The trouble with Fridays
This is the trouble with Fridays: they are supposed to be Finishing Fridays. Often they are a beautiful blank in the diary, ready for action. But yesterday, Friday was a day for starting new things. So nothing got finished until today, which is a Saturday.
The trouble with fear
I had been feeling an irrational anxiety for a couple of weeks. I’d been muttering that my life is overloaded and something had to give. (Who organised the overload? Me, of course.) I had been afraid of this week because I had four meetings scheduled in two days, Thursday and Friday. My fault! because all my adult life, I’ve gotten jumpy when professional events pile up too close together. I need a breather in between.
The wonder of this kind of fear is that when the day arrives, the fear evaporates. The anxiety is always over something in the future, something that hasn’t even happened. Surely I should know that by now and yet I was startled when that lovely, familiar biochemical change occurred. On the day in question, I woke up with a light heart. And so the trouble with Fridays never happened. There was no trouble. Of course I could manage four little meetings in two days — but not too often.
The trouble with photos
I’ve heard that the biggest technology challenge for older people is organising their photos. I’m one of those. My hard copies are OK, not marvellous but at least they don’t increase. And I do have this habit of making little printed photo books, each with a different focus. Low key is the go for me.
But digital photos mount up and up and up and up. I’ve got a hard drive holding about 10 years worth. I also used to have a floppy disk of photos — somewhere, but where?
Anyway today one of my sisters and I have adopted a tiny habit of deleting a bunch of digital photos every day. I’ve started well. Every time I sit down in an armchair or on a sofa, I will sweep through Photos and delete a couple of handfuls — 39, 20, 100 at a time. Without even enlarging them, without a second glance, I delete duplicates, scenery, document scans, photos of food, and anything that looks boring. There were over 8,000 when I began, so however carelessly I apply my habit, I figure I will always have ENOUGH.
I am thrilled with this tiny habit and I bet you a bunch of parsley that I persist. It’s so easy, how could I fail? Yippee! Sometimes starting feels even better than finishing, and I will never finish this task.
The trouble with followers
The trouble is, following a podcast is not necessary: it’s an act of kindness. Still, I only need about 980 more followers before my podcast will seem quite professional. So I’m very very grateful to everyone who has listened to Learning How To Be Old and appreciated it enough to click three dots and follow it. Thank you!
Instagram is different: following someone on Instagram somehow is no trouble, even on a Friday. I am thrilled to bits that I have 70 Instagram followers — thrilled and startled. Wow! Thank you, dear Instagram users.
- Daily photos: free, freeing and freed
- Another point of view: The joy of not finishing things
I think if I had 4 meetings in that short space of time, I would feel overwhelmed like that too. I like to space things out.
I see Friday’s as finishing days too. As soon as work is done, my weekend has started. 🙂
What a good feeling that is!
One photograph to keep is that perfectly composed header
She is a supermodel: no doubt about that.
Dear Rachel, Im now follower 71. I have messaged you in insta. xxx🤗❤️🤗 Myra
Myra, love you!
Happy Caturday to your resident sun-catcher. 🙂
My Friday was also a day for starting something new, or rather restarting. I moved all of my journal entries out of the app that I’ve been using and transferred them back to the computer and into my note-taking app Obsidian. As nice as the other app, Diarly, is, I was acutely aware that in the event of it no longer working I’d be locked out of years of thoughts! So I’m trading convenience (and some privacy) for longevity & resilience (since I backup my data regularly, and all my notes are plain text so will be readable even in stone-age apps.)
As someone who’s on the autism spectrum, I struggle with overwhelm so I can relate to that anxiety! Thankfully, I’m getting better at managing it, albeit later in life than I’d like.
I have a *lot* of digital photos piled up in my library, so I may take up your suggestion of manually disposing of a few every day.
As for followers… I’m no longer on social media (thank goodness) but do occasionally get emails in response to things I’ve blogged about, or to comments I’ve sent others about what they’ve posted online. Those I find much more rewarding than numbers!
It’s always a big deal, switching apps or tools, as you have done. I salute you! There has to be a big, obvious, no-risk incentive, and I don’t much care about preserving my thoughts long term. (They were fun at the time!) So congratulations! And good luck with the photos.
I share you anxiety when too many things are close together. When I worked I managed very well with tons of meetings but not in retirement. I don’t know what happened but I know better than to schedule too many things close yet it still happens.
I love this. It encapsulates how many of us feel ….
Kate Crimmins, I’m so glad. It’s good for me to, to know my challenges and failings are not unique.
You have inspired me to, once again, make a determined effort to reduce my 18,000 odd digital photos to a sensible amount, maybe down to 16,000?
Wow! That is A Lot. Go fast, short, and often, that’s my system now. I delete 10 or 20 with one tap – whoosh. Actually Peter, it’s fun. And after you die, nobody will look at 16,000 photos, so maybe have a folder handy for Must Keeps.
I have lots and lots of garden photos so that should be an easy reduction!
I subscribed to your podcast but I couldn’t figure out your Instagram handle. We’ve been working on getting subscribers to our podcast (Sharing the Heart of the Matter) on Spotify (SharingHoTM) and YouTube (SharingtheHeartoftheMatter). It’s a long process, isn’t it?
Hello, Wynne! First, thank you for subscribing — I reciprocated. Yes, it’s a marathon establishing a podcast! I enjoyed Miss O (9) telling the story of singing a solo in church: there’s lots to learn from children.
(My Instagram handle is aybrow1.)
Thank you for the subscribe, Rachel! I found you on IG!
And thank you for your lovely comment about Miss O. So much to learn from all ages!
I too have an issue with too many digital photos. I think I should adopt your way of dealing with them
It’s going well. Last night’s sit-down reaped a mere 5 photos. It’s a pass!
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