Tag: decision making

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Learning Personal Growth Reflection The Internet

The addictive nature of Twitter

Twitter is the only thing that’s ever made me feel addicted. The combination is my catnip: learning interesting things, seeing pretty art, following live events as they unfold (especially ones that seem poorly covered by the news), venting about politics, and pumping up my emotions.

I fought back against my Twitter addiction by hard blocking the domain, which worked reasonably well for several years. Except I wasn’t really free of it, because I managed a Twitter account for work. So I was still on Twitter multiple days a week, and writing tweets. Even when I got some colleagues to pitch in shifts on managing Facebook, I was always solely responsible for Twitter. Then when the pandemic hit and I switched to remote work, I had to unblock the domain on my computer so I could access my work Twitter account. I resisted posting and engaging on my personal Twitter account, but reading alone is enough to rile me up.

Now that I have quit my job, for the first time in nearly eight years I truly have a choice about whether to use Twitter.

I agree with Ben Werd: “I’m afraid of leaving Twitter for two reasons: because I might miss something from someone, and because someone might miss something from me. In other words, I feel like I need to be on the platform to stay informed for the good of myself, and to let people know about the work I’m doing for the good of my career.”

Continue reading “The addictive nature of Twitter”
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Cool Nature

Birds making group decisions

Bookmarked ‘Democracy’ governs mass jackdaw take-offs (exeter.ac.uk)

“Our study shows that by calling out jackdaws effectively ‘cast a vote’ and, when calling reaches a sufficient level, a mass departure takes place.”

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Meta Websites

Deciding what belongs on my website

We discussed syndicating notes from your website to Twitter at yesterday’s Homebrew Website Club in light of the upcoming Twitter ownership transfer, as a way to demonstrate existing POSSE technology and encourage more people to adopt IndieWeb approaches. I expressed that I struggle with *whether* I want to do this rather than *how*. What seems like it should be a simple step — posting to Twitter from my website — reveals itself as a complex decision rooted in how I want to present myself online.

Tl;dr: having one place to host all my content is simplest, but means being ok with uniting all aspects of my identity.

Continue reading “Deciding what belongs on my website”
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Getting Shit Done Personal Growth

Inaction is a slow death

Watched Inaction Is A Slow Death from YouTube

https://betterideas.comost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SleeNttNzww&feature=youtu.be

As someone who let fear keep me in a holding pattern the last few years, I’m feeling this. Haven’t totally figured out the forward action part yet after leaving my job, but I’m giving myself some time and grace.

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Getting Shit Done Mental Health

Rethinking time to build happiness

Listened A New Way to Think About Your Time | Ashley Whillans by Ten Percent Happier from Ten Percent Happier

What if one of the keys to happiness is how intentional you are with your time?

Ashley Whillans is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and author of the book Time Smart. Her groundbreaking research has led her to radically reevaluate how she spends her own time. Her goal is to help you move from time poverty to time affluence.

In this conversation, we talk about:

how to do a time audit

funding time, finding time, and reframing time

the surprising extent to which prioritizing time over money predicts happiness–and what to do if you usually do the opposite

how to handle time confetti

the value of canceling meetings

Decision conflict (?) when you feel like you should be doing something else

Time confetti — social media and tech notifications break up our time into little pieces instead of a longer chunk

Be careful not to let yourself fall into a rabbit hole of meaningless activities like cleaning out your inbox — set a time limit

Find or fund time (pay someone else to do activities that aren’t meaningful to you), or reframe activities to find meaning

Do a time audit to figure out what activities are sucking up your time

Time affluence — feeling in control of how you spend your time

Optimal target = using but not straining skills

Look for ways to give back to make your time feel more meaningful

Block time for meaningful activities, plus a quick planning session early in the week to figure out how you’re going to spend your time

Build breaks into your day to make up for the breaks that have disappeared in the world of virtual meetings where you switch context rapidly with no transition time

Set an intention of what you want to do that day in the morning

Place physical reminders of meaningful activities you could do / to act with intention in places around your house

People who value time over money tend to be happier

Pay attention to when your default activity is work

Also important to incorporate your values outside of work, even when it’s meaningful (like spending time with family and other leisure activities)

“Time Smart” by Ashley Whillans

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Getting Shit Done

Decide before doing

Liked Separate deciding from doing by Anna Havron (annahavron.com)

Being organized means you make decisions BEFORE you act. This is true for time management, and it is true for managing the objects in your physical environment.

That’s the big secret.

Separate your decisions about your time, your energy, and your things, from your actions.

I have also found this to be key in writing: planning ahead of time makes the process of turning a story into prose SO MUCH easier!

I like the idea of designating homes for objects separately from the tidying up process.

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Self Care

You need to know what you want to find joy

Liked How to figure out what you want – The Aesthetics of Joy by Ingrid Fetell Lee (The Aesthetics of Joy by Ingrid Fetell Lee)

In a world of endless options, it can be hard to know what you really want. Here’s how to tune out the noise and make choices that truly light you up.

Without desire, joy becomes something we find only by accident. We have difficulty making decisions, because we don’t know what we really want, and so we let others choose. Life starts to feel like it’s just happening to us.

Try to make decisions for something instead of against something else.

[H]iding disappointment sends an unconscious message that our desires aren’t valid. If we can’t be disappointed when we don’t get something, then the desire must not have been real or important. To reclaim desire, we have to get more comfortable with disappointment.

Figuring out what to have for dinner is a daily struggle in our house. I never know what I want. I can tell you if I don’t want something but can’t pinpoint what it is I do. (Part of that is the monotony of vegetarian and pescetarian options at most restaurants.) I finally wrote all the cuisines on index cards and when we can’t decide we’ll draw three to limit the selection.

Making decisions has always been hard for me, and I’m working on listening to myself more, trusting myself, and being willing to say what it is I want even when I doubt my husband will want it.

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Getting Shit Done

A diverse pool

Liked Portfolio thinking by Seth Godin (Seth’s Blog)

The mistake we often make is in building a choice set (which we mistakenly call a ‘portfolio’) by trying again and again for one guaranteed ideal choice. That’s not a portfolio. Instead, we should focus on going to the edges, not trying to group everything at some imaginary ‘center’.

Instead of deciding between two similar options, compare two quite different, distinct options.

Interesting to consider because I feel like I often will narrow down options until they’re nearly indistinguishable. Instead of comparing very similar yellow cardigans, pick between a snazzy black jacket and a cozy yellow sweater 🤔

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Self Care

Listening to your FOMO

Quoted Year 2021 in Photos by Mikko Lagerstedt (mikkolagerstedt.com)

Fear of missing out is your inner compass on what you should be doing.

I don’t know that this is always true but worth considering.

Categories
Lifestyle Personal Growth

Time for change?

Liked How Do I Know When It’s Time to Make a Change? by Katie Hawkins-Gaar (My Sweet Dumb Brain)

if you’re asking whether you should make a major life change then, yes, it’s probably time for a change.

One of my favorite tricks for transitioning from thinking to doing is to give myself a deadline. I learned this tip from my friend and former coworker, Kristen Hare … Kristen explained that she would pick a random date—usually three or six months from her current moment of unhappiness—and block off time on her calendar for reflection. During that date in the future, she makes a note to check in with herself. Am I still as unhappy as I was six months ago?