These are some of the things that happened to me this week:

• Finished watching The Witcher Season 3 on Netflix. I liked it better than the previous season. There are lots of direct references from the books by Andrzej Sapkowski (mostly from “Time of Contempt” and the beginnings of “Baptism of Fire”). “Time of Contempt” is one of my favourite books in the series, so I was glad to see the Mages Conclave in Aretuza: it was a gorgeous episode! There are huge simplifications to the politics described in the books, but it was a decent adaption. 📺
• I enrolled in the Army Run for a 5K in September! 🏃
• I’m still enjoying the nice weather: I went out for my typical 7K run 4 times this week 💪.
• Still reading: “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World” by Max Fisher. I'm at around 36% now. Chapter 2 describes in detail how Facebook aimed to increase the number of friends users had (they wanted to surpass the Dunbar limit of 150) by enforcing it through changes in their algorithms. Chapter 3 discusses the Trump election and the rise of right-wing posts, videos and groups in social media. Chapters 4 and 5 covers the rise of machine learning algorithms and how all platforms started promoting and amplifying more outrageous/radical content. And how the average user's time on these platforms skyrocketed around 2016. 📖
• After stepping away from Mastodon I cleaned up my phone home screen, and I'm working on changing my habits towards my phone use. I noticed that by not having the email app on my home screen I don't automatically open it, so it works! 📱

—

Post 24/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #weeknotes

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I was thinking about my phone usage today and how I could reconfigure my Home Screen to make it less distracting.

I already have only one home screen. I’ve always limited myself from having multiple screens to swipe to. I already don’t have any social media apps, apart from Whatsapp and Telegram, which my family still use to communicate with me. But of course there is room for improvement.

First, I thought about my main distractors currently:

1) Emails: this one has been my major distraction. Some days I will check it every 5 minutes for no reason. 🫤

2) Internet Browser: there’s a world of distraction accessible through a browser. I have all my bookmarks synced to the browser on my phone. Very tempting!

After some reflection and talking to other people about similar experiences, a clever solution is to simply remove the distracting apps from the home screen. So that if I want to use them, I have to actively search for them. That creates friction and removes the automatic response of opening them mindlessly. It creates more intentionality, which is exactly what I’m looking for.

So I removed the following apps from my Home Screen:

• Email apps (Outlook and ProtonMail).
• Browser (Firefox/Safari): I actually uninstalled Firefox and installed Firefox Focus instead, with no distracting bookmarks.
• Outlook Calendar: Outlook has the email and Calendar integrated in one app (which is very annoying). I replaced it with the native iOS Calendar app so that I don’t have to stumble upon my emails when checking my schedule.
• Whatsapp and Telegram: I only use these to communicate with my family abroad, so I thought I could use them more intentionally as well.
• Unused apps: I had some apps I was not using any more (like Journey). All gone.

I kept the other apps that are mostly utilities (authenticator, password manager), notes (Standard Notes), to-do app (Nirvana), health apps (includes my yoga, running and meditation apps), reading/book related apps, etc. I don’t consider those apps sources of distraction, and I like having them easily accessible.

This was my first try at cleaning up my phone home screen (before / after):

Cleanup: Before (left) and after (right)

I’ll see how this goes! I’m mostly curious to know how my email usage will change after this!

Some References:

• Video: “Simplifying w/Digital Minimalism: What's on My Phone”

—

Post 23/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #productivity #digitalminimalism

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

Blogrolls have been around since the early 2000's, and they used to be a great way to discover other blogs. Since the current landscape of social media has not had a positive effect on me lately, I've decided to curate a list of links to other blogs that I find interesting and worth sharing.

I believe blogs have a lot more to offer compared to quick and short social media updates. I enjoy reading thoughtful, long-form posts from people that I have chosen to read, in contrast to the truncated brain candy that seems to dominate the internet these days.

My list contains mostly personal and independent blogs that I've often stumbled upon through other people's blogrolls. You can check my blogroll here.

Also, checkout the amazing Ye Olde Blogroll: it's a curated list of fine personal & independent blogs that are updated regularly, indexed by theme.

