G'day !

How are you doing? The Olympics are over and Melbourne is in another snap lockdown. Sigh. How are things where you are? Email me and let me know.

As always, a small favour? Could you forward this newsletter to just 3 people that you think would like one of the articles? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative update - Unexpected things I've missed during lockdowns(~3mins)
• Gadgets & Tech - Bellroy Key Holder (~$65)
• Read - The Daily Aus
• Watch - How to work WITHOUT burnout (~2min)
• Quote - "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you"

Week in the life

Firstly, I didn't hear back from the winner, so I hit the redraw button and the new winner is hugh*war**ylor@gmail.com so please send me an email to claim your prize!

It feels like whiplash at the moment: we we're just coming out of lockdown and here were are in the middle of another one already! After many cancelled plans, I had planned on taking the better part of the next 2 weeks off, but it looks like it'll be spent in lockdown again. I was thinking of cancelling it and waiting, but it's been over 2 years of not having anything apart from 3-4 days max in a row.

There's so many projects and tasks I want to finish up that I'm actually thinking it's not long enough to catch up on the back log! I still have the last 2 Ramadan videos to do and give an update on the most amount of meals we've managed to provide to date!

On the creative work front, I got the following email from Medium.

That's right, so far the 3 (now 4) random articles I've written on the site has earned me a princely 1 cent! Time to quit the day job! 😂😂

Even though it clearly isn't even going to pay for a coffee, I find it so satisfying when a creative work gets shared, sells or goes out into the world. So yes, I'm genuinely excited that my writing, not my photos or videos has gone out there and has some modicum of value out there in the world...

More about some upcoming projects and cat photos over on the blog...

Creative

Medium: Unexpected things I've missed during lockdowns (~3mins)

https://raffyhalim.medium.com/unexpected-things-ive-missed-during-the-lockdowns-680dc1d351cd

I'm liking this promise to produce I creative thing a week at least. As I mentioned above, that 1 cent is somehow so motivating that I wrote another quick piece over at Medium about the unusual things I've missed, especially now that we're in the sixth lockdown.

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's been over six months spent in these conditions, so it's given us Melbournians plenty of time to contemplate what we've missed!

Gadgets & Tech

Bellroy Key Holder (~$65)

https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=Bx/pOmwu3ME&offerid=582055.126&type=3&subid=0

This one's firmly in the "totally unnecessary but gives me joy" category. Jingling, messy keys has never been my thing and after contemplating Bellroy and OrbitKey (which is about half the cost), I settled on the former for the looks and have never looked back.

There's just something nice about having your keys set out in way that you never have to fumble searching for the right one.

Fun fact, both companies are based in Melbourne and are now going global! One way to support local companies!

PREVIOUS/OTHER PRODUCTS

Some previous things that have been featured:

• Microsoft Surface Pro - If you're not running Mac, these PCs and laptops are probably the best you can get.
• Belkin TrueFreedom Pro charging mat - Ever since switching to true wireless charging, I've been waiting for one that's thin, cheap and takes a small USB-C cord for power. Belkin finally has that product!

Read

The Daily Aus

https://www.thedailyaus.com.au/

Having watched the slow polarisation of the mainstream media, I was glad to see that this start up has taken it to heart to boil the facts down to the essentials and share primarily for social media. It's well designed, seems pretty neutral and as an added bonus, they always feature a good news story at the end!

Quite a refreshing change from hyperbole and opinion-laden content from other news sources.

This maybe less relevant for those reading from overseas, but there may be equivalent sources overseas. If you have a local one, let me know and I'll share next time.

Book I'm currently reading

• Keep Going - Going with the Austin Kleon trifecta at the moment and it's the last of the trilogy. It's been a nice kick to motivate the continued creation of creative work

Watch

How to work WITHOUT burnout (~2min)

https://youtu.be/j7pOmXLg9F4

Sometimes, I think the algorithm knows my lifestyle a bit too well. If you're sensing a "tired/burnout"-ish theme to this newsletter, you'd be correct.

It's something I've been contemplating a lot lately and this little clip showed that certain companies appreciate that we're human and need unexpected breaks and how they went about structuring their work. It's a small snippet of a larger conversation but gave me enough to ponder.

Quote I'm pondering

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you"

- Anne Lamott

Continuing with the theme of taking a break, this quote seemed quite appropriate. I do have a habit of saying yes to the last minute work requests if I have time off, so I'm using this as a reminder that break time should be protected time.

Are you taking any time off soon? Should you be?

Anyway, that's all for another week ! Happy Monday and I hope you have a great week ahead. Let me know what you thought via the link below.

Cheerio!

- Raffy

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