Category: Lifestyle

It has been two years. Two years since I decided to tackle my TBR and reduce it to zero. Am I closer to that number than I was when I started? I like to think that I’m crushing it! Although I’ve only managed to cut it down to about 20 books. So, 10 books read per year. At this rhythm, it will take me a decade. At best! Looking back, the project was structured to force me to read the books I already own. That has changed completely. I ended book-buying bans, went through reading slumps, and thought about ending the challenge altogether. But life continues, and I’m still determined to see this through. I imagine I’m just taking a stroll, enjoying the view, and sizing down my TBR in the meantime. February I was still feeling the high of finally being out of the reading slump, and I got …

Another four months passed since my last update. I’m so happy my reading is back to normal, and I feel motivated again to tackle my TBR. Some progress was made. Some were undone, but better months will come. The slump curse was lifted, and I’m in an amazing reading mood and ready to wrap up 2023 and have a great 2024. October Coming out of a reading slump is not always easy but very exciting. And audiobooks can be helpful. I didn’t make any progress in reducing my TBR, I even increased it. Although sometimes going out to dinner is better than forcing me to cook something at home. So I started the spooky month with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which was great. This is the type of horror I like. No confirmed supernatural things, only vibes. Then I listened to Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. …

After reading Deep Work by Carl Newport, I was determined to try the four philosophies of work he presents in his book: rhythmic, bimodal, monastic, and journalistic. I already tried the rhythmic philosophy and have a blog post about how it went. Right after, I moved along to the bimodal philosophy. I planned to do it for a month, from the 17th of October to the 13th of November of 2022. But things didn’t go as planned, so I stretched the experiment until the 4th of December. Then I wrote an entire blog post going over the experiment and what went wrong, and after 1550 words, I decided not to post it. My objective with this series is to understand and experiment with various ways of scheduling to achieve productivity most effectively. And reading back the post, I only saw myself trying to do something I wasn’t prepared for. I …

My reading year has been extensive and quite hectic. And it’s not over yet. Between amazing books and a huge reading slump, I’ve been conflicted about my feelings towards this pet project. On one hand, I want to see it through, but on the other, I’m questioning if it’s worth it. If it will change anything. Lately, I’ve been thinking about joining my read and unread books and treating my entire book collection as a whole. All the possibilities of what I can read, instead of putting pressure on me to read the ones I haven’t yet. While this quarter update is still haunted by the slump of months past, it was also a time of change and realisation that hopefully will affect the upcoming months and maybe even my relationship with my books. I hope this can take the dreaded reading slump out of the horizon for a while. …

Back in May, I decided one random day at 2 am to crochet flower pot coasters for Mother’s Day (celebrated on the first Sunday of May here in Portugal). I found it while casually browsing Pinterest and decided it was the right gift. I didn’t even know if I had any yarn I could use. But I was determined to make them myself. And this late-night decision marks the beginning of my crochet adventure. Ever since doing those coasters, I’ve learned a lot, made many mistakes and became slightly obsessed with crochet. After 2 months, I’ve been crocheting almost every day, and now that I took a little break to avoid burning myself out, I can’t stop thinking about it. I guess this means I’m a crocheter now. In this post, I’ll share everything I’ve done for the past couple of months, what I’ve learned, and even share patterns and …

Update 28th July: Ninten Talk is back at it again with a new ACNH challenge Rags to Richies. New ways to play the game are always welcome when trying to fight burnout. So check it out and let yourself be inspired by other ACNH players. More popular than the newest instalment of the Animal Crossing franchise is the Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH for short) burnout. If, like me, you have been playing the game since launch (or close to it), you probably know what I’m talking about. I mean… You probably found this post because you are trying to cure your burnout like the rest of us. So please join me as I try to ignite my passion for this game again. I’ve seen countless videos and read countless posts about “how to fix ACNH burnout”, and here you won’t find any mention of “decorating your island”. If that …

June marks one year of my Project TBR Zero, and I have to say that after a whole year, it’s been hard to keep focus and find meaning in this project. Not what I expected to write about since I’ve been so motivated throughout this project. And right on the final stretch. Since I didn’t finish my TBR, this is not the end of the project. But it does mark the end of a year focused on reading the books I own. And it’s also a reflection on how I’m feeling about it, how my reading was affected by it, and how much progress I made. Reading for me is a fun activity, a hobby, a recreation, a pastime, whatever you want to call it. It’s not work or a chore. It’s something I do because I enjoy doing it. And throughout this project, that feeling never changed. It just …

In 2022, I read 62 books. Although, I actually didn’t. I only read 49 books out of the 52 I was aiming for. But then, where do 13 books come from? Thin air? Ghosts? They actually come from everything I read last year. I’m just counting them differently. Last May, I published a post where I tried for a month to track how many words I was reading instead of pages or books. The main reason was how much pressure I felt to finish books and keep on track with my Goodreads challenge. I found tracking by reading progress through books alone wasn’t fair. Not all books are made the same, so why should they be quantified the same? And so it began my word-tracking adventure. At the time, I really enjoyed the experience and was renovating my motivation to read. So, I kept doing it for the rest of …

When I decided to buy Deep Work by Carl Newport, I had no idea the journey it would put me through. I was reading about a different approach to work, a change of perspective when what I found on those pages motivated me to experiment with different schedules. And today is finally the time to look back on the first experiment: the Rhythmic schedule. As this is considered the easiest deep work philosophy to archive, I started my journey with it. After all, I only need to work every day at the same time for 90 minutes. Sounds simple enough. Honestly, it wasn’t that easy, but it taught me a lot more about my work, myself and how much I can accomplish. Rhythmic schedule rules My deep work sessions are to work on blog posts, so I can somewhat compare each philosophy using the same project. Although I also what …

Everyone that has worked from home knows that as good as it sounds, it’s not always a walk on the beach. There are so many distractions, and it’s easy to lose a routine. And that is the state I’ve been in. I have a morning and nighttime routine that is more or less consistent, but during the day, it has been hard to create one. From pets to unplanned tasks, finding a balance isn’t easy. So, I’ve been looking for strategies and ways to accomplish my work while still being flexible enough to accommodate any unpredictable tasks that need to be done. From time blocking to so many other techniques I’ve found online, one stood out the most: deep work. This is a term created by Carl Newport about a deep state of focus. The idea is to reach a mental state of deep concentration to produce better quality work …