Life without Google
I said goodbye to Google yesterday.
I’ve had Gmail accounts for as long as I can remember (at least since 2008ish, as I was heading off to college) and it feels weird to not have it.
Two years ago I completely switched over to iCloud email, and still I hung on to my Gmail accounts. Because what if I needed it? Ugh.
I wasn’t getting a ton of mail there anymore, but anything that did hit that inbox was forwarded to my iCloud account. From there I unsubscribed from anything I didn’t want to continue with. Any emails I wanted to save were downloaded for my records.
I’ve been slowly removing myself from Google products and Gmail was the last one. I don’t even use Chrome anymore, I use Duck Duck Go as my browser.
Subsequently, I also discovered that I can add my favorite Youtube channels to my RSS reader and be updated when they upload new videos, completely sidestepping Youtube’s subscription model and required Google account. I highly recommend this approach! It’s also helping me to not spend so much time scrolling through random videos.
What do you use for browsing the web? Do you use an RSS reader? I love the Unread RSS reader, it’s a gorgeous experience and so easy to use and read. Not an affiliate, just a huge fan.
Anyway. It’s July!
As I shared in my Now page, June has been exhausting and I haven’t had much interest in writing lately. But I wanted to share my recent untanglings from Google and Youtube, so I figured I’d share an update.
I’m also starting a new system for keeping track of my projects so they don’t get lost in my day-to-day journal. And then (because I’m a chronic multi-tasker) forcing myself to choose one project at a time to complete. I’m hoping it’ll help with my brain’s itch to start new projects and then abandon them within a few weeks. Do you struggle with that? What do you do to keep the projects from getting out of hand?