Notes on Newsletters

Recently, I've received a few questions on the topic of starting a newsletter. Today, I thought it would be helpful to do a Q & A on this topic. If you aren't interested in starting a newsletter, that's okay! You'll find my list of good reads and listens at the end of this letter.

With that, let’s dive in!

Here’s the question:

“Tammy, I always wanted to start my own newsletter or blog, but I just never got around to put it down on paper. I want to write about health and personal finance because those things make me happy and I know there’s a lot of people that can benefit from what I’ve learned over the years about those subjects. Do you have any suggestions for me?”

— Jorge

Here’s my response:

Jorge,

I love that you want to start sharing your story with readers! As an avid reader, I enjoy reading newsletters and books because they don’t involve scrolling. Plus, this type of reading is usually distraction free and inspiring.

Below you'll find suggestions on how to start a newsletter. The suggestions are based on my experience. Feel free to follow my advice, discard it, or pick and choose the tips that work best for you.

With that, here are my suggestions …

— Getting started can be the hardest part of any writing project, so commit to doing it. Deadlines help me, so I e-mail my newsletter to subscribers every Friday. You can write more or less. It depends on how much time you want to commit to your newsletter. For example, some of my writer friends send a newsletter to readers a few times a week, twice a month, or once a month. Commit to your deadline, and if you need help sticking to it, find an accountability buddy.

— Make time to write your newsletter. For instance, I work on my newsletter every morning. Typically, I brainstorm newsletter topics on Monday, then I'll write a first draft. By Wednesday, I'm ready to revise and edit. I do the final edits and formatting on Thursday, that way the newsletter is ready to go out on Friday morning.

— Choose a company that allows you to publish a newsletter with ease, and make it simple for readers to subscribe. It’s important that the company you choose allows readers to opt in and opt out of your newsletter.

— Metrics like subscriber counts and open rates can be helpful, but don’t let them become the driving force behind any writing project. Each reader is more than a number. They are real life humans, just like writers. Plus, worrying about metrics can kill the joy of writing. Write your newsletter because you enjoy it! Readers will feel that authentic joy, and they will keep coming back for more stories and advice.

The Writing …

— Carry a journal, or use an app on your smart phone, to record your writing ideas.

— Experiment with the style of your newsletter. Try short or long form newsletters, or a list format (see Austin Kleon’s newsletter archive as an example).

— Write a shitty first draft, then worry about editing the content. The number of times you edit a draft will depend on your writing style and how picky you are. For example, I typically revise my newsletter 5 to 10 times.

— Before you hit sent, read your final draft aloud. I learned this trick when I was writing my first book. My literary agent recommended this tactic because it’s an easy way to catch errors and awkward phrasing.

— Take advantage of programs like the Hemingway Editor or Grammarly. You won’t catch every typo or grammar error, and that’s okay. You can also ask a friend or a loved one to proofread your newsletter. I’m lucky because my husband always reads my newsletter before I send it out. Inevitably, he finds typos that I missed.

And that's it! I hope my advice was helpful! Keep me posted on your progress.

***

Good Links

With that, here’s a list of what I enjoyed consuming this week:

+ So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo was an excellent read. The book offered actionable tips, reminded me to check my privilege (often), and that change can occur. But first, we have to have hard conversations.

+ Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was a lyrical, surprising, and exciting novel. I read the book in less than a day!

+ I'm halfway through Figures in a Landscape: People & Places by Paul Theroux. It's a unique collection of essays, and I'm looking forward to finishing the book this weekend.

+  If you’d like to start journaling, read my e-book—Write to Flourish: A Beginner’s Guide to Journaling. You can buy a copy here.

+ Looking for more good reads? Check out my Bookshop page.

With gratitude,

Tammy

Notes on Rest, Writing, & Portugal

It’s been over two months since I sent you a newsletter, and I haven’t posted words or photos on the blog since the end of July. I’m still writing, but my recent writing hasn't been for public consumption.