If you have a personal blog and want a reader, please email me!

I'd be glad to add it to my blogroll.

Thanks! 🤗

—

Post 22/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #blogroll #internet

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

1. Torn (The Unraveled Kingdom #1) by Rowenna Miller, 480p: This was not the book I was looking for. The blurb mentions it is French Revolution-inspired in a fictional world with magic. The magic system is interesting: a few seamstresses can cast charms into their stitches, making charm protected garments. The protagonist, Sophie, is one of those expert seamstresses and has her own business. Her brother, Kristos, is a revolutionary that wants to overthrow the monarchy (hence the French Revolution inspiration). But the revolution didn’t seem convincing. It was a bit of a slow burn towards political revolution from the POV of someone who is connected to it (Sophie) but doesn’t really want to get involved. Sophie was so reactive and her lack of agency annoyed me at times. There was not enough texture in the story to make it a compelling revolution inspired story.

2. Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore, 356p: I’m truly enjoying these historical romances with a modern twist. In this one the main character, Annabelle, is a bluestocking in 1879 studying in Oxford, who joins the suffragette movement. They are fighting to get the “Married Women’s Property Act” amended, so that women can keep their own property after marriage. Annabelle is tasked with getting the Duke of Montgomery to back the cause, and romance ensues! It has a rich plot with believable political background. Beautiful romance story with a strong female character.

3. Poison or Protect (Delightfully Deadly #1) by Gail Carriger, 180p: a stand-alone romance novella set in Gail Carriger’s steampunk universe. Lady Preshea Villentia, a deadly, accomplished assassin, is hired for a job in a country house party. The plot is simple, so the story is self-contained, and the focus is the romance between Lady Villentia and Captain Gavin. Delightfully entertaining and cute.

4. Time Surfing: The Zen Approach to Keeping Time on Your Side (Stressontknoping #1) by Paul Loomans, 176p: This book discusses how we can concentrate on doing our work intuitively. The approach suggests using to-do list as merely checklists to see if we are forgetting something. The author says he doesn’t even use lists anymore, unless he’s very busy. I liked the idea that we have to face the “gnawing rats”: all the things in our lives that we put off and which then start to “gnaw” at us. He suggests we visualize the next actions of what is worrying us, identifying what we find difficult or scary to make the solution real, and leave it to our intuition to carry out the task later. Also, lots of good ideas: do one thing at a time, give things your full attention (no multitasking), take short breaks often to recharge, practice mindfulness. Some of the ideas were familiar to me, but he manages to present them in a fresh and simple way. The illustrations are gorgeous!

—

Post 21/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days

#readinglist #books #reading

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I was listening to Cal Newport’s podcast episode 262 and in the final segment he commented on a video by Better Ideas about overstimulation. The video discusses social media addiction, internet addiction and its relation with dopamine. Inspired by the video, Cal Newport then suggests some solutions to the problem.

In summary, his advice to combat online overstimulation is simply:

“Don’t use things that cause overstimulation!”

The reasoning behind it is to avoid giving opportunities for our brains to fire up the dopamine response. Dopamine is released when we anticipate doing something pleasurable. So if we get used to reaching out for something entertaining all the time, we will be constantly seeking that stimulation. And nowadays, there are infinite ways to get that dopamine hit at our fingertips instantly.

Cal Newport makes an analogy with smoking: to get rid of this addiction, the end goal is to quit smoking. The solution is never getting used to a regime of smoking less or controlling when and where you smoke: the solution is to actually quit.

So he suggests we remove sources of overstimulation from our lives:

• Delete all social media! Simple as that.
• Don’t scroll online news. Subscribe to one or two interesting newsletters instead, or listen to one podcast with daily events if you need to keep up to date with news.
• Videos and YouTube: YouTube can be a good source of information if used well. Install AdBlockers and Distraction Free extensions for YouTube to eliminate the automated recommendation feature. Another tip is to watch YouTube on a TV in your living room, like you would sit down to enjoy a movie.
• And the most important tip is to replace all the distractions with high quality entertainment: movies, music, books, high quality videos, documentaries. The more we consume high quality content, the less we will enjoy junk information. We will eventually lose our taste for shallow content.

