Or, Starting yearnotes
So I’ve been thinking and I decided I want to try and start writing some kind of year-end round up. In almost two decades of publishing on the web, this would be the first time. I want to see how it feels, see if it sticks.
Of course, me being me, before I dive in and do it I need to analyze and rationalize (and over-analyze and over-rationalize) until the whole things feels inevitable to me. So here’s all that meta thinking about something that, to most, seems fairly straightforward and unremarkable.
First, what am I talking about when I talk about a year-end round up? I mean, a post on my website where I share personal anecdotes and highlights from the previous year. A kind of ‘wrapped’ playlist or holiday gift guide except it’s about, like, things that happened in my life.
If it were an episode of Seinfeld it would be the one made up of a bunch of clips from other episodes of that season. (They call that a clip show.)
Maybe it will include family news, events, trips etc. It could link to other posts I published. I could include some of the photos I took.
Honestly, it might just end up being a list of my favorite things I came across that year, it just depends on how personal I want to get. But at least I could go back through the books I read, the music I listened to, movies, shows I watched… I’ll make a few recommendations and explain a little bit about why I liked them.
But that process of revisiting, reflecting? The remembering. That’s the important part. That’s what I need to practice.
Giving this thing a name was an important step, cementing the whole idea and clarifying its shape. I’m calling it ‘yearnotes’ as a nod to ‘weeknotes’ popularized by Matt Webb and others.
The general construct of weeknotes has always sat right with me. I love the flexibility of the form. But there’s no way I’d ever be able to do it every single week (or even every month). But once a year? That sounds a little more doable.
Right around here is where I need to tell you, I’m nowhere near the first person to arrive at this name or concept! Just do a search for ‘yearnotes’ and you’ll see tons of results doing exactly what I’m talking about. And that’s perfectly fine. It’s more important that the name and the concept make sense in my head. This helps with that feeling of inevitability.
Some other inspirations and points of reference: Tom MacWright (Recently), Chris Butler (Periodical), Kai Branch (Friends of DD updates), Robin Sloan (newsletter, gift guide), and Manuel Moreale (Housekeeping).
If I’m being intentional about yearnotes, it’s critical for me to understand how it fits in with other things I do.
I keep a now page. It’s part of a movement. One important part of a now page, in my opinion, is sharing a snapshot of your current focus. It’s about looking left, right, and forward. The important part of yearnotes is reflecting on your past year. It’s about looking back.
There are a few reasons why I wanted to try this.
As I touched on earlier, I have stuff I like that I want to share. For the past two or three years I’ve been keeping a record of the books I read, the movies and TV shows I watch, the links I think are cool. I make playlists. But there’s no commentary because, for now, the prospect of having to add commentary is a blocker to my actually keeping these lists updated. So yearnotes is one avenue for that commentary.
It’s also a way to increase my output on this website. I’m still trying to find my groove, in terms of writing and publishing here. And while I’m loathe to assign any meaning to the number of posts I publish in a given year, I understand the value of quantitative data as a driver. So one more post will make me feel better.
Thinking into the future, this becomes a thing I do yearly. Something I plan around and (hopefully) look forward to doing. It could also be the reason I start an email newsletter. A friendly update for my real-world family and internet acquaintances.
I was debating whether to make this whole description part of my first yearnotes post, like a preface, or a totally separate introduction post. I chose to do the latter. This introduction post can eventually serve as an archive of future installments. I’ll put a list of links to individual yearnotes posts down here at the bottom.
Anyways. First yearnotes post coming soon!
Thanks for reading. If you have thoughts, comments, reactions—or want to share your own year-end roundup—send me an email.
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