Hello again, dear reader.
In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.
Here are this week’s updates and things I’d love to share with you all.
More on Hello Pages…or why LinkedIn Sucks
When someone makes a new Hello page and asks me to share it, or just writes me a comment about why they get what I’m trying to achieve, I always have a look at the authors page. I noticed that a large number of them had the same feelings about the way that many social media platforms don’t actually help you to have good, human connections. So I added a new essay on my blog.
Tech Independance
Derek Sivers is compiling probably the easiest set of instructions on how to set up your own server, cloud, email and website. As he says:
By learning a few of these basic tools, you can run your own private server on any computer forever, for the rest of your life. Host your own website and email. Keep your own contacts and calendars synced with your phone. Back up and sync your photos, movies, and music to your own private storage. No more subscriptions needed.
I’m going to be using his guide to wean myself off the main cloud platforms as I really think that this is important.
How Email became Work
And finally, this article by Anne Helen Petersen caught my attention. Whilst email is my prefered method of personal correspondance I also am acutely aware that in my work life it is almost unmanageable. And amongst the many lightbulb moments, this quote hit me hard
not working, whether in the form of not responding to emails, or even just taking a day off, becomes a way of “letting down the team” and slowing everyone else down. You become the blockage and the problem — instead of your employer, who should organizing the workload in ways that make it possible for a person to stop working for a day.
That’s it for now. Be kind!
Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.