For years, spending time on social media was an investment that paid dividends. One of my UN jobs was connected directly with responding to a tweet about them looking for an archivisit. Within a day I had an interview and within a few days I was working. That was back in 2014 or so, when social media was more convivial....
Posts tagged “habit”
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On Investing Time Writing a Daily Blog Post daily — Apr 17, 2026 -
How PADI divers see an over-romanticised side of diving — Dec 15, 2014Whilst it is true that divers are at the beach every weekend the location is not quite that nice. Some of us are or were in the mountains every Saturday and in the lakes every Sunday. We did have to wear shoes because the dive site is a lake. We don’t all drink beer and are not always salty. What you will have to get used to is that 6 or 7am wake up to be at the dive site by 8 or 9 in the morning. You will also need to get used to the bath being used to rinse off all of the diving equipment Sunday afternoons. You won’t need to get used to beer drinking because not every diver drinks beer....
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Books Read and the Tip of The Iceberg — Jan 15, 2026Some people aim to read twenty books per year. Others aim for a book a week. I read 15 or so books last year which doesn’t feel like much, compared to others. Having said that, I don’t read like others. When I read I flit between books. I might start three or four books within a few days, and gently make progress for weeks or months at a time.... -
Cycling Uphill Faster — Sep 19, 2025I have been up the Molard climb four times this year, and each time I sped up by a little. Twice my time improved by two minutes, and when I tried yesterday it improved by only a few seconds. With an average of 2000 meters of climbing per week I can feel the effects.... -
Apple Watches and the Art of Standing for a Minute an Hour — Feb 13, 2025A few minutes ago I looked at my Apple Watch and it said that I had not stood for the last two hours so I got up and walked around until it said that I had stood this hour. The irony is not lost on me that a watch would tell me that I am not active enough.... -
The Bad Habit of Daily Streaks — Feb 5, 2025The US has a culture of streaking. I don’t mean running around naked at events. I mean of trying to do something daily for weeks, months or even years. As great as it can be, to develop consistent habits I believe that it can have a negative impact.... -
A Dormant YouTube Habit — Nov 7, 2024For months now I have had Pihole running, and other ad blocking solutions working. I said, at the time that I don’t feel bad about using ad blockers because they’re so invasive, especially with YouTube, among other platforms.... -
Four Reading Tracking Apps — May 29, 2024For years I have been tracking my reading, whether by Goodreads or Audible but more recently, within the last four months, or so, I also started using Bookmory, booktracker and a fourth one but I don’t remember the name. The one whose name I forgot was abandonned because it forgot my login information after an app update and I couldn’t be bothered renewing it, especially as I was been nagged to pay a monthly fee.... -
A Reminder of Why I Stopped Using the Garmin Watch — May 3, 2024Yesterday I was reminded of why I stopped wearing the Garmin watch, replacing it with Casio watches instead. It’s because Garmin, Suunto and Xiaomi don’t count walking as real sport. Imagine, you’re wearing a watch twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, every day, and charging it every month with the Garmin Instinct, and every few days with the other devices, and you see the absurdity of certain trackers.... -
Sun Bleached and Worn Out — May 2, 2024Yesterday during my walk I bought a new clam shell cap. It’s the type of cap that you can take off, fold and put in a pocket. The one I had before this one was used daily for years, and eventually became bleached by the sun and sweat. It went from dark grey to light grey. What I really appreciate is that aside from the colour fading it’s fine.... -
urban walks — May 1, 2024I have walked in London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Lausanne Florence and other cities for many hours at a time. I would often walk in London until I got too tired to continue, and then I would catch the tube back to somewhere I knew, and then I’d walk some more.... -
The Daily Walk Re-Routed — Apr 30, 2024A year or two ago there were road works along a bit of road. Now the road works are back, on the same bit of road. Due to it being spring, and due to rain being quite enthusiastic this year, the route (pronounced root, not grout), is impassible. It’s not impassible because of mud, but because of long grass. In the past I would have walked through the long grass to get from A to B, or I would have walked along the river side walk, but because I wear different shoes than before, and because I don’t want ticks, I no longer walk that route until the works are finished.... -
Five Point Two Millions Steps In A Single Year — Jan 8, 2024Last year I walked five point two million steps, which is both a lot, and yet normal, for me. What makes last year so curious is that I didn’t feel to walk that much. I walked for one and a half hours, rather than two to three hours. My loops became shorter, but I also cycled some weeks so my step count was low.... -
Blogging for Three Hundred and Sixty Six Days in a Row — Nov 16, 2023For three hundred and sixty six days I have written a blog post daily. In some cases I wrote two posts, and scheduled the post to appear the next day. This is when I was driving for thirteen hours, or if I knew that my morning was busy. In the process I have definitely given myself a writing habit. The question I ask myself now is whether to continue, or whether to change the posting frequency.... -
NaNoWriMo and Blogging — Nov 10, 2023November is the month when a group of people try to write 1667 words per day for a month. they have write-in events, word sprints and many other gimmicks to encourage them to break the challenge into less daunting challenges. I didn’t even consider participating this year for a simple reason. This is my 360th day in a row of writing a daily blog post....
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The Skipped Walk — Oct 9, 2023Today is an unusual day. Originally I had planed to walk over one thousand meters up the Jura, before realising that I had too little sleep, so I decided to sleep a little more, do laundry, write a blog post and then eat lunch....
