Announcements

• I recently announced the dates and times for Quarter 3 co-working. Join us for camaraderie and time to chip away at those tasks you’ve been avoiding.

• Let’s set you up strong for summer and fall with Success & Accountability Coaching. Learn more and book in a chat with me here.

How many newsletters, podcasts, and online communities are you subscribed to? How many do you actually engage with?

My answers: a lot and not as many as I’d like! And honestly, I have mixed feelings about this.

I don’t mind paying $5-10/month to support creative thinkers, but when I added up my subscriptions, it became clear that I was paying quite a lot of money for offerings I don’t engage with as frequently as I’d like to. Outside of the financial aspect, I also felt disappointed in myself: I like all of these things, so why am I not making time for them?

When I reflected on my content consumption…

I found it was easiest for me to engage with:

• Short, reliably good newsletters

• Slack groups that only require brief responses

• YouTube video essays I could watch at the gym

• Podcasts I could listen to when I’m cooking or doing my nails

The content that felt most challenging to engage with was:

• Busy online communities with members constantly sharing updates

• Long newsletters that took more than 5 minutes to read

• Webpages that are best accessed via my computer instead of my phone

In short, content that’s easy to access (and takes less time to consume) is what I engage with the most. I wasn’t shocked by this, but it makes me wonder what newsletters and podcasts I’m missing out on simply because they require more time, space, and energy than I am willing to offer regularly.

Many creative folks share work that needs more brain-power and emotional attention than I can muster in a 10-minute break between meetings, so these pieces need to be engaged outside of working hours. The issue is that I cannot close my laptop fast enough at the end of a workday; the last thing I want to do is find another reason to stare at my screen!

When my spouse, Kris, is traveling for work and I have more pockets of alone time during the day, I tend to watch TV or scroll on my phone (whoops). That tells me that having more time isn’t the key to suddenly savoring the content I’ve been missing out on, and it got me curious about what’s truly behind this phenomenon. So, I’m trying something new in July.

My July Experiment: Personal Algorithm

I first heard the phrase personal algorithm on Mia’s Digital Diary on YouTube, where she talks us through her experiment of “being my own algorithm.” In her experiment, she made a list of videos she wanted to watch, with the hopes that she would limit bottomless scrolling.

I was curious about building my own personal algorithm and wondered if it could help me to engage with the longer-form content I’d been avoiding. There are many ways I could spend my time, energy, and exposure to screens, so I don’t want to create arbitrary assignments for myself that require extensive decision-making (because if I’m tired, I’ll resort to scrolling or TV anyway).

I’m already putting in daily effort to complete my must-do habits to care for myself (meditation, exercise, sleep, connecting with friends, drinking water, etc.). Adding a personal algorithm experiment would likely add several new tasks to my list. That’s why, if I’m going to create a personal algorithm, I want it to feel easy, intrinsically rewarding, and stimulating.

So what are my hopes for my July personal algorithm?

• Less time mindlessly scrolling on Instagram or watching TV

• Learn and try out personal development skills

• Develop creative and critical thinking practices

• Engage with high quality writing/music/art that inspires me

Here are some of the topics that I decided to add to my July personal algorithm:

• Read one essay from Abi Awomosu’s “How to Not Use AI”

• Listen to one Tara Brach talk

• Attend trainings and workshops for the online communities I belong to (if they fit my interests and schedule)

• Spend time reading Chloe Almeda’s “a home for creating”

• Do my weekly Stoicism work in my online study group

• Read fun novels (I started the Percy Jackson and the Olympians YA series!)

• Pull tarot cards and read about them

On July 29, I’ll share a bonus post about my experience with my personal algorithm that will have a preview for free subscribers and a deep dive for premium subscribers. Stay tuned!

Curiosities

• Kris and I started watching the X-Files! Well, Kris is rewatching the show because they are 6 years older than me and they were a teenager when it came out and I was way too scared of it as a kid! I must say that I am enjoying it very much and it is not nearly as spooky as I feared it would be.

• I enjoyed the recent The Gray Area podcast interview, “Cancelling Plato,” with Professor Martin Peterson. You might remember seeing this in the news, where Dr. Peterson was told he could no longer teach Plato under the Texas morality laws, because the section of Plato he was teaching was discussing homosexuality. I recommend giving it a listen if you’re interested in the state of academia and censorship under the current conservative administration.

• My previous assistant Sabrina Joan has a cool new offer to support service-based business owners, Human-Centered Client Systems. I highly recommend Sabrina’s approach and if I were looking for help with online business management, client systems, or lead generation, I’d certainly hire her!

• I have been on an Angine de Poitrine kick! They describe their experimental music project as “a vortex where dada rock, pythago-cubist mantras resonate.” If you have time, check out their live performance on KEXP here. I’m debating if I want to shell out the cash to see them live later this year–it’s general admission and I’m not crazy about standing for a whole show, but I feel like it would be an awesome experience!

Also, if you’re interested in creating a personal algorithm, I’d love to know what that would look like for you. Feel free to reply and share.

Take care and talk soon,

Dr. Kate

Email: kate@katehenry.com

Website: katehenry.com

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