Anyone else’s entrance to autumn this year feel like doing the Cha Cha Slide with your hair on fire? We made it, we’re here, and it’s time to exhaleeeee.

Autumn always calls me back to the physical world: Sweatshirt season, SOUP SEASON, melancholy music season. MUG season. Iced coffee is over season. Nature puts on a show season. Darker nights, cooler nights. Embarrassing bucket hats stashed, beanies come back, Birkenstocks stowed, boots on. It’s certainly been said before, but everything really DOES feel rich and hearty and cozy for a few fleeting months (weeks?!). Fall is an annual reminder to look up from our screens and soak up the splendor before it’s gone until next year. 

If the bounty of autumn isn’t enough to take you offline, maybe the rise in demand for PFAS, aka "forever chemicals," associated with the AI-driven data center development boom will do it. We undoubtedly need stronger regulations to address PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) use and prevent downstream effects on our water supply, soil, communities, the list goes on. But a little middle finger to the man in the form of a Claude hiatus never hurt anyone either.

To Analog Autumn we go 🐴

Handwritten to-do lists. HEAR ME OUT. I’ve quietly been titrating my way toward the perfect custom digital OS for capturing to-dos across life, parenthood, admin, work, self-care, and a few other buckets for the better part of a decade. Notion. Reminders. Asana. Currently, it’s living in a seven-tab Google Doc that makes sense to only me. I think I’m finally ready to embrace my desire to write down daily, weekly, and longer term to-dos with a pen that glides beautifully across a gridded page. It’s the act of writing it down that reminds me of what I’m doing in the first place; I don’t actually need a digital archive. May I recommend: Shorthand LA notebooks with dot grid? 

Thoughtfully made basics. KENT’s team reached out to me during Plastic Free July and now I am forever ruined by their 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton, plastic-free, compostable undies (they gifted me a few pairs to try; all winners, but the Tanga cut is my hero). They are so comfortable, and the materials are so high-quality, they make other underwear borderline unwearable. Their products are free of elastane, a synthetic fiber that’s nearly ubiquitous in underwear: instead, they use a plant-based elastic band. There are few things I appreciate more than founders making over an entire product category with superior materials from a sustainability and health perspective. And one of the coolest parts of writing this newsletter is getting to try some of them, and share the standouts with you.

Decaf. My friend Jesse stopped drinking coffee, so I’m going to stop drinking (caffeinated) coffee. I feel jittery when I have caffeine in the morning, and as I get older, my sleep is getting weirder and weirder. I’m ready to return to my pregnancy staple of Rival Bros decaf, but I know it’s not for everyone…

Fresh air. About two times a year I get to remind you to air out your house and open your windows with the glorious changing of seasons. Unless you’re in the part of the country experiencing an extreme heat advisory. Then maybe give it a few days. Indoor air can have 2-5 times the concentration of pollutants as the air outside. Check your weather app or airnow.gov to confirm good outdoor air quality, then throw open your windows before it’s too cold to do so!

Fall foliage. I am once again linking the fall foliage map. Plan accordingly. FALL IS FLEETING. 

The Brain at Rest. This book gives you permission to put down your work and any problems that have you perplexed. To have a brilliant breakthrough: Do nothing! Walk in nature! Do it assuredly because while it may LOOK like you’re doing nothing, YOU KNOW you’re doing the most brilliant work of all. Find it at your local public library like I did for an Analog Autumn bonus point. 😉

✨

Love, your not quite weekly newsletter,
Jennifer @ Sway