How I’m Working Brighter Right Now #3

The gist: things that have been helping me work, rest, and play brighter lately.

Today, I thought I’d share a bit of a peek behind-the-scenes at things that have been helping me work, rest, and play brighter lately.

A “hat tip” goes to Kendra Adachi of The Lazy Genius podcast, who has an ongoing series called “What’s Saving My Life Right Now,” where she shares some of her current favorite things and what’s currently working for “lazy geniusing” her life.

I always love them, and when I was thinking about ways to share more of my own productivity and self-care experiments, they immediately came to mind. So I started brainstorming ideas for something I could do with a similar format and theme, and here we are!

Every quarter, I’m going to share a few things (tactics, activities, routines, tools, products, etc.) that are helping me work more productively, rest more intentionally, play more playfully, and keep everything as balanced as possible in the process.

Things helping me work brighter

Updating my bullet journal more throughout the day

I’m trying to find different things to do during my “short breaks” during the workday, to make sure said breaks are actually short. Way too often lately, I’ve gone to check social media for a quick 5-minute break, seen a horrible and/or terrifying headline, and gotten pulled into doomscrolling for at least 30 minutes. 😬

One of those different things has been writing short updates in my bullet journal throughout the day, actually using the rapid logging feature of the system, which I usually don’t. And so far, it’s going well.

Since I already have digital systems for things like capturing future tasks and events I think of, my rapid logging is mostly focused on reflecting on my focus and productivity. Sort of like interstitial journaling.

It’s been helpful since not only is it a quick, low energy activity that can easily replace mindless scrolling on social media, the activity itself has a bunch of other benefits.

Reflecting on specific work sessions instead of thinking about my work day as a whole when I’m journaling another time makes it easier to capture and notice more micro-level patterns (like that my 5-minute social media breaks are never actually that).

I also frequently find myself planning/thinking out what I’m going to do during my next work block, which means I end up breaking down tasks into smaller actions more often, which is helping how often I procrastinate because of a task feeling too big or unclear.

I definitely want to try to keep doing this, even more frequently if I can, and develop more of a routine around it.

Thinking of my phone as a remote control/workflow launcher

Another thing I’ve been doing to try and limit my mindless scrolling/content consumption lately is trying to think of it purely as a tool or utility, like a microwave, instead of a consumption device like a TV or stereo. Or even just like a TV remote control instead of the TV itself.

For awhile now, this has been the mindset around my home screen design: there are literally no apps on my home screen, but there are widgets and icons. It’s just that instead of launching a general app to whatever page opens by default, they launch specific Shortcuts tied to specific, focused actions.

Like instead of an icon launching Notion in general, I have icons for specific pages I most frequently reference from my phone, like my to-do list and daily journal, so I don’t get distracted by everything else in my workspace.

But now I’m trying to extend this mindset to the rest of my phone use, too.

For example, instead of using it to listen to YouTube when I’m doing chores or easy admin, using it to launch an automation that brings up YouTube on a device I do want to consume media on, like my iPad or TV.

Turning on the “clock-tick” function in Session during Pomodoros

Finally, I’ve written in past issues of this series about how I’ve been trying to rebuild my “focus muscle” and executive functioning by working in Pomodoros more often and incorporating small breaks instead of just starting work and continuing to work until my brain is fried for the day.

I’m still using Session (it’s included in my Setapp subscription so I don’t need to pay extra for it), and now that I’m using it more and getting used to how it works, I’m starting to play with more customization.

One feature I discovered is different sounds available for when you’re in a focus session, when you’re running “overtime,” when you’re on a break, etc. And while they have things like your usual focus sounds available, what I’ve found most helpful is just having the ticking of a clock repeatedly during focus sessions.

This way, if I’m listening to my own music (or even watching YouTube or Netflix for the “pair something boring with something fun” ADHD tactic lol), there’s still that background ticking reminding me I’m supposed to be focusing.

And while I obviously still get distracted from what I said I was doing during the focus session, I’ve stopped getting so distracted I forget I’m supposed to be focusing at all. The ticking is too noticeable to let me forget. So I end up getting back on track and back to work sooner than I usually do.

Things helping me rest brighter

Finally trying insomnia medication

If you’ve been following Work Brighter for awhile, you’ll know that I’ve struggled with insomnia to some extent or another my whole adult life.