Instead, I’ve been writing in my notebooks. Writing in my journal has been relaxing and rewarding. Also, my private writing sessions helped me realize that I’ve lost my desire to blog, and that I need a season of quiet and rest.

In Maybe the Secret to Writing is Not Writing author Kate Angus said:

“…maintenance and care are necessary—without rest we cannot regenerate. These days I’ve come to believe that it’s natural for many of us to go through periods when we put words to the page and times when we can’t. These aren’t separate, distinct states; rather than agonizing over ‘writer’s block,’ maybe we can accept that we aren’t blocked at all, and that resting might just be part of our process.”

As I read Angus’ essay, I nodded along in agreement. I've been blogging for 15 years, and it’s time for me to hit the pause button. I need a break from constantly publishing to the Internet. Instead, I want to rest and gather new ideas (with the hope of writing a new book).

Don't worry, this isn't a goodbye letter. I still enjoy writing this newsletter, and plan on popping into your inbox once or twice a month.

With that, here are a few more updates:

The Portugal Diaries

In September, I spent two weeks in Portugal with my friend Shanna. Honestly, if Shanna hadn’t moved to Portugal, I probably wouldn’t have visited the country because Portugal wasn’t on my travel radar.

Shanna graciously hosted me, which made the trip even better. I got to spend quality time with my friend and was immersed in a Portuguese neighborhood. It gave me a true sense of what it would feel like to live in Portugal. If you're visiting a new city or country, home stays are the way to go.

And speaking of Shanna, here’s how she described our trip in a recent Instagram post:

casa da cerca. vegan pastel de nata. coffee (all the coffee). setúbal. train rides. ferry rides. bus rides. the metro. gulbenkian gardens. petisco da lata. lisbon. the view from the top of el corte inglés. organi chiado. veg-e-tal. belém. comoba. principe real garden. cacilhas. cabane. all the gelado. almada velha. doors & windows. naps. more coffee. killer neighborhood cats.

we may take crappy selfies, but we sure do slow travel just right! thank you, friend, i love you and look forward to our next visit!

I agree! We definitely do slow travel well.

On my trip, I filled up a small travel journal with notes, insights, and what inspired me about the trip. Here's a brief list from my notebook:

1.  The coffee; especially espresso with chocolate notes. The average cost of an espresso was less than 1 Euro.

2. Shanna introduced me to excellent vegan restaurants in Lisbon, Almada, and Setúbal. Here's a list of my favorites restaurants and cafes:

• Veg-e-Tal

• Petisco da Lata

• The Green Affair

• Fabulas

• Comoba

• Organic Chiado

• Fabrica

• Cabane

• Scoop-in Dough

• BoBa Garden

• Canterio

• Pastelaria Batalha (This is where you'll find delicious vegan pastel de nata. The locals say they taste like the real thing!!!)

I was surprised by the inexpensive cost of food at the grocery store and at restaurants. We ate out daily and cooked at home. During the trip, I spent less than €400 on food.

3. The public transportation system in the Lisbon area is incredible and inexpensive. On a typical day, I'd ride the metro and ferry. We also took the train and bus occasionally and I spent less than €40 on transit. Also, the transportation system was on TIME and CLEAN. It left me wondering why we can’t do something similar in the U.S.

4. My friend in San Francisco hosted me before I left for Portugal. She gave me a wonderful tour of her neighborhood, Japantown, parks, and more. I also got to take her out for a late birthday dinner! It was a special weekend, and she was incredibly generous to let me stay in her home. My friend is going to visit me in Chico soon, and I'm looking forward to paying back that generosity.

I’ll save the rest of my travel insights for another letter.

Travel Costs

A few folks asked how much my trip to Portugal cost. I spent roughly $1,700. For those budget geeks out there, here's a breakdown of what I spent on the trip and a few notes. Scroll down if you're not interested in my budget or logistics.

