Howdy, !

It feels a bit odd to be writing after a break given it's been nearly 2 years without interruption to this weekly newsletter. Did you notice the absence? Did you have any ideas on how to make it better this year? I'd love to know!

Before I go on, a shameless request! 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 - Setting SMART-ER Goals, randInt EP 022 & Melbourne 2022 Wall Calendar
• Gadgets & Tech - Nuraphones
• Read - Getting things done
• Watch - A game in a QR code?(~20min)
• Quote - "If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”

Week in the life

It's been a tumultuous 2 weeks for me with the new year. I was meant to have gone away on a proper break off to some remote island that's still considered Australia, but Omicron had other ideas. Outbreaks in my initial destination, backup destination and lack of accommodation in the 3rd one meant I lived like a hermit and avoided my regular routine to have a faux-holiday.

Against my usual approach, I attended a party for New Years. Since it was hosted by people from work and we were getting routinely tested, I thought it was a safe enough bet to attend. There was a theme which was " touch of sparkle" which I only remembered just before leaving. Since I mainly dress in monotones, I decided that wrapping a hat in tinfoil would do the trick!

The pearls and the head band were courtesy of the host who thought I could add even more sparkle to the party. How did you end up beginning the new year? Email me to let me know!

Victoria had some wild weather in that time. In between all that, I managed to fit in some bike rides, hikes to the You Yang ranges and even a heli flight this morning! Overall though, I went out of my way for the first week to do NOTHING productive and watch Netflix and eat.

Of course I tracked a lot of the biometric data. Turns out, that kind of "doing nothing" doesn't really help me relax. The next week where I started being more active, especially the hike seems to have done the most good in terms of being restorative. So looks like long ambling walks are my thing!

In order to keep this section from overwhelming the newsletter, more on cats, photos and more over on the new blog...

Creative update

Medium

After the unexpected popularity of my Medium articles last year, I decided I would write 12 this year (ie. one a month). Since I had some time, I've written a couple already.

Setting SMART-ER Goals - This article expands upon the tried and tested SMART goal strategy to turn your best goals into habits. Because ultimately, when it comes to new years resolutions, most are things we want to sustain for a while.

Not a Programmer but want to get started in 2022? - After re-discovering programming last year, I went through some free resources, websites and some courses and have summarised the best way to get started. It's been one of those unexpected sources of joy learning something new. Here's the shortcuts in getting started from absolute beginner onwards.

Podcast

randInt EP 022 - End of the season

randInt Season 2 will be back next week. In the mean time, I'm not sure I even shared the last episode properly on here!

We have a lot of new segments planned for 2022 but til the podcast returns, catch up on the older episodes and see how we left 2021!

Also, since both Spotify and Apple now allow for reviews, could you kindly leave us one?

Photography

Melbourne 2022 Wall Calendar (+ free Aus shipping) (~$18)

I did a little Instagram poll and it seems that most people still want to get a calendar til end of January. There's about 10 calendars left now at essentially cost price including Australian shipping (I only a print a small batch so they aren't super cheap to produce!)

I'll keep them on the store for another week or so. If you're still after one, less than 2 weeks left!)

Gadgets & Tech

Nuraphones

I'm not kidding when I say I own a LOT of headphones. Between the Sony, Surface and other earbuds, I have to say I have more audio devices than shoes or jeans!

So why did I buy these recently? Simply put, I just wanted to feel like I was listening to music turned up loud without having to crank the speakers on max. These are the only headphones where the audio quality is amazingly customised and there's essentially a physical rumble produced by the headphones that makes it so immersive. They're expensive, but so damn good! (I'm listening to music on them right now as I type this!)

• Tirtyl hand soap tablets - Start 2022 with eco-friendly cred is Tirtyl. Take a bottle, add the tablet and water and voila, instant hand soap!
• ZeroCo ecofriendly cleaning- I'm really going for the eco-friendly start to the year! I'm just about due to re-order some refills from ZeroCo and avoid the single use plastic bottles/packaging.

Read

Getting things done

This might seem like an odd choice to begin the year since it's essentially about creating an effective to-do system, but I found after the last couple of years that my number of side projects that are public facing has grown considerably!

If you take this newsletter, podcast, Instagram, Medium, Youtube and writing on the blog, then it's a whole bunch of concurrent projects on the go. I've read a LOT of productivity books and the system described here is the best. I'm going through again and setting up my new list on Amazing Marvin.

On a separate note, because I don't have enough projects already, I was thinking of summarising the books I read into key points. Does that sound like something you'd want to read? Let me know!

Watch

A game in a QR code?(~20min)

This one is SUUUUPPPPERR nerdy to start the year, but If you watch the first 3mins and then the last 2 mins, you'll get the gist of it (the middle part is coding nerdiness).

As someone who's dabbling in programming, I was very surprised to learn just how TINY the games we grew up with were considering just how many lines of code had to go into my own version of the Snake Game.

Quote I'm pondering

"If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”

– Seneca

Thought I'd start the new year with a classic quote from the ancient Stoic, Seneca. I've always been a fam of new year's resolutions but after 2 years of having repeat ones show up, I was losing the enthusiasm.

This quote made me re-think the premise. While it's been de-motivating not being able to hit some of them because of external things in the world, not having them would be worse. Resolutions are the destination on a map. Without one, you have no idea if you're getting closer or further and you can't even use tools (like GPS) to help. It's an analogy but you get the picture.

So I'm updating my ones. I tend to do a yearly mindmap to start. What about you?

That's all I have for the beginning of 2022,! Next week, we'll have the next lot of free phone wallpapers to kick off 2022. As always, I simply LOVE hearing from you and your opinions. Feedback is always welcome!

Stay safe!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of the email this week? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (& keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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