For my 4th day of my monthly ‘musings’ project, where I write approximately 500-1000 words every day, I’ve added a video/podcast (I’m still working out what constitutes a mere video versus a podcast). I’m doing this as a fun challenge and a way to get all of the thoughts ruminating in my head onto paper onto the screen while not clogging up your inboxes with too much pontification. I’m going to publish these as an ebook at the end of the month and I’ve been sharing snippets daily on Notes.
My first 3 days of keeping things short and simple were going well until today. As it stands, day 4 of my musings is at around 2,500 words. I may or may not edit it.
In the interests of practising what I preach, this is not being emailed out to my subscribers. It’s here if you want it, both the video and audio version. If you do download the audio, some of it may not make much sense since I did a video demonstration by sharing my screen and showing you my strategies.
A summary of what’s included:
How I deal with subscriber and inbox overwhelm
KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid (or to be more polite: Keep It Short and Simple)
The out of sight, out of mind principle
An analogy to beer and chocolate and willpower
Would my life be dramatically affected if I deleted all my bookmarks, closed my browser tabs and unsubscribed to every newsletter?
Instead of suffering from FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out – I’m focusing on JOMO – the Joy Of Missing Out
What I don’t know I’m missing won’t hurt me - that’s a liberating feeling
Oliver Burkeman and the best book on time management you’ll ever read: 4,000 Weeks
My posts – nicheless, genre-fluid, stick around – don’t go!
I mention a few fellow Substackers and how much I love your writing
Prioritise and don’t worry about what you’ll miss
Don’t read everything I write – I’ll get over it.
I think I repeated the phrase “life will go on” and “you’ll get over it” about 5 or 6 times each.
The key takeaways:
Life is short, keep things simple.
Have realistic expectations; we’re only human and can only do so much.
No one will be offended (or have to know) about you not reading everything they write.
Take it from me – as someone who is very easily overwhelmed, if I can do it, so can you!
I also shared this excerpt from my About page:
Don’t read everything I write
I cover so much, and I know how precious a resource time is. There’s way too little time to read everything I want, and I wouldn’t expect you to read all my nonsense.
I have so much on my mind that I’m eager to share, including some deeper and more introspective stuff: relationships, heartbreak and romance; inner turmoil; identity; parenting ruminations (both funny and serious); education; literature; and much more.
One post might grab you and be the most awe-inspiring thing you’ve ever read, another might make you question why you ever chose to subscribe. There’s no pleasing everyone. Stick around and you’ll occasionally be rewarded with something mind-blowing.
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