Hej !

That's Swedish for "hello" and welcome to another week of interesting tidbits to make your weekend last a little bit longer. It's been another busy week over here in Melbourne, but one where a few things got fast tracked, but more on that below...

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative Update - 5 free apps that enable the best features of Mac on Windows & Firelight Festival 2022
• Gadget - Tirtyl Washing Detergent "Sheets"
• Read - I’m a Virologist, and I’m Setting the Record Straight on Variants and Reinfections
• Watch - Why Starbucks failed in Australia
• Quote - “the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

Week in the life

Firstly, what are your thoughts on the subtle change in the images used in the newsletter? Some people suggested having a banner style one so I'm trying it out. Let me know in a literal 2 second survey which you like! Please?!

It's been about 2 weeks straight of work and today was meant to be my day off. As always, I got dragged in to finish a few cases. It wasn't all bad as that only took about 3 hrs. The rest of the time, I managed to head out for brunch (proof below), get some work done around the house and even go for a run!

This week also had me get to my limit and implement some decently large changes to my schedule, but more on that over on the blog...

Creative update

5 free apps that enable the best features of Mac on Windows

This was an article I wanted to write for a while about using some tools that are free to take some of the best features of Mac OS and enable them for Windows. I used to bounce around between Mac and Windows every few years and this is probably the longest stretch I've gone without switching. Each has it's strengths and weaknesses but also some unique things I miss when I switch. Since I'm on Windows 11 at the moment, here are the tools I use daily.

Firelight Festival 2022

Managed to actually do a very basic and quick edit video this week as well! I'll be writing up the ins and outs of the process in the future article but here is a short 3 minute video from the Firelight Festival that happened at the Docklands a few weeks ago.

Gadgets/Tech

Tirtyl Washing Detergent "Sheets"

I think I linked to some type of this product a while back but now an Australian company is taking it to the next level! Tirtyl is a company that's trying to decrease single use plastics and also help the environment by decreasing the amount of mass shipped around the planet. Their initial product was hand soap that comes as little tablets. You add the tablet and some water and voila, soap!

Since then, they have made cleaning liquid and (my personal favourite) washing sheets, which is a square of what looks like paper. You add it to your washing machine and it essentially dissolves into detergent! I was due for a top-up so had to link again!

Other gadgets/tech

• Heated Coffee Mug - I always get carried away and forget about my coffee. While I use the Ember mug, this is a far cheaper alternative that wasn't around back then
• 5 year journal - My favourite new journaling style. Basically you write a small paragraph everyday on a specific date for 5 years and you look back on what your wrote on that day previously. I'm still on year one!

Read

I’m a Virologist, and I’m Setting the Record Straight on Variants and Reinfections

Given the pandemic still hasn't abated and there's ongoing confusion about the variants and the effectiveness of vaccines against them, I thought I'd feature a pretty short and easy to read article by an immunologist that clears up some of the confusion.

It is behind a paywall, but you can create a free account to read it. The article I link to has about 70% of it on display. Click "Source link" in the bottom to go to the full NYT article (paywalled).

Book I'm currently reading

• Death's End - Currently still reading the last of the Trisolaris trilogy

Watch

Why Starbucks failed in Australia

Starbucks is one of the most recognisable of all the coffee chains out there. However, in Australia, it doesn't have that much of a presence. This wasn't always the case and I do remember a time when there were stores in every corner. This is a fascinating look at their rare mis-step in the Australian market.

Quote I'm pondering

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

– Warren Buffett

I'm a bit slow on acting on this, but as stated over on the blog, there are some changes happening on this part of my life. While it's only been a few days since I started defending some of the free time, I do feel much MUCH more in control of my schedule and also...relaxed?

It's almost like drawing some firm boundaries means you've got space to mentally stretch out and enjoy your own mental space. The other thing about boundaries is that you can also make it apply to yourself. There is a whole pile of mini projects that are half done for me at any given time: podcast social media clips, photos to edits and videos to make etc etc as well little projects I can do at work, but because all the quick parts are done, they all seem daunting to do in the little pockets of time that I have.

I now realise that these projects spill over in my mind and there's always this background stress from having not done these (often self-imposed & totally optional) tasks. One thing I realised in terms of getting the "mental clutter" out is to have them on a "do later" list so I don't forget, but it's not on my mind all the time. The other thing is to just allot a small amount of time and crank SOMETHING out even if it's not perfect.

This weeks Medium article and Youtube video are a direct result of just getting on and doing what I can with a short amount of time.

How are you with boundaries? Do you find them hard to enforce like me?

As always, let me know and see you next week!

- Raffy

PS - Given it's been 2 years, I'll be going back through the feedback and tweaking things. Do you like/dislike the subtle changes this year? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (& keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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