notes app; nobody has enough time
on morning routines, career trajectories, upcoming sequels and why it's more than okay to sell out
I fear that nobody has enough time to be employed, hot, active, have a social life, be in a relationship and have a consistent Substack so I will settle with being exceedingly mediocre at everything.
Here’s what’s been on my mind.
I have only ever seen Apple Health’s eight-hour sleep notification once
I bought an Apple Watch late last year and only recently did I discover that it sends a congratulatory notification for getting eight hours of sleep.
(Lowkey, does any working adult get a consistent eight hours of sleep?)
Throughout the last couple of years, I’ve made occasional fusses about keeping efficient morning routines and healing nighttime routines.
I’m not gunning for that alpha-masculine: wake up at 5am -> submerge into an ice bath -> eat a live frog setup nor the ultra-feminine seven-step skincare routine -> gin and tonic with cucumber -> listing ten things I’m grateful for; but just s,ome structure at the very least, which I can appropriately follow 95% of the time. To this day, I haven’t been able to strike something I’m comfortable with.
Something I did notice, however, is that whenever I trial out a routine - I’d either feel 1) amazing that I could accomplish such things or 2) awful that I couldn’t attain them.
If I don’t run a routine however, I function on autopilot (which has been the story of last week), with a looming sensation that my mornings and nights are controlled by someone else.
While it’s got more dramatic ups and downs, I think the right thing to do is to keep striving for a routine - experimenting for what works best for me. The story is all about reclaiming ownership of my time because I think life runs happier when I feel like my days belong to me, along with the energy that comes with it.
Full-time work, quarter-time study
It’s no secret that I’ve become noticeably more stressed out since moving roles in July 2024.
Even though new opportunities have popped up, I’ve decided to stick with where I am today, believing that I could learnt plentiful from the mentor figures around me; from business management, actuarial thinking and people skills. I like to believe I’ve got a trusted rapport in my current company - not a start-up but not a corporate either, the sweet spot, in my opinion, to both learn and earn.
Starting February, I’ll be studying for one of the Actuaries Insitute’s general examinations to close out the qualifications I don’t have yet, which should take about two years. This will be my first time getting a taste of that working full-time, studying quarter-time schedule which will undoubtedly squash my mornings and nights.
I view building this Substack a quarter-time project too - your support would be marvelously appreciated.
De-po-sito (in the tune of Despacito)
My first term deposit just matured and I’m feeling very big guy right now.
I actually forgot I placed it - which I recall was the exact reason I put that term deposit down in the first place, telling myself that “I need to put this money out of my account to make it feel like every dollar I earn has more significance.”
Did I make a lot from it? Well, no. It was 521.80 Australian dollars over the course of the year, which isn’t bad but nothing substantial and was almost instantly eaten up by my $300 phone bill which popped the next day. Now that I mention it, that’s not a bad way to set everything up: to continuously recycle this term deposit and act as if it covers up my phone bill for free.
This matured deposito made me think about how my life is financed, a bit of hopelessness to how expensive everything is getting but also an insurmountable gratefulness to the fact that I have a relatively good job, have access to a property owned by my parents and have the funds to put aside for a term deposit that outputs $521.80.
Two teeny little money-related actions for me:
Shop around for a cheaper Internet provider ($79 per month is NOT it)
Save up a some money for potential bedroom renovations (any aesthetic lighting recommendations?)
[🦑🦑🦑 Squid Game 2 spoilers start!! 🦑🦑🦑]
Squid Game 2 is structured exactly like Catching Fire
I’m not a TV show person but I’ve been watching a bit more with my girlfriend recently and naturally we had to watch Squid Game 2 - and while I know it’s certainly not the same, I skimmed through the Wikipedia page of Squid Game 1 prior to our viewing to catch up on what happened and its general story structure (no, I have not watched Squid Game 1).
It was around episode three where I recognised that Squid Game 2 is structured exactly like Hunger Games’s second act, Catching Fire; where they spend a sizeable first-half exploring the aftermath of the first games on Gi-hun/Katniss and only start the bloodbath about 30% of the way through. Just like Catching Fire, the plot transitions from twisted game to rebellion arc towards circa the last quarter.
Should the show follow this trajectory, Squid Game 3 would barely feature any games at all, being solved not through bathroom brawls and fork fights but through assault rifles, political uprising and class symbolism - which we have already partially seen.
I’ll almost certainly going to watch it, but probably not on release and certainly not on my own because again - I’m not a TV show person.
[ 🦑🦑🦑 Squid Game 2 spoilers end!! 🦑🦑🦑]
I’m never curious about next episodes
On the topic of TV shows, my partner made the interesting observation that whenever we watch something, I’m never too curious about what happens next.
This isn’t to say I don’t pay attention to what I watch. I follow plots closely, give characters names when I don’t remember them and often find myself explaining the subtext within certain scenes, cutting up implied truths from what characters say, complementing the camera work and identifying the multitude of Chekhov’s guns that Korean dramas adore sprinkling into their shows.
From this comment, I also realised that it’s very seldom for me to pick up book two of a series, even if I positively adored book one.
A few days ago, I finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and agree that it’s an amazing, high-octane, super compelling tale that I thoroughly enjoyed - but have little intention to pick up the next book, The Well of Ascension, until I’ve at least gone through a couple other reads.
I don’t have a good reason for this. It’s not like I’ve got discipline of steel. I too am vulnerable to the Next episode -> Skip intro block string.
