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I have been playing a small trick on you.

2021-11-23 (said on 2021-10-28 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 26 days later) · announcement · John · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Books & writing, Everyday life) · mode: Personal update · tags: heavy topic

Recording on October 28, John reveals he pre-made his November videos to take a secret mini-sabbatical, and gives five reasons: work is no longer his life's center, rehab for his boot, a recent dip in his mental health, a renewed wish to write, and his circle drawings.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The reveal: recorded October 28, videos pre-made, November off as a mini-sabbatical

  • ★★★ Recording on Thursday, October 28, John reveals he secretly pre-made a batch of Vlogbrothers videos and took November off as a sort of mini-sabbatical. — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ Work, once the most important thing in John's life, his primary self-identifier and measure of his value, no longer is; he has worked hard over five years to get away from that thinking. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Reason one: work is no longer the most important thing in his life

  • ★★★ The most important part of John's life is interpersonal, relationships with friends and family, then intrapersonal time for reading, writing, thinking, exercising and being; work matters but should not be his whole life. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John is taking a month away from Vlogbrothers, Dear Hank and John and some meetings to focus on obligations that are not economically productive but actually productive. — 00:00:58 · Vlogbrothers, Dear Hank and John
  • ★★ John once made a Vlogbrothers video saying the most important time of his day was chatting with his kids after school pickup, yet that day he was too busy to pick them up: misaligned priorities. — 00:00:58 · Vlogbrothers

00:01:27 — Reasons two and three: boot rehab and a dip in his mental health

  • ★★ Second, John's boot situation requires a bit of rehab. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ After years of mostly stable, good mental health, John's has lately been unstable, with worry invading from every direction like clouding vision before fainting; it has improved in the last couple of weeks. — 00:01:27 · mental disorder

00:01:56 — Reasons four and five: wanting to write again after publishing became stressful; finishing the circle drawings

  • ★★ John wants to focus on his mental health without neglecting Vlogbrothers; he could have paused it, but values the conversation too much. — 00:01:56 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ Fourth, John wants to see if time away gives him more time and inclination to write: publishing, his lifelong dream, was fun at first but became mostly stressful and scary. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John could only think about the book being received terribly and readers feeling cheated of the $20 of faith they placed in him; publishing became something to get through. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Writing and publishing The Anthropocene Reviewed book were both really fun and fulfilling, so John is not in a hurry to write or publish anything. — 00:02:26 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★★ Though a book takes him years, John is looking forward to it, enjoying the fun and immersion of writing, and wants to focus on it. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Lastly, John needs to finish his ridiculously time-consuming circle drawings. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Everything takes John longer than he expects, not least because he always assumes future him will be more productive than current him. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Expanding the definition of productive; another surprise next week; sign-off

  • ★★★ Even if he finishes nothing, the month is productive if inter- and intrapersonally productive; John is reminding himself of Hank's lesson to count joy, connection and fulfillment as products. — 00:03:24 · Hank Green
  • ★★ Next week (week of 29 November 2021) there will be another small surprise, and then John will be back to report on how his time away went. — 00:03:24

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: productivity

Also: Dear Hank and John · mental disorder · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)

Also centred on productivity: The Secret to my Productivity · what's wrong with taking the back streets? · how we spend our days · The Productivity Lie

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