Allowing Yourself To Rest

 

Going back about as far as I can remember I’ve struggled with sleep. I’ve never given it much thought because I always just kind of got on with things regardless of how much (or how little) sleep I was getting.

Through therapy I discovered I might have a phobia of sleep. Anyone who follows me on Twitter will regularly see me awake and posting until I basically can’t stay awake any longer. I fight it for as long as I can and I find my anxiety levels massively increase if I reflect on how long I was asleep when I wake up. This is exacerbated pretty intensely by my medication making me drowsy and needing to nap quite regularly. It resulted in a small crisis the other night when I felt like I was letting myself down by not being awake at the most opportune times for me to advertise work to people (I’m yet to find a free Twitter and Instagram scheduling app that I like using).

For months, maybe even a couple of years now, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of not needing sleep because it somehow means I’ll be less successful if I sleep as much as I need to. Reinforced by the amount of people on social media who talk about how they’re always grinding/hustling/working, I find myself comparing my perceived work rate with how those people present themselves, which is very understandably detrimental in both how it impacts my mental health and my overall motivation levels.

Shortly after my crisis, I was awake and writing the blogs I posted on Thursday and Friday until around 4am. I tweeted after finishing those that I’m starting to realising it’s more to do with how we use our time when we’re awake. The next day Gary Vee posted the image below.

This made me realise that, at times, sleep isn’t “avoiding The Hustle” but is instead part of it. How useful am I to myself, to my creative process, to my marketing approach, if I’m depriving myself of sleep? Constantly being awake doesn’t somehow result in success. If you’re awake for 20 hours a day and can only manage to concentrate well enough to complete four high-quality hours of work, then by many people’s definition of The Hustle you’ve not utilised those remaining 16 hours.

At present I’m sleeping around 8-12 hours a day but still managing to fit in 5-8 very high quality hours of work-related output. Right now it isn’t always things my customers or followers will see, I’ll be making lists, researching new distribution channels, new suppliers, new product/packaging ideas. I’ll sometimes spend a whole day just thinking about how to act next. To me, that’s adding value to my brand. The changes I made, which I detailed the other day, came from social media engagement and a whole day of thinking of ways to act on the responses I received and conversations I had.

It’s taken me a while to reach this point, but I’m trying to remind myself not to shoehorn myself into a routine that doesn’t suit me just because it works for somebody else.

As always, if you want to support me you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

Future Plans For Mr Crypt!

Here’s something I haven’t mentioned on my store yet! My future plans for Mr Crypt’s Curiosities.

Let’s go with the obvious stuff that I’ve discussed previously. I’m currently planning a podcast with my mate, Paul. We’ve had a few chats about it and we’re slowly working out what we need and getting everything lined up for it. At the moment it sounds like we’ll loosely try to stick to a topic while Paul gets increasingly frustrated at me for constantly going off on tangents. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

The details of this blog post as well as yesterday’s will end up as a series of videos up on YouTube too. Each section will have it’s own specific video so you can watch whatever’s most relevant for you rather than skipping through to try to find the right part. I’ll also be uploading the same videos to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I plan on making more video content like time-lapses of me making new products. I’m still getting used to it but expect more soon!

As for products, I’ve got some ideas for bamboo and wooden items that have been laser cut and engraved. These include phone cases, keyrings, toothbrushes and even some “prints”. Some of these items will be limited in number but I’m very excited to get them made. I’ve spoken to my potential supplier about providing me with some engraved faux-leather wallets too, but that needs some more research.

On top of those, I’m also looking into getting some patches, pins and badges made. It’s generally a matter of affordability. In an ideal world I’d be able to order everything in at once for a totally new range but we’ll see what happens there.

And finally, I’m looking into improving my packaging situation. I currently send items out in plastic postage bags with loads of sellotape etc and I hate it. At the moment it’s the most cost-effective way to do it so I’m using those up while I look into more sustainable packaging options. Any help in regard to that would be much appreciated. My aim is to be totally plastic free in terms of products and packaging by the end of 2018!

If you want to support these plans and ideas you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating to via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

I’ve Updated My Store!

