you changed it like too many times you might want to rethink your theme selection skills.
So the biggest reason I got this journal is its flexibility. I especially like the journal pages:
it's divided into four sections but it's not labeled you can have whatever you want to do.
It's quite open-ended. It does have a structure and it does have processes but you can customize it
depending on who you are. And as a project manager that's really really important to me because while
project management involves a lot of very specific and detailed plans, I don't like to have methods
and processes imposed on me, because people are different and projects are different and lives
are different and things change from year to year. What I'm doing right now and what I'm going to do,
for at least this first quarter, is to do it the way Grey does it. So I would put the location
and the date at the top. The first box would be what I'm personally grateful for. The second
one would be what I'm professionally grateful for, and then in the larger box i'm gonna put
what's on my mind first thing in the morning. And then in the last box I will put what is the most
important thing to get done today if that's the only thing that i'm going to get done today.
When Grey first introduced this method and this way he does it it really sounded kind of like "new agey."
I don't usually like this type of loosey-goosey way of doing things, but really, the past couple
years - being sick and then being in the hospital, those first two things: what I'm personally
grateful for and professionally grateful for - it's important for me to remember how much I
value my partner and my friends and family and my friends on youtube. Professionally I still to this
day cannot believe how much I've achieved in my career. That's not just to say oh I feel so good
about myself I'm so smart and whatever. I mean that does help to help boost self-confidence but
it also additionally reminds me of my professional colleagues who I am grateful for. When I'm having
a bad day it reminds me of how great things are and and you need that and I need that.
The other reason that I really wanted to get the journal as well as review this product is after
listening to the recent Cortex episode talking about this journal as well as some previous ones
where they did the first edition of the journal. Listening through Myke's like trial and error and
and figuring out how to produce this journal, it really it spoke to me. It's like 18 months in the
making and some of my architectural projects are anywhere between six months to like six to
ten years in the making. I have to make these little finicky design decisions every single
day and I work with suppliers who just really hate me probably all the time because of these
picky things. Listening to Grey and Myke talk about the debossing of the cover, to what degree
do you do that and make sure it doesn't show up on the other side - I mean these little design
details - nobody ever picks up on nobody ever talks about. When something is designed well, when
the proper attention to detail is made, you don't notice it! It's invisible! So great listening to
Myke talk about: paper picking, pen penetration testing - I didn't even know that was a thing.
And also in one of the episodes Myke talked about they forgot to insert a page into the pdf
and a whole set of the journals have already been printed. I've experienced that as well. Something
has been constructed and oops we got one little detail wrong and now we gotta kind of redo all
of it and that really sucks. Things like having to wait five weeks for paper and your product
being stuck in customs for over two weeks. Myke was also talking about one point the factory of
the journal shut down because it was like Chinese New Year or something. Oh my god I deal with that
every single day. I think oh everything's great we ordered these doors or these pieces of hardware
are coming in. Amazing! Wait what's going on? Why is it taking another three weeks? What do you mean
Quebec takes off a week in the summer?? What??! Okay so on to the review of the actual journal.
I really really like the debossing. Like, it's very hard to see and it's just it's
so subtle. There's even a little - it's on the back as well. It's a tiny little Cortex symbol
and the theme system. I really like this matte texture. Fingerprints, you know, don't show up.
I guess my one minor complaint is that when dust does get on it, it's harder to remove than like a
smoother surface. Minor complaint, you know, third edition, Myke - just maybe maybe look into that.
I do actually like that the paper is slightly off-white. It's white but it's got
a little bit of cream beiginess to it. The most important thing is how nice is it to write on,
this isn't just dependent of the paper you also have to have a good pen. And because this is not a
pen review I won't get into that aspect too much, but i would say when it comes to the paper quality
and how it absorbs ink and how it feels with your hand - I like it. The perforated corners: amazing!
Some people on the Relay discord, we are thinking of at the end of the year having like a little jar
where we've collected all our perforated corners and showing it off. So I can't wait to do that!
So the third section of the journal is called daily themes. It's basically where you write
down your things you want to achieve each day and you rate yourself. For me it really is the
right amount of structure, accountability and specificity. But it's vague and flexible enough
for me to not feel boxed in and restricted. What is betty's 2021 yearly theme?
My original theme was the Year of Consolidation. I really felt like i'm doing so many things:
I'm working, I'm doing ARTiculations, I have a Podcast, I have a Discord server.
I have a lot of things. I originally thought I really need to consolidate. I need to organize,
get rid of some stuff. Honestly I still want to do that, but when this journal arrived I had come
to a realization. That's not my theme. I have a new theme: The Year of Expansion - literally
the opposite of Consolidation. This might turn out to be a really bad idea but maybe in July,
I consolidate. Or maybe I expand the whole year. I want to try new things this year. Maybe it's
trying new courses online, or doing new types of videos that I never would have otherwise done.
Maybe expanding the types of projects I take on at work. You may think it's like the "Year of New."
It's not just doing new things. I'm not saying I want to just try bungee jumping because I would,
I would never do that. It's expanding. It's building on what I have already. I don't want
to expand forever because then that's too much and eventually I'll have to consolidate. I need
to make sure that i don't overdo it and that I don't tire myself out or burn out and which is why
these daily themes and these other ways of keeping track can help me maintain sanity.
One thing I will mention is as of this recording, the Cortex Theme Journal is sold out. It probably
won't be available again until February or March. Oh my camera is dying. Okay well
we'll see how this goes. If you're interested I'll leave some links in the description below.
Again #NotSponsored. Even though this episode is #NotSponsored, I do actually want to tell people
to go listen to Podcasts on Relay FM. There's lots of other great Podcasts other than just Cortex
that you should listen to. One of them is mine. It's called Pictorial Podcast. I made a little
video actually introducing this Podcast I'll leave a link card. If you like Relay Podcasts,
if you like ARTiculations - I think you would really like Pictorial! So go listen.
Oh I have a Discord server. We do things like trivia night. We
talk about art and design. We have specific topics about finances. We post funny memes.
It's a way better version of Youtube comments. I'll put a link in the description as well.
One more plug, if you want to support me: like, subscribe and share these videos - oh okay,
alright, battery exhausted. Okay well I really hope that file saved. But if you want to help
me out a little bit i have a Ko-Fi link now at ko-fi.com where you can buy me a coffee.
Leave me like a dollar or three dollars. More if you have it. Some of you might know i'm trying
to save up for a new computer. It's been a tough year so please no one feel obligated.
Thank you so much for watching! If you've been a subscriber for a long time,
thanks for sticking around with me! If you're a new viewer, welcome! Please subscribe! Leave a
comment below. Join the Discord. I look forward to seeing you guys in the next video. Bye!
So yeah December 2021 - oh sorry oh my god i'm already in 2021. No.