Issue 5: One month in

Dearest reader,

This letter marks the fifth dispatch of this newsletter since its revival. It also marks just over a month since I began redeveloping this writing habit and sharing notes with you. I hope you’ve found these letters stimulating, and I want to thank you for joining me on this journey of open-ended exploration and self-rediscovery.

One of the things that have been most noticeable over the past few weeks is how much life seems to have slowed down. I’ve been able to complete tasks and take care of responsibilities with more ease and calm. After four years of working at early-stage technology startups, such a change in pace can, at times, feel like a bit of a “system shock”.

I’ve also noticed a significant increase in my capacity to remain present when connecting with family (and others, more generally). I began experiencing friction here in the preceding months and am grateful to have it back.

Quite a few people have asked me some form of the following question: “So, what are your plans from here?” My typical response goes something like this: “Well, my plans are not that specific at the moment—I’ve been building certain habits into my routine, which I hope to help calibrate my ‘life compass’ in the direction of being able to create and publish music now and for a long time to come.”

While admittedly lacking in sexiness or glamour—that’s the most honest answer I have access to at the moment. I’ve grown to believe quite strongly in the importance of beginnings, and I hope to put as much intention into the “beginning” I currently find myself as possible.

So far, the habits I’ve focused on translate concretely into:

• Maintaining piano lessons (weekly) and daily piano practice (for at least 10 minutes a day)

• Sending a newsletter update each week on Thursday (this one)1

• Frequently sharing my work (this has mostly taken the form of short-form videos shared across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok2)

The cool thing I’ve noticed about this “habit building” practice is that, after some time, certain habits that may have initially seemed quite daunting gradually become more natural and easy to maintain. When approached carefully, this appears to result in a “freeing up” of extra space and energy with which you can take on new challenges while keeping the existing habits in place.

I’ve already started to feel this effect with the habits previously mentioned. So, naturally, I’m looking for ways to continue this journey of improvement. These are newer habits that I’m working on actively and hope to develop to a point where they become more easy to sustain:

• Exercise. I’ve begun three out of the past five days (including today) with a short run, which marks some improvement compared to the past ~six months, during which my exercise was very sporadic and inconsistent. I’d love to develop this one further.

• Making three beats every day. A Kaelin Ellis tweet inspired this one. I’ve copy-pasted his technique pretty much as-is for the past week: I set three 20-minute timers, back to back, and make one beat from scratch during each interval.3

Some of you have asked if I have any plans of releasing music on streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music in the coming months, and the answer to this is: I hope to! I’m grateful to have collected dozens of musical “seeds” in recent weeks, and there are a few that I’d love to nurture into finished works. I don’t have any concrete timeline for this yet, but it’s nearing the center of my attention, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated as plans here solidify.

That’s all I have for now. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a revitalizing weekend ahead of you. ❤️

Love,
Reef

PS—A few of you messaged to let me know you listened to the drafts in the care package from last week’s letter. These messages really helped keep me going this past week. Thank you. <3