I made coffee this morning, walked into my studio, and before I opened my to-do list... I opened the camera app and tapped record for just sixty seconds.

That's it. No setting up, no script.

Just me, the light coming through the window, and a quiet little check-in with myself using my phone camera.

And honestly I'm still learning just how much this tiny habit with touch more structure is really doing for me, and I couldn't wait to tell you about it.

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Here's what I've started calling my one-minute studio check-in:

It's not a video I'm necessarily going to post. It's a video I'm going to have.

One minute. Once a week (or as often as you want). Phone propped up on a table-top tripod (or whatever's nearby).

Tell yourself, out loud:

1. What I'm working on today
2. What I'm stuck on, or excited about
3. One small thing I'm noticing (a color, a texture, a mistake that turning into something)

That's the whole thing. Really really!

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What surprised me is how much raw material this creates without feeling like "making content" (that's not what we do here, after all).

Most days my check-in clip just sits in my camera roll. But some days, I watch it back a day or more later and realize, oh, that's the story. That's something I want to share with my people. The stuck moment, the accidental discovery, the joy.

Those sixty seconds become the spark of something real I want to post.

And because I already said it out loud, in the studio, in the middle of the work, it doesn't have that stiff "now I'm recording a video" energy. It just actually sounds like me, thinking out loud, because I am.

I'm nerd'ing out about this more and more (really it's the studio diaries method I teach) because it solves the thing so many artists tell me: "I don't know what to post" or "I don't have time to make videos."

It's not about more time, or coming up with more ideas.

It's about letting your art lead the way and using a smaller container to record.

One minute, in your studio, while you're already there.

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A few things I've noticed since I started doing this:

• The clips I don't edit into anything or post are still immensely valuable. They're a diary. I can look back at a week and actually see what I made and what I was thinking.
• The clips I do post feel more grounded and like me. Because they weren't recorded to be posted. They were just recorded.
• It gets easier. Early ones felt weird. After weeks and months pass, the weirdness is still there but instead of being an uncomfortable weird (what do I do with my hands?), it's more like "oh yeah, hello again to me witnessing myself being present with myself."

I'm not going to pretend this is a magic system. It's just a small door into a habit that used to feel much bigger.

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→ How might you apply this to recording your art?

What's one small moment, before you begin your studio time, that you could record for sixty seconds tomorrow?

Not a finished piece or a big reveal. Just an in-between moment, even something you might forget a week from now.

Will you try it once this week? Then see what happens when you play it back a day or more later.

Reply and let me know what you noticed! I'd love to hear. ☀️

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Have a great week ahead, and thanks for being here.

Keep creating,

-Zach