Log per day - 2026
2026-03-24
I had a “Clarity weekend” last weekend where I spent a big chunk of each day mapping out all the stuff I claim I’m working on (with the recently foregrounded insight that I am way over capacity and need to stop saying “yes” to stuff and also start saying “no” to a bunch of stuff)
~A week earlier, I changed why WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram profile pics to this:
So far, I have emailed-and-received-emails from 7 friends, and my god, it is so much better
I’m aware of recency bias here, but you know, still…

Why I prefer it

Spacious

It feels so spacious to write an email. You sit down for 5-15 minutes, have time to pause, breathe, think
There’s way more screen real estate than e.g. WhatsApp. Way more permission to write more, to share photos, to go slightly unhinged mode. Also to share Google Slide decks with more photos, etc

I expect people to reply every week or less (and, realistically, to get into a procrastination hole, as these things go)
Even with the one friend who I expect to keep this up with for longer, I imagine one a day is the most that we’ll do. And that’s such a huge change from multiple itty-bitty back-and-forths a day, voice notes and quick replies etc. It’s literally akin to letter writing vs tweeting. Long-form and thoughtful and spacious vs ephemeral¹

There are a bunch of people in my WhatsApp where there’s a feeling that I should reply at some point, a twinge of guilt when I see their message if I scroll, but the honest truth is that I don’t want to message them. Making it clear that I’m leaving IM apps behind, and porting over a select group of people who I’m genuinely excited about over to email, is a very clarifying exercise for separating the people I actually want in my life vs the “shoulds” who I don’t need to be messaging. If we’re in the same city in the future, awesome, will be lovely to hang out! But get the hell out of my inbox!

It feels totally fine to batch my emails. For example, I could imagine that Sunday mornings are when I reply to 2-5 friends
Whereas it feels like the implicit assumption/agreement with instant messengers is that you’re supposed to reply relatively ASAP. I’ve had people get annoyed at me for not replying for a few days (e.g., sending an “oi!” or a “hello??”-type message. I would be much more surprised if this happened with email!
Therefore, switching to email immediately unlocks a switch from “oh god I’m failing because I haven’t replied to n messages yet and I’m supposed to have replied”, to “yep, I have 10 emails from friends to reply to, and I’ll get to some of them at the weekend”
(This is also downstream of my making my clarity whiteboard & gantt chart and feeling much better about “I am doing these few things today, and I don’t have these other things scheduled yet. Basically, turns out timeboxing is really powerful)

20+ people who I haven’t replied to in days/weeks/months
Checking messaging apps 50+ times a day to get that hit of connection, a feeling of being cared about by someone
Bunch of voice notes per day
Subtle background low-level fear of missing out on an important message, a feeling of things being Very Time Sensitive and Needing To Be Replied To ASAP. An expectation that you will reply ASAP, always, at least with some people, at least in a kind of implicit way
People who I do reply to almost immediately and want them to reply ASAP too, waiting for them to reply, more dopamine, more connection

And that’s not to discount instant messengers entirely, not to do the recency bias thing of “this thing I’ve been doing this whole time sucks!“. Revealed preferences innit. Instant messengers are awesome for quick dopamine hits and feelings of connection. But they’re definitely very addictive and drug-like innit ↩