+ Flight: $543.38 (this was for a round-trip ticket. I used airline miles to reduce the cost).

+ Amtrak: $64 (I flew out of San Francisco, so I had to take the train and bus to get from Chico to the city, and back home).

+ Hyatt: $225 (On my return flight, I stayed in Emeryville, CA at the Hyatt so that I could catch an early train home. After 24 hours of travel, I was utterly exhausted).

+ Taxi: $72 (from the San Francisco airport to the Hyatt).

+ The rest of my money was spent on food in Portugal & in San Francisco, public transportation, dollar to Euro conversion fees, postcards, a few journals, and a souvenir. I purchased a set of MUJI pajamas!

With that, the trip was amazing, thought provoking, and I’m HAPPY to be HOME. I missed The Husband and my sweet cat Christie.

Cat News

And speaking of Christie, I have sad news to share. Her health continues to decline. Last week, Christie had another seizure and a bad reaction to new medication. We took her to our veterinarian for an exam, blood work, and a urinalysis.

Unfortunately, Christie lost a quarter of a pound, which is a lot of weight for a very tiny cat. The tests also confirmed that her chronic kidney disease is progressing. I don’t know how long my sweet girl will be around, so I’m savoring all of her snuggles, purrs, and tiny meows.

We’re fortunate because we have an amazing veterinarian—along with vet technicians—who guided us through Elaina’s final months, and they are doing the same with Christie. Everyone at the office has been incredibly helpful and kind.

Please know, that we're doing everything we can to keep Christie comfortable and happy.

Good Reads

This summer, I spent a lot of time reading books. Here's a list of my favorite reads:

+ In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World by Dr. Lauren E. Oakes

+ 10% Happier by Dan Harris

+ Normal People by Sally Rooney

+ The Tattooist of Auschwutz by Heather Morris

+ If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

Happy reading friends!

With gratitude,

Tammy Strobel

On Digital Minimalism

On March 23, 2018, I finally quit social media because I wanted my time and attention back. Then I disabled or deleted the following accounts: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Slack, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Plus, Fitbit, and Flickr.

I wasn't actively sharing my creative work on all the accounts listed above. However, the sites I regularly used—like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—fragmented my attention. I felt like I was wasting my time, and I was tired of picking up my phone. Plus, I wasn't actively using Flickr, Pinterest, Google Plus, etc. In short, it was time to downsize my digital life and revamp my habits.

The first few weeks without social media in my daily life felt strange. I kept reaching for my phone to check services like Instagram, and then I remembered that I no longer had access to the app. As time moved on, I reached for my phone less often, felt less anxious, more focused, and slightly embarrassed by how much time and mental energy I devoted to social media sites. To be clear, I didn't leave the Internet. I was still sharing words and photos on my blog and with newsletter subscribers.

By the end of April 2018, my twitch to continually check social media sites was gone. Stepping away from the social media rat race felt incredible! Also, the extra time and increased focus enabled me to prepare for a month-long creative writing workshop in Paris, France. Before leaving for Paris, I did a lot of reading and writing to get ready for the course/experience.

Using Facebook in Paris

When I received the welcome email for the writing workshop, my heart sank a little. Part of the email stated that fellow students and instructors would use a private Facebook group to share information about social events during our time in the city. I’d already deleted my Facebook account and wasn’t keen on rejoining the service.

However, I didn’t want to miss out on social gatherings in Paris, so I asked the program director for his advice. The director encouraged me to set-up a "burner" Facebook account for the class under a nom de plume (a pen name). So, that's what I did. I used the group to stay updated on social activities while in Pairs, and when I got home in August 2018, I deleted my account (again).

Looking back, I probably didn't need to join the Paris Facebook group. For example, one of my classmates—a fantastic writer in her early twenties—had never opened a Facebook account, and wasn't planning on creating one for the workshop. She also didn’t miss out on social activities.

