Pruning My Digital Life
Magnolia
I’m reinventing my digital life. Again. It always seems to creep up on me, the increasing time I spend in my digital environment. The number of web sites on my RSS-feed and the jumble of e-mail in my inbox. Time with social media.
Today I saw a hedgehog outside the studio and took this photo of magnolia with my iPhone. And as I write this blog post, the evening breeze touches me with the scents of spring. This elusive time of year when each day the leaves on the trees open more. Shades of green, from lime to deep green. Blossoms…
It’s time to do some pruning and tiding up. Both in my balcony garden and in my digital life. The stream of information has become a flood. I need to take a step back to find some peace and quiet and to enjoy the summer. It’s time to spend more time out of doors than in my digital life.
This summer you’ll see less of me on Twitter and Facebook. I won’t be spending so much time visiting and commenting on blogs.
However, I’ll still be blogging regularly and Marmalade Moon will be updated each Tuesday, with an additional post later in the week if I have any extra news. I’ll soon be sending out the Spring Edition of Club Marmalade Moon and I’m putting the finishing touches to some desktop art soon to be released. So there’ll be lots going on. But I’ll also be making space for having some magnolia moments.
What are your plans for your digital life this summer? Will you be taking a vacation from your desktop environment or will it be a time when you perhaps enjoy spending a little more time on your computer projects?
Tags: creativity, digital environment, evolving, fresh start, growth, overwhelm, reevaluating, reinventing digital life, social media, spring
Love your magnolia Kate – Im amazed you took this with an iPhone. At first I thought you might have used a polaroid – they used to have that same kind of dreamy quality.
Kadira, thank you! :) I used an app for the iPhone called CameraBag, that can (among other things) help you simulate a Polaroid look. I’m having so much fun with lo-fi photography with my iPhone, and one of the best parts is that you always have your phone with you, whilst you don’t (or I) always bring a more full-featured camera with you.
mmmm…I can’t disagree with you, Kate. Sometimes all the online social connecting starts to jumble up my schedule, too. I do take a step back in the summer, mostly because the girls are out of school and home with me, but it’s a great change of pace. It’s my (our) time for hikes and beaches and lakes….I like to call it research and development for future work ;)
I love your pruning comparison.
Amy, that’s a perfect way to put it! “Research and development for future work”! Really! I believe we all need to restore, rejuvenate, find inspiration and wind down to be able to enjoy the more hectic pace of the internet and work! Your summer family plans with hikes and beaches sound really lovely and I hope you all have a wonderful summer!
Oh Kate..you are right on the money. I desire to step away from the cyber world a little bit and enjoy the nature in my real world. I forget sometimes how much time I spend on my computer….trust me, it is really starting to take up a lot of my day! So, in honour of you, I will go outside and enjoy the peaceful surroundings around me.
Megs, I think I know what you mean! For me, my online time can quickly add up, without me paying much attention until I’m kind of overwhelmed by it all!
I hope you had a refreshing day out of doors!
Hi there, I found you through “flying lessons”
I took about 2 weeks off and now that I am back I agree with you that there i a point when the constant “chatter” becomes counter productive-read LESS AUTHENTIC – than I would like my lifeto be. Good for you!
Hello Robin, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! Can’t wait for the Flying Lessons to begin and look forward to getting to know you more in class.
Yes, I agree, there’s a shallow part of the online world, and while I love to connect on a deep and genuine level with my online acquaintances, readers and friends, there’s this “chatter” that you mention too. It’s not easy to just filter out the “noise” and keep the parts that one values.
With 2 weeks off I imagine you’d get a clear picture of what you really value, and what you could prune? Hope you had a great vacation!
hmmm. nice post. good food for thought.
well, i do know that i will be taking my ipad on my vacation with me b/c i haven’t used it much yet- haven’t even hooked it up with 3G network. it’s not that i intend to be facebooking a bunch– i don’t! — but i do just want to really try the ipad out!
but i’d like to challenge myself to my not check my emails so often. i always do it first thing in the morning, i’m not sure how smart that is. i keep saying i’m going to start checking it just 2 times a day. maybe i’ll really try that after reading your post!
Congratulations on your new iPad, Kerri! What a great opportunity to create a different kind of digital environment! I can relate to wanting to find time to explore a new device. When I got my iPhone it was summer, but it wasn’t until my Christmas vacation that I found the time to really explore and sort of make it mine? To find how I could make best use of it, and to feel more confident about how?
You brought up e-mail, and that’s a really important part of our digital lives! As well as how to keep it in check! Somewhere I read that if you start your day by checking your e-mail, you make your e-mail your to-do list, and that perhaps it’s more deliberate to make your to-do list and find your focus before checking your e-mail. I think that was good advice and I try to remember it.
Good luck with your new plan for checking e-mail!
Hi Kate. What a pretty magnolia photo. The ones here bloomed about a month ago. It was short but so sweet. I have actually decreased my on line time greatly recently (just from not feeling well) and I plan to decrease more once Flying Lessons is over. Summer is a great time to relax. I plan to enjoy the time with my kids before my son heads off to full day kindergarten in the fall… but I do plan to be creating as well. I find sometimes I get so drawn in on the computer that I don’t create.
take care
Hi Dana and thanks for your compliment on my magnolia photo!
