Thank you so much for sharing this, Renee! I hadn't really thought, until reading this now, about muting more of the accounts I follow on IG - what a simple solution! I always hesitate to unfollow certain accounts (I might want to come back to them?), but I forget about the mute option. Additionally, I, too, have begun savagely unsubscribing to emails that I am tired of seeing - newsletters and others (that I don't even remember how I'm getting them) and it has been so wonderful!
I think I'm also leaning toward muting more on IG than unfollowing although I'm actually unfollowing a lot of publishers because for the most part their content is pretty boring. It's bringing me so much joy to unsubscribe from marketing emails!
I love the idea of being more intentional about creating your space on IG by removing or muting accounts that aren't serving you. The algorithm is frustrating at times but I too have loved the friendships and information and book talk I gather online. It's another circle of friends.
My word this year is delight. My divorce is about to be finalized and I worked hard in 2023 to process the ending of my relationship and to carve out what I wanted my life to look and be like. Some mindfulness practitioners call it “making a clearing” and now I want 2024 to be about delight, relishing and leaning into things that bring me joy and surprise, big and small things. For reading, this means spending some time considering and maybe researching the kinds of books I like: a little weird, a little magical realism, a little literary but also making some space for what might surprise me and reading outside my comfort zone, too but in a thoughtful way (outside of hype) like you said. Okay, sorry for writing a book.
Thank you for sharing - this is what I want my little corner of a Substack community to be- people sharing honestly and feeling comfortable enough to share lives because I truly believe just by sharing we connect, so all that to say you didn't write a book:) - and I learned something new from what you shared- "making a clearing" - I haven't heard of this concept but I love it and want to explore more about it. We can all benefit from making a clearing of something right? It's going to be different for everyone but I love thinking about what that means for me, both in life and reading as you said. I hope your year is filled with an abundance of delight and you might suspect I'm going to mention reading or listening to Ross Gay's books along the way:)
Thanks so much for sharing, Renee. I too have made a commitment to myself to cut out the noise and the things that don’t serve me. I’m trying to slow down and be more present in what I’m doing, instead of always having something in my ears too. I will be focusing on limiting social media so that I have more time for what I love to do...reading :)
It's hard to pull back when it comes to things we enjoy right? I'm referring to our love of listening to things like audiobooks and podcasts- I really love both but I'm starting to feel like it's too much noise and too long of time for my ears. And yay for more reading and less social media
Couldn’t love this more, Renee. And your “proverbial book weight room” - spot. on. I don’t do that as much with bookstagram but my “problem” (?) is with book clubs - I have committed to way too many and they are running my reading life!! I want to be better about intentionally choosing which to engage with this month and which to skip. I do appreciate that you and Tina are stopping yours 😅 the fomo is real.
Thank you Natalie! It is so easy to get caught up in book clubs! Sounds like you have a plan to pick and choose which you might like to follow each month so that's a great start- and I'm glad we took one more off your list:) I think a lot of people are feeling book club burnout
So much of this resonated with me today! I have really worked to curate my IG feed, and now it brings me so much joy! I really think the key is getting rid of junk and ugliness. My feed either makes me laugh, teaches me something, or brings lovely things and people into my day and my thoughts. Also, my husband and I have really been talking about simplifying, releasing, and focusing on quality over quantity. This is just another nudge that we're heading in the right directing. And finally, I am really interested in reading Slow Productivity when it comes up. That's something else I need to work on and I'd never heard of Newport or his work. Thanks Renee!
I'm so glad this resonated, I had a lot to say haha. You are ahead of the game already curating your feed on IG, good for you! It's going to take me some time but It'll be worth it. I've just downloaded Cal Newport's books Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, I've never read him but I've heard they're good. Another one I want to read is Essentialism
These are great goals! Unroll.me is a good place to start to at least collect all of the emails you want to go in and permanently unsubscribe from! I’ve been working on this for a few months as new emails come in. They seem to pop up more over the holidays.
Great intentions that flexible! A sure key to successis tohave flexibility built into your plan. I seem to be on the same page as you so to speak. I am working toward being a minimalist as the less you own, the easier it is to clean. Actually, i am on board it is convincing my husband that is my project. As for reading, you mentioned an article in passing that i devoted some serious thought. It was on reading for pleasure. I am only going to read books that appeal to me and not get caught up in books that are all the rage unless they appeal to me of course. I concluded that if learning the meaning behind 400 varieties of flowers brings you pleasure then so be it. Or if reading some silly brain candy book makes me happy then i will go for it. I am not going to feel guilty for not reading all Pulitzer prize winning books. I could go on and on about this subject. I am also on the band wagon of unsubscribing from emails and podcasts and started last month. My word for my intentions is de-cluttering my home and brain. det
I'm absolutely with you on reading for enjoyment- I think sometimes we can be made to feel that we are less "well-read" if we read for fun or to be entertained etc. and that is just not true. I believe there is no place for guilt in our reading lives! I love your word- yes to decluttering all the things:)
I was very interested in all you said in this post. I am close to exiting Threads but then I have a series of really good conversations and I stick around longer! I ,too, love Substack!!
I have more to say and will get back to this later.
