#6: Vasha — Running, Music, Time Management
Running for fitness (and survival), military-style time management, and listening parties for the self.
I first experienced Vasha’s golden touch in the way she uses words as a copywriter and through her exquisitely curated playlists. Then I learned about Undo Ordinary, a gorgeous biannual magazine she founded to expose a lifestyle of fashion, fitness and community. The print publication is a “sense-stimulating representation of our culture. It is every bead of creativity, tact, and sweat bottled up and served to you.” It’s currently on hiatus but will hopefully be leaving the bench soon. A fervent runner, Vasha knows that rest is just as important as sweat.
In the meantime, I make myself happy trying to absorb her curatorial prowess and active lifestyle on Instagram, Spotify and via Patreon. Through this interview, I also learned invaluable tips on time management and an inspiring ritual on listening to albums front to back that I plan to bring into my own life. Let’s go!
Do you think of yourself as a tastemaker?
I'd say yeah. I'm learning how to be a little bit more bold and boisterous about it. I don't want attention for doing what I do, and I don't want to be a personality. But I do enjoy the access and the connections that I have.
What drives you?
I grew up in prison ministry and convalescent homes, and I could say that my understanding of people is different because I am extremely empathetic. There's always a bigger purpose to what I'm doing and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I've never been grounded in money. It's always been: What's your purpose? And how are you helping others?
I also spent a lot of my youth on stage. So on the flip side, I don't crave this attention because I know what it can do. I’ve tried to find a balance between the two: knowing how to entertain people and make them smile, and what the triggers are — ie, knowing how to use entertainment to impact those who may need a little push.
Tell me about the role of running in your life. I know it’s super important to you.
Oh, my baby. 🏃🏽♀️ Running is the thing that I do to challenge myself, because I'm a little bit of a control freak. I feel like I can master anything and solve any problem. And if I go out for a run, sometimes I can't figure out how to get my body to work or how to enjoy it or how to recover right after it. It's this ongoing, everyday challenge.
I use running to change my outlook on where I'm putting my energy. I want to put my energy towards me more than I want to put it towards someone's company or someone else’s thing…that’s what I like to call my throwaway moves or work. I try to put my effort into my training, thinking about my body differently.
Running is a release that I think we all need. I lived across the street from an elementary school when I was working really hard on videos like 10 years ago and all these kids that came out for recess. I would get upset during the day because of the noise they made. Then one day, I just paid attention. And I was like maybe I need that as well. No one has to tell a child to release energy, to go run amok to make all that noise; they have to do it in order to feel better and to be emotionally stable. So I started to really pay attention to the kids and try to be a little bit more childlike instead of feeling like I had to fit into this adult model of responsibility and your back hurting and sitting at a desk…you don't have to do that.
Running was the first baby step of understanding that I need to do that every day. I need to release and scream and cry and fall down sometimes and stress myself out physically and do all these things that are only going to make me better.
What are some of your favorite places to run?
Oh gosh — the world, everywhere! It's my means of transportation. When I travel, I love to pack a pair of shoes. Anytime I travel, it's definitely the way I get about the city, how I learn places. I just remember when I first moved to New York and my mom was like, “How do you know how to get around everywhere?” I said: “I run the streets.”
It's a survival tactic for me too. I’m a Cancer that likes to always make sure I have my bag ready, just in case disaster strikes. I like to make sure I know how to get away by foot. I really don't get along with fear. My attitude really with running is: I want to physically be able to get to where I need to be and never have the narrative that I can't because I didn't train myself. We're living in times where there's mass shootings every day, everywhere. Running is important. For me, it's bigger than just the fitness part.
What do you listen to when you run?
It changes: sometimes it's an audiobook, sometimes it's podcasts. If I'm starting really early in the morning, it's usually an audiobook…I can kind of get lost in it. It's also a good time when it's dark to do audiobooks or a podcast, because you're just going with the flow. It's really nice. But when I need to power out, it's music, a heavy hitter jam.
I like 🎶 Kendrick’s album front to back as motivational, yeah-I'm-feeling-this.
🎶 Little Simz — I can run to this forever.
And then like, sometimes I'll get into just any album that I know front to back because I just want to be able to like groove with the music. I listen to a lot of old rap albums for those reasons.
🎶 Phony Ppl has been a new fun one, too. It's very light and airy — like Hawaii [where I live].
I make an effort to try to listen to two new albums a day from start to finish. I make a long list of who I'm listening to. Sometimes I have to fall in line with whoever's on the list because they're on my list for the day. So sometimes it's, you know, Norah Jones.
Aside from running, what nourishes your soul?
Music, especially music with lyricism and melody — I wouldn't say all music.
Peace in nature. I've always been a little bit manic, an anxious person. Relocating to Hawaii is the first time I've had a little chill in my life, and I've allowed it to happen. I've set boundaries, and boundaries bring peace.
I'm very persistent. If I imagined it and dreamt it, I'm probably going to do it. Sometimes I need to be roped in, because I will just go and go and go. I love my imagination. I love the way I look at life. I love the fact that people give me puzzles, and I'm like, sure, I'm gonna figure it out by the end of the day.
But also I think that I'm finally learning at this time and age to switch that energy and give it to myself and learn how to watch the sunrise and the sunset, how to turn the computer off, and how to listen to my two albums and take the time to write. It’s really about slowing down for me.
How do you organize your inspirations and ideas?
I use 📝 Notion for everything. Anytime something comes to me in an email newsletter and I don't have time to sit with it, it goes into my Notion for the weekend. I find a way to really compartmentalize all the little shit. It’s a little intense. It's down to cleaning my house, and did I stretch for the day? Did I do my watercolor and my Duolingo and my Wordle and my Quordle? All of these things are on a checklist. I even put a 15 minute time limit on cleaning my house because it’s like, bro, you don't have time to OCD clean every day!
My favorite tip for anyone who I can tell is awful at time management is: ⏱ I live on military time. It's my favorite thing. As soon as I went freelance and I didn't have to work a nine to five, I had to look at 24 hours differently. I don't know why they don't teach this:
• Eight hours for sleep. Cool. We need it.
• Eight hours for work. Great. That's the standard — you usually can't work more than four hours and be effective.
• Now you have eight hours of playtime. If it's managed properly, you can do what you need to with it.
I started living my life like that and putting it on my calendar: scheduling my naps, my meals, my travel time — everything was color coded, because I had to see time differently. And I had to realize I had 24 hours: no staying up past 1am. I got into Hue lights; my Hue lights would start dimming at 11:30pm. I made sure I was sleeping at midnight.
Every day I practice really looking at my time and asking: Am I overworking? Did I give myself eight hours for the day? It’s hard. I'm fighting gravity. People are like how do you get so much done in a day? I taught myself this system.
Another ritual I have is 🎧 saving music and making playlists. Alright, cool, I've digested this, I like it. I put it out. I'm not listening to the same songs that I was listening to last year. I do appreciate Spotify for [sending their year-end Wrapped] reports because I don't like for my reports to be the same as they were the year before. I need to grow.
Amazing! Vasha, what other recommendations do you have for us?
Read every issue! They're available online to order and then you'd have to message me and I'll send you a shh-shh Dropbox link to all the issues.
🎼 + 📺🌷 Music + Planet Earth
Enjoy music while watching Planet Earth. I think that's the most fulfilling experience in life. When people send me albums, it's definitely with a visual of nature or something in the background.
I actually grew up Christian but [I appreciate] the Hindu teachings of Swami — just the language and the fact that it's free. I was probably somewhere remote and just needed something to read and downloaded it and got lost in the sauce. Now I love it. I live by so many of those quotes. I think because it's read on my phone. Everyone should get a little bit of that.
Notion. Huge fan — don't get paid for it. (Laughs)
Figma. Lifesaver if you're a designer of any sort. It’s how I get my decks done. I share so many documents via Figma and boards. It makes my life a lot easier, especially the copy and paste functionality from Adobe — game changer!
🎶 Hiatus Kaiyote
Huge fan. Huge fan. Huge fan. I think they're probably top five, three artists for me. I recently saw them at Hollywood Bowl..
Vasha, how can people support and connect with you?
I have a Patreon. I'm taking the Notion boards and all the things that I find important and extracting the best of the best and throwing in there — my readings, curated articles, playlists, products. I come across a little bit of everything. All of the things you’ve asked me for I put in my weekly Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ASKVASH_
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In case you haven’t noticed, I love people with good taste! In fact, I have a podcast about it for Flipboard. Check it out!
I love this! I live on military time and run cities too, but her details inspire me to step up my game (as do you). ❤️
Really really good one. : )