I actually know almost nothing about her, but I found this song on a music blog (maybe stereogum?) probably at least 15 years ago and I never get tired of it. I will have to look at some of her other work.
It is hard and I don’t have a great answer, but one thing I try to do for myself is to always have something scheduled that I am looking forward to. It can be something big (like a concert) or small (weekend donuts). It really helps me to feel like I am not spending my whole life working.
What I run into with automations is that I get so excited and focused on the process of setting up a system that I don’t always stop to think about if it’s really going to benefit me. When I found Amazing Marvin, I set up the most bonkers convoluted system and it was an amazing rush, but then when I was done I had no real desire to use it. It’s not really a big deal because I usually just write it off as entertainment, but I do sometimes feel like I’m always on the lookout for the magic app or automation and once I find it my whole life will be smooth sailing.
That said, I have found that the best automations for me are the simplest:
Home automations - I have some lights set to turn on/off at certain times of day and the shades open in the morning and close in the evening. I got in pretty deep with the home automations at one point because it was fun, but lights/shades are really the only ones I stuck with.
Tasks - I feel like I’ve tried every app out there, but I’ve been using TickTick for the past 6 months, which is probably at least 3x longer than I’ve lasted with any other app. I like the combination of task/calendar and the visual focus mode, where you just see a big timer and the task you are supposed to be focused on. I have some recurring tasks set up for routines (morning, wrapping up work, etc.) For habits I really like the app Streaks on iOS.
Reminders - I take more of an “only notify is there is a problem” approach because of how quickly reminders become meaningless to me. I also like to have something visual that I can’t easily dismiss. For example, at one point I had an iOS shortcut that would run at a certain time in the morning to check Streaks to see if I had taken my medication. If I hadn’t it would change my phone wallpaper to something I hated. I also tried out something similar that would keep turning the kitchen light on if I hadn’t taken the garbage out.
I know communities like these can get a little silly and they’re easy to make fun of, but they really do serve an important purpose, IMO. The number of people who have to be told that it’s not normal for your partner to scream at you, or that no, your partner actually isn’t a great person if they do fill in the blank is really sad to me. And for every person asking, there are certainly more lurking that can also benefit from reading that. They might have to wade through a bunch of nonsense and AI-generated stories to find it, but I’m glad there’s a place for it.
I actually know almost nothing about her, but I found this song on a music blog (maybe stereogum?) probably at least 15 years ago and I never get tired of it. I will have to look at some of her other work.