Welcome to this week’s newsletter which is the first being prepared on a Mac Mini. More on that in the photos section.
Photo of the Week
These photos summarize this week so very well. My camera roll is full and virtually none of the photos are worth sharing (although I do have one more to share with you in the tips this week!). Why is that? A lot of them are of things I’m getting rid of or selling.
Gayle took some vacation this week so we spent our week between Muncie and Indianapolis. It was a week where we were both in spring cleaning mode. We both joked in our Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) way that this week has been a part of a year of “clean slate protocols” - one of which for me is a massive move from Windows and Android to Apple and iOS. (Clean Slate Protocol is a reference to a scene in Iron Man 3 - one of the films on my list of worst MCU films ever which also got Ant Man: Quantumania added to it this week).
Kona enjoyed all the time us, but he is unimpressed that we didn’t do far, far more to honor the fact that this week we celebrated our two year anniversary of him joining the household. He marked the day with a cheese stick and some other treats.
I’m Giving Up Notifications for Lent
If you are reading this on Monday when it comes out, then welcome to Lent - the part of the Christian Church’s annual calendar that references the 40 day period leading up to the Easter celebration. I was raised in the church and still celebrate my faith in my own ways and one of those is to try to observe both Lent and Advent (the season leading up to Christmas).
Traditionally in Lent you give something up. I’ve given up things like soda, chocolate, etc. in the past but this year I’m giving up notifications - all of the notifications - my phone, watch, and computer.
The stream of notifications that we get every day - if we don’t take control of them - are addictive. Notifications are a way that the limbic system of our brain keeps a steady stream of addicting brain chemicals feeding a constant desire to check email, Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Slack, Teams, etc., etc., etc. Maybe you don’t have this constant desire but I do. And, it makes me less calm and happy than I’d like to be. Being less calm and happy makes me less centered and focused. This is one of the reasons why I think this is a perfect thing to give up for Lent. I’ll spend less time checking my devices and more time focusing on the people and things that are important to me.
While you might be reading this saying, Kara - you’re self employed - you can do that - I can’t - I want you to push back on your own thinking just for a minute? Do you really have to respond to everything the second it’s sent? Do you really need to look at every email, Teams, or Slack message every minute? My guess is you don’t. There are a few high priority people like your partner, kids, or parents who it will really matter to you in 10 years if you missed their call but will all the others matter in 10 years? If not, then slot in time on your calendar to respond to messages each day and only let the notifications through from the people that matter. (P.S. most people who have the label of “your boss” don’t qualify in that group).
If you want to join me, I’ve got videos below in Tips and Tricks showing how to turn off/customize notifications on both Android and iOS. And be aware that your phone/apps will be RELENTLESS about reminding you that you’ve turned off notifications so just keep telling it no when apps ask you if you want to enable notifications after you turn them off.
Where’s Kara?
A quick summary of where I’m going to be hanging out online and IRL over the next few weeks. Join me, and if I’m visiting near you, hit reply and let’s meet up!
In Real Life (IRL)
June or July - I am (still) waiting on all the signatures but I may get to North Carolina later in the summer
July/August - A Northern European Cruise!
Around the Virtual World
The Facts of Life LIVE Cohort - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book” that launched on January 1! I know some of you were waiting for the first ever live cohort - and that is now available. From April 7 - June 23 I’ll be running a live cohort including virtual sessions every Friday afternoon during that time period. What is the Facts of Life Book? Do you need to organize your most important stuff for life’s most important moments? If so, then the Facts of Life Book course is just for you. With loads of templates, tools, and guides I’ll help you get your most important information organized. Join now and you’ll get access to all future updates as well as any additional future live cohorts I run. Use coupon code FRIEND to get 50% off of the cost of the course.
Quarterly Retreat - It’s still a great time to prepare for an awesome 2023 by signing up for the Quarterly Retreat All Access Pass or the Quarterly Retreat Workshop. Visit https://karamonroe.podia.com and download the workbook for free and check out all of the offerings.
Creative Work Hour - Every single day of the week, at 10 a.m. eastern, a group gathers online in Zoom to do a quick check in, a brief meditation, work for about 50 minutes on whatever they want to do, and then check out with one another for 5 minutes. Creative Work Hour is one of my favorite places to hang out online and I’ve been there every single day that I could be there since about March of 2022. Come as often or as little as you need to get projects done. To register for the sessions (they are free but you have to sign up to get the zoom link) and to learn more, visit https://lu.ma/CreativeWork.
AP Productivity - I’m once again joining my friend R.J. Nestor as a mentor in his exceptional course AP Productivity. Another new cohort starts soon.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
Convert slides and film to digital images with your cell phone
As I mentioned, Gayle and I were in a bit of a spring cleaning mode this week. She had a couple of boxes of old slides that she wanted the images from. While my sister Susie has a converter that will do this work, I’ve always found it a little clunky to work with. Enter Photomyne (https://photomyne.com/) and the SlideScan app.
The app prompts you to open up a website that basically creates a clean white light behind the slides. You hold the slide (or strip of film) with one hand and snap the cell phone photo with the other. Wait a few seconds for the app to do a color adjustment and voila. These were two of my faves from the batch I did for Gayle.
Customizing/Turning Off Notifications on Android and iOS
As I noted above, I’m giving up notifications for Lent. I filmed two screencasts - one in Android and one in iOS (iPhone and iPad) about how to customize and turn off notifications. Even if you don’t want to turn off notifications like I am, there are a LOAD of ways you can customize notifications to make them work for you rather than working the way the phone and/or app developer wanted them to work.
iOS
Android
What I Published This Week
Use the 3-2-1 Tool for Anytime Student Engagement - Published on Medium and my Blog
My Digital “Garden”
As a part of the Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series that I wrote on Medium and YouTube, I began using Obsidian Publish. This add on tool for Obsidian allows you to easily publish your “in progress” notes to the web. If you want to see what I’m thinking about, this is a great place to see inside my head. It’s always available at https://publish.obsidian.md/iwannabeme
This Week’s Featured Book Note
Each week, I’m featuring one book note from a book I’m currently reading. Click the image to view this week’s note as a PDF file.
I finished reading an amazing book this week - The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey. I’m also finishing a great book - The Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap. Both are going to be top reads of 2023 for me. I’ve got mind maps of both done/in the works but I actually will be publishing them with full notes and reviews so I’ll save time for when I get that done.
Diversion
Two diversions this week.
Kona and I celebrated two years together this week. I’m not sure why, but that moment made me realize that I never shared our holiday video from 2022. While it may be a little later in the year, there is no bad time to share these types of things.
If you want to check out the Clean Slate Protocol Scene from Iron Man 3 you can do that on YouTube. You’ll have to click the link as the site doesn’t allow me to embed that one.
Ways You Can Support Me
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I offer courses and digital products focused on organization, planning, productivity, technology, and personal development. Check out all of the offerings currently available at
https://karamonroe.podia.com
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