100 weeks in… #100

A milestone

100 weeks down. 900 to go. 10% complete—or 90% still ahead?

I’m not sure which sounds better, but one thing’s for sure: I can’t quite believe this week is my 100th week in my 1000-week project.

Why 1000Weeks?

A reminder, or for newer readers, this project stems from Oliver Burkeman’s thought-provoking book, “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals.” It starkly points out that if you live to age 80, you live for 4,000 weeks, give or take. You’re never going to get everything done so—embrace your limits, change your life, make your four thousand weeks count.

A somewhat sobering read as I approached my 60th birthday and calculated, on this basis, I only have one thousand weeks left.

And just like that, this project was born.

The intent

I’m not really sure what my intent was. So it was with interest that I re-read week one. The initial idea was to write about money, life and time for those at this stage of life.

I had grand notions: starting a community possibly focusing on women. I’d write about smart money decisions and how to think about money as an enabler to a life of meaning. About how time is our most precious resource.

I thought of launching a podcast with wise and interesting people. I even bought the 1000weeks.com domain. Just in case.

I paid a consultant to help me brainstorm ideas.

I bored my friends rigid about it.

People even suggested I could monetise the idea.

But nothing grabbed me enough to actually do something.

The reality

So here it is, week 100. A mishmash of my thoughts, ideas and observations served up on a broadly weekly basis.

I’ve shared with you my travels. Friends’ illnesses. Stories about my mum, and my friends. Death. My crypto journey. Money pointers. Shopping habits. Reflections on wellbeing. Health trackers. Ageing. To mention but a few.

And you, you blooming lovely thing you, have read it.

My ‘method’

Some of you have asked where I get my ideas from and how I keep going.

Well, I jot down notes as I go about my day. Things I see, hear or feel. Thoughts I’m having. Ideas to develop into a blog.

In truth, as Monday approaches, I often think, “bloody hell, what am I going to write about today?”—it probably reads like it too! But once I sit down and start to tap away, I find myself immersed in my thoughts and just writing.

I could be at my kitchen table, my local café, or on the bus or train.

I might look at my ideas, or go with something front of mind. I hash up a title and then just write, in a directionless, unedited way. What Brené Brown calls her “shitty first draft.”

Once done I leave it to fester for 24 hours or so.

Next, it’s time to give it a bit of an edit. A trim. Rearrange paragraphs. Remove random ‘thats’. Sometimes I ask Claude (an AI tool) to make suggestions as my editor, always whilst maintaining my voice. Sometimes I agree with it. Sometimes I don’t. Nonetheless it’s a helpful second pair of ‘eyes’. Like when we used to sit in an office and ask a colleague to read something before hitting send…

Often the biggest challenge is finding an image of some sort (hence my many dodgy selfies!).

Consistency

It seems consistency pays off. It gives me a sense of achievement (and relief) to know I have met another week’s promise to myself, and you. Equally, I no longer beat myself up if I miss a week or two every now and again. That’s just life.

I’ve trained myself not to worry about likes, subscriber numbers or open rates—well, as you ask, around 384 subscribers and a 57% open rate as we speak, which I’m dead chuffed about.

But the ‘catnip’¹ for me is the number of you that leave a comment, send a text or email me to share your experiences, stories or insights. Or tell me you enjoy 1000Weeks dropping into your inbox each week. Or when I bump into you out and about, take the time to tell me you look forward to receiving 1000Weeks.

Knowing you are reading genuinely keeps me writing. I don’t take that for granted.

You

As you know, I like to finish by thinking about you. And asking you a question or two…

Where does consistency show up for you? What does it look like? What does it mean to you?

Before you brush your teeth tonight—something I’m assuming you do with consistency ;-)—do drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.

And remember, you’re never going to be any younger than you are today. Where are you ducking consistency where it might just help you achieve something important to you?

Until next week my friends,

And a final, deeply felt, thank you,

Ruth x

Lovely reader, thanks for being here. If you enjoyed my words please do leave me a comment, ❤️, share or subscribe. Why not all four? I really do appreciate you being here.

1. Catnip, spoken in an Australian accent, is a bit of an in joke for me and some of my friends…ask me sometime ;-). And for those who don’t know, AI tells me catnip induces euphoria or intense happiness in cats.