I have a confession to make: I ended up re-installing the Facebook app on my phone.

BUT, it was only for a few days while I was on vacation in Cebu. I deleted it once we got back to Hong Kong.

Relapses happen. The struggle is real.

I will admit that deleting the FB app on my phone hasn’t done much in reducing screen time on my phone. Instead, I’ve found other ways to fill in the gaps.

I now spend more time on Instagram and Twitter. I still refuse to share more than 5 Instagram stories in a day, though, because that’s just excessive. (Considering the time it takes for me to post even one, I seriously question one’s productivity if they’re posting 5+ a day…)

But, one positive thing that’s come from removing FB is that I’ve achieved inbox zero!

My inbox zero life

I used to be one of those with 11,400 (no exaggeration) unread emails. How did I get to that stage?

Well, my excuses include: my old job at Yelp, plus my hatred of email in general.

Being a community manager in an emerging market was overwhelming inbox-wise, so lots of my energy went towards managing that rather than my own personal email.

It got to the point that if anyone wanted to contact me about personal stuff, I would tell them to use my work email because that’s the only chance I’d read it.

Even after leaving Yelp, the state of my inbox didn’t bother me for 1.5 years.

Fast forward to me deleting FB off my phone and figuring out how to spend my time. Seeing that embarrassing number of unread emails on my iPhone told me it was time to take care of it.

I’ve heard of inbox zero, but wasn’t sure what it entailed. After doing my research, I decided to give it a try on both my personal and work inbox.

I’m a few weeks into it, and starting to see the benefits. Now that I treat my inbox as a to-do list, I actually feel less overwhelmed at work and am becoming better overall at responding back. (Yes, I was also one of those who would just ignore or not respond in a timely manner!)

Although I deleted all the unreads, I didn’t actually delete all the opened / un-needed ones. That’s another project in itself!

It appears that refraining from social media is making me want to clean up my digital life. I think that is a step in the right direction! Next step: backing up all my photos of Xavier to Dropbox.

I (finally) finished a book

It took 2 months, but I finished Improv Nation this week.

Why did it take so long? First off, I have a full-time job and I’m a mom!

Also, if you remember in my last post, the beginning felt like a cut-and-dried history book and with so many characters being introduced, it was hard for me to remember everyone.

I only started to enjoy it once it got to the third section, which focused on more contemporary improv actors such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carrell.

Now I’ve started reading “Goodbye to All That“, a book of short stories written by women who have loved and left New York.

I picked this book up at The Strand while in NYC during the Christmas holiday. The title resonated for me because it’s what I now feel about NYC – I do NOT miss it at all. But my reasons for that is enough for another blog post. 🙂

I got fat on vacation

We got a 4 day weekend in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year, so to celebrate the family and I went to Cebu. None of us had ever been to this part of the Philippines, so we were all excited!

In front of Lapu-Lapu, the local hero who rebelled against and defeated Ferdinand Magellan.

In front of the famous Basilica del Santo Niño (it was HOT)

Enjoying the baby pool at the resort!

After a glorious few days of #ResortLife, I came back to Hong Kong feeling fat and bloated. The only thing I’ve done to remedy this is to stop taking the Mid-Levels escalators up to my apartment and instead, walk up stairs and hills on my “commute” home.

At my age, I’m pretty sure I’ll need to do way more exercise than that if I ever want to lose the baby weight I gained from 2 YEARS AGO. Sigh. Never get old, kids.

Well, February is just about done and dusted. Looking forward to seeing what March has in store!