If you follow me on Twitter may have noticed I’ve mentioned some updates on my store recently. As well as them being there I figured I’d give a brief rundown of the main things I’ve added and the reasons why.

I’ve found Eric Thomas’ videos and stories hugely motivational and driving for me to improve and find ways to succeed and thrive in all aspects of my life. Knowing January was around the corner I started to think of how best to utilise the time I’d have available and remembered one of the first videos of his I watched. The title is “Work On Your Work” and is available below.

Having seen that, and with that phrase resonating with me for so long, I decided to take a step back and evaluate my brand. What am I doing well? What can I improve on? And, perhaps most importantly, does my brand reflect me as a person? What can I do to make my brand stand out that isn’t just chucking some swearing on a mug?

Payment Options & Reserving Items

The first thing I thought of dates back to a thread I did on Twitter in August. I feel like that page and the thread sum things up quite neatly, but if you don’t want to click away here’s a quick rundown of the feature.

– I’m happy to take payments via PayPal or bank transfer, but at present I’m not sure how to implement a way to make nominated payments using card details. I need to check safety measures with Big Cartel first.
– This function is available for ALL products available at Mr Crypt’s Curiosities. Want to send £10 a week to pay for a £100 woodburn? Go for it! Want to send £2 a month to pay for a mug or phone case? Send away!
– All payments are non-refundable apart from in exceptional circumstances.
– All conversations will be kept private and I’ll attempt to tailor things to meet your requirements.
– I don’t post anything out until I’ve received the full payment, including postage. This is simply to cover myself, as when I first started this business I used to do commissions without taking deposits and had three people ask me to make them something but they never paid.
– Underneath each product listing on my store (and elsewhere) there’s a tab clearly marked for PayPal contributions. Once you’ve sent the payment I get an email detailing who sent the funds and how much they sent. I don’t get any notification about which item it is in regard to. Please contact me to let me know what you want to reserve and I’ll mark it as sold out so nobody else can order it before you’ve paid for it!

One of the major benefits of this function is that, as a small business, I’m able to make my work as accessible to people as possible. This includes people who, for whatever reason, have limited finances. Everyone deserves to own stuff they like and want and I’m hopeful I can make that happen for more people by introducing this!

Commissions & Custom Orders

This one feels fairly straightforward but it bears repeating. For the time being, all my printed items (mugs, phone cases, coasters and keyrings etc) are customisable to a degree. There’s already an option to order a custom keyring, but not for the other items. However, if you have a custom phrase or idea that you’d like me to make for you just let me know and as long as I have time I’ll be happy to work it out!

Some of the more complex designs for phone cases and mugs might come at a higher cost if it takes more time for me to finalise. Probably best to ask me about that and we’ll discuss it before you commit.

As for commissions, you can see all the stuff I do and make over at my Instagram page. My commissions open/closed information is usually displayed wherever I remember to change it on social media. I only close it when I get too busy with additional projects, if my list gets too long, or if I somehow find myself on holiday at some point!

If you’d like me to draw, burn or paint something for you, drop me a message with your budget and your idea and we’ll take it from there. I’ll usually request 50% of the quoted price as a deposit before I begin working on anything.

Name Changes & Dead Names

This is my favourite new addition because it’s such a simple thing and it can mean so much to people. Simply put, if for any reason you want or need to change your name because it doesn’t match your payment information (particularly in the case of people who may not be able to afford, or may not be old enough, to legally change their name) then just message me.

You can contact me to update it via your preferred social media channel, through the contact tab on my store, by updating your billing information or by making use of the order notes as you complete your payment!

For some of you it might be the first time you receive something in the post with your changed name on it, and although this is in no way about me it would still be amazing to be a part of it.

Support

If you want to support these plans and ideas you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating to via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

Vegan Tips

There’s a lot of tips about going vegan floating about at the moment, so here’s another one. Even though I haven’t written this yet (I don’t really do planning or editing) and have only read two or three others, this is definitely the best one out there.

I’m going to start by pointing out the obvious. I do not know you, I do not know your circumstances and I do not know what you like to eat. So this is going to have to be pretty general.

