Summary
- Write a letter to your future self on www.futureme.org – it’s free
- Better understand the balance of news you read – www.improvethenews.org
Journaling and Planning
For four to five years – when I was about 17 to 21 – I kept a daily journal. It was too much effort and I wasn’t enjoying it, so I stopped for almost ten years.
Over the last year, I just keep a few notes roughly once a week about things that happened and intentions I have for the next day/month or year. A few of my short learnings on making journaling easier:
- Pick out a dense book and read a page when you do a diary entry. If there’s a quote I like, I write it down in my journal. So far, I’ve used Letters from a Stoic (Seneca) and Meditations (Aurelius) for this.
- Buy a nice little diary. I’ve spent a more than just buying a cheap book. It put more love/soul into it. Splash out and get a wooden cover or something.
- I write down a few things that happened and how I feel about them.
- I write down a few intentions. I try to avoid setting myself up for failure with things outside of my control (e.g. do a fundraise for $X) in favour of things I can control (e.g. remain calm in handling upcoming difficult conversation y).
Even all of this stuff can be boring and/or not enjoyable. An alternative option is to just write once a year or once every few years.
You can do that on futureme.org for free and have the letter e-mailed to you in 1, 3 or 5 years (or whatever). It can be nice to do it with a friend or a partner/spouse. Hat tip to my brother for this idea.
Improve the News
A lot of people are always harping on about how X is so divided or polarized (and it’s getting worse). X can be people, the country, the world… insert your word of choice.
My favorite question to ask back (actually I usually just stay quiet) is: Well, what are you doing to make things less divided, if you think that’s a goal?
There’s a dude at MIT (Max Tegmark) who actually is doing something on this front with www.improvethenews.org – it’s a website that allows you to move sliders between left and right to see the news change. Try it for yourself.
Lastly, my favourite tab settings:
Might save me a bit of time compared to alt-tabbing between CNN and Fox…
Lastly – my January newsletter will be coming out later this week for subscribers. Sign up to get ahead on new business ideas: