065 • The real reason I film YouTube newsletter issues each week

Shorter newsletter today. I’ve been building PARAZETTEL V3 for launch next Friday (relevant in a minute) and haven’t had much time to do any other writing. But I wanted to quickly discuss building skills and setting goals… A while back I wrote a piece called The real reason why you set number-based goals​- it was all about the real motive behind setting arbitrary numbers as goals and targets. In short, the point I was making was that when you reach said number you’re going to get a quick spike of satisfaction only. ...

September 8, 2024 · 2 min · Theo Stowell

064 • What would you do even if you knew you'd fail?

In terms of building a future that you’ll continue to enjoy sustainably, which of the following is more useful to ask? “What’s the worst thing you’d tolerate doing if you got paid what you wanted to do it?” “What would you continue to do even if you knew you weren’t going to get paid to do it?” The first is something one might ask a friend as a bit of fun. Even though it’s more common, there’s not a realistic application - nobody’s queueing to pour money into your lap. ...

August 31, 2024 · 4 min · Theo Stowell

063 • Slowly healing my relationship with social media

I ‘quit’ Instagram a bit more than a year ago. What actually happened - I deleted one of two accounts I had (it was the personal one I was addicted to completely). After a prolonged break (around six months), I came back to using the secondary one, promoting my photography and being careful to stay away from excessive personal use. Long story short, I’m still on Instagram. However, the hiatus was necessary to reset how I approached my use of the platform. These changes are what the issue is going to be about today… ...

August 24, 2024 · 5 min · Theo Stowell

062 • The obvious method I missed when trying to avoid overthinking

Decision fatigue and overthinking are silent killers of consistent and patient progress. Lord knows I’ve been there myself, dedicating too much time during the day to doing just one thing, ending in overthinking and making no progress. You only have a certain amount of worthy attention and focus to spend during the day, and there’s no more once that’s gone. Instead of forcing yourself into too many hours of work, it’s better to be more consistent with less over more time, giving your projects space to grow and develop. ...

August 17, 2024 · 4 min · Theo Stowell

061 • I promise last week I had a good reason not to post a newsletter issue

Welcome back to Fundamentalised, All I can do is apologise for the pause in shared publications last weekend. I have a reason for this, which I’ll share now… It all started a little over a week ago - I went back to spend some time with my family in Bristol. After spending Friday night with them and playing cricket (and performing very well if I do say so myself) on the following Saturday, I headed out to the city centre that night. ...

August 10, 2024 · 3 min · Theo Stowell

060 • Protect your attention and focus at all costs

Welcome back to Fundamentalised, The idea I have for you this week is not one that I talk about much but it is one that I think is extremely important. We’re going to go into methods for curating the content you consume on the internet. You see if you don’t keep track of who can put content in front of your face then you’ll become a target for attention algorithms, designed to keep you on the app they serve for as long as possible. ...

July 28, 2024 · 4 min · Theo Stowell

059 • Some (beneficial) habits that I can't seem to quit

Most of the talk surrounding habits has to do with struggling to form them so today I’m going to break the mould and share some habits that I struggle quitting. I’m talking about the kind of habits that nag you in the back of your mind until you complete them, not feeling quite right until you’ve ticked them off. First, the physical habits that I’ve dialled in… Gym/physical training I’ve been going to the gym for over six years now and it’s something I’ve stayed completely consistent in, apart from a couple of occasions (the Covid lockdown in 2020 and extended travel last month). ...

July 21, 2024 · 4 min · Theo Stowell

058 • The biggest mistake I made when I started travelling

I’d never travelled outside my own country before last month. Three weeks in Portugal and Italy later, there’s one clear thing… Travel solo if you want but don’t be solo. Do things with people - it makes everything so much better. This was something I was slow to figure out. I thought that just because I make most of my work efforts by myself, I could enjoy the sights and experiences in a foreign country the same way. ...

July 14, 2024 · 2 min · Theo Stowell

057 • The main difference between my writing at the start and now

Welcome back to Fundamentalised, There’s one main way in which my writing has improved over the last year and a half since I started. It’s context awareness. The knowledge of where I’m writing and who I’m writing for. I’ve said before that ​I don’t look to incorporate new techniques in my writing​, preferring to try things out intuitively and judge the reaction from readers. This rules out much of technical improvement. In the future though, I’ll look to improve the intricacies of my writing rather than emphasising this fundamental. ...

July 8, 2024 · 2 min · Theo Stowell

056 • De-optimising in some areas for better experiences and work

Happy Friday, Thanks for being patient with me over the last couple of weeks while I was travelling. Here are some pictures for a peek into what I’ve been doing… I flew back from Milan yesterday morning, got a good night’s sleep and now I’m back and ready to focus on writing and creating properly. This was one lesson that I learned on the trip - to experience something in full, you have to de-optimise other areas of your life. ...

June 28, 2024 · 3 min · Theo Stowell