Even as a kid…I used my Bat Mitzvah gift money to buy a TV (with a built-in DVD player, because 2003 🙃) for my room so that on nights I was randomly up in the middle of the night, I could actually entertain myself without waking up the rest of my family by watching the TV in the open-plan living room.

Anyway, it was at its worst at the beginning of the pandemic for obvious reasons, and since 2021, I’ve been trying to get my sleep hygiene back to a point where I slept the full night most nights, and didn’t need a nap every single day (as much as I love them).

I’ve made tons of progress in those few years, but at this point, it felt like I’d done everything I could do around lifestyle adjustments for sleep hygiene, and still couldn’t make it through most days without falling asleep at some point.

So I finally decided to accept the insomnia med prescription my doctor has been offering me. I’m not at all anti-meds, but something about sleep meds specifically, and the side effects for most of them, made me nervous. I guess I wanted to make sure lifestyle changes wouldn’t be enough on their own.

Well I did, and they’re not. And after trying one medication that left me too groggy throughout the day, the second I tried works like magic with zero noticeable side effects…and I feel like this is the most rested and energized I’ve been in my life.

Plus, it’s nice to be able to look at naps as a special, fun treat on lazy days instead of a daily necessity lol.

Digital shabbats

Another thing helping me with deep rest lately is trying to do a Digital Shabbat once or twice a month. From the time I finish therapy on Friday afternoon until after my workout on Saturday, I try to stay off my laptop, all social media, and all news.

I still do things like listening to audiobooks and music from my phone, or watching TV or movies, but I’m away from the most distracting forms of media and infinity pool apps.

And on these weekends I find myself catching up on books I want to read, DIY projects around the apartment, and the unfinished projects in my “arts & crafts bin” instead of doomscrolling and fighting the urge to argue with people on social media.

Trying to eat lunch regularly

I’ve also mentioned in past updates of this series that I’m trying to eat lunch more regularly, and before my stomach is growling loud enough to hear over whatever’s playing in my headphones. 🙈

The lunch alarm I mentioned previously wasn’t a recurring one, and eventually I forgot about it lol. But writing this reminds me I want to try it again and just make it a recurring alarm at the same time every day, instead of trying to customize it to what time I woke up and ate breakfast each day.

Or maybe build a Shortcut that automatically sets the alarms time each day to 3 hours after I wake up and eat breakfast or something. That sounds fun to figure out. 🤓

Things helping me play brighter

Craft nights

Like I mentioned in the Rest Brighter section, trying to spend less time on my laptop and mindless scrolling has meant I’m finally doing crafts regularly. Which is great, because I’ve always bought craft supplies and projects, so I’ve got quite a pile to work through. 🙃

Lately, I’ve been loving gem painting since it’s pretty mindless, so I can just sit and listen to an audiobook or podcast and do the little gem paint-by-numbers. I also love the final result, because it’s sparkly ✨, although I have a huge stash of finished projects to actually hang up lol.

I’m all out of gem paintings right now though, so until I get more, I’ve been trying the latch hook and punch needling kits I had in my craft bin. The latch hook is fun and easy and reminds me of doing them as a kid, but I haven’t gotten the hang of punch needling enough to start the real project instead of practice pieces yet.

Rereading my favorite mystery series

Three of my favorite modern cozy mystery series (The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, and Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn) all had new books come out recently, so I’ve been rereading and relistening to all the previous ones to remind myself of the continuing plotlines and stuff.

Since they’re all favorites, I own as many different forms of the book as possible lol, and being able to jump between the Kindle book on my phone while I’m waiting at the doctor, the physical copy when I’m reading before bed, and the audiobook while I’m on the treadmill or watering my houseplants, and just spending so much time with some of my favorite fictional people. 🙃

Topic-specific watch later playlists on YouTube

Something I’ve wanted to do for awhile was split up the ridiculously long queue I have in the default “Watch Later” playlist built into YouTube when you’re signed in. Instead of one big random mishmash of all the videos I’ve saved in a random order, I split it up into manually-curated playlists I created for different topics or categories I watch videos about.

Now, when I’m in the mood to watch video essays or tech tutorials or true crime podcasts, I can go directly to that playlist and find everything I’m in the mood for and nothing else, instead of having to scroll through an endless list of every video I’ve saved looking for something I’m in the mood for.

And if you liked this post, you'll also love:

• How I’m Working Brighter Right Now #1
• How I’m Working Brighter Right Now #2