The only real tips for anything are planning and education, and a lifestyle change like going vegan is no different. Read blogs, watch discussions and documentaries on Netflix/YouTube/etc, get onto Google and look at pictures of pigs. Try to get a well-rounded view on how animal agriculture, and a diet and lifestyle involving animal products, impacts the environment, your health (generally speaking) and people on a global scale as well as the obvious unnecessary cruelty to animals. Maybe also try to see how the lifestyle might intersect with other interests you have. Last year I wrote a piece for Mad Rabbits about how I feel veganism aligns with the punk and hardcore scenes.

Long and short, do your research to find your why.

That’s your education sorted. Onto planning. In my last post I wrote about shopping on a tight budget. Veganism can be expensive; the same as any diet/lifestyle. But it doesn’t have to be. Before you go out shopping, you’ve looked into educating yourself and found your reasons for going vegan. It can seem daunting at first, you might think you’ll have to fill your cupboards, fridge and freezer with all new items, but you’ll find it’s easier than you thought. You’ve probably already got some spices and herbs around, and some tinned stuff. You’ve probably got a handful of fruit and veg you really like too. The foundations are there; it’s just a matter of building on them.

The first thing I want you to do is think of three favourite foods/recipes for each meal of the day and five snacks. They’re probably not vegan, and that’s fine. See what you can swap for vegan ingredients. Does it involve minced beef or turkey? Swap it out for veggie mince, or more vegetables. Stick with what you know and focus on making your favourite comfort recipes vegan friendly first. That way if you’re ever struggling or having a rough day in general, you’ve always got those to turn to. Rather than making a whole new internal menu, try to adapt the internal menu you already have.

If you follow some vegans on Twitter (or pages dedicated to vegan food/clothes etc) you may see certain words pop up that you’re not sure about. At times this can be a bit intimidating, as it can seem like we have our own dictionary. I get you might not want to message someone about it. We’d love it if you do, it makes my day to be messaged out of the blue by people looking for information of advice, but if you’d rather Google something to see what it is then do some further searching to see what can be made with certain things then that’s perfectly fine too. Go with what feels comfortable for you.

And, most importantly, I’d say. Do not be afraid of fucking up. We all do it from time to time. You might buy something you’ve been told is vegan, eaten it and then found out there’s been a change in recipe/ingredients and it now contains eggs. You may have just not checked the label on some soup and not realise that some vegetable soup contains cream or whey powder. You haven’t failed. The vegan police aren’t going to come to your house and ban you from carrying on your journey. It’s part of learning, and as with all learning it gets far easier the more you do it. Something I still do when I’m in a supermarket is check packaging to see if a product is vegan, despite having no intention of buying it. That way I can combine education with planning. I know what new products I can use in future, and start to think about how I can use them.

It’s a really good time to find new things being released, so see how you get on. If you’d like to get in touch to either ask questions or just tell me you’re planning on trying a couple of meals feel free to DM me on Twitter!

Shopping Smart

Last night I did a quick walk around a supermarket on Periscope to provide people with some little tips on starting your vegan journey on a budget or if your mental health means you don’t really want to spend a lot of time cooking but still want to give veganism a go. This is mainly a summary of that discussion (and a later one I also had on Periscope). I’m also considering doing a brief food diary a couple of days a week to show people what a depressed vegan eats and how I shop etc, but for now let’s get into it.

Firstly, this is working on the assumption of you having a freezer and some cupboard space, as well as being able to get to and get around a supermarket. This is purely because it’s most reflective of my circumstances and I don’t want to make any guesses about what it may be like for people not in this position, but I do have intentions of speaking to people for whom any or all of this is not true to gain some perspective from them.

The first thing is the old faithful reduced section. When I was at uni around 146 years ago we used to do our food shop at a nearby 24-hour Tesco after midnight. It was always very quiet and the reduced sections for the bakery and veg aisles were fairly well stocked. Reduced sections are generally hit and miss so you may have to get creative, and I by no means suggest always doing your shopping at 2am, but if you’re able to get to a nearby supermarket a little later in the evening (for example, if your nearest shop shuts at 10pm, try getting there for 9ish) you’ll find more items are reduced and the shop will be much quieter. It’s great if you’re anxious in busy places or if you simply hate queuing.

