Christmas 2020 donation to WaterAid

With 2020 set to be one of the three hottest years on record (just behind 2016 and 2019), we’re experiencing not just a climate crisis, but also a water crisis of an unprecedented scale. Globally, temperatures are rising, resulting in more and more extreme weather phenomena and consequently in either too much or too little water.

 

2020 is set to be one of the 3 hottest years on record
(image by Alain Audet on Pixabay)

 

In the same minimalist vein as in previous years, I have once again donated to a charity instead of spending money on Christmas cards and gifts, and I've chosen the WaterAid charity this year. This winter, WaterAid will help bring clean water to 50,000 people across Ethiopia.

People in Ethiopia and around the world require clean water to stay healthy and safe, protect their livelihoods, and build a better future for themselves, whatever our rapidly changing climate brings. You can learn more about this charity or make a donation on the WaterAid website here.

 

The hallmarks of a good translator

What makes a really good translator? Maybe you’ve always wondered what a translator actually does and has to be good at. Maybe you are looking for a good translator. Or maybe you are a translator and perhaps, as you’re reading this post, find yourself nodding in agreement. 

A good translator …

… is a good writer

… specialises in one or more subject fields, such as medicine, IT or marketing

… undertakes regular CPD training and stays abreast of current developments in his/her subject field(s)

… enjoys working in his/her chosen subject field(s)

… reproduces the content and meaning of the original text skilfully, without additions or omissions

… doesn’t translate word by word, but with a view to creating a text that is fluent and characterised by idiomatic usage

… translates into his/her mother tongue or language of habitual use only

… generally notices language around him/her in everyday life (and any mistakes in it!)

… has excellent knowledge of spelling, grammar and punctuation in his/her languages

… is reliable and meets agreed-upon deadlines

… creates translations in line with clients’ requirements and style guidelines

… is inquisitive and tends to ask relevant terminology- and context-related questions

… uses a writing style in translations that is perfectly understood by the target readers

… demonstrates patience, tenacity and lateral thinking

 

What sets human translators apart from free, automatic translation tools? This blog post captures what to watch out for in a good translator.

 

What sets human translators apart from free, automatic translation tools?
(Image by Free-Photos on Pixabay)

 

 

 

How I put digital minimalism into practice

Digital minimalism, as defined by Cal Newport, entails focusing your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimised activities that strongly support things that you value, while happily missing out on everything else. You’ll find my recent review of his bestselling book “Digital Minimalism” here.

In today’s post I’d like to report back on my endeavours to implement digital minimalism. As a translator I work in front of a screen most of the time (apart from when I’m revising translations with pen and paper), so it is downright impossible for me to become a full-blown digital minimalist. I am pleased to report, though, that I’ve managed to make tweaks to some of my digital habits. 

 

Digital minimalism is a proven, highly effective approach to
cultivating a more intentional digital lifestyle   

 

We can probably all relate to the electronic busyness and related feelings of being overwhelmed that define our modern lives. My brain certainly can feel very crowded! This isn’t so much of an issue when I’m working on translations, but can happen after work: it usually results from too much tapping, swiping, tweeting, favouriting, liking, sharing or online-commenting. My brain is then all over the place.
 

Digital minimalism encourages us to reflect on whether the use of a particular technology ultimately is the best way to perform an activity that’s of value to us; if it’s not, it should be replaced by something better. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve realised, for example, that meeting with translator colleagues on Twitter is indeed the best way to meet with them in an everyday context.

 

Is the use of a particular technology ultimately
the best way to perform an activity that’s of value to us?

Online encounters with colleagues 

In-person encounters would be even better, but have, of course, all taken a virtual format recently and even pre-pandemic had been (relatively) few and far between. I have fond memories of my last pre-pandemic meeting with colleagues, which was the ITI German network’s 2019 convivial Christmas dinner at The White Haus in Farringdon, London. Online encounters with colleagues therefore are one example of online activities that I deeply value, so as a digital minimalist I still hang out on Twitter.

Shunning phone apps

I’m continuing to shun phone apps which almost everyone uses. For example, I don’t use WhatsApp. I already receive a lot of (work and personal) messages, my phone is usually in airplane mode during the day anyway, and even if it wasn’t, I simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with what seems to me a constant stream of WhatsApp messages on other people’s phones. What’s more, I recently even went ahead and uninstalled Twitter from my phone. Now that Twitter as the last social media app has left my phone (if Strava is disregarded), I feel a lot calmer. I just feel I have to draw the line somewhere!