Between you and me, I think it’s because there hasn’t been a piece of media to utterly enrapture me, being so attached to the characters that I get frustrated when pulled away from the page or screen. Hell, I can’t even point to my favourite pieces of media, not because there are so many good ones that I can’t choose a clear winner, but because I really am quite forgetful and unless you give me a list to pick from, I’ll struggle to give you an answer that isn’t tainted by recency bias.
“Life still needs to go on,” I think, alongside, “There are so many more films to watch, books to read, games to play.”
Nintendo Switch 2
Talking about things to look forward to, Nintendo just shadow-dropped a trailer for Nintendo Switch 2.
Keeping the portable + docked form factor is a no-brainer for the gaming giant and I’m very glad for it. The Nintendo Switch fills a niche that no other console can reliably fulfill and has forever captured the hearts of casual/non-gamer gamers - a category that now includes myself.
I was never too intense of a gamer to begin with, but Nintendo does and will forever hold a special place in my heart as the pocket-sized, dual-screen companion I grew up with and a key connecting force during my university years. Kirby the pink puff ball in particular, is baked into my identity.
I am not likely to get Nintendo Switch 2 on release but will ideally do so when the next Super Smash Bros installment comes out, regardless of whether it’s a deluxe port of Ultimate or an entirely new title.
Selling out is not a crime!
I have a confession to make.
I’m a bit of a LinkedIn bro.
I don’t post on LinkedIn, well, other than that one gratitude post about being sponsored to go to the Biennial ICMIF Conference in Argentina - but I am a person who undeniably pursues those stereotypical metrics of success i.e. corporate ladder, well-paying job, corporate jargon lover and would want to start a business of my own someday.
(No trust fund, not six foot five, and have very regular, brown eyes, unfortunately. I do work in finance though.)
I’ve been told that there’s apparently an ecosystem of that here on Substack; of icky influencers talking about marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, monetisation strategies and Five Reasons Your Substack Is Not Getting Views!
However, other than one Tim Denning article I accidentally came across - I haven’t seen a single one of them on my feed.
Perhaps I haven’t been here long enough for the algorithm to pick up my innate corporate slave nature, but my feed is an overwhelming mix of two things: thought-daughter pieces with identical takes on girlhood or social media (which, while beautifully written and extremely valid, I’m getting incredible desensitised to) or posts that express abysmal disdain towards people/bots who share hustle bro content on Substack (raised pitchforks against an enemy who I cannot see).
Despite my post where I thank the thankless contributors of the Internet, I am a firm believer that there is nothing wrong with selling out.
My line of thinking is that if a creator I used to like decided to choose the path of overwhelming reach and sponsorship money, I nod, thinking okay that’s cool, and decide that I won’t watch their content anymore because it’s no longer relateable to me specifically. It’s unfortunate if they were one of my favourites, but there are so many wonderful people to meet and discover, and I’d rather spend my time finding and consuming from instead of mourning the loss of content that no longer exist.
And between you and me, between the circle-jerking hustle bros and intellectually-critical writers of Substack - I’ve only seen one party so unashamedly bash the other.
Writers that come to mind
I really wish Substack had a better method of saving articles instead of sending everything to one giant folder. I’m still in the process of establishing a few authors I look up to, who I call my ‘hero writers’, and for right now, I think a decent measure of who my hero writers are would be to write down the first five names/newsletters I can think of.
Tadzio Dlugolecki from Joy Arbitrage
Tadzio has a topic selection I really enjoy, which again is a bit LinkedIn bro but the disillusioned LinkedIn bro who incorporates sarcastic humour into the strategic business thinking (I hope you’re not offended by that Tadz but you do says you do consulting so I know it’s not your first rodeo in corporate jargon). I discovered him from this trending article about asymmetric gains and is partially why I make an effort to comment on every article I read.
Eleanor Kang from postcards by elle
Elle must have a wizarding wand of some kind because the way she talks about literature, love and life is positively pristine - making magic amongst the cracks of the mundane. I’m a major fan of the way she structures her page; a shelf for her interests, a box for her learnings on life, and a drawer of postcards that give the reader glimpses to her mind.
Griffin Blue Emerson from Briffin Glue Huffer
Love the liquid PVA-huffing humour and chaotic energy that Griffin brings to recent events - a walking parody with a keyboard and word processor but he’s really got some profound shit to say, hidden behind messy sketches, oddball titles and a cowabunga attitude. I really liked his short story about chopsticks in the piano bar - reminding me that I’d like to write some fiction here too - and an About Page I could only aspire for.
Ted Gioia from The Honest Broker
As an established jazz critic and music historian who literally has his own Wikipedia page, Ted’s knowledge is incredible. His professionalism is unparalleled and between you and me, I can get a bit desensitised by the lowercase writers who criticise social issues with a grimly nihilistic, TikTok-carved lens - so I’m very thankful that Substack also has a voice for the more professional and well-researched.
Jordan Santos from No One Asked by Jordan Santos
One of the first articles I read on this platform was ‘twenty things I’d rather do than be on my phone’ and that’s the energy I’d like to bring into 2025. Jordan is an artisan at turning feelings into words, especially the ones that I haven’t been able to articulate myself (see: it’s okay to be curated) - I also love the way she formats her blog with its light academia colour scheme with compelling thought-pieces and scattered life updates, even though, well, no one asked (love it Jordan!)