I’m going on a cruise next month and I want to run around the deck. If I use Strava the GPS is going to be totally out of whack as I’ll be moving through the ocean.
How can I accurately track the distance?
I am the absolute last person you’d ever think of as a runner, but I’m doing it! I’ve been running two 5ks a week for the past month and, alongside some other lifestyle changes, I’ve never felt better.
I did my first run in proper running shoes today and I can see why everyone has been telling me to buy some.
I thought I’d need to do something like Couch to 5k since I thought of myself as pretty unfit but I found I was really wanting to just run and, as the month has gone on, I’ve graduated from a 10:40 pace to 7:50ish with negative splits and my fastest km at 6:20. I am quite shocked at myself!
Just wanted to share something here since I don’t use social media!
Thinking about braving a Parkrun soon.
I began to use a commonplace book back in 2023 as I transitioned into a digital minimalist lifestyle. I've kept one up ever since and have found it tremendously useful and a good in and of itself. If I'm trying to come up with ideas for writing or my videos, I just leaf back through old notebooks now.
I've changed how I used them a fair bit. I have moved the journal elements into a separate Field Notes notebook and I spend less time organising and indexing because my interactions with them rarely go through those tools and a more organic. I've stuck to the same notebooks though, you can't beat a plain B6 Leuchtturm.
Cal Newport looked at six posts from this subreddit this week as part of the Deep Questions podcast. He went through the advice and rated its effectiveness.
I was really pleasantly surprised that he picked one of my posts (and gave it an A!).
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-i-be-a-digital-minimalist-in-2026-monday-advice/id1515786216?i=1000774676980 - well worth a listen!
I am honestly in shock. I was doing 10:00+ km because I thought that’s all I had in me. I sped up to pass someone on km 2 and just didn’t slow down.
I‘m a big guy but I play rugby and go to the gym so that has helped with cardio capacity.
I just feel very, very proud. ✨
One of the activities I've replaced doom scrolling with is scanning in interesting things from my collection of old books and ephemera. I'm loving the chance to reconnect with these collections but I want to be able to share them with friends without using social media.
In the distant past, I used to use Tumblr for this. I want to build a small, simple website to host these images and some blog posts and poetry.
I've looked at Jekyll and GitHub pages but it sits outside my technical ability and I don't want to use AI. Are there any simple website builders out there I could link to my custom domain name? Ideally, it would be a WYSIWYG editor.
I am building a body of scans of interesting books and artefacts from my collection. It is an activity I've taken up to replace doomscrolling and I am really enjoying the chance to review books and ephemera I've collected over the years.
I'd really like to be able to upload them to the web and share them with my friends. In the quite distant past I used to use Tumblr for this. I have investigated building a website with Jekyll and hosting it on GitHub pages but it sits outside my technical abilities and I don't want to use AI.
Any advice on building a simple website with galleries? Ideally, using a WYSIWYG editor and with the ability to use my custom domain name.
I have run at a calorie deficit every day for over a month now. Is this shop perfect? No. Is it progress towards a simpler life and a healthier existence? Yes.
I’m cooking more, eating out less, not ordering any more deliveries. Planning, prepping and, most importantly, feeling full and satisfied.
I've had great fun making these little photo zines the last couple of days. I've really enjoyed selecting photos from my enormous photo reel and arranging them.
I just use a template on Canva and print them out on A4 paper then it's just a case of trimming, folding, cutting and sticking. It makes a really satisfying little booklet that I'm starting to build a collection of.
https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/how%20to%20fold%20a%20zine.pdf < this is the instructions I used
I'm not seeking to ignite a debate on AI but I don't want to listen to AI music. The fact that some popped up in a Spotify playlist I was listening to was the final straw for me to get off there.
I can't find any streaming platform that doesn't allow AI music, sadly.
I know I could be more intentional about using Spotify but, I have other reasons for wanting to come off it anyway and I'd like to own more of the media I consume and support artists. I want to listen to more albums and fewer playlists where the same songs get pushed by Spotify over-and-over.
Any advice on sites where I can buy MP3s that support musicians? Ideally ones I can use in the UK?
Anyone had any success in moving to MP3 players?
Tough one today. Drove home from work, cooked a proper meal, headed out into the evening for a cycle ride. Sat by the river, read my book, had a cup of tea and wrote my journal.
A step up from my old tough day routine of a takeaway and three hours of scrolling.
My current writing is set in a world which is not Earth but is Earth-like. The magic system revolves around words and spells made with plants. I am debating whether or not to use real world flora and fauna in the story or whether to invent my own. Brandon Sanderson's worldbuilding in the Cosmere is strongly linked to the unique animals and plantlife (chulls, gemhearts, chasm fiends) but also includes some real world animals (parrots, horses). Tolkien has his own flora and fauna mixed with the real world. Robert Jordan has a mixture of the two too.
Would it be jarring to read a story set in a fantasy world with ash trees or yellow cinquefoil? Would it be too strong a signal that the story is set in our world and not another?
One thing that really pushed me into digital minimalism was realising how much of my leisure time was spent passively consuming content but this meant that when I did remove social media and passive content consumption from my life I had a new problem. Time.
Three years in, I can now say I have developed new hobbies and routines that allow me to live a simpler, happier and more fulfilling life. The guilt about how I spend my leisure time is long gone. This is what an ordinary evening after work looks like now.
Total screen time, about an hour compared to four to five hours in the past.
I am self-aware enough to realise this post might sound a bit smug but I think one of the reasons people often return to their old digital habits is boredom, or at least a lack of ideas for what to do to fill the time.
Other things I might do in the evening include playing Scrabble with my husband, choosing photos to print for a photo album, making models, outlning new chapters for my novel, going back through old notes to find interesting ideas, working on my Russian, organising things like bookshelves or ephemera, planning the week ahead, watching documentaries or films and finding book recommendations.
I'm working on the opening chapters of my novel at the moment. They establish the three POV characters by showing their reactions to an enormous fire that engulfs the city. In this chapter, the novice friar has been cleaning the gutters on the friary roof when he spots a pall of smoke in the distance. The previous chapter establishes that this is a fire which has been set in the Printer's District where our bookseller's POV takes place.
I've tried to integrate a religious lore dump into the action. I can't tell if it works or if it is very clunky and needs to be rewritten. I'd be grateful for some feedback on this short extract.
Also, would a rat still run about if it was on fire?
Reddit is the only social media I use now. I am convinced it is less enshittified than Facebook, Instagram, X etc.
I feel like it retains much more of the community authenticity of forums.
I can avoid the algorithmic feed through only looking at new posts in my communities and using custom feeds.
I have latitude to tweak my notifications so they only appear for replies to my posts.
Avoiding elements I dislike (ads, games, short form video) is easily done with plugins or in-built options.
I see content posted by real people related to my real-life interests rather than an endless scroll of slop and whatever the algorithm pushes.
There's no endless scroll if you only look at the chronological view.
Communities like this one help me to use technology more intentionally and improve my life in tangible ways.
Any thoughts? Or other tips on improving the Reddit experience?
A few years ago I began to make an album for every trip I went on and it's such a great experience. It means you need to filter through the endless photo stream and pick 20-40 photos that really encapsulate a trip.
I also love picking one off the shelf and just flicking back through to remember a great trip. That's something I wouldn't do with my photo stream.
I've uploaded shots of inside the albums here for inspiration: https://postimg.cc/gallery/Ckxptxf
The shower is quite something too.
I'm sorry if you're the postgraduate student who ends up renting this out.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/164340314#/?channel=RES_BUY
It's okay that it's an expensive habit. I'm happy to spend money on things I like and that enrich my life and enable good habits.