âThe mindful productivity newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunffâ
\n\n
\nWhen was the last time you stopped to truly observe your own life? Turning an anthropological lens on yourself might feel strange, but it can lead to invaluable insights, allowing you to uncover patterns, gain self-knowledge, and imagine new possibilities.
\nAnthropologists ask fundamental questions such as: What does it mean to live in our world as a human being? How can the study of humanity reveal new ways of being human and help us imagine our collective future?
\nItâs a game of curiosity and patience, an exercise in humility and receptiveness. And itâs a game you can play to learn more about yourself and where you stand in the world. You simply need to turn into an anthropologist where the topic of study is your own life.
\nIn search of answers, anthropologists conduct fieldwork: they go into the field and write field notes. These notes could be written accounts of observations, or they may take the form of visual maps to chart relationships and uncover intriguing paths.
\nIn the same way anthropologists take field notes to understand humanity, you can use this practice to learn more about who you are and how to improve your life. Keeping a personal field journal will allow you to create a trail of breadcrumbs to deconstruct patterns and imagine new directions. Letâs see how it works.
\nI was first introduced to the idea of adding timestamps to my notes by Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium, who notes the time and writes a few sentences in a journal every time he switches work projects. Because he journals in the interstice between projects, Stubblebine dubbed this practice interstitial journaling.
\nThen, I started seeing such timestamped notes everywhere. Timestamped notes are ubiquitous in professions where important decisions must be made based on rapidly changing information. Doctors write patient charts, pilots keep flight logs, scientists track their research in lab notebooks, system engineers record events to the syslog, journalists have interview transcripts, and project managers often maintain work logs.
\nInspired by all these forms of timestamped notes, personal field notes offer a hybrid of journaling and note-taking specifically designed to audit your daily experiences. The basic idea is to write a few lines every time you take a break and track the exact time you take these notes. It looks like this:
\n(this example is all neatly spelled out, but your notes will be much messier, using shorthand and abbreviations so you can quickly capture ideas on the go)
\nUnlike logs that focus on events at work or interstitial journaling, which is confined to workday transitions, personal field notes can be captured anytime and anywhere â whether at the office, at home, while commuting, or even mid-conversation when something piques your interest. (My friends sometimes make fun of me when I grab my phone saying âWait, I need to write that down!â while we chat â it usually means itâs a good chat).
\nField notes are powerful for several reasons. By encouraging you to capture your thoughts while listening to podcasts, reading articles, or even during conversations, they help you become a more active observer of your own life. They take very little time; a few seconds whenever you observe something interesting. And because they are timestamped, they help make it easier to identify under what conditions you work, learn, and feel best.
\nBy taking notes in the present moment instead of waiting until a dedicated time to reflect, you are less likely to forget some important experiences; this includes fleeting moments of inspiration and ideas that often get lost in the bustle of the day.
\nAnd when you collect lots of small data points, you create a âbreadcrumbs trailâ and are more likely to notice overarching trends than if you only focus on the most salient experiences. By recording your activities, thoughts, and emotions, these notes will serve as a rich source of observations you can then turn into insights to guide your next growth loop.
\nPracticing self-anthropology with field notes only takes three steps. This exercise in self-exploration requires no special skills but the willingness to slow down and take notes throughout the day.
\nYou will, however, need to approach this practice with the same receptive and inquisitive attitude of an anthropologist studying an unfamiliar culture. With a little curiosity and patience, your own fieldwork will reveal inspiration to create positive change.
\nLetâs go over the steps to turning an anthropological lens on yourself:
\nStep 1: Set up your field journal
\nFirst, you need a simple, low-friction way to take notes. Where do you take quick notes when youâre in a rush? This is where your field notes should go. It could be in your phone or a notebook â wherever it feels most comfortable. Donât overthink it; you can use Asana, Evernote, or any other notetaking app. Apple Notes or Google Keep is fine!
\nCreate a note on your phone or start a new page in your notebook. This will be your field journal (mine is synced between my phone and my laptop, so I have access to it on the go and I can open it in a tab when working).
\nStep 2: Capture your field notes
\nYou need enough data to start noticing patterns, so aim to capture field notes for at least 24 hours. When feeling particularly lost, I do intense personal fieldwork for three to five days.
\nChoose a day in the next week when you will start this exercise. Ideally, it should be a typical day with a mix of professional and personal activities. Donât do it on your best friendâs wedding day or when management is due to announce the latest round of promotions.
