In an extreme departure from the usual long, flowery stories and love notes, a series of thoughts and habits I’ve been playing with and working on. None of which are new, exciting or revolutionary at all.
only answering IG DMs once per day makes you feel a little bit rude, but it frees up a scary amount of time to do other things. when you realise how much time you’ve been wasting, the sheer terror of it will help you stick to the habit even when your fingers want to go to your inbox all on their own.
a great way to play with procrastination is to set a little rule that procrastination is fine, but only if done offline.
this doesn’t mean I don’t watch youtube or devour my favourite instagram stories (is it just me or are stories the best feature by far?) I now do it in a cute way by setting aside time. usually with a cup of tea or coffee and a snack. this is a new habit i’ve been playing with, so please don’t @ me if you see me on your story one millisecond after posting. so far I’m finding this IG story ritual takes it from stress scrolling absentmindedly, to feeling like I’m enjoying a sweet online collaborative magazine, made by my favourite people.
but for real — it’s kind of a trip to disconnect from IG when so much of your business is tied up in it. there’s always another excuse to tune back in.
I’m finally seeing some actual progress in that disconnect. in all honesty: it does seem like its slowed my growth on the platform itself, but what has come out of the empty space is so. much. better. this substack for one.
I know there are literal books written on this but: have you ever tried answering all of your emails in one go, and then just exiting the mailbox for at least a few hours or the rest of the day? at first, every time I closed the mail application, I’d be like, shit I just have to send that one… to combat this, I would write it down and come back to it later. of course, creating that habit takes more effort than just sending the email, but overtime it infuses your day with gold.
walking outside will change your life. okay I’ve known this one for some time now, and I’m near evangelical about it, but truly. get out there.
you cannot learn much of a language in 20-30 minutes per day. the progress is extremely slow and sometimes you will wonder what the point actually is. for this reason, as well as all the other ones, it is really excellent mind training.
I don’t do it often, but sometimes, if I feel like it, I’m way more productive when I work from bed. I know we should never work where we sleep, but sometimes breaking rules, and working beneath the covers feels way too good.
I love learning. I love spirituality. I love self help. But sometimes, I get my best ideas and inspiration from reading fiction or listening to stupid podcasts. if not ideas, I get joy and smiles and laughter and lost in beautiful worlds and if that isn’t the whole damn point of being here then I don’t know what is.
With love, from bed, with hojicha —
Emmie xo
Beautiful! A lot of these really resonate with me right now. 🙏🏾🤎
Love this so much! thank you for sharing xx