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- I got a new 6 to 8.
I got a new 6 to 8.
It’s 2026.02.01 on the lunar calendar today.
Joyce Kwon
March 19, 2026
One of the most surprising things I’ve heard recently (apart from the steady flow of shocking news in the world) is that my mom has started using the dishwasher for the first time. My parents acquired a dishwasher with their house over a decade and a half ago, but its only function had been storage for miscellaneous tableware. My sister has encouraged my parents to use the dishwasher repeatedly over the years, seeing that my mom cooks daily and for lots of people, from her coworkers to the church congregation.
The dishes frequently became a point of tension, with us telling our dad he should at least do the dishes so that our mom wouldn’t have to come home to a sink filled with dirty dishes after working on her feet all day and cooking and cleaning everything in the morning.
So what got my mom to finally try the dishwasher? She noticed the lunch containers her coworkers brought were spotless and they attributed the sparkle to the dishwasher.
Food my mom packed me
My old boss would talk about the idea of the trim tab ceaselessly, and it must have sunk in. I heard about the dishwashing development and thought: “trim tab.”
Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab.
No more arguments about who would do the dishes. Sure, it doesn’t solve the root problem (if you have the solution to patriarchy, I’m dying to know), but it’s a significant, felt improvement on the day-to-day that takes little effort.
And I think I found my trim tab. Starting Monday, I’ve implemented a 6 to 8—like the 9 to 5 but working 6 to 8 in the morning on my priority project (and also 6 to 8 in the evening, or any couple of hours before bed, when my schedule allows). I had sunk into a pattern of feeling like I did little of consequence each day, with each week and month a wash … what is my life adding up to?! I’d been staying up later than is optimal for me and losing precious morning hours when my mind is at its clearest.
I’m not doing anything extreme like waking up at 4am (which I know some women writers do), and 6am is not a particularly early time to wake for a morning person like me, especially if I sleep around 10pm.
For the small price of waking up earlier, I’ve been able to start each day inspired—re-reading and thinking about my new album project, before I wade into the sludge of a never-ending to-do list and work that pays the bills. An unexpected upside is that I’m ravenous for breakfast, and food seems to taste better. I haven’t yet worked out how this will work beyond the short term, given that my preference is also to run in the morning … maybe I will get up at 5am once we fall back to standard time and it becomes too dark and cold to run at night.
I love waking up to the hooting of owls and hearing the transition to the mourning dove, which has returned to my patio after months away! I’ve been trying to get a clear clip of the mourning dove’s coo and noticed that there is a cacophony of birds outside my window.
It made me think of a piece called “Something Going On Above My Head” by Oswaldo Maciá, which arranges birds by song into orchestral sections.
“Something Going On Above My Head” by Oswaldo Maciá
Do you have a trim tab? If so, I’d love to hear about it!
🔊 Listening to neighbor birds still outside, hopefully always outside
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