Simplifying Life

What do I mean by simplifying life? I am guilty of doing too many things, and hence doing none of them very well. Since taking up blogging, I have found myself getting swamped in things that don’t add value to my life, so I have decided to do a bit of a clear out.

Email addresses

How many email addresses do you actively use? If you are working, the chances are high, you have a work email. Then if you are reading this, you are obviously online, so I suspect you have at least 1 home email. I used to run 3 email addresses, and just about kept track of them. Now I have 7 – far too many.  So time for a bit of a cull, or at the very least reduce what arrives in them.

Email subscription lists

Be honest, how many blogs do you subscribe to, or summary blogs like Feedspot, medium, bloglovin etc? Then add Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon to the list, and you suddenly realise how many emails you get, and how much time you spend on low value activity.

I have just done a major clear out / housekeep and unsubscribed from a lot of mailing lists. Some are from blogs that I have enjoyed, but life has moved on, others such as – how to make the most of Pinterest / Twiitter / Instagram. Grow your blog. How to write catchy blog titles. All history.

Emails themselves

Today, I have cleaned out some of my inboxes (not my folders – yet…) I have deleted 2102 emails of which 1924, I had not even read. To be fair that is on my main PC, I scan them on the iPad in the evening. Many were Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter, but even so, a really poor use of my time.

Not always ‘Having Fun’ in Retirement

Having Fun in Retirement is the strapline to this blog. Over the past few weeks, I have realised I was ceasing to enjoy this whole blogging experience. It was taking over my life, I was even dreaming about it! The issue has been exacerbated by the forthcoming GDPR law in the UK. (General Data Protection Register) Despite having spent my career in IT, I have really struggled to get to grips with what is needed. I have had to seek the help of The Bairwells who are my very friendly ‘go to’ people for IT issues. Richard has been really helpful in identifying plug-ins for me to install that will help me to satisfy the GDPR rules, and giving me codes for my Google Analytic settings. We’re not quite there yet, because whatever you read, seems to take you into even further detail. The problem is as Richard says it is so ‘General’, – it has been left so vague and wide-spreading that it’s a complete mess…. Their rates are very reasonable, so I will give them a shameless plug! Thank you Richard & Kat.

Suddenly I realised it was all starting to feel like work again. Hence I have been reviewing my aims and goals for retirement.

What am I going to do?

Nothing in a rush, for sure. Some time ago, I posted about Positive Retirement. Having things to do, enough money and good health make a huge difference in enjoying your retirement.  I  still believe wholeheartedly in that. However, I also believe in doing things that add value and bring happiness to your life. Some things you need to do to support others, which could be perceived as a duty, so I would suggest you understand and acknowledge why you do these things. Then look at things you do, just for yourself and your family.

• I am analysing where I get enjoyment in my life – I like the writing bit of blogging. While I enjoy taking the pictures for the blog, it is a bit wearisome to always find the ‘right’ one. I certainly don’t enjoy getting all the ‘self-publicising’ in place.
• I don’t aim to make any money from my blog, but I would like to keep my readership, which has been steadily growing. I really don’t care about my stats, Moz scores, blog rankings etc. And if a post were to ‘go viral’, I would be delighted (unlikely tho!)
• I read this morning, that many people are moving away from blogs, they prefer the instant satisfaction of Twitter and Instagram. Apparently some people can’t be bothered reading a longer blog post. Another view is that blogs are sort of past it. I have tried Instagram, but it all seems a bit narcissistic to me. Twenty words, a hashtag and a picture – a posed facial ‘pout’ or one which is designed to make everyone else feel less successful / beautiful / happy / lucky / wealthy etc really doesn’t do it for me.
• I get bored with the self-publication bit – see what a fantastic post I have written. How Great Am I!
• I have been quite successful of recent, on the ‘exchange’ support from fellow bloggers, (and found some really good articles on the way), so I would like to keep going on that.
• I still really enjoy making ‘things’. I am taking part in a 2 person ‘copper’ exhibition in November, which will be pretty amazing.
• I am less interested in selling ‘things’!. It takes ages to photograph, measure, weigh, describe, post a piece I have made. Given that Etsy and its UK equivalent Folksy have millions of items just like mine, it is difficult to get to the top of the viewing lists! Put in ‘necklace’ to the Etsy search and you get 3.5m results! So I either need to put more focus on this, or stop – hence back to the question – where do I get my enjoyment in life from?
• Blogging is a sedentary activity, so is posting pieces of work on Etsy & Folksy. I need to get more movement in my life! Here’s hoping the snow finally goes, and I get back to walking again. I don’t really enjoy the gym, but a swim seems appealing.
• I’ve sort of run out of steam on ‘Money‘ posts – how many ways can you say – spend less than you earn, only borrow for something that will increase in value (e.g. a house – well mostly, though be aware of negative equity), save hard, make the most of any tax saving opportunities that come your way, pay off any debt as soon as you can, and be very responsible with any credit cards. When I start a new credit card, the first thing I do is set up a monthly payment to pay the whole of the credit card bill automatically, sadly only a very small percentage of the people with credit cards do that.
• Travel is still a major thing in my life, and will continue to be so, as long as we are fit and able. In April we are away to visit the Hebrides and the West Coast of Scotland for a week with our older son. August will bring several family celebrations during a week in Amsterdam. (A wedding, a 60th and a 70th birthday!)  As a family we will be together for the first time in 5 years. I am really looking forward to that. Then September and October will be spent in Rome.

Back to What Gives Me Fun

• Making things, creating new things. Not only metal work, it might be quilting, cooking, writing blog posts- all sorts. So prepare yourself for all sorts of strange pictures coming up!
• The process of ‘self promotion’ leaves me cold. I gave it a good shot, but ultimately I’m not prepared to give it the 24×7 focus it needs!
• With The Bairwells help, I’ll overcome GDPR, I’ll keep the blog going, on my own terms. I’ll probably do 2 posts a months, more lifestyle than money, and often based on what I am doing – it is a retirement blog after all, and I am determined to Make the Most of It!
• As mentioned above, lots of travel!

Comments / Feedback (in the light of GDPR….)

If you would like to leave me a comment, and I would love you to, just leave a first name, or a ‘nom-de-plume’, please don’t leave an email address, and your IP address will be made anonymous, once the automatic spam checks etc are complete in a couple of weeks. I will have no access to it. If you leave a website address, I will show that. Technically it might be construed as personal data, but if you choose to leave it, I will assume you want it made public- after all you could get a few ‘clicks’ from it, which might give you some benefit!

I haven’t yet written my data policy, but I no longer retain any data, except what WordPress or Google Analytics save, and I am working on minimising that. I do not willingly retain it, process it or maintain a subscription list etc, so you’ll definitely not get spammed by me.

Here’s to the future!

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