#281 🐼 Don’t want to dig my own grave

Reading time: 3 minutes

Heyaa

Looks like this is going to be the last newsletter of the year. Unless the universe decides to play a trick and moves the days a few days forward.

I’m in high hopes that next year is going to be a good one. Hoping, like every other year.

Not that 2024 was any bad. I tried a lot of new things and pursued several experimental projects. Will go through this year’s progress in January and let you know. *fingers crossed*

OK, it’s Monday, 11.24 hours… and I’m not listening to anything as such.

I wasn’t in a good shape over the weekend. Projects kept piling up, and had to postpone this newsletter to today. I want to maintain the streak.

The week went somewhat good though. I danced through it, not literally, and completed most of my ongoing tasks for the year. Yes, for the year! (then fell severely ill on the weekend)

Uploaded all good reviews to blog (from Goodreads) as proper articles… non-fiction books and fiction both. I’m not cut out to stay loyal with a niche. Maybe “jack of all trades” should be a niche. Don’t care if I’m a master of anything.

Those book reviews go back to year 2020. That was when I seriously started reviewing books. Until then, I was a casual reader who didn’t care about sharing thoughts. Just left ratings or 1-2 line comments maybe.

That was also the year when I started keeping track of monthly progress (and then, year-end reflection).

Have been painstakingly keeping a note of everything I do; whatever I could remember. Started keeping to-do lists gradually. And a visual display of how good or bad my day went.

For a short while, I also wrote a list of things I did during the day… kind of gratitude journal.

Although I stopped most of them anyway, I have kept doing the to-do lists (because necessary). The only gratitude I felt like having were the monthly reviews. Feels good to know how far you have come in a year.

I started journaling my progress with books as well. And when I started the Book Blabber blog, I also set up categorised recommendation articles as well. And a concise recommendation list. And a book group. And a merch store. And… I forgot.

By the way, Goodreads shared my Year in Books stats last week. As I keep much of my reading progress there, the stats are close to what I’ve actually read. So, I made an Instagram post to show it off.

bookblabber.abhi

A post shared by @bookblabber.abhi

Now, I’ve decided to take some rest and pause binge-reading and binge-watching. This month, I watched two k-dramas - a rom-com and a thriller.

Also, watched Lucky Baskhar… and now, in my mid 30s, I'm wondering if it's too late to commit financial fraud. There are risks, of course, but reward is huge. Don’t you think?

I know I shouldn’t talk about these things in public.

You know, last night, a stranger asked me to fake a proof of payment. Actually, once I wrote an answer on Quora to someone asking if such things can be faked. I told anything can be faked online. Images can be made to look like original. And one peson commented to do one for them.

Of course, I said no. Don’t want to dig my own grave, not consciously, at least. By the way, I do want to write a book on how to die. Not sure what I will, but I want to.

OK, I was saying I’ve decided to take some rest until the new year.

Well, that was the plan. On Saturday. A day later, I was onto a new idea. It looks like the hobbies won't let me rest ever. This time it’s a bookish journal.

Trying some way to get my reviewing process more hands-on. With pen and paper. Apart from individual review pages, will keep habit tracker, best books section and more… like journals usually have. Won’t pack in everything, though. It needs to be usable, too, right?

The last time I used a journal, more than 50% of it was wasted because I didn’t need all those pages. It was sometime in 2019-20 only. That was when, after a few trials, I realised I needed only to-do lists.

Except for to-do, everything else in a “productivity” diary/journal/notebook isn’t essential for me.

See, everything always is an experiment. You can’t follow anyone’s teachings to the dot. You gotta take the lessons, and try on your own to find what works for you.

Taking your leave now. See you in the new year.

Bidding adieu. Enjoy your day. Live long and prosper.