 

Gone are the days when I would give in to the temptation of
compulsively checking my social media notifications

Twitter breaks 

One behaviour that’s changed since I read “Digital Minimalism” is that I now take (longer) Twitter breaks. Twitter had always been the social media platform I was trying to keep up with, but I no longer attach so much importance to regular engagement with it. I no longer feel I need to “put myself out there” to be visible to my online community constantly. This means that gone are the days when I would often give in to the temptation of compulsively checking my Twitter notifications.

 

Adopting a digitally minimal life ideally involves developing or rekindling real-life relationships

Phone conversations instead of email 

Adopting a digitally minimal life ideally also involves developing or rekindling real-life relationships, instead of just focusing on virtual ones. As an introvert, I generally feel more comfortable communicating by email rather than by phone, and email (or other forms of written communication) will always be my preferred means of communication. Yet, in line with digital minimalism I now often aim to pick up the phone, rather than send out an email, to make contact in this way instead.

Blocking of websites 

I used to be quite good at not letting myself become distracted too much, but the pandemic and related recent events somehow have changed that. So, to prevent me from accessing news websites (and also certain clothes shopping websites!) while I should be working, I’ve added LeechBlock to my browsers. LeechBlock is a productivity tool that’s designed to block any sites that you choose to add to it. It’s available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers such as Brave, Opera and Vivaldi. 

 

To prevent me from accessing certain websites while I should be working,
I’ve added LeechBlock to my browsers

Renewed focus on hands-on activities 

Digital minimalism ideally also goes hand in hand with a return to hands-on activities. For example, I’ve never been into cooking, and I have a tendency to neglect hobbies like playing the piano as I feel often more drawn towards activities like reading, writing or computer work. Reading “Digital Minimalism” has reminded me of the benefits of such hands-on activities, and I’ve resolved to focus on them a little more in future.

Using physical books

It seems we can absorb the contents of a physical book way better than any material found online. Plus, the contents of a physical book tend to be more reliable. I therefore no longer aim to rely so heavily on internet content when it comes to checking terminology or background theory for work. Instead, I will now more often pull a physical book from my shelves in order to read relevant content or look up terminology “in analogue mode”.

 

We can absorb the contents of a physical book
better than any material found online

Conclusion
 

I will probably never be able to call myself a “true” digital minimalist because as a translator I will always spend a lot of time at screens and online. I have nonetheless managed to cut down, to some degree, on my engagement with technology in certain areas. Generally, I wholeheartedly recommend digital minimalism as an approach to cultivating a more intentional digital lifestyle. It is designed to help us declutter, and regain control of, our digital lives.

 

Further reading:

For tips on practical steps to reduce your screen time, check out my blog article “8 Proven ways of minimising screen time” of 16 March 2016.

Working more efficiently with AutoHotkey (part 1)

AutoHotkey has recently started making a notable difference to my computing life in that I can now, relatively simply, automate certain repetitive tasks and hence work more efficiently. AutoHotkey is a free, powerful tool for writing scripts that will run in any Windows application. It’s beginner-friendly, so previous coding experience is not required. I highly recommend this tool!

 

My attention had been drawn to AutoHotkey following the publication of an ITI Bulletin article about it by Richard Lackey MITI and two posts on his blog in which he explained the basics of AutoHotkey and listed AHK scripts useful to translators.

 

I find AutoHotkey intriguing also because I’ve always been fascinated by IntelliWebSearch, which is based on AHK scripts. What’s more, AutoHotkey hotstrings work exactly like the Autocorrect feature in memoQ, which I rely heavily on for those recurring long compound nouns in patent translations.

AutoHotkey can be downloaded from www.autohotkey.com. To write a script, you then create and run an .ahk file, which you can later edit in a simple Notepad programme whenever you wish to change or add to the script.

 

Text expanders

 
The most typical use of AutoHotkey is the creation of hotstrings to expand abbreviations into full text. To give a simple example, typing the string thx will automatically produce the following sentence: “Thank you for your email”. This is my script for it:

::thx::Thank you for your email.
 

