LJPUK

Take a break from social media, YouTube, news and podcasts for a week, see what happens

ljpuk — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:49:06 +0000

One thing I did recently was to remove myself a bit from my routine, to see if things improved in terms of slowing my mind down a bit. It goes a million miles an hour and there’s constant ideas, threats and puzzles – it’s exhausting. Some of this is related to being neurodivergent but being constantly engaged in news and others opinions doesn’t help me make my own decisions and can change my entire mood or focus for the day. I noticed instead of music I’ll be listening to a podcast about productivity and then think why can’t I do that or I need to be better at X, Y or Z. I’m always beating myself up so I know these self improvement podcasts aren’t helping me or listening to tech and being pulled into buying something I don’t need. YouTube is worse (for me). Search for a thing and then get told “You’re using it wrong” or “you need to buy this” or “I used X and so should you”. Something is either good or bad according to a lot of YouTube – life is nuanced, not binary.

What this means for me is

Social media apps off my phone
No YouTube
No podcasts
No checking my RSS app
No news sites (believe it or not I haven’t been to the main BBC site for 5 years!)

I listen to music and audiobooks and just get on with things I need to do like sorting out the house, playing my games consoles, getting out for walks, writing here and enjoying my photography. When I’m engaged in everything else I lose sight of what matters. I don’t really know what I enjoy doing to be honest at the moment and lost sight of hobbies, I’ve got so much going on and being pulled by non essential things that can hijack my thought processes , take me from things I enjoy or how I feel doesn’t help when I want to be more calm and balanced. I also found in the past it helped me focus on what I was doing and not be pulled thinking of doing more than one thing at once.

My home screen for this break

I’m going back on a break, a little reset.

Why don’t you join in – give it a go, one week – see how you feel afterwards. If one week is too long, start with 3 days and see what streak you can keep going.

The memory isn’t in the thing, it’s in you

ljpuk — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:22:35 +0000

This might seem a strange headline but as I clear out my stuff it’s become harder and harder as I get to things that I associate with people or events. I’m not going full on minimalist but I am clearing out all of my stuff to the minimum I need. There’s no reason for me (at this point in my life) to have multiple watches for example when they all tell the same time. Where it gets harder is with the stories we tell ourselves, it’s where we get caught up. I in particular have been telling myself stories about the item in order to associate a particular feeling or make it sentimental and lost track of what I actually need. Associating items with people or events or even aspirations can stop us from removing them even if they no longer serve us.

I would be looking at an object and think wow, I wore that at event X or or was bought by person Y and I would keep it, even though it was weighing me down both mentally and physically. But, the memories aren’t in the item , it’s just an object – they are in your memory banks.

I’m not for one minute saying to get rid of all of your sentimental items, what I mean is don’t have too many. That’s where I am caught, assigning stories to things that no longer serve me and weight me down. I want to be as light as possible, both in mind and possessions.

Going greyscale on my phone

ljpuk — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:50:45 +0000

I’m trying a little experiment, I’m not totally addicted to my device and been using my phone less and less so I thought switching to greyscale might be an interesting experiment.

It’ll save me battery, still gives me the information I need on my lock screen and just generally makes it less shiny. I’m only a day in but quite liking it so far.

Google I/O, they still find it hard not to be a bit creepy

ljpuk — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:43:58 +0000

I watched Google I/O last night and whilst there is some cool stuff, particularly the science focus towards the end – Google gonna Google. Within 10 minutes of the keynote they have shared someone’s personal prompt in the keynote… this isn’t leaking PII (Personally Identifiable Information) but I still find it a bit creepy. It’s that sort of stuff that brings me back to iOS and a phone without much intelligence enabled. I have Apple Intelligence and SIRI completely turned off because I don’t currently find it good enough to be useful. I’m probably an outlier but I’ll take the battery savings.

I only really see use in the sort of personal productivity tasks like remind me to take the bins out or being reminded of appointments. I’m not sold on completely trusting any sort of AI to get it right in the current landscape. Funnily enough Apple may have an advantage by keeping it a bit simpler and just leaning into the personal productivity area, we’ll see in a few weeks.

