I’ve been struggling to find the motivation to write about things like iPads with everything going on but thought I could be useful with some tips for working from home. As someone that’s been home based for a while here are a few things I try to follow

• If you have a smart watch (or set a timer) then set some stand or movement reminders. Get up from your desk every hour to have a walk around the house or a stretch
• Drink plenty of water
• Keep some easy to access and healthy snacks on hand
• Set yourself a schedule, for example work from 10-12 then break then 2-5
• It's ok to play video games or watch TV in your breaks
• Pick some exercises you can do indoors, I'm no fitness guru so you'll have to look elsewhere for what these are unfortunately
• Set up your office or work environment. Make sure you're not uncomfortable when working and get some speakers so you can listen to music
• Check in with your team via Skype or messaging

Got any tips to share with me?

I’ve noticed in the past (and rewriting this post as a reminder) that if I want to create more I need to swap my Twitter habit with a creation one. I’m finding that in downtime that I’m scrolling my feeds in Twitter or Reddit instead of doing something to benefit my mental health like playing my guitar or jotting down my thoughts here or hey even going out for a walk.

I’m going to be taking a break from Twitter especially over the next month to see if I improve my mood and frequency of output I’m happy with.

Join in with me and see what happens to your creative projects you’ve been looking to spend more time on.

I’ve fallen into a bit of a trap after a great month stat wise in January to now seeing a 60% drop in traffic since and feeling down about my creative endeavours. But weirdly swapping to Tweetbot and not seeing engagement has actually helped me realise the blog is about getting stuff out of my head and sharing my thoughts. It’s not a money maker (costs me to run it) and after several failed attempts at Patreon I realise my content isn’t worth paying for but I still ploughed on - I needed an outlet to talk about passions I can’t do in my day to day.

This’ll continue whilst I have the energy to put it out there.

Being consistent is something I’ve always struggled with, I have flourishes of being really good and moments of being terrible. I’m not just talking about writing on my blog but in general. I’ll have a good spell with my mood and have a positive effect on the world around me then I’ll have a big dip and seem to make everything worse.

I don’t check stats too much but look at this massive dip in traffic over the last couple of weeks. I’ve not been consistent again, when I start to write again the traffic picks up.

I guess I’m rambling with this post but I what I’m trying to say, especially if you’re doing something creative is to try to be as consistent as possible.

This started as soon as Disney+ came out, see we don’t have it in the UK. I jokingly thought that with my love of Star Wars and the fact I don’t want The Mandalorian spoiled for me I’d see how long I could stay off various platforms.

First up I’ll address the worst offender- YouTube. It’s impossible to use this service without the algorithm showing you click bait and negative videos. Even if you stick to your subscriptions you’ll have recommendations thrown in your face. I decided this was a big risk and first off deleted it from all of my devices. I have to say that I don’t miss it at all. I use to go down rabbit holes that would either result in my feeling bad or looking at making a purchase (don’t mention mechanical watches to me at the moment …). Cutting myself off from YouTube really has improved my mood and I’m finding I have more time and focus back to my days. The time back is somewhat down to my lack of self control but the mood improvement is definitely down to not being presented with stupid click bait negativity.

Now onto Twitter. This was harder as I’d developed a habit of checking the slot machine, mindlessly checking my feed when I had a spare five minutes. Deleting the app and using Safari a few months ago has helped curb that little habit but I still checked on notifications. Turns out this habit change has made dropping the service completely a lot easier. I’m over a week now with no Twitter and whilst I do miss the interactions I’m feeling in a better place without it. Twitter has become the place you go to get something off your chest, somewhere to complain. I’m guilty of this too and not being on there I’m not contributing. Yes there is some positive but I’ve found the negative outweighs the positive, especially at the moment. I’ve also found I’m perfectly fine not knowing about stuff as it happens and I’ll check my RSS reader for my news a couple of times a day.

Quitting these services has been the best move for my mental health I’ve made technology wise for a while and I’m hoping I can stick to it for a while longer.

I’m constantly trying to get better at managing my social media time and I thought the best first step (this time!) was to move everything social to my iPad. I use the iPad more intentionally so I’m going to manage social along with my blog in a folder of it’s own. On the iPad I have a blog folder with all of my Blog stuff, it’ll live in there.

