It's OK to Ignore the News Tonight
Why you should binge watch anything BUT the news tonight
🗳Today is Election Day. And that means our feeds and TV news are going to become that much more toxic and hyperbolic.
🙋🏻♀️Perhaps one of the saddest things about the last ten years of our political cycle is that politics has invaded everything. If you got into a screaming fight about politics with someone you otherwise love this year, raise your hand because I have, and I’m ashamed that it got that far.
The good news is that we don’t have to live like this. We really don’t. We can stay informed without participating in the circus we’re going to see tonight and in the coming days.
Watching the news is bad for you. With the onset of the 24-hour news cycle, TV news networks have to fill the time somehow,. They do that by sensationalizing everything in the relentless pursuit of eyeballs for their advertisers.
I plan to stay as far away as I can from a TV tonight.
❌I am begging you to do the same. Stop letting this toxic political cycle dictate your time. Step away from the TV and social media tonight. Likely, we won't know who won tonight, and even if it’s a landslide, no one will concede the election tonight.
🍺🍷Instead, make some dinner, have a glass of wine, and binge watch some great TV (here are some great suggestions). Or read a SHORT book (suggestions), spend time with your kids, exercise, or sleep.
🌎 The news of the world will be waiting for us on Wednesday morning; in the meantime - breathe.
What I’m Listening To & Reading This Week
🎧 Remember how I just said a few minutes ago that you don’t need the news? The latest episode of one of my favorite podcasts tackles the peril and promise of social media, discusses how to find good sources of news, and offers great tips on how to mitigate its worst excesses. How To Use Social Media Without Losing Your Mind
I’m also listening to the “You’re Wrong About” podcast series on Princess Diana. No, it’s not the most intellectually stimulating listen, but the hosts’ modern take on this “fairy tale” are insightful and poignant.
👩🏻💻 Do you ever wonder where your time goes? The irony is that we have more leisure than any generation before us. In the article Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure, Ashley Whillans explores where our lost leisure time went and how to reclaim it.
Top Reasons Your Company Wants You Fired You Aren’t Aware Of - there are so many gems in this article. This is probably one of my favorites:
Lack of respect
Leaders are hired to move the company towards a common goal. Crapping on your various departments will discourage and divide the company. We have a unit in our company that is our front line of defense called the Virtual Enterprise Technology Services, or V.E.T.S. This group has a thankless job that the rest of the company can take for granted and takes a special group of men and women. Corporate Values 101 says, “don’t shit on the folks who are taking on the thankless jobs.
📖 In the book department, I’m still on a World War Two kick. This week I finished “The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany’s Resistance Against the Nazis.” I enjoyed reading about this disparate group of people who came together informally to resist the Nazi machine. Before the Nazi’s came to power, they were bohemians: artists, writers, painters and musicians who, over time, woke up to the evil of the Nazi regime. Like many other resistance plots, the ending is not a happy one for these resistance fighters but the beauty and honor of their efforts is well worth spending a few hours of your time on.
Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
- Mark Twain