\nKeep your field journal with you (thatâs why a note on your phone works great). Write the time and a couple of sentences whenever you take a break, switch tasks, or notice something interesting. That âsomething interestingâ could be external such as an event, or internal such as a feeling â maybe uneasiness or excitement. If something made you stop for a second to wonder whether you should write it down, then itâs interesting enough.
\nEmbrace non-linearity: You have complete freedom to write in a stream-of-consciousness style to capture and connect your observations as they arise. Interactions, emotions, moments of curiosity, emerging interests⌠Did someone compliment you? Were you excited by a particular announcement? Were you faced with a surprising challenge? Did you find a piece of work particularly draining or stimulating? There are no limitations as to what you can include in your field notes, but here are some ideas to inspire you:
\nIt may seem like a lot, but remember that this is only for a few days at most. You are doing deep field work and want to ensure you donât miss anything. Use your curiosity as a compass to decide what to write down.
\nStep 3: Analyze your data
\nAfter 24 hours (or a bit longer), you will have a treasure trove of field notes. Itâs time to review them. If your field notes are on paper, you may want to grab some colored pens. If you captured them digitally, it can be easier to copy and paste them into a document to highlight and move text around.
\nSpend time reading your notes and reflecting on the experiences youâve documented. Look for recurring themes, interesting details, and general feelings that come up repeatedly.
\nThis is a very fluid process. You may want to create a category for âthings that give me joyâ and âthings that drain meâ, or âwhat I want more ofâ and âwhat I want less ofâ, or create big categories for important aspects of your life like learning, relationships, and health.
\nSimply by grouping your breadcrumbs into larger piles, you will start to see some patterns emerge. Identify an observation that stands out to you. This could be a recurring theme, a persistent challenge, or a point of curiosity. For instance, you could notice that you have the âmorning bluesâ every day when itâs time to go to work, that working on a specific type of task drains your energy, or that your moods tend to be higher when you work on group projects.
\nYou can then turn your observation into an actionable question. For example, if your observation is that youâre feeling energized when discussing certain topics, you might ask: âHow can I incorporate more of this into my daily life?â This can be the seed of a little life experiment â something new you want to try to see if it improves your creativity, productivity, and wellbeing.
\nAnd if you enjoyed the few days of taking field notes, you donât have to stop! I personally take them all the time, albeit in a less intense way than I do when Iâm feeling lost and need to recalibrate.
\nPracticing self-anthropology opens up new possibilities. Taking field notes is like planting the seeds of insights that will eventually grow into greater self-knowledge. Equipped with a fresh perspective, you can rethink habits, relationships, and priorities. So create a new note, grab your journal, and explore the uncharted territory of your own life with an open mind; you never know what you could find.
\n⢠Height is the first and only AI project manager. Instead of creating more work for you, Height is a project management tool that helps you do what matters most. Sign up to experience cutting-edge AI and workflow features you canât find anywhere else.
\n⢠Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app is completely free and packed with features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favorite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco today.
\n⢠Ideaverse for Obsidian is a spaceâand systemâfor linked digital notes. Open it in Obsidian. It has 300+ notes that are linked 1000+ times. It's the world's most downloaded kit for linked notes (74,000+). And it's free. Explore, experiment, & learn by doing. Get it here.
\nThank you to our sponsors for supporting the newsletter!
\nIf you enjoy the newsletter, you'll love our community of curious minds who grow together through interactive workshops and safe discussion spaces. Here is what we have planned for the next few weeks:
â
â⢠Learn to let go: On September 15th, join Anton for a one-hour workshop where you will learn how to let go and reconnect with your higher level of consciousness.
â⢠Find your tribe: Then, join Gosia on September 18th for a Creative Hour session where you will explore how to connect with like-minded people and how to build sustainable communities.
â⢠Write more: Faye is hosting a two-hour Quiet Writing workshop on September 20th, with intention-setting followed by three to four Pomodoro sessions.
â⢠Co-working: Join Lukas for our weekly co-working so you can progress on your projects while connecting with fellow community members.
All of these and future events are included in the price of the annual membership ($49), as well as access to the recordings of all our previous sessions and past cohort-based courses.
\n\nIf you enjoyed this edition, please share the love with fellow curious minds on Threads, Twitter or Whatsapp, or simply forward them this email.
