Podcast Listening Speed

May 31, 2019
2 min read

Yesterday I’ve wrote about the year of less, one of the last things I’ve changed is the podcast listening speed. Not long after I’ve started listening to the podcasts, I’ve subscribed to a lot of them and in order to even try to keep up, I’ve had to use Smart Speed function of Overcast and also listen at 2x speed. Most of the shows I’ve listened to sounded good, especially with Overcasts sound engine.

But after about 5 years I’ve realized, like with TV shows, it’s just not possible to listen to everything and so it’s better to up the quality of the listening. I also now think it’s much healthier to listen at normal speed. Unfortunately after such a long time listening at 2x speed it’s hard to get back. I tried to listen at 1x from the start, but it’s not possible, so I just reduced a speed bit by bit. Right now, I’m listening at about 1.25 – 1.5x, but podcasts in Polish I listen at 1x. I feel how much easier it is for my brain to process the information. In today’s world we are bombarded with information from every corner and reducing the amount of it when you can feels nice.

The Year of Less

May 30, 2019
3 min read

I’ve had a moment recently when I realized that there is too much stuff going on and I can’t keep up with everything. For example, when I was studying I’ve had a lot more free time, commuting took a lot more, so I’ve started listening to a lot of podcasts, following a lot of people on Twitter and Instagram, reading a lot of news (mostly tech related) and saving a lot of articles to the Pocket, watching all the most popular TV shows. This was fine, until I’ve had full-time job and a serious relationship.

One of the biggest problems was – I’ve always been a completionist, so just cutting everything out was hard. So I’ve started bit by bit, for example, I’ve started with podcast episode curation, not unsubscribing from the podcast, but just deleting the episodes that I wasn’t interested in.

I’m much more likely to unsubscribe from someone on Twitter or Instagram. If someone posts too much or I don’t enjoy photos they take, I will unsubscribe, regardless of our relationship. I also use Mute function on both social media. I’ve muted everything related to Trump on Twitter – it’s just too much negativity, without any upside.

I’ve accepted the fact that I won’t be able to watch every episode of every TV show in a timely manner, so I’ve picked some favorites that I watch when they get out (mostly to avoid spoilers) and I try to watch TV shows that were discontinued first, so the number of shows I watch decrease.

I’m also realizing that I won’t able to read and watch everything that I save for later soon, so I just know, that when I have some free time, I can open Pocket and find something to read or watch, I can even choose something appropriate for the amount of time I have free.

All of this, ironically, was inspired by a podcast – Cortex. On this show I’ve heard about a great idea – yearly themes. So I’ve decided to make this one – The Year of Less. I’m going further now and cleaning up the physical and digital mess I’ve made over the years. I’m going through my password manager and deleting accounts on sites I’ve used ones or don’t even remember exist. I’m going through the apps on my phone and deleting those that I’ve never used and probably will never use. I’m also thinking about places where I put my files, most importantly photos – I’ve deleted them from a couple of services, including Google Photos.

What started as an attempt to leave a more healthy life, psychologically, ended up being a pretty major change in my life and my thinking. I feel like this theme will be the one I’ll focus more in future posts.

Creating New Habits

May 29, 2019
3 min read

Imagine doing something every single day for a year. Sounds intense, right? You do something today and then tomorrow and then the day after that. Like that you will be surprised how fast the year of doing something will pass.

One day in May of last year I’ve decided to take a cold shower in the morning. I liked it so much I decided to do it every day, but I’ve also wanted to track the progress. I thought about how I felt about the Apple Watch Activity rings (I’ve been closing all of them for more than 600 days in a row), so I wanted something similar for my new habit. That’s when I’ve got Streaks 3, very simple, but functional app. Day, after day, after day I’ve been checking off every morning that I’ve taken cold shower until I’ve seen the number – 365. I was amazed that I was doing something for the whole year, every single day.

The app is very straightforward. You can track your habits manually (after finishing doing something you can check the item) or it can track them automatically (it connects to the Health app for automatic tracking). There is also the ability to create items that are checked automatically and you manually change the status if you miss the habit. I also love the Apple Watch app and complication – it shows your progress right there on the watch face and I do almost all of the tracking using the watch app.

Along the way I’ve added some new habits I wanted to make. First – getting up without using snooze button, but I’m deleting it today as I can’t do it. Just can’t right now. I believe I will return to this one after some time, but I’ll need to rethink many things about my sleep habits before I do that.

The third one was health related – drinking 8 glasses of water every day. I feel great about that one, since I’ve started I didn’t miss a day and I feel much better now. Also, when I’ve visited the doctor and showed her my old blood tests vs new ones, she immediately noticed difference – they were much better now.

Next one is mostly for self-improvement – I’m posting at least one photo to the Instagram every day. I wanted to get better at photography, so decided posting something every single day would be a nice practice in shooting and editing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t taking photos every single day, that could be my next challenge, but I was editing and posting one photo every day.

Two more are somewhat connected. One is tracked automatically by Streaks, it’s closing all the three rings every single day. I’ve added it, just to see all the streaks going in one single place. The last one is exercising every day. I’m having some problems with my back and have to do some exercises every day, otherwise the pain becomes uncomfortable. Some days the exercise is harder then the others, but every one of them counts.

Today I’m adding another habit for tracking. I will try to write 200 words every single day. I will try to write posts for this blog or some days it would be something private. I want to improve writing and my English. I think practicing every day will be the best way for improving the skills.