Weekly Good Things 2024 - Week 16

Good Things, and the Weekly Meal Plan.

Hello! Hello! Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things where I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.

Finding the balance of the system

There is a tension between my need for [structure, routine, measured energy] on one hand, and the amorphous firehose of my curiosity and creativity when I let my brain be my brain. Here is what I know:

Pros:

• Lists and structure allow me to get the non-exciting things done: errands, personal care tasks, routine work.

• You can get very creative in designing a system to work for you: intentional but not prescriptive. Options rather than goals.

• You can build in time for recharge (margin), time outdoors. You can curate your inputs to get better outputs.

Cons:

• The same lists and structure can feel suffocating, boring, or too rigid.

• Automation and systems can take the humanity out of the process (of life or work or art) - how many times have you seen someone try to get efficient and lose all of their spark?

• Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just roll up to life without plans? (Some people can! I am not one of them. If I don’t plan, I tend to just throw up an OOM error code like I’ve run out of RAM.

Making decisions to make structure more flexible.

One of the things that I’m always working on is when to make a decision to roll back on structure in order to flex to real world situations.

This weekend I sat with my friend Rebeqa to do an abridged quarterly review and planning. We meet regularly to do this together, but neither of us were feeling like creating sweeping visions for the future in this moment of time. Instead of doing specific quarterly planning, I decided that it would be a good thing to go over some of my big running lists for a refresh: pruning ideas that no longer fit my interests, and adding new things to fill my cup.

With lots of things in motion this season, my big focus is just doubling down on my good habits and self care!

This Week in Good Things

🏃🏻‍♀️ Boston Marathon Monday! One of the best days of the year here. After my big adventure in the woods on Sunday, I still managed to get out to mile 19 on the course for a few hours of cheering! My friend Michele and I had a “Wellesley Scream Tunnel East” cheering squad going on for folks coming in the last few hours of the race. I was excited to see one of my favorite internet celebs, John Young running by us! He just earned a Guinness World Record for being the shortest person to complete an Ultramarathon last month, and has more than 70 triathlons and 22 marathons under his belt!

🙏 Compliments are important. A (male) friend texted me to thank me for giving him a compliment – “Thank you for your compliment yesterday, I don’t believe anyone besides my wife and immediate family has complimented me in a long time.” The wild thing is, I don’t actually remember what I said to him – I just try to make an effort to let people know when I think they are doing good things, and when I’m proud or inspired by them. I think it’s crazy that this is *abnormal* in this world. This isn’t meant to pat myself on the back here – just a general observation: where can I tell someone about the impact they have on me or the world? (It matters.)

On that note, I keep a File of Nice Notes: I take a screenshot or copy in when someone says something particularly kind to me, and save it to look at when I’m feeling less than.

🟢 Cultivating my Community of Sams: I have a tiny side quest to connect with great SAMS doing good in the world. This week I was delighted to meet

Sam Sager

, who writes

The Ripple

. Our conversation was wide-ranging, but one notable thing was talking about the external pressure to find focus and the drive to specialize in one thing – when in reality, many folks (including myself) stay energized and innovative by having multiple irons in the fire that fuel each other. (

David Epstein

’s book Range is one of my personal favorites, validating my own deep curiosity.)

🐶 Bertram had a quick vet visit to see what might be causing some weirdness in his back leg where he doesn’t put his paw down all the way. He was a model patient, and it was likely just a little lower back soreness (similar to how you feel sciatica in your toe.) Some general meds, and we’re cleared for walkies!

Good Questions

One of my “big lists” is simply a list of questions that I’d like to explore. Here’s one of them.

• How do I lily-pad more effectively? Say I have a handful of things that I’m working on. When I sit down to do anything, I typically do not have the capacity to sit down and focus all my attention or energy on one thing. Usually what happens is that I have a few things I need to do or think about (my priorities), and my brain will leap around, draw the constellation of the system(s) and start filling things in. It will then start to lose steam in one direction, and I’ll switch to the other thing to keep the momentum going. I might physically get up and walk around or go outside to help recharge as well. If I think of something *totally off topic*, I’ll add the item to my “mosquito list”, a list of to-dos and ideas on the side. This is particularly helpful because it means I’m less likely to hit a wall. My challenge? How do I do this better?

More Good Things:

• 📖 Reading: Still working my way through the 1200+ page book series The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I’m on Oathbringer. I’m also looking forward to Emily Henry’s new book Funny Story which is coming out this week.

• 📺 Watching: It’s been a few weeks where I’ve watched very little television or films. Partially because my focus is limited, but 1220 page books are also distracting! That said, yesterday I watched Dune 2 (my one sentence review: “Turns out there’s going to be more Dune”, and I’ve started ‘The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin’, which reminds me a little bit of Dirk Gently, and am looking forward to party-watching Renegade Nell. (If you need something to watch, The Taste of Things just came out to rent on Amazon Prime. Highly recommend!)

• ❄️ Tackling a nagging task: this week I cleaned my ice machine (the GE Profile Opal 2.0 - one of the most amazing appliances I own) and my coffee maker. (Both overdue!)

• 🛍 Good Acquisitions: I tend to buy quite a bit less than the average consumer and then wait for quite some time to research and purchase the exact item I want. I have a list of things that I want to buy that sit in a deferred place for a while: do I *really* want this item? Do I need this item? Is this the right thing for the job? (The three big ticket items on my waiting list include the DJI Osmo3 Creator Combo, a Shure MV7+ microphone, and a Ninja Creami.)

• 🌸 Flowers of the Week: Daffodils in my flower share. (My hyacinths are at the end of their potted glory, so this week I’ll be planting the bulbs somewhere in the ground for next season.) I’m also spending some time this week with my gardening spreadsheet! Goals for this summer are planting things that require minimal actual attention but make me happy!

• 🤣 Memes and randomness of the week: I’m a fan of Gottman’s Bids for Emotional Attention – small interactions that show you care about another – not just for partners but for friends, family, and loved ones. Sending TikTok videos and memes is one such activity. I like “training the algorithm” on a few things I know people I care about enjoy (even when it’s not my own personal interest) so I have something to connect about.

The Weekly Meal Plan:

With Passover coming this week, I’m looking forward to some family favorites (mini meatballs!) My mom would make us “Matzah Pasta” with this Greek chicken recipe (omitting the cinnamon), layered with matzah and then baked. I admittedly could care less about Matzah, but I really enjoy this chicken!

Bean of the week: Coco Bean! This is a rounded white bean from Rancho Gordo that’s very versatile. I love it! (I personally eat Kitniyot - rice, beans, legumes on Passover)

• Sunday: Tacos! and popcorn for movie night (Dune 2)

• Monday: Passover dinner with family. We have a mixed ashkenazi/sephardi family so you know the food will be good.

• Tuesday: Greek braised chicken with potatoes (recipe above)

• Wednesday: Lamb, Coco beans vinaigrette, and asparagus

• Thursday: Egg, leek and potato frittata

• Friday: Egg curry (something like this one)

• Saturday: Takeout (maybe a Sweetgreen or Cava chopped salad)

Lunches: Salmon with peppers and artichokes, lamb vindaloo, tadka dal and yogurt, tuna melts, egg salad. Leftovers from the Seder that I grab. I’ll also be at a conference for two of these days, so we’ll see what I can eat there!

Snacks: Yogurt and berries, yogurt with lemon and nuts, soft boiled eggs - or possibly Huevos Haminados, cottage cheese, cheese sticks. Turkey Chomps.

Treat options: Given that it’s Passover, I’ll probably grab some seasonal treats: meringue and pudding tend to be my go-tos.

🥑 Good Eats from this past week: Crying Tiger from Thonglor (although I slightly prefer the Pad See Ew!) Also, after my race, I was craving bacon. So I made a big batch, and it was excellent.

What are you eating this week?

Previous Years:

Something I really enjoy doing is flipping back in my journal or my blog to the week of the year over the past several years. When I write it out in a list like this, it feels like a nice accomplishment!

• 2019: Good Things Week 16

• 2015: Spring Commitments: Healthy Habits (I still focus on all of these almost a decade later!)

• 2014: The Weekly Meal Plan

• 2010: Pizzeria Picco

• 2009: Dante’s Feast at Incanto for the Foodbuzz 24,24,24 (before I got to start working with Chris

That’s all for now! Hope you have a great week!

xo, Sam