\nUntil next week, take care!
Anne-Laure.
Edition #199 â September 14th, 2023
âThe mindful productivity newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunffâ
When was the last time you stopped to truly observe your own life? Turning an anthropological lens on yourself might feel strange, but it can lead to invaluable insights, allowing you to uncover patterns, gain self-knowledge, and imagine new possibilities.
Anthropologists ask fundamental questions such as: What does it mean to live in our world as a human being? How can the study of humanity reveal new ways of being human and help us imagine our collective future?
Itâs a game of curiosity and patience, an exercise in humility and receptiveness. And itâs a game you can play to learn more about yourself and where you stand in the world. You simply need to turn into an anthropologist where the topic of study is your own life.
In search of answers, anthropologists conduct fieldwork: they go into the field and write field notes. These notes could be written accounts of observations, or they may take the form of visual maps to chart relationships and uncover intriguing paths.
In the same way anthropologists take field notes to understand humanity, you can use this practice to learn more about who you are and how to improve your life. Keeping a personal field journal will allow you to create a trail of breadcrumbs to deconstruct patterns and imagine new directions. Letâs see how it works.
I was first introduced to the idea of adding timestamps to my notes by Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium, who notes the time and writes a few sentences in a journal every time he switches work projects. Because he journals in the interstice between projects, Stubblebine dubbed this practice interstitial journaling.
Then, I started seeing such timestamped notes everywhere. Timestamped notes are ubiquitous in professions where important decisions must be made based on rapidly changing information. Doctors write patient charts, pilots keep flight logs, scientists track their research in lab notebooks, system engineers record events to the syslog, journalists have interview transcripts, and project managers often maintain work logs.
Inspired by all these forms of timestamped notes, personal field notes offer a hybrid of journaling and note-taking specifically designed to audit your daily experiences. The basic idea is to write a few lines every time you take a break and track the exact time you take these notes. It looks like this:
(this example is all neatly spelled out, but your notes will be much messier, using shorthand and abbreviations so you can quickly capture ideas on the go)
Unlike logs that focus on events at work or interstitial journaling, which is confined to workday transitions, personal field notes can be captured anytime and anywhere â whether at the office, at home, while commuting, or even mid-conversation when something piques your interest. (My friends sometimes make fun of me when I grab my phone saying âWait, I need to write that down!â while we chat â it usually means itâs a good chat).
Field notes are powerful for several reasons. By encouraging you to capture your thoughts while listening to podcasts, reading articles, or even during conversations, they help you become a more active observer of your own life. They take very little time; a few seconds whenever you observe something interesting. And because they are timestamped, they help make it easier to identify under what conditions you work, learn, and feel best.
By taking notes in the present moment instead of waiting until a dedicated time to reflect, you are less likely to forget some important experiences; this includes fleeting moments of inspiration and ideas that often get lost in the bustle of the day.
And when you collect lots of small data points, you create a âbreadcrumbs trailâ and are more likely to notice overarching trends than if you only focus on the most salient experiences. By recording your activities, thoughts, and emotions, these notes will serve as a rich source of observations you can then turn into insights to guide your next growth loop.
Practicing self-anthropology with field notes only takes three steps. This exercise in self-exploration requires no special skills but the willingness to slow down and take notes throughout the day.
You will, however, need to approach this practice with the same receptive and inquisitive attitude of an anthropologist studying an unfamiliar culture. With a little curiosity and patience, your own fieldwork will reveal inspiration to create positive change.
Letâs go over the steps to turning an anthropological lens on yourself:
Step 1: Set up your field journal
First, you need a simple, low-friction way to take notes. Where do you take quick notes when youâre in a rush? This is where your field notes should go. It could be in your phone or a notebook â wherever it feels most comfortable. Donât overthink it; you can use Asana, Evernote, or any other notetaking app. Apple Notes or Google Keep is fine!
Create a note on your phone or start a new page in your notebook. This will be your field journal (mine is synced between my phone and my laptop, so I have access to it on the go and I can open it in a tab when working).
Step 2: Capture your field notes
You need enough data to start noticing patterns, so aim to capture field notes for at least 24 hours. When feeling particularly lost, I do intense personal fieldwork for three to five days.
Choose a day in the next week when you will start this exercise. Ideally, it should be a typical day with a mix of professional and personal activities. Donât do it on your best friendâs wedding day or when management is due to announce the latest round of promotions.
