Design Your Summer
Discover more from Well Well Well with Rosamund Dean
Are you on Threads? If you're one of the 150 million users of the new social media platform, then you might find yourself torn between rejoicing in a friendlier, less aggy version of Twitter, and feeling like you now have another damn thing to eat your time, your attention and your phone battery.
I signed up out of interest like everyone else, but I don’t feel that comfortable about it. I’m certainly not kidding myself that the Meta-owned app is a more ethical alternative to Twitter. And I didn’t like the fact that a number briefly appeared on my Instagram profile showing how quickly I had joined, as if it was a badge of honour to be an early adopter rather than a sign that I spend too much time staring at my phone.
All of this is a prelude to announcing that, like last year, I am taking a break from Well Well Well for the summer. Payments have been paused so, if you’re a paid subscriber, you won’t be charged again until September and, if you paid in full for the year, your subscription will be extended so you’re not paying for the next six weeks.
I fully intend to do this every year because, as much as I love writing this newsletter, these weeks should be all about summer hours, less time tied to our devices and proper rest - ideally involving lying back and staring at the sky. Yes, I know work doesn’t stop because the sun’s out, but I’m hoping that one less thing in your inbox can go a tiny way towards reducing digital overwhelm.
Side note: In a moment of digital overwhelm yesterday, I asked AI to write today’s newsletter. This was the result, which makes me think I don’t need to worry about losing my job to a robot quite yet (I mean, it doesn’t even know my name), but I am very aware that this technology is improving all the time and I do have an underlying sense of dread about where it will all lead…
Anyway! On Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast, she often talks about ‘designing your summer’. The idea being that, if you’re not intentional about how you spend your summer hours, then you could end up frittering them away on emails and social media and, the next thing you know, the nights are drawing in, you can’t leave the house without a coat and… you’ve missed it.
This has definitely happened to me before. Suddenly it’s September and you realise that you had vaguely thought about going to a festival/visiting friends in the countryside/watching an outdoor screening/having friends over for a kombucha by the paddling pool but you haven’t actually done any of it. I’m clearly not saying you should over-schedule your life and replace digital overwhelm with the IRL version - that’s the antithesis of a relaxing summer. But do make some plans, and remember to schedule time for staring at the sky.
Since last September, I’ve written a newsletter every single week. I’ve covered sleep, stress, spirituality, drinking, menopause, time-restricted eating, blood sugar regulation, brain health, financial wellness and much more. They are all available to read in the archive.
While we’re on a break, new subscribers can still sign up for free, but you won’t be able to buy new paid subscriptions until I fire those up again in six weeks.
Thanks for reading Well Well Well. See you in September!
This week I’m…
Watching Barbie. I can’t help it, I love it, give me all the kool-aid
Listening to Anne-Marie’s brilliant new album, Unhealthy. As I always say, it’s not unhealthy if you love it
Planning to do both Green Man and Big Feastival this year - please send me tips on making the most of them