I recognise the scenario of getting pulled into the computer landscape rather than creating! It’s especially distracting when I use the computer as a tool for my creations!
While I’m really sorry to hear that you haven’t been well, I’m glad that you’re on the mend and I love the sound of your plans for a creative summer with time for your kids!
Hello Kate,
That’s a wise decision, and I believe it’s a productive one. Digital life is fascinating but addictive. When I’m not tweeting or blogging something’s missing, but I finally realize that I’m addicted… Nothing meaningful is missing.
By living in the digital life, we often miss the extraordinary inspiration offered by nature or meeting people in person. We spend too much time in doing and not being.
Great decision!
Steve, thanks so much for your comment, it’s so charged with positive energy! But then so are you! :)
You are right about the addictive part of the online world too. It’s scary, but true!
Oh, and what you said about “doing not being”, is also soooo true!
Hi Kate. I too am a fan and a user of CameraBag. CameraBag, (IMHO), like any craft tool is only as good as the artist who uses it. Your “Polaroid’ rendered magnolia photo is beautiful. CameraBag helped to mechanically produce it, but your artist sensitivity made it a work of art. Such composition! Thank you, Kate, for bringing beauty into my day.
Hello Edward! Thank you SO much for your compliment, it made me very happy!
A fellow CameraBag user!!! Which are your favourite filters?
I agree whole-heartedly with you on your view on the tools for our creativity and creativity itself! Although we may cherish our tools, and they are needed for our expressions, they aren’t the source. If I owned a Stradivarius, it would sadly not make me a virtuoso violinist, unless I learned…
Hello dear Kate. I’ve been trying to reach you for days and for some reason this page would not upload. So glad to make it today. My magnolia is in full bloom. We always are very creative in the summer. The kids make these lists of things to make and do so I blog during the summer just not as frequently because I’m at the stuga where there is no internet or tv, just my lovely singing voice. Also this summer we are on Gotland for a month so I’ll be at Viking Camp and I blog when I can. Where are you heading this summer?
Hello Valarie! So sorry you had trouble reaching Marmalade Moon, but glad to see you here! :)
I love to picture you in your wonderful stuga (how nice to be unplugged too!) and with all your creative projects accumulating! Is there a Viking Camp on Gotland?! I’ll drop you an e-mail about summer plans! xo
You know this is something I am thinking about a lot at the moment – I have already taken a step back and am trying to spend less time online more time creating and enjoying – still working on it though – congratulations on your ideas and that lovely photo! :D
Hello Mousy Brown! It sure isn’t an easy equation! Part of my online life feels so creative and I do love to connect! It isn’t easy to see where to prune, or when… I’d love to hear how it goes for you!
Thank you for your sweet compliments! :)
The magnolias are so sweet. It’s really a perfect photo. I just started using camerbag on my desktop and really love the ‘instant’ filter, but ‘magazine’ almost always stops me in my tracks for some reason. I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Your summer plans sound ideal. You are obviously listening well to that voice inside that lets us know when we’ve had too much or not enough. I strive to be as wise, while still trying to find my own balance.
Your blog adds both beauty and inspiration to my digital world; thank you, so much, for that. I will be looking forward to your weekly updates all summer long.
Dale, thank you so very much for your kind remark about the magnolia photo! Such a huge compliment coming from YOU who I admire so much for YOUR photography! :)
Yes! I like “magazine” too! “Cinema” captures me too… And partly it depends on the light and the motive of your photo too… You do a fantastic job with your photography, it never fails to make me gasp in admiration!
I truly can’t tell you how much your comment about finding beauty and inspiration here on my blog means to me!!!! I hope I live up to your expectations and thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Dear Kate, I fully understand what you mean about needing to cut down on time spent on the computer, especially now that its summer. I just spent about two weeks away from blogging etc, and it was surprising how much time I had to concentrate on doing other things. I don’t spend much time on FB or Twitter, but I do try to get around to visit all my blog friends and readers when I can. I used to comment on a person’s blog whenever they left a comment for me, but I found that it was hard to keep that up. I just allocate a morning or afternoon once or twice a week where I try to visit as many friends as possible in one go.
Dear Wini, it’s so nice to see you taking time off when you need it! And you’re so right, taking time of one activity opens up a whole new space for something else!
I think you brought up a really interesting topic about responding to comments on your own blog, and writing comments on your friend’s blogs! Personally, I find it isn’t always an easy equation!
I always read all the comments on my own blog with gratitude, and I keep up with my friend’s blogs even when I don’t find the time to comment. So there is the silent part too…
Huge and interesting topic! Thanks for bringing it up!
Dearest Kate, i adore your magnolia!! Such a gorgeous photo and i can’t believe its taken from your iPhone! Talking about iPhone…i have a sneak peek of my iCase on my little space. Hop on by if and when you have time. :)
It’s always nice to take a step back and slow things down in summer. But so happy to know that you will still be blogging regularly. :) Have a lovely merry happy weekend and love to you dear friend!
Jacqueline!!!!!!! First of all let me thank you for your kind compliments on my iPhone photography, and next – oh MY, I’m sooo excited to see your iCase project develop! You are a genius!
Much love!