From my experience, this approach works. I’ve deleted major social media accounts years ago (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter) and nowadays, I don’t miss those services. I’ve recently tried to use Mastodon as a lightweight alternative to social media. Even if Mastodon is open, decentralized and have no algorithmically generated timelines, the model still mimics Twitter, and I was feeling similar FOMO effects using it.

So, I’m keeping away from Mastodon for 30 Days. I’m not sure if I will ever be able to use it without feeling distracted. I might eventually delete my account. We’ll see.

—

Post 20/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #journal #noisymusings #attentionresistance #socialmedia

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

Yesterday I was super distracted at work. Looking back, I think it’s been going on for the past couple of weeks. I’m having this twitch of reaching out for my phone every moment of a small pause. Let’s say I’m calling someone, and those seconds when I’m waiting for the other person to pick up, I look at my phone, trying to check something. It’s an unconscious behaviour. It’s kinda scary to notice it and then realize it was automatic: I had no conscious choice over it.

I’m getting better with my phone: deleting the Discord app made it way less interesting. But I still have that urge to look up things online. I feel like I’ve been conditioned to do that, even when I don’t need it.

Throughout the day I find myself opening the browser. I might be in the middle of a task and something gets unclear or fuzzy, I get frustrated and open a tab. I look at my bookmarks. I keep on switching tabs, checking my bookmarks. I keep waiting for something interesting to happen. Waiting to be entertained.

So I need some time off. One website I’ve been visiting more and more during the day is Mastodon. Similar to the Discord app on my phone, Mastodon is one of the main drivers for my behaviour. Even though Mastodon doesn’t have algorithms and I’ve curated my timeline for it to be less overwhelming, I still have this illogical urge to check it.

I think it has to do with the “Twitter-like” format. Information is too scattered, it's too noisy, too random. This format of short asynchronous messages creates the illusion of cool things happening all the time. It inherently generates FOMO. This “Always Keep Up” method of being online is extremely draining to me. So I guess these micro-blogging formats are not for me anymore.

I’m not deleting my account yet, but I will not use Mastodon for 30 days and re-evaluate. I’m logging out from all my devices and adding the address to the blocked list on all my browsers.

I’ll keep on blogging here. I will still read my RSS feed, which is highly curated and I don’t get FOMO from it.

I’ll check how I’m doing in a week and observe if other sources of distraction will replace Mastodon.

—

Post 19/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #journal #noisymusings #attentionresistance #socialmedia

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I like the idea of week notes! So, I’ll start doing it in this blog. It’s a great way to practice gratitude and acknowledge accomplishments.

In this post I'll share some of the things that happened to me last week.

• I started reading the book: “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World” by Max Fisher. I’m only 10% in and it so far covered the Myanmar violent uprisings that were fuelled by Facebook’s content and the Gamergate hate campaign. Scary stuff! 📖
• We finally got a sofa-bed for our living room. It fits our space perfectly and it’s very comfortable! It was worth the wait. 🛋
• I started thinking about my relationship with email. I’ve noticed how email is a distraction when I’m trying to focus at work. I keep checking email all the time, even when I tell myself I’m in a focus time block. It’s something I want to work on. ✉
• I went out for a run 4 times this week. I’m keeping with 7km total for each run, and 2 pauses of 2 minutes during the run. 👟
• I enrolled in Ice Skating lessons that will start in October. Since the pandemic these classes were mostly cancelled, and now I was finally able to secure a spot! ⛸

—

Post 18/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #weeknotes

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

Dealing with anxiety can sometimes feel like trying to stop a runaway train. These 3 simple phrases can be like breaks for that crazy train :

💙 “Anxiety is trying to keep me safe”: reframes anxiety as a concerned companion rather than an adversary, just acknowledge and let it go.

💙 “Deep breaths, small steps”: I can do one thing at a time.

💙 “I’m here now”: it serves as anchor to the present moment.

It’s my little toolkit for dealing with anxiety. They remind me to be kind to myself, take things one step at a time, and stay in the here and now.

These phrases were inspired by a morning meditation I was doing using the Calm app.

—

Post 17/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #journal #anxiety #mindfulness

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

It happened again. I've been picking up my phone every moment of downtime. According to my iPhone's Screen Time, my daily usage went up by 23% in the past week. I've been spending more time than usual on Discord and using the browser.

And I know why it happened, for the most part: I reinstalled the Discord app on my phone. I have book clubs groups on Discord and also the Standard Notes group. I don't really need to check these groups all the time, but at some point in the past weeks I thought it would be nice to have the app at my fingertips. You know, why not have it ready to go when I'm on my lunch break to check what was going on? It turns out I can't be moderate about it. I started checking all the groups early in the morning, during breakfast and then in the mornings and afternoons while I'm at work... and at night before bed. And since I was on the phone, why not open up my browser and check Mastodon? And check my RSS feed? And why not go into a rabbit hole searching for a recipe online? This week I finally took notice of my behaviour: what is going on?

It was a behaviour change, and I'm almost sure it was triggered by having the Discord app readily available for me to use. My willpower is limited so having a shiny tool like Discord diminishes my ability to maintain focus. And it spiralled out of control.

So I'm making my phone less interesting:

1. I've deleted the Discord app

2. I've deleted from my browser all the links/favorites to websites that would pull my attention.

3. And I'm replacing my mindless browsing on my phone with reading a book on my Kobo, or just being alone with my thoughts.

The goal here is to reject the model of my phone as my constant companion, and use it more intentionally.

“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.” ― Cal Newport “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World”

-- Post 16/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #journal #attentionresistance #digitalminimalism

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I was very young when I saw a computer for the first time. It was 1986, I was 7 years old and my dad got a TK85 which was connected to a black and white TV. I think the TK85 was a Brazilian thing: it was a clone of a Sinclair ZX81 made by Microdigital Eletrônica (a Brazilian computer company, long ago extinct). It had an external compact cassette recorder that was used to load programs into it. It came with 16 or 48 Kb of RAM. I don't remember the RAM size of the one my dad got. It would take half an hour or more to load a game, and every time you needed to run any software you had to go though the process of playing the cassette tape to load it into the memory.

Since then I've been a tech enthusiast. I was learning the Basic programming language when I was seven years old. I played games and learned touch typing on an Apple II. I was excited when my dad got a 386 PC then a 486 PC running Windows. I saw the first Windows version. I used WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3. I remember the day I first used a mouse and saw a monitor that wasn't green monochrome or black and white. I used 8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks.

I connected to BBS servers with dial-up modems that took forever to connect. I loved IRC discussions and used ICQ to connect to friends. I saw the Internet when it was NOT all about views and annoying ads. I loved opening up Mosaic or Netscape and doing random searches about a nerdy topic and finding out a webpage suggesting the right reading order of Isaac Asimov books. Or a really cool blog with the complete genealogy of The Lord of the Rings characters.

I kept awake many nights playing text based RPG on a MUD (Multi User Dungeon games) server. I made lots of friends playing Realms of Despair (it seems the servers are still up and running, by the way!.

I still love computers and technology although I have not become a programmer or a software developer. I think deep inside I wanted to be a Computer Scientist, but life and circumstances threw me towards another direction. I'm happy that I still spend most of my days with a computer, they've come a long way! I love a full sized mechanical keyboard and I hate doing things on a mobile or a tablet.

I guess for some people nowadays the Internet is synonymous with computers. The Internet has its pros and cons, we all know it. I try to stay away from ads, social media and any algorithm that choose what to show me. I like to have control over what I consume.

In retrospect, my journey into the world of technology and computers began in the most humble of settings: with cassette-loaded programs and painstaking loading times. But that instilled in me a fascination that has endured to this day.

Me with computers in the 80's/90's feeling nerdy 🤓

—-

Post 15/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge!

#100DaysToOffload #100Days #journal #retrocomputing #nostalgia #computers

Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

---

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.