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Pennie R. S. Nelson's avatar

Happy birthday Matt. As a writer, worker, and care taker myself, life does get overwhelming. Take time and do what you need to do to stay healthy. I also have noticed more anxiety in myself lately. Don't worry, your faithful followers will understand.

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Matthew Murray's avatar

Thank you Pennie! I'm glad you're one of my subscribers and readers.

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Pennie R. S. Nelson's avatar

It's my pleasure.

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Happy birthday for earlier this month, Matt! 🥳

Great to hear this update - what you're doing is great, and it's really healthy to be taking care of yourself.

I can't cope with Substack Notes - it all feels so loud over there and it makes me anxious. I much prefer to engage with my fellow readers and writers in post comments instead, where I feel so much more comfortable. 😊

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Matthew Murray's avatar

Thank you Rebecca!

Ever since I wrote that about Substack Notes, I seem to have started to hang out there again! I have to knock that off. I always think people might be interested in what I've seen that day. I hardly ever get any likes or comments. I do have a few people who hit the like button that are my subscribers or followers. But sometimes I wonder where my post goes when I have some interesting stuff but then others gets tons of likes and comments. It must be the algorithm that people said didn't exist on Substack.

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

LOL - it’s funny how things work out.

I hear what you’re saying about wanting to share interesting things from your day - that’s what I found so nice about social media in the days I could cope with using it.

Actually that’s what I enjoy so much about my Letters to Terry series - I can write to Terry about all that stuff that wouldn’t make it into one of my Saturday posts. I keep a running note of ‘oooh, that’s cool, I’d love to share that!’ snippets, and then write about some of them in every letter.

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Beth T (BethOfAus)'s avatar

It’s not an algorithm but it’s also not a timeline of published notes in order of publication. There are SO MANY writers and readers on SubStack and the notes would scroll past so fast we’d never see anything, so the top of Notes always shows people you subscribe to. The few times I look on Notes I see things from the people I follow, but as soon as I get past them I move back to my regular pages. I simply don’t have time for ‘social media’ which is what the Notes section is.

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Ms. Writer's avatar

I think it's good to mix it up doing ALL the things you enjoy.

I, too was getting addicted to Substack, trying desperately to get ahead on a publishing schedule and hopefully gain more subscribers. While I enjoy writing I enjoy doing other things, too and I need to make time for them also. I'm rethinking how to proceed with this whole writing hobby. But we definitely need time off once in awhile. Good luck!

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Matthew Murray's avatar

Thanks Ms. Writer.

I started writing as a hobby but then I tried to make it work as a job. I'll post about that another time. It didn't go very well, which I don't understand.

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🅟🅐🅤🅛 🅜🅐🅒🅚🅞's avatar

Keep plugging away at your own pace, Matt.

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Matthew Murray's avatar

Thanks Paul!

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Beth T (BethOfAus)'s avatar

So glad you’ve made the decision to take care of yourself better. Having fun things in your day is essential! Take care dear Matthew. Sending cooling hugs from Australia where we’re having a bitterly cold and windy day. All the best.

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Matthew Murray's avatar

Thanks for the nice comments Beth!

I could use some cold weather! The heat index here today is 107 degrees. I went for a walk this morning to take the garbage down to the machine and after only 5 minutes I was roasting.

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