Matt Birchler is to blame for some of the decisions I make in my tech and blogging life. Not because he does things differently, or tries to push his readers into things, but because he’s someone I look up too, and he speaks mostly a lot of sense. He’s been blogging for more than a decade (a milestone I won't pass until next year) and I am happy to say he is a good friend.
One of the reasons I try not to write about my ways and opinions much any more is because of how peachy they can come across. When talking about anything, particularly something like technology usage, there’s a tendency to use instructional language that ends up being a post about little more than feeding the ego. My posts are never aimed like that, but I have read many that are, and whole books, that make me question my publication and motives.
My Glass subscription will be coming to an end in the upcoming weeks, and I don’t know what to do with it. Well, that’s a lie, I do, but I’m almost 90% sure I’ll end up paying another year just for the sake of fitting in.
Don’t get me wrong the app, and the website, is pretty, and I do think it is a good place for photographers to post. However, I only really post to it because it doesn’t really speak to me.
In my journey to improve my overall systems of things and also slim down on some expenditure has taken a lot longer than expected. There could be many reasons for this, the number of services available, my persistent love of switching, or just my lack of motivation – however I needed to get notes right first, so this is where I started.
A surprising amount of my time is spent writing notes.
A simple idea, stollen from YouTuber Struthless to replace what is ultimately bad for me, with something that is better. He replaced Social media with ‘micro-journalling’ to improve his mental health and found some exceptional benefits, so for the last couple of days I have replaced my doom scrolling with writing.
To succeed, let's face it a task like this isn’t as easy as it seems, I needed to make some modifications to the way my phone works.
I wrote a post a few days ago about not being able to switch off and be focused. Well, that was the intention, but it came across in different ways to different people. I got lots of feedback from it, ranging from useful tips and interesting conversations to the usual “here’s my unsolicited advice”—all of which I’m grateful for.
However, I do want to clarify, I do know how to focus and when I need to.
It seems like an age ago I wrote about loving Stadia. It has its issues, is always a few days away from being killed, but it brought me back into gaming because of the ease of access. I had my iPad, adopted my son's Playstation controller, and I was away. Sure, I always think about building a gaming PC, but I probably never will, so enter the Steam Deck – level 2 of casual gaming.
I am starting to think my brain is fundamentally broken. I can’t sleep, can’t sit still, and literally can’t do anything online without scrolling through social media.
It happens when I am not paying attention, and then I suddenly realise that post I sat down to write isn’t getting finished off, not are those photos getting edited. Instead, I am down a rabbit whole of the worst things about humanity or finding out why someone is getting cancelled on Twitter today.
For reasons that I don’t really want to go into, I’ve had to resort to sleeping tablets. Nothing major, just herbal things to help me drop off and stay asleep. I’ve used them before, many years ago, and found they really help when I’m struggling to get enough shut-eye.
I popped the first one last night “30-60 minutes before bedtime” as instructed, but felt the effects in minutes. Except I couldn’t have.