A zeitgeisty time capsule of words

I stole the idea for the I Thought About That A Lot essay collection from The Cut’s now defunct feature with a similar name. In it, writers described a ‘private meme’. Every piece was centred around something that had little impact on most people but, through a combination of unique personal experience and wider societal context, was stuck on repeat for the writer. They explained the lasting impact it had had on the way they’ve lived.

I liked that.

Heading

When I discovered the feature in 2020, the UK was locked down. Everyone was talking about their ‘busy lockdown brain’. Some were experiencing all-consuming, anxious thoughts. Others were fixated on their own private memes similar to those in The Cut. 

So what if I (as someone who helps businesses articulate stuff for a living) helped friends to empty their minds and articulate what they’d been thinking a lot about? What if they vomited it all onto a page and we untangled it, explored it and arranged it into 800 intelligible words together? What if – to encourage candour – all essays were anonymous? And what if we shared those essays with people on the internet? 

Might we create a connection where the pandemic had forced a void?

On 1 December 2020, we launched the I Thought About That A Lot project: an advent calendar for your brain, not your belly. We published one essay per day in the countdown to Christmas. We’ve added a new set of essays every year since.