If you’re trying to cut back on your social media a bit then I’d recommend moving it off your smartphone and onto a laptop or tablet so that it’s less of a temptation and more intentional.

Since restoring my iPhone a few weeks ago I’ve fallen back into the trap of the modern smartphone. What I mean by this is having all of the apps I can available to me to use and getting caught up in these Infinity wells, such as YouTube and Social networking. Neither of which are particularly great for my wellbeing these days.

It hit me this morning whilst browsing Reddit, why am I mindlessly doing this?.

I want to be more intentional with how I’m using my technology and allow myself to be bored. Enjoy a walk without a podcast in my ears sometimes or just enjoy the warm sunshine on my face in the garden with no desire to see what’s happening on Twitter.

It also hit me that I’ve written about this before on the blog, many times actually. I’ve written about helping to reduce the time you spend on your phone and also steps I’ve made, such as only checking Twitter once a week but I’ve forgotten to listen to former me!

This post is a reminder that when I fall into bad habits to step back and think about how I want to use my technology and interact with the world around me.

So this week I’ll be back to

• Removing all social networking apps from my iphone
• Checking Twitter weekly for notifications
• Sharing smaller posts more, I've noticed good feedback from readers of my stuff lately. This in part because my default is to share here rather than on social media
• Reducing my podcast consumption (I'm listening to over 20 shows a week!)
• Leaving YouTube (again)
• Deleting Reddit apps (again)
• Doing my best to stick with one to do app and keeping it simple

And remembering to read some of my earlier stuff

• Scheduling Twitter
• Deleting YouTube
• Doing social on your blog

I’ve made a slight tweak to my morning routine that seems to be having an overall positive effect on my day. I’ve been journaling for a while but only in the evening. After listening to an episode of The Automators on the subject I added a new Reminder that simply asks me to write down something I’m grateful for each morning at 7:30am.

Instead of picking up my iPhone and digesting news of social media I think of something that I’m happy about of grateful for in my life. I get on with day afterwards but starting off with something positive is a nice way to kick things off.

You’ve maybe noticed I’ve been quiet on Twitter for a few days, well I’ve not engaged with it for almost a week now and I have to say that I’m feeling better for it. I feel like my mind is less busy with racing thoughts and I’m allowing myself to be bored instead of picking up my phone and checking my feed.

This might continue for a while. I’m unsure whether I’ll actually come back at this point.

I’m still posting to my blog, something I won’t be dropping anytime soon.

I’ve dropped the podcast for now, I’m sorry but I’m just not into sharing what I’m doing on iOS right now, I guess I’m becoming less enthusiastic about technology right now and seeing it more of a tool to get through my day rather than something I want to actively promote. Being honest here I also don’t have the time. I found myself in moments of free time engaging in other activities and the podcast was last on the list. I don’t see the point in doing it if my creativity isn’t there for it.

I’m in a couple of slack rooms, which has mostly replaced the need for Twitter. I’ve also got a slack room myself, I’ll share details on this if anyone wants to join in maybe.

I’ve also become less and less interested in YouTube and deleted the apps from my iOS devices. At this point I only watch my subscriptions on the TV.

Reddit has also gone from my iOS devices. It’s become a major time suck for me.

I’d recommend everyone take a break from at least your social media for a week, like me it might give you some interesting insights.

When I started working on an iPad full time I was sold on the flexibility of the device but as time has gone on I’ve started to find issues with RSI. When I’m doing something heavy like updating my productivity app, editing images and editing a podcast I found I ran into shoulder issues. The constant need to keep moving my arm up to do actions have become an issue. It’s got me rethinking my entire setup, well for a bit anyway. For consumption the iPad was much better than my laptop but using it full time has had me struggling a little.

I’ve decided to make a change and switch back to using my MacBook for a few months for some of the heavy lifting to see if it helps. I’ve also noticed that using the iPad without the Smart Keyboard cover and just the glass on my lap helped so I’ll be adjusting my use a little to start using that method of input or the Apple Pencil.

Along with some shoulder exercises and general getting out for daily walks I’m hoping to move forward positively and address this.

So I’m back to the MacBook probably 70% of the time for a bit and I’ll report back on how it’s going.

Anyone else run into these issues?