When I type tn, the script will enter the word translation. Here’s the script: 

::tn::translation

When I type @@k, the script will enter my email address kontakt@hippe-heisler.de. Here’s the script:

:*:@@k::kontakt@hippe-heisler.de

 

(Note: Using the asterisk * means that an ending character, e.g. Space, ., or Enter, is not required to trigger the hotstring.)
 

 

Instant access to folders or websites
 

When I press the Ctrl key in combination with the dollar sign on my keyboard (i.e. Ctrl + Shift + 4), the script will instantly open my folder for the 2020-21 tax year. Here’s my script:
 

^$::                        
Run, C:\Users\User\Documents\Accountancy\Cash Books tax year 2020-21
Return
 

(Note that in AutoHotkey ^ stands for the Control key.)

 

To access TweetDeck, I first press the Alt Gr key and then the t key. Here’s my script:

<^>!t:: Run, https://tweetdeck.com/

To access Woxikon (a site for German synonyms), I press the Alt Gr key and then the d key. Here’s the script:
 

<^>!w:: Run, https://synonyme.woxikon.de/

(Note that in AutoHotkey <^>! stands for the Alt Gr key.)

 

Quick access to several folders, displayed in a pop-up menu
 

This is a slightly more complex script that enables me to access, in an instant, the folders which I (currently) visit most frequently, for which I simply have to press the Alt key and x. The folders will then be displayed in a pop-up menu (at the location of my cursor).

 

This is my script for it (which needs to be written into a separate AHK file, not the one already created for other AHK scripts!):

Menu, Folders, Add, &Downloads, !1
Menu, Folders, Add, &OneDrive, !2
Menu, Folders, Add, &Murgitroyd, !3
Menu, Folders, Add, &Terminology lists, !4
Menu, Folders, Add, &Patent translation, !5
Menu, Folders, Add, Temporary, !6

!x:: Menu, Folders, Show

!1:: Run, C:\Users\User\Downloads       
Return

!2:: Run, C:\Users\User\OneDrive
Return

!3:: Run, C:\Users\User\Documents\Clients\Murgitroyd
Return

!4:: Run, C:\Users\User\Documents\Terminology lists
Return

!5:: Run, C:\Users\User\Documents\Patent translation
Return

!6:: Run, C:\Users\User\Documents\Temporary
Return

(Note that in AutoHotkey ! stands for the Alt key.)

 

Adding the ampersand symbols (&) to the script above has the effect that I don’t even have to use the mouse to open any of the folders in the pop-up menu. Instead, when I open the pop-up menu (by using Alt + x), pressing the letter d on my keyboard activates Downloads, the letter o activates OneDrive, and so forth.
 

Note that not including an ampersand symbol before Temporary in the Menu, Folders, Add, Temporary, !6 line means that I do have to use the mouse to open a folder which I’ve called Temporary (since pressing t will open my Terminology lists folder).

 

Finally, a word of caution, as also pointed out by Richard in his article: do be careful of any AHK scripts which you find on the internet as they have the potential to do anything assigned (even in an extreme case to wipe your hard drive!). It is vital that you understand the code before running any scripts.

AutoHotkey is a free, powerful tool for writing scripts that will run in any Windows application. It is used to automate certain repetitive tasks. AutoHotkey can make a huge difference to your computing life!

Better late (!) than never: I've finally found the time to download #AutoHotkey and have a go at writing a few simple scripts to familiarise myself with this (very useful) tool. Thanks so much Richard @ContractSpeak for writing this @ITIBulletin article! pic.twitter.com/PMV3SyPkuD

— The minimalist translator (@detransferendo) June 19, 2020

 

Check out my other blog posts about AutoHotkey:
 
Working more efficiently with AutoHotkey (part 2)
Working more efficiently with AutoHotkey (part 3)

10 useful tools for translators

Handy time-saving, efficiency-increasing tools are not as out of reach as we may think. Some of these tools are freely available. Or they’re so good that, once we’ve tried them, we’ll want to use them all the time, even if that means paying for them to have access to their more advanced features.

During my current staycation, I finally got around to checking out a number of tools which I know several translators regularly use and highly recommend. They were described in an article on Alina Cincan’s blog some time ago. I am grateful to Alina for putting together the article and to my fellow translators for recommending them! I’ll list my favourites (in random order) below:

NaturalReader – a smart text-to-speech reader that will read texts to you in natural sounding voices (free to use for 20 minutes per day). Choose your favourite voice amongst several options for English (US), English (UK), German, French, Italian, Swedish or a few other languages.

