What's up letter for the week
Last week has been hectic as I was traveling to my hometown on both weekends. Hence, I could not be regular with my routine and create blog posts.
The road journey to Punjab is hectic. I usually listen to podcasts or audiobooks on the way but can’t take any notes. The journey tires you and you can’t do much after you reach home as the time is meant for family and not for some pseudo-efficient productive routine.
👨🏽🎓Learnings for the week
The last post on my monthly updates was made earlier this month. This time I have decided to write a weekly newsletter where I would share my learnings and experiences for the past week.
📲Apps
Last week I discovered a wonderful Journaling app called Day One. I had been actually looking for an app that would suit my note-taking and journaling needs. The app ticks all boxes and is making me stick to my journaling routine. This app has been meticulously designed for the purpose of Journaling, unlike any other app.
I have always wanted to write but I was never able to pick up the habit as the pen and paper concept for writing never took off for me. I relapsed 100 times. I always thought that writing cannot be accomplished by typing on a laptop. I was outright wrong as I lost many years of pursuing my passion and also losing the chance to further hone my skill.
Now that I have a cue that can propel me into a writing habit I am more than happy to be using the app daily. It is a wonderful way of jotting down your thoughts through ready-to-use templates and also customizable templates that can be used for day-to-day journaling.
The app supports the use of all forms of media- pictures, videos, and audio that can add substance to your content. Also, it shows your streak of the days you have been continuously writing and thus serves as a motivator for sticking to writing.
Another feature that I like most about the app is Daily prompts for which I have created a widget on my home screen. This widget shows a prompt every day that you can answer thus helping with your daily writing and also enhancing your skills at creative writing.
I think this has been a major find for me in the tech space. I have subscribed for the paid version which is costing me 2900/- yearly which is worth it as I am now taking my writing seriously.
You can try the free version which is good enough just that you can upload one pic a day and add just one type of template. I highly recommend Journaling your day for emotional release, stress reduction, enhanced clarity of thought, creativity, and self-expression. It has immense benefits that can enrich your life.
Day One app is available on iOS, Android, and Macbook. For other laptop users, there is a beta version available.
🎙️Podcasts
I have been listening to ‘How to Take over the World’ podcast by Ben Wilson which is an amazing storytelling on biographies of people who have made a difference to the world. So far, I have listened to the life stories of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, and today William Hearst.
The host is a great narrator who distills the multiple biographies and other research on the famous personality and gives a simple and lucid narration of the personalities and life events of these famous people.
In the end, he also gives his personal takeaways from the lives of these great men. I liked each and every podcast. Do check this out if you think of enriching your lives by learning from the lives of the people who have influenced the world like no other people.
📚Books
I could not read much this week due to my busy schedule but I finished ‘Influence’ by Robert Cialdini which I have started again as I found it to be one of the most influential books for me. I may be using the book to write further blog posts on my website. I love the concepts of psychology as they show our vulnerability to the many fallacies, biases, and psychological traps that we fall into due to our inherent nature.
🏋🏽Health/Exercise
Have you ever felt pain in your lower back, glutes, or groin? The pain can be debilitating and can result in a loss of function, particularly back pain. People become a living shell of themselves with back pain as they lose their ability to perform simple tasks in their life such as walking, standing, or climbing stairs. Most of the time the back pain is a result of poor posture and an issue with one muscle group below or above i.e. the Hip area and Rhomboid area.
Most of the people who sit all day on their office desks have poor hip mobility. This leads to a limited range of motion and thus a loss of strength. Extended stiffness in this region further impacts the lower back which experiences pain due to stiffening of muscles that extend to the hip area. This causes pain in the lower back.
I have started doing frog poses for an extended period of time. I do them in bed right after I wake up and before sleeping. I hold the pose for 2-3 minutes and feel the stretch on my groin. I have been feeling much more mobile and agile since I started doing these. The pinching pain is reducing at an accelerated pace and I feel that this might solve my 7-month-old groin pain. You should give this stretch a try if you are facing mobility issues in the hop area and stiffness in the back.
💁🏽♂️Anything I like to share
Pic of the week
Mount Kachda, Height 400m (lol… joking). This is not a hill or a mountain but a Mount of garbage on the outskirts of Delhi near the Karnal bypass. If you enter Delhi from the Haryana side on N.H.-1, you have this eyesore on your left side with Kites and Eagles hovering on the top to look out for leftovers in the garbage collected from Delhi.
As per media reports the garbage mount has led to toxic waste seeping into the water table below and thus making the adjoining areas a living mess. This mount is a clear reminder of the mindless consumption and wastage that each one of us does on a daily basis.
I hope I can have a better learning this week.
See you soon in another post.