The next thing I brought up was brand label items compared to a supermarket’s own brand. This is most noticeable for things like tins of baked beans, chopped tomatoes etc. The product is often more or less the same, maybe a “premium” brand like Heinz use a slightly different recipe but the majority of the time the extra cost you’re choosing to pay is for the name on the packaging on the product rather than the contents. It may seem like a small saving but consider the fact that you might buy, say, one tin of beans a week. If you pay 35p for a supermarket’s own brand instead of 70p, over a year that’s a saving of just over £18. Quite often the “premium” brands are shelved at eye level, so look at the items above/below them. Those brands pay for their space at the end of aisles and their position on shelves. It’s no coincidence that the cheapest stuff is usually in the most basic packaging on the bottom shelf. There’s been less investment in the product itself so whoever makes it can afford to charge far less, but it’s the same basic product on the inside. Give it a go, if for whatever reason it isn’t for you then you can go back to what you know.

As well as reduced items, look out for discounts. At this time of year loads of veggie and vegan stuff is discounted to take advantage of people partaking in Veganuary. They want you to try their products and alter your buying habits so you purchase their items on a regular basis. If you know you like something and have the space, take the time to stock up. Last summer a supermarket by me messed up massively and had Linda McCartney sausages priced at 45p for a few weeks (they’re usually £2). Needless to say I got through a load of boxes around that time.

The next thing is to buy frozen fruit and veg when you can. Provided you have space, it won’t go off and it’s so convenient. If you have a few days where you feel awful and just eat crisps and cereal then that’s fine, but if you then feel the need to make a smoothie you’re either confronted with a trip to the shops or a trip to the freezer. I know which I’d prefer. Same with veg. Most places offer all sorts now, from frozen onions and mushrooms to avocados and butternut squash. I love getting packs of mixed veg and heating some up with some chopped tomatoes and having that makeshift sauce with pasta. It’s cheap, it’s quick and it’s pretty good for you too.

Another thing I’d suggest is using things like coupons and loyalty cards. It gets a little bit 1984 but using a loyalty card means that a supermarket can track your buying behaviour. They’ll see which stores you go to most and what you buy from them (if you have a bigger store for your “proper shop” and a smaller one a bit closer to home where you go and get a few bits every few days etc), they’ll also know if you’re loyal to specific brands or if, like me, you bounce from offer to offer. They use this information to tailor your coupons and shopping experience. I highly doubt everyone who shops at my local Sainsburys gets coupons for money off or bonus points when they buy Alpro products, but I do. Alpro will probably have paid Sainsburys to give me these discounts to keep me as a loyal customer because it’s on their database that I’m a shopper who buys whatever non-dairy milk is cheapest. If your local store sees a shift in the purchases of “free from” items or sees a maintained high level of “free from” purchases, guess who’ll be getting the new products and expansions on those sections first.

Not only that but you’ll build up points as you shop, and at some point you’ll be able to use those points to pay for your shopping. Back in November I spent less than £2 on food shopping because I decided to use up all my available points and start afresh.

One thing I forgot to mention last night was the inclusion of lists. I know a lot of people always make lists for everything, and it’s something I’m still getting used to. My short term memory is pretty terrible and I wish I had £1 for every time I’d gone to buy food and come home to realise I forgot something because I forgot to take a handwritten list with me. I’d recommend making the list on your phone if you can, purely because it’ll probably be with you when you’re out shopping. Most smartphones have an app for notes or Word documents etc so it won’t cost you anything extra to set it up and it may end up saving you quite a bit of time.

It’s also a good idea to do some product research before you go. On most supermarket websites now you can search “vegan” in their products and be provided with a list of things you can buy in store, some of which you may not have known are vegan friendly! There’s also an Instagram account called accidentallyveganuk which lists snacks and new products released by loads of supermarket chains across the country. Give them a look to make the list and see how you get on.

I’ll do another post later this week about specific tips for people who are new to veganism and may be struggling, and for products and recipes. As always my DMs on Twitter are open to anyone who has any questions or suggestions 🙂