LockHunter – a useful file unlocking programme, which allows you to identify, unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file and to kill any locking processes on your computer.

Count Anything – a handy word-count utility for Windows, which supports the following file types: MS Word (.docx, .rtf), MS Excel (.xls, .csv), MS PowerPoint (.ppt); OpenOffice Writer (.odt), OpenOffice Impress (.odp), OpenOffice Calc (.ods); and HTML, XML, Text and PDF.

Everything Search Engine – a sophisticated file name search engine for Windows, which rapidly and reliably finds files and folders by name. For example, search for dm:today to locate any files and folders that were modified on your computer today.

Google Keep – a versatile note-taking app for photo notes, voice notes and checklists. It syncs between, e.g., your PC and your smartphone. It is possible to set up audible reminders or colour code notes.

Canva – a fantastic graphic design tool for creating customised graphics for social media or blog posts, posters or other visual content. Its basic features are free to use, although paid subscription options offering additional features are also available.

Flipboard – a convenient news aggregation site for the curation of articles, blog posts, videos and other pieces of content according to topics of your choice. A great site that’ll make it easy for me to quickly find articles on topics I often translate about, such as autonomous driving or AI!

Noisli – a fascinating programme for listening to background sounds that will help you focus while you’re working and that can even be mixed. I was intrigued by the sounds imitating the background noises of a coffee shop! Its nature sounds are similar to the nature sounds I regularly listen to on iTunes.

KeePass – a secure and proven password manager. Passwords are stored in an encrypted database, which can be unlocked with one master key. I’ve been using KeePass for managing my passwords for a while now, but was thrilled to find it was mentioned by a colleague in Alina’s article.

IntelliWebSearch – a must-have internet search tool for Windows which is designed to save translators, interpreters, editors and terminologists time when using the web in their work. Not new to me either, but I’m mentioning it because I, too, highly recommend it.

This blog post lists 10 handy, proven tools for translators, described in an article on Alina Cincan’s blog some time ago, which I familiarised myself with recently and which I warmly recommend. Some of them are freely available, or they are so good that, once you’ve tried them, you’ll likely be happy to pay for them. 

 

(A German translation of this blog article is available here.)

 

Better contact management with Dunbar’s Number

We can only ever have 150 friends. Our brains can’t cope with more.

150 is known as Dunbar’s Number. It was suggested by Robin Dunbar as the cognitive limit to the number of people who any human is capable of maintaining a close, meaningful relationship with.

It’s therefore hardly surprising that we start feeling overwhelmed when our Twitter community grows to several hundred (or thousand!) contacts. Even if someone should claim to possess the brainpower to handle more relationships, there just wouldn’t be enough hours in a day for managing such a huge circle of friends and work contacts.

150 has been identified as the cognitive limit to the number of people
who any human is capable of maintaining a close, meaningful relationship with

As a minimalist I am always on the lookout for theories on limitations, boundaries or minimisation, so I was pleased to stumble upon the concept of Dunbar’s Number. I find it fascinating! It should make us ponder the following:


How much information can our brains process on a daily basis?

We all probably reach a point occasionally when we feel our brains are about to shut down. The amount of information that we can take in at any one time is limited. Information overload is affecting us all.


Which of our (many) relationships matter the most?

The social and business environments that we live in today are complex and wide-ranging. Staying on top of all our relationships is becoming more and more of a challenge. Can we even identify off the top of our heads the contacts that are truly important to us?


How best to manage the contacts that are truly important to us?

Interacting and socialising online clearly has its benefits, not least for the introverts among us. Yet in the end, it cannot be denied that getting together physically (Covid allowing!) is best. It is the most effective method for maintaining and nurturing “true” interpersonal relationships.


Constantly adding to our lists of social contacts may seem easy, but isn’t everything; we should invest in cultivating existing relationships, too. And it’s worth remembering that according to the Dunbar’s Number concept, we can only ever have at most 150 friends.

Links:
- Guardian: Robin Dunbar: we can only ever have 150 friends at most
- Wikipedia: Dunbar's Number

Book recommendation: “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport

It is one of those books that you’ll probably want to devour in one go. In “Digital Minimalism”, bestselling author Cal Newport offers smart advice on how to ruthlessly strip away any online activities that don’t serve you, and how to regain control of your digital life.

Digital minimalism is a quiet movement and has been defined by Cal Newