Hello,

I often use the calendar to remind me to reflect on my aims and values, and tomorrow is a useful date: On September 23, we have 100 days left in 2023. One hundred is a good number of days—enough days to get something major accomplished, but not so many that the end feels out of reach.

For me, I’m determined that during this 100-day-countdown, I’m going to figure out how I can successfully do “review.” I keep trying and failing to set myself the habit of spending thirty minutes each day “reviewing” books to determine whether they’re worth reading, worth skimming, or can be crossed off my to-be-read pile. (I feel oppressed by my towering book piles, and this sorting would give me a big boost.)

Why is this habit proving so elusive for me, an Upholder who usually finds it fairly easy to adopt this kind of pleasant, natural habit? I enjoy doing this kind of review! So why can’t I form the habit? Maybe it’s because it’s enjoyable, so it doesn’t feel like “work” that should be done during my work day, when I want to work; but it is work. At night, I’m too tired to do it. So for the last 100 days, I’m going to make it a weekend activity. Maybe that change will help.

Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

Ever since I realized that my “most neglected sense” is the sense of taste, I’ve been pushing myself to pay more attention to flavor and mouthfeel when I eat. One exercise I enjoy is to try to pick out the five basic tastes—sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami—when I’m experiencing a complex flavor. Umami is the late-comer to this traditional line-up of basic tastes, and this article, “Umami: You never say its name, yet you taste it every day” was a fascinating discussion of its history. (Want to learn what sense you most neglect? Take the short free quiz here.)

I’ve always been strangely drawn to vending machines of all sorts, and I especially love a vending machine that vends unusual items. Plus, I always want to be able to buy books! So I was delighted to see this book vending machine in a train station.

I remember learning in grade school that the familiar Mercator projection map is distorted, and I always vaguely thought about this discrepancy when I examined a world map, but it never occurred to me to try to find a different map. I was so interested to find this map, which juxtaposes the actual size of countries against the Mercator projection.

I always turn on the subtitles/closed captions when I’m watching TV. I love this feature, and I’m not alone. Netflix reports that 40% of viewers regularly use them, and 80% use them at least once a month. It turns out that needing this help with the dialog isn’t due to my ears; many actors now speak more softly; film-makers now include more sound; new speaker technology isn’t great for dialog.

I love research, and I spend a lot of time taking notes. Sometimes, in fact, I feel overwhelmed by all the fascinating material that I want to gather — how do I copy it, store it, find it again? I recently discovered an app called Bublup that’s designed for digital organization. It’s very intuitive to use and appealing to the eye, so I found it easy to get myself set up and started. One benefit: it’s easy to share material with other people, which could be very handy for all kinds of research—such as holiday planning, researching college admissions, or working on a home remodeling project.

Today’s newsletter includes sponsored content in partnership with Bublup. But fear not, all reviews and opinions shared here are my own.

Updates

• Do you live in the New York City area? Join me to talk about the five senses! I’m really looking forward to doing a book event for Life in Five Senses at my beloved New York Society Library. On October 2, 6 pm ET, I’ll be in conversation with the brilliant writer Alexandra Horowitz (Inside of a Dog; On Looking; etc.) You can attend in person or watch the Livestream. Learn more here.
  
  
• Don’t miss your last chance to sign up for my virtual workshop about Applying the Four Tendencies at Work. The workshop will take place on Zoom, next Tuesday the 29th at 4:30pm PT / 7:30 pm ET. We’ll cover ten common conflicts that derail the workweek, and how to use the Four Tendencies to find solutions, followed by a Q&A. Register here.

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