Looking forward to hear more of your thoughts. Maybe Threads is working for you for now which is great, I love the great conversations I have on Instagram too
Thank you so much for sharing this, Renee! I hadn't really thought, until reading this now, about muting more of the accounts I follow on IG - what a simple solution! I always hesitate to unfollow certain accounts (I might want to come back to them?), but I forget about the mute option. Additionally, I, too, have begun savagely unsubscribing to emails that I am tired of seeing - newsletters and others (that I don't even remember how I'm getting them) and it has been so wonderful!
I think I'm also leaning toward muting more on IG than unfollowing although I'm actually unfollowing a lot of publishers because for the most part their content is pretty boring. It's bringing me so much joy to unsubscribe from marketing emails!
I love the idea of being more intentional about creating your space on IG by removing or muting accounts that aren't serving you. The algorithm is frustrating at times but I too have loved the friendships and information and book talk I gather online. It's another circle of friends.
Exactly! IG can be a great place to hang out and make true friends and connect, it just takes time to curate what we most want to see there
My word this year is delight. My divorce is about to be finalized and I worked hard in 2023 to process the ending of my relationship and to carve out what I wanted my life to look and be like. Some mindfulness practitioners call it “making a clearing” and now I want 2024 to be about delight, relishing and leaning into things that bring me joy and surprise, big and small things. For reading, this means spending some time considering and maybe researching the kinds of books I like: a little weird, a little magical realism, a little literary but also making some space for what might surprise me and reading outside my comfort zone, too but in a thoughtful way (outside of hype) like you said. Okay, sorry for writing a book.
Thank you for sharing - this is what I want my little corner of a Substack community to be- people sharing honestly and feeling comfortable enough to share lives because I truly believe just by sharing we connect, so all that to say you didn't write a book:) - and I learned something new from what you shared- "making a clearing" - I haven't heard of this concept but I love it and want to explore more about it. We can all benefit from making a clearing of something right? It's going to be different for everyone but I love thinking about what that means for me, both in life and reading as you said. I hope your year is filled with an abundance of delight and you might suspect I'm going to mention reading or listening to Ross Gay's books along the way:)
I have read the first one but am considering a re read and then picking up his second book. ❤️
Thanks so much for sharing, Renee. I too have made a commitment to myself to cut out the noise and the things that don’t serve me. I’m trying to slow down and be more present in what I’m doing, instead of always having something in my ears too. I will be focusing on limiting social media so that I have more time for what I love to do...reading :)
It's hard to pull back when it comes to things we enjoy right? I'm referring to our love of listening to things like audiobooks and podcasts- I really love both but I'm starting to feel like it's too much noise and too long of time for my ears. And yay for more reading and less social media
Couldn’t love this more, Renee. And your “proverbial book weight room” - spot. on. I don’t do that as much with bookstagram but my “problem” (?) is with book clubs - I have committed to way too many and they are running my reading life!! I want to be better about intentionally choosing which to engage with this month and which to skip. I do appreciate that you and Tina are stopping yours 😅 the fomo is real.
Thank you Natalie! It is so easy to get caught up in book clubs! Sounds like you have a plan to pick and choose which you might like to follow each month so that's a great start- and I'm glad we took one more off your list:) I think a lot of people are feeling book club burnout
So much of this resonated with me today! I have really worked to curate my IG feed, and now it brings me so much joy! I really think the key is getting rid of junk and ugliness. My feed either makes me laugh, teaches me something, or brings lovely things and people into my day and my thoughts. Also, my husband and I have really been talking about simplifying, releasing, and focusing on quality over quantity. This is just another nudge that we're heading in the right directing. And finally, I am really interested in reading Slow Productivity when it comes up. That's something else I need to work on and I'd never heard of Newport or his work. Thanks Renee!
I'm so glad this resonated, I had a lot to say haha. You are ahead of the game already curating your feed on IG, good for you! It's going to take me some time but It'll be worth it. I've just downloaded Cal Newport's books Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, I've never read him but I've heard they're good. Another one I want to read is Essentialism
These are great goals! Unroll.me is a good place to start to at least collect all of the emails you want to go in and permanently unsubscribe from! I’ve been working on this for a few months as new emails come in. They seem to pop up more over the holidays.
Great intentions that flexible! A sure key to successis tohave flexibility built into your plan. I seem to be on the same page as you so to speak. I am working toward being a minimalist as the less you own, the easier it is to clean. Actually, i am on board it is convincing my husband that is my project. As for reading, you mentioned an article in passing that i devoted some serious thought. It was on reading for pleasure. I am only going to read books that appeal to me and not get caught up in books that are all the rage unless they appeal to me of course. I concluded that if learning the meaning behind 400 varieties of flowers brings you pleasure then so be it. Or if reading some silly brain candy book makes me happy then i will go for it. I am not going to feel guilty for not reading all Pulitzer prize winning books. I could go on and on about this subject. I am also on the band wagon of unsubscribing from emails and podcasts and started last month. My word for my intentions is de-cluttering my home and brain. det
I'm absolutely with you on reading for enjoyment- I think sometimes we can be made to feel that we are less "well-read" if we read for fun or to be entertained etc. and that is just not true. I believe there is no place for guilt in our reading lives! I love your word- yes to decluttering all the things:)
I was very interested in all you said in this post. I am close to exiting Threads but then I have a series of really good conversations and I stick around longer! I ,too, love Substack!!
I have more to say and will get back to this later.
Looking forward to hear more of your thoughts. Maybe Threads is working for you for now which is great, I love the great conversations I have on Instagram too