Overall, the Facebook group was a helpful logistical tool that led to offline conversations and gatherings that were meaningful. Also, I only used the site for 5 to 10 minutes a day, and then logged off — my fear of wasting time on Facebook while in Paris didn’t happen. I also knew that I would not continue using the service when I returned to the states.

Reactivating Instagram

In September 2018—five months after I quit social media—I reactivated my Instagram account. Out of all the social media sites I deleted/deactivated, Instagram was the only app that I missed because it fostered my interest in photography and art. I was cautious about reactivating my account though. If I was going to use Instagram, I wanted to figure out how I could best use the app for personal and professional purposes.

At the time of this writing, I’ve been sharing photos and some stories on Instagram for roughly four months.

Here’s how I share my work on Instagram:

Posting schedule: I don’t put pressure on myself to post daily. I did that for years, and if I continue to use Instagram, the experience must be fun, not annoying or stressful. Typically, I post a photo three times a week, and I don't follow very many folks on Instagram either. Unless I'm documenting travel-based adventures, I’m not inclined to share images or videos on Instagram Stories.

How I post: I don’t have the Instagram app on my phone because it’s distracting and addicting. Instead, I use an app on my laptop called Flume to manage my Instagram account. Weirdly, I don’t feel the need to check Flume all the time on my computer. However, when the Instagram app is on my phone, I want to check it all the time! As an aside, I upgraded to the pro version of Flume because it’s a great tool.

Time spent on Instagram: When I write a caption and post a photo, the process takes 5 to 15 minutes. If I’m logging on to see what my artist friends are doing, I spend less time on the app. On the high end, I spend less than an hour on Instagram each week.

On Happily Missing Out

Cal Newport defines digital minimalism as:

“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time to a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”

When I began sharing my creative work online, I thought that I had to be everywhere to find readers, and that’s part of the reason I had so many social media accounts. I definitely wasn’t a digital minimalist. In retrospective, it would have been better to sign up for one or two social networking sites, instead of many.

Today, I’m happy to miss out, and I certainly don’t miss using Facebook or Twitter, or the other sites I mentioned above. I’d also be fine without Instagram in my life. I’m wary of putting a lot of energy into Instagram because I don’t own the app. Plus, Instagram’s parent company is Facebook (a company that’s engaged in concerning data collection practices).

Currently, Instagram is the only social media account I use, and I don’t know if I’ll continue sharing my work on the app or not. I will continue to put time and energy into my digital home—RowdyKittens.com—and other fun writing projects like my newsletter.

GOOD READS

If you’re thinking about revamping your digital life, check out the books and articles below. I hope you find them useful.

Books 

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport is excellent! I devoured the book in three days. I'm still processing what I learned from Newport, and I'll probably blog about it soon. I will say this: If you want to declutter your digital life, Digital Minimalism is full of useful tips and tools.

How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price is a short and helpful read.

In the Moment: 365 Creative Ways to Connect with Your World by Jocelyn De Kwant and Sanny Van Loon isn't about digital minimalism in the traditional sense. It is an interactive journal that fosters mindfulness. The book includes "365 different prompts that encourage you to observe, draw, write, imagine, meditate, and play."

Jocelyn sent me a gratis copy, and I’m incorporating the journal and prompts into my morning routine.

Articles

How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You: This is an incredibly long and instructive article. It’s worth reading!

Why newsletters beat social media: Loved this one!

Five Quick Thoughts on Migrating a Website ...

Technology has been on my mind for the last month because I’ve moved to a new digital home.

Below are five thoughts about my recent website migration in no particular order.

1. Ask for help. 

Moving my website from WordPress to Squarespace wouldn't have been possible without my brother-in-law's amazing tech skills. Asking for help can feel vulnerable and difficult, but being vulnerable is essential to living a good life.

