Tell us a little about yourself, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Luísa Matsushita, also known as Lovefoxxx. I’m an artist and live in Brazil. I spent my 20s making music and touring the world with my band CSS, now I live simply, doing things [for] myself in between my beach ranch and my boyfriend who lives off the land doing agroforestry. I also do permaculture-related voluntary work. 

How do you deal with procrastination? 

 If I feel intimidated for some reason, I try to find out why. To tackle difficulties I do [the] Pomodoro [Technique]. You set a timer for 25 minutes and GO FOR IT, my phone will be permanently on silent—no notifications, no music, nothing; give it 100% then have 10 minutes off. I do as many “Pomodoros” as the situation needs. I rely on Pomodoro because it doesn’t matter how intimidating something is, if I give 100%, 25 minutes at a time, I can solve anything. I often do this with bureaucratic stuff in which I have zero talent.

What do you consider your biggest failure? And how did you persevere and grow from the experience?

I’m a people pleaser, so when I have to communicate/reply to stuff, it can be tiresome. [The worst part] is that I want to present such a nice reply or make it fancy that sometimes I don’t reply at all, then there’s a whirlwind of guilt. Now I’m getting older I care more about the whole instead of details. I’m more direct, even responding in audio, which is better than no response at all. “Perfect is the enemy of good." 

Are there any misconceptions about what you do that you’d like to dispel or clarify?

In 2004 I wrote a song called Art Bitch, that is on the first CSS album. At the time the social media of the moment was called Fotolog, which was very interesting at first, but then was dominated by a sea of selfies. I hated that and wrote this song for these people who only posted selfies. I speak in the first person, and people think it’s about me. It’s not. The song goes, “My art is called egocentric soft porno, or maybe it’s just narcissism, my one and only subject goes from something like anything but me-ism.”

How do you navigate social media, any rules or guidelines you set for yourself?

I left Instagram for two years. Last year when I came back, I felt less phased by it. But when I feel that it’s making me feel FOMO or hate people, I delete the app from my phone for a couple of weeks. 

1. Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton. This book painted many beautiful places and parties I can’t go to right now. It’s a thriller and a page-turner; it brought me glimpses of a life I used to live and made so much sense at this moment.

2. I love the New York Times Book Review and the 

podcast The Jump with Shirley Manson, where they explore in-depth the process of creating some of my favourite music (like Fuck the Pain Away by Peaches). 

3. The 22 Stoic Principles to Live By are a good reminder and inspiring to listen to.

4. Instagram account: @lanemarinho

An organised life

If you can believe it, it's almost time to start thinking about 2021. Specifically, the art of getting organised in 2021. Whether you're a firm believer in the to-do list, or just live for stationery in all its forms, there's nothing quite like cracking open a yearly diary; it's an act that fills us with hope for the future. Lucky then that An Organised Life's useful 2021 planners are available for pre-order—yes, we've actually used them and do recommend. 

There's also a limited edition collaboration with artist Elissa Barber to wrap your hands around too, should you be after something a little more arty.

hOW DO WE KNOW WE'RE DOING IT RIGHT?

Those familiar with podcast The High Low will likely already have their paws on co-host Pandora Sykes's collection of essays How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? Those that don't, and still need some convincing, should note this isn't a manifesto for Millennial womanhood, a guide to actually getting it right per se, but rather a look at how work, wellbeing, fashion and pleasure have become things we need view through a lens of success. And how troubling that pressure is when it all, naturally, doesn't go our way.

Has Self-Awareness Gone Too Far in Fiction?

Are you, more often than not, drawn to fiction that digs into “disaffected millennial longing”? We’re talking the narratives of Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan. Yep, we thought so. In The New Yorker article, Has Self-Awareness Gone Too Far in Fiction?, Katy Waldman ruminates on the virtue-signalling of the authors' self-aware protagonists and what she calls literature’s current obsession with the “reflexivity trap”. Waldman writes: “Mocking your emotions, or expressing doubt or shame about them, doesn’t negate those emotions; castigating yourself for hypocrisy, cowardice, or racism won’t necessarily make you less hypocritical, cowardly, or racist. As the cracks in our systems become increasingly visible, the reflexivity trap casts self-awareness as a finish line, not a starting point.” A worthy read if you’re a Rooney or Dolan acolyte.

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