I’ve been skipping my reps.

No, not weightlifting or machines at the gym, hand lettering and calligraphy. A couple of years back I discovered calligraphy was a fantastic way to deal with the stress and overthinking I was struggling with. The intense focus it required help me block out the world and just engage with a task.

At a point in my life when I was really struggling with purpose, calligraphy helped me just create. It also had the benefit of making my sketchnotes a smidge more beautiful.

Well after half a year or so life started getting in the way and I stopped doing my regular practice.

Fast-forward to today and I rarely do a calligraphy practice or try to copy a hand lettering design (they are not the same thing by the way). Instead I tend to jump in to trying to make my own original design or sketchnote. While there’s nothing wrong with either activity, I haven’t improved and have possibly even gone backwards a bit.

It’s like a football player who doesn’t spend time doing their drills but just plays practice games. Sure, they’ll get better at some aspects but they would improve more with some drills too.

So I’ve found some old hand lettering designs and I’m going to do some practice again.