2. It’s okay to delete or un-publish content online. 

I've meant to prune the content on my website for the past two years, and this migration was the perfect opportunity to do so. Last weekend, I spent Friday through Sunday reviewing my blog archive, formatting older posts, and deleting or un-publishing posts from the blog. I reviewed over 900 posts in my archive, and that was only the tip of the content iceberg. I'm astounded by the amount of content I've shared online over the past ten years.

3. Reviewing your body of work is a good idea.  

I uncovered interesting themes and details while reviewing my blog archive, like:

• Blogging is a tool that I've been passionate about for over ten years.

• Photography is a huge part of my work.

• I'm good at finding, curating, and sharing articles and books.

4. RowdyKittens.com is my home online.

Big social media platforms come and go, and there's a lot to be said for cultivating a digital home on the open web. Also, maintaining my website has given me useful skills and a deeper understanding of how the Internet works. This approach reminds me of a quote from Alan Jacobs's recent essay—Tending the Digital Commons: A Small Ethics toward the Future.

Jacobs said:

“ ... I think every young person who regularly uses a computer should learn the following:

how to choose a domain name

how to buy a domain

how to choose a good domain name provider

how to choose a good website-hosting service

how to find a good free text editor

how to transfer files to and from a server

how to write basic HTML, including links to CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) files

how to find free CSS templates

how to fiddle around in those templates to adjust them to your satisfaction

how to do basic photograph editing

how to cite your sources and link to the originals

how to use social media to share what you’ve created on your own turf rather than create within a walled factory

One could add considerably to this list, but these, I believe, are the rudimentary skills that should be possessed by anyone who wants to be a responsible citizen of the open Web—and not to be confined to living on the bounty of the digital headmasters.

There is, of course, no way to be completely independent online, either as an individual or a community: This is life on the grid, not off. Which means that anyone who learns the skills listed above—and even those who go well beyond such skills and host their websites on their own servers, while producing electricity on their own wind farms—will nevertheless need an Internet service provider. I am not speaking here of complete digital independence, but, rather, independence from the power of the walled factories and their owners.”

Also, the skills Jacobs listed above can be learned by anyone—regardless of age. I have about three-quarters of the skills Jacobs listed in my toolbox, and still, have plenty to learn.

5. You’re allowed to change your mind. For example, it’s okay to switch content management systems, publish short blog posts on a variety of different topics, and more. Don’t limit your creative output to a single medium or niche. 

Why I'm Breaking Up with Social Media

I’m breaking up with all things social media – which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter. 

Here’s why: 

1.    Social media is a distraction from my creative work and other life pursuits.

2.    I have major concerns with how Facebook collects and uses data.

3.    Instagram – acquired by Facebook in 2012 – no longer brings me joy. That’s a direct result of the algorithm, advertising, and their data tracking practices. 

Moving forward, I won’t share my creative work on Facebook’s platforms or Twitter. 

Instead, here’s where you can find my photography and writing online:  

1. RowdyKittens.com—is my home base online; it’s where I’ll share my daily writings and photos. You can subscribe via email or RSS.

2. Books, courses, and freelance articles. I’ll announce new projects on my blog!

As a company of one, my creative energy and time are limited, and breaking with social media is in my best interest. Maybe I’ll get back together with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter in the future, but as of this writing, using social media doesn’t foster focus or happiness in my personal and professional life.

I’ll leave you with this quote by Derek Sivers:

" ... But the more I thought about it, the less I liked my implied support. I’m sick of being insincere. I’m against centralized platforms. I strongly prefer a decentralized internet. 

Maybe the fact that I use Facebook to share my blog posts is a tiny tiny reason why others are still using it ... Maybe if I quit going entirely, it will help my friends quit, too.

I’ve snapped out of the silly fear that people won’t find me if I’m not there. If they care at all, they’ll find me."

PS: I recommend reading the following articles: 

• The Data Economy by Molly Wood

• Why 'A Domain of One's Own' Matters (For the Future of Knowledge) by Audrey Watters