Efficiency, newsletters, novelty

2024-09-07

I would like in a way to become more involved in the IndieWeb, and especially in terms of actually reading the content that others write. It would be almost like a social media, but more directly from another person... more human. And so I think I would like to receive things via e-mail, and have set up my e-mail to be accessible on this little laptop so I can access it in more places, and with more freedom. I'll also need to at some point, in this case, tidy up the random mail I receive from the bank and other places, and either auto-archive them, or just delete/unsubscribe from them. This will mean that only what is in my inbox is what I actually care to read. Then, I can start signing up to things, so I *have* things to read in the first place!

I need to get newsboat set up as well more properly, so that I can read RSS feeds of people's website with a bit more joy; or consider a GUI RSS reader?

For my system as well, since I use a tiling manager, it might be nice to automatically open, e.g. e-mail in say, tab 9, so I can always know it's there to switch to. And generally just assign each number to a particular action, to make it sort of easier to manage, in a way.

I'm going to try change my workflow in terms of e-mail, to have more e-mail (that I can easily go through, is the idea) and have it be well managed in terms of tags: then I can just read the e-mail, and archive it once I'm done. That is sort of the system I am trying at work, though of course many things stay in the inbox for a long time if I don't get the chance to work on them for a while. When it's just reading, I can keep on top of my e-mail a lot easier for my personal life. And I don't receive much mail from actual people that needs responding to, either, so that's ok I guess.

All in all, tidying up all aspects of my life would help me out. Generally just putting in some initial effort, and getting it all tidy, to make it better for the future me.

As for media, and blogs, I'm not sure exactly what I want, and can discover this in time. I think though, that trying to find media that I engage in that is new in a way is good for me.

Novelty I wonder if a certain degree of novelty, in the sense of new

occasions and events, or stimuli, is necessary for a happy life. In this sense, I am unhappy as I have restricted the stimuli I receive to older ones, e.g. music I've already heard, or videos from Brodie Robertson that are fairly samey... in this way, I need to experience a wealth of different things, each of which then allows me a degree of freedom, newness, refreshment, in my mind... I wonder.

I really don't know. I'm not sure I can really come to meet a good conclusion with all this writing, and pondering. I think whenever I appear to reach something that seems an adequate theory, new evidence always seems to appear to contradict it. It reminds of the criticism of science - and one that seems totally valid - that science has no way of generating or moderating hypotheses, and can only handle them when they arrive.

So, what I'm aiming to do is get a refreshment on media, and on generally the external perspective, and hope it sort of conjures up some better emotion. Of course, I have to be aware that some of the low mood is going to just be winter depression: part of the reason I've been so depressed this September is the poor weather, I'm almost certain of it. Still, it is odd for me to get winter depression this bad, and particularly around September. I'm not entirely sure, if I'm honest. I'm only 23, and of course once one hits 25 the body stabilises and there are no longer such dramatic downshifts in mood. Everything is nice and regular and normal. Right? Right?

Anyways, the new stimulus is in multiple parts. I'm going to dedicate Friday night as a movie night, to watch a movie like this Friday just gone, only with less getting tontoed. I'll of course have the opera (why, so posh! (pronounced /pəʊʃ/)), and can listen to new music I suppose, and go to new places, and the holiday to Italy soon will help me out as well.

I think I might go up and try to sit by the seaside one evening (not tomorrow as I've social occupations, and probably not Monday either; next Saturday?) and draw... and generally, I can be productive in a way that does preclude my enjoying life. That is what I am going to try to reach; strive for good behaviour, don't beat myself up.

Fresh starting

As for e-mails, if I'm going to try to get it sorted, I've decided upon a fresh start today. I'm going to change several things today: the notepad will be used as a diary, not a journal (where journalling can take place either here, as a wv, if it is worthwhile and something I can reasonably release into the public, or in a different notepad if not), I've cleared my e-mails and will try to maintain inbox-zero from now on in that regard, and I think I will try to implement gtd a little more. The gym will begin again on Monday, and I'll try get back on track. I've just been knocked for mood a little the past few weeks.

In terms of involvement in the IndieWeb scene, I'll see what that means. I'd like to talk to people in the scene a little more, and get to know it a bit. Currently, I'm sort of an island unto myself, and of course nobody reads anything I write (not least, because I'm not even releasing it yet until the website redesign is complete).

Well, it's late so I should sleep. I'll try be actually productive tomorrow, which I didn't exactly manage today. Have a good one.