Getting Ready for November 3rd

Estimated Reading Time: 2.5 minutes

Yesterday, I posted recommendations about how to get through this week in ways that have us turning away from news and into other things such as turning towards reflection, projects, or community.  My friends came up with a really great list of things to do that I'm sure many of us can appreciate and borrow from.  

The list is great in terms of what to do instead but I also realized there were things that can be done to better ensure that I can actually do those things and not be distracted or sucked into the misinformation, disinformation, and free-association interpretation that passes for political discourse in various news outlets in both analog and digital formats.  So I thought I'd follow yesterday's list with a some specific actions that I'm taking to help with that.  I share these not because they are particularly new or innovative but to provide others with some ideas or specific actions worth doing.  

1. I turned off social media notifications on my phone (not messages but everything else) and removed social media links from my quick address bar. This keeps me from getting pulled into the opening up social media and doomscrolling. It's ok if I want to do so but I want to make it a deliberate choice where I have to type it into the address bar.  

2. I created a filter in my email to funnel anything with "Breaking News" or from typical places that I get news from to go into a Folder and bypass the Inbox.  In some cases, I unsubscribed from things, realizing I can subscribe again.  But this helps funnel everything without me watching the play-by-play.  In years past, the nearly hourly "Breaking News" happens constantly throughout the day and beyond. If I don't have to get sucked into each bit, I'm not feeling like I'm getting lots of noise.  

3. I'm going to avoid having my personal email open on November 3-4 as I usually might and make it a place I deliberately go. I know that the second item in this list isn't guaranteed to keep all of the likely news and updates, so the more I stay away from the inbox, the better.  

4. Making a deliberate list of how I plan to make use of the day Tuesday (and likely Wednesday and maybe Thursday).  Largely, I plan to create a timeline of the day so that I always have something "next' to do--even if it is watching the next episode of Doctor Who from the latest season I got from the library.   

5. Continue to read fiction for 1 hour before bed and end my days by 10pm.

What about you?  What's your plan for navigating what's likely to be a hard few days?

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