Keep your field journal with you (thatâs why a note on your phone works great). Write the time and a couple of sentences whenever you take a break, switch tasks, or notice something interesting. That âsomething interestingâ could be external such as an event, or internal such as a feeling â maybe uneasiness or excitement. If something made you stop for a second to wonder whether you should write it down, then itâs interesting enough.
Embrace non-linearity: You have complete freedom to write in a stream-of-consciousness style to capture and connect your observations as they arise. Interactions, emotions, moments of curiosity, emerging interests⌠Did someone compliment you? Were you excited by a particular announcement? Were you faced with a surprising challenge? Did you find a piece of work particularly draining or stimulating? There are no limitations as to what you can include in your field notes, but here are some ideas to inspire you:
It may seem like a lot, but remember that this is only for a few days at most. You are doing deep field work and want to ensure you donât miss anything. Use your curiosity as a compass to decide what to write down.
Step 3: Analyze your data
After 24 hours (or a bit longer), you will have a treasure trove of field notes. Itâs time to review them. If your field notes are on paper, you may want to grab some colored pens. If you captured them digitally, it can be easier to copy and paste them into a document to highlight and move text around.
Spend time reading your notes and reflecting on the experiences youâve documented. Look for recurring themes, interesting details, and general feelings that come up repeatedly.
This is a very fluid process. You may want to create a category for âthings that give me joyâ and âthings that drain meâ, or âwhat I want more ofâ and âwhat I want less ofâ, or create big categories for important aspects of your life like learning, relationships, and health.
Simply by grouping your breadcrumbs into larger piles, you will start to see some patterns emerge. Identify an observation that stands out to you. This could be a recurring theme, a persistent challenge, or a point of curiosity. For instance, you could notice that you have the âmorning bluesâ every day when itâs time to go to work, that working on a specific type of task drains your energy, or that your moods tend to be higher when you work on group projects.
You can then turn your observation into an actionable question. For example, if your observation is that youâre feeling energized when discussing certain topics, you might ask: âHow can I incorporate more of this into my daily life?â This can be the seed of a little life experiment â something new you want to try to see if it improves your creativity, productivity, and wellbeing.
And if you enjoyed the few days of taking field notes, you donât have to stop! I personally take them all the time, albeit in a less intense way than I do when Iâm feeling lost and need to recalibrate.
Practicing self-anthropology opens up new possibilities. Taking field notes is like planting the seeds of insights that will eventually grow into greater self-knowledge. Equipped with a fresh perspective, you can rethink habits, relationships, and priorities. So create a new note, grab your journal, and explore the uncharted territory of your own life with an open mind; you never know what you could find.
⢠Height is the first and only AI project manager. Instead of creating more work for you, Height is a project management tool that helps you do what matters most. Sign up to experience cutting-edge AI and workflow features you canât find anywhere else.
⢠Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app is completely free and packed with features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favorite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco today.
⢠Ideaverse for Obsidian is a spaceâand systemâfor linked digital notes. Open it in Obsidian. It has 300+ notes that are linked 1000+ times. It's the world's most downloaded kit for linked notes (74,000+). And it's free. Explore, experiment, & learn by doing. Get it here.
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the newsletter!
If you enjoy the newsletter, you'll love our community of curious minds who grow together through interactive workshops and safe discussion spaces. Here is what we have planned for the next few weeks:
â
â⢠Learn to let go: On September 15th, join Anton for a one-hour workshop where you will learn how to let go and reconnect with your higher level of consciousness.
â⢠Find your tribe: Then, join Gosia on September 18th for a Creative Hour session where you will explore how to connect with like-minded people and how to build sustainable communities.
â⢠Write more: Faye is hosting a two-hour Quiet Writing workshop on September 20th, with intention-setting followed by three to four Pomodoro sessions.
â⢠Co-working: Join Lukas for our weekly co-working so you can progress on your projects while connecting with fellow community members.
All of these and future events are included in the price of the annual membership ($49), as well as access to the recordings of all our previous sessions and past cohort-based courses.
If you enjoyed this edition, please share the love with fellow curious minds on Threads, Twitter or Whatsapp, or simply forward them this email.
Until next week, take care!
Anne-Laure.
A weekly newsletter with science-based insights on creativity, mindful productivity, better thinking and lifelong learning.
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