How to force the Apple Music app into dark mode

ljpuk — Tue, 19 May 2026 06:51:48 +0000

One of the most distracting issues with Apple Music for me is how the background dynamically changes based on the music you select. In practise this means I cannot have a dark background, it switches between light and dark depending on the album. It’s one of the things that drove me to using another music service. I came across this article, showing that you can have per app settings for accessibility which is something I didn’t know about. Works a treat, I’m still using Deezer until my subscription ends but I might be back.

Happy Forza 6 day

ljpuk — Tue, 19 May 2026 06:18:08 +0000

I’ve been looking forward to this.

Trying to switch away from US tech (again)

ljpuk — Mon, 18 May 2026 05:56:03 +0000

Screenshot

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I’m starting again, making the switch to non US tech is an end goal of mine but I’ve struggled in the past. Here’s my starting point, all on iPad and iPhone.

Things 3
Proton Calendar
Proton Mail
Proton Drive
Vivaldi browser

I’m less worried about non native apps given my MacBook Pro isn’t being used much since getting the iPad Pro.

Tech has become boring

ljpuk — Mon, 18 May 2026 04:23:03 +0000

I’ve been into tech for as long as I can remember, be it console gaming in the 80’s through to now or computing and phones back in the early 2000’s. It’s been a constant in my life and I’ve enjoyed playing with new gear and seeing the progression from say the iPod I had to the iPhone but the current landscape isn’t interesting to me.

Technology now seems to be less about the device we use and more about another way to monetise services. I can’t seem to do anything without paying someone for a service and the current AI trend is just dull, something that is either making a task that requires some thinking less interesting or a way to just replace Google along with a subscription. I’ve lost count at the number of podcasts and sites I used to enjoy reading that just cover AI these days. When I look at the content on this blog or my podcast app I see less and less tech focused shows. I don’t think it’s an age thing but the hype around AI has overshadowed the whole industry, it’ll burst then we’ll be left wondering why we wasted the time and energy and more importantly money and finite resources we have.

Gear isn’t much different. Phones are largely just an iteration of the previous year and consoles are just another slightly faster box.

The only exception I see when I look at my gear are Nintendo, who have always taken chances and made a meaningful update to the Switch.

I might be getting older, jaded having worked in the industry but I’m finding the current state of tech to be very boring and predictable. Maybe I need to get a dumb phone and an iPod and reignite my interest in this one amazing industry.

I think I’m done with online auction sites

ljpuk — Sun, 17 May 2026 14:21:09 +0000

I’ve been clearing my stuff out but having already written about how bad Vinted is these days with getting abusive messages and the company being ok with people selling fake stuff I deleted my account. This led me to eBay and I’m left with rude messages, non payment and again them being ok with selling fake goods.

I’m not sure where this leaves me. I am going to pull everything I have up there and now look at selling locally in stores or giving away to charity shops.

Owning only the things I need

ljpuk — Sat, 16 May 2026 05:55:09 +0000

I’m in a real decluttering at the moment, as I get older I realise people after me shouldn’t be burdened with stuff that I accumulated that I didn’t really use or fully need. I’m not talking going full on minimalism, I just mean buying intentionally and only owning the things I need. I’m trying to reduce my things to one of each to start with and go from there. One watch, one pair of trainers etc. When I’m buying things I’m now much more mindful of if I have another version of this thing already and will it add or subtract mental load. I also think about what it’s adding to landfill at some point down the line, can it be recycled or given away to carry on being useful? I’m not perfect (nothing is) and do get stuff and get called out but it’s getting a lot better.

If I do need something then it’ll replace the existing one for one. So I’m looking at maybe downsizing my phone as my RSI is getting unbearable, so it’ll be buy used and trade or sell what I have, one in and one out. I don’t need two phones, I just need something to text and call with.

Watches are more difficult as I’m uncertain if analog or digital works best for me but I’ve reduced to a few watches including sentimental ones.

Tech is easy, one laptop, one iPad and one phone.

Consoles… well I have one of each so errrr that’s a work in progress.

I don’t buy clothes but have lost some weight and my waist has gone down a couple of inches, this’ll be a must buy at some point…

Some of this is spurned by a massive decrease in my monthly budget and I’m spending less generally but again, as I’ve gotten older I’m more faced with leaving things behind for others and it usually stops me in my tracks when I’m about to buy that new Lego set I probably don’t need or Star Wars collectible.