Close to a year ago, I wrote a Medium post on how I use my Kindle to learn new subjects. I explained how I get new resources, and my process for highlighting, exporting, and organizing them into a set of notes I can reference. It seemed to be decent enough to get claps (Medium equivalent of likes, I guess) periodically, even to this day.

I realized that in the last year my process has changed quite a bit, so I wanted to update you on how I go about using my Kindle and how I use Notion to take notes.

If you’re not a Notion user or don’t use a Kindle, don’t worry! I’ll try my best to be abstract enough for you to apply these lessons in your life (paper books & notebooks, Kobo’s & Evernote, podcasts & word doc’s, etc.). …

Originally written on July 1st, 2020.

I’m sure many of you already know the significance of today’s date. For over 150 years, today has marked the “birth” of Canada, the country I call home. Known for its stereotypical niceness, maple syrup, hockey, and Rockies.

Welcome back! This is the second half of my Digital Health strategies blog post. You can read part one here. Special thanks to The Startup For publishing it!

In part one I went over three introductory strategies for reducing your social media dependency & addiction (something we all can admit to struggling with). The goal was to give you practical ideas to start the journey of reducing your social media use. Part two goes into that even more, fleshing out some other strategies to get you farther from your apps and closer to what’s going on around you.

Let’s jump into it! …

Originally published on my Substack newsletter: Tart of War

Today I want to go back in time a bit to the 1994 congressional elections in the United States.

The Republican Party was heading into a mid-term election in the hopes of regaining control of the House of Representatives: the party had been struggling for almost 50 years to establish a majority in the house.

Six weeks before the election, the party announced a shared agreement amongst the Republican minority as well as non-incumbent Republican candidates: titled “The Contract With America”, this checklist-of-sorts proposed 10 main policy proposals the Republican Party would pass if delivered a majority. The Contract unified the Republican campaign around these main ideas that connected back to the fundamental value of the party at that time: decentralization of federal authority. …

In the past few years, I’ve seen a rise in political engagement and interest from people across demographics, countries, and walks of life. It’s fantastic to see young people flood the timelines of Tik Tok to talk about mental health, Black Lives Matter protests gain attention, and hearing older voters changing their political affiliation to support progressive candidates.

While this rise in engagement is phenomenal, there’s an elephant in the room. When it comes to activism and advocacy, we don’t have much of a structure: a path for people to follow and become effective changemakers in society. Especially in progressive politics, where we tackle many complex & unique issues, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. …

Progressives have an important message. Now we need to share it in a way others can hear and understand.

I was scrolling through Twitter the other day, and I came across this tweet:

“We have left fighting GHG emissions too long. We don’t have decades for incremental reductions from pricing. We still need carbon pricing but will have to rely more on 0 emissions, building vehicles & energy mandates that phase out polluting fuels & materials on a timetable.”

I absolutely agree with this. Our planet is changing at an alarming rate, and we need to do more to address that. But that’s the progressive in me speaking.

The average citizen in me is only saying one thing:

“What?”

In the political arena, communication is key. No matter what role you’re in (politician, advocate, activist, etc.), you’re working with a subject that is complex, abstract and doesn’t immediately impact the average voter. …

This is a two-part series. Here’s the 2nd part!

When I was working in communications, there was an expectation that I’d be on my phone at all times. Right? A job that EXPECTS you to be on your phone?

As the first point of digital contact for students, accessibility was paramount: there was an unspoken expectation that I would respond within the hour. This meant I was within arms reach of my phone, ready for any buzz or ping that happened.

Being constantly attached to my phone, like it was part of my hand, was odd. Fun at first: I could scroll away on my apps as often as I wanted. …

(Originally posted on substack)

Before we start, you’ll need the video of the speech. Or, you can read the transcript here. You can watch along by splitting your screen into two, with the video on the left and this article on the right. Or, read this article first. That way you can see what I’m talking about before you watch what’s probably one of the coolest speeches in recent history.

As always, I present my bias in the hopes that by doing so you can identify where I see things differently. I’m a huge Obama fan. Not for his policies: but the way he carried himself, how he spoke, and what his presidency meant for people of colour. I’ll do my best to filter out any bias and focus on the psychology and strategy behind this speech. …