Austin Kleon, on handling the stress of the daily news cycle:

A friend of mine said he didn’t know how long he could wake up to such horrible news every day. I suggested to him that he shouldn’t wake up to the news at all, and neither should anyone else.

There’s almost nothing in the news that any of us need to read in the first hour (or two or three or four…) of our day.

Part of how we seem to have gotten here is that our undivided attention is being demanded on a near-constant basis. Tweets have become breaking news. It feels like the only way we’ll be able to get away from the mess we’ve created is to try to walk back a bit. To push ourselves away from the sense of urgency. Our issues are indeed urgent, but split decisions are rarely the best decisions. We live in a world that is using this urgency to fracture us, and we’re taking the bait hook, line, and sinker.

I used to want to know the news right away as a way to get the dread over with. It filled me with worry and anxiety, neither of which are productive ways to meet a challenging world.

Austin Kleon also references Leonardo Da Vinci’s lists for what he wanted to learn each day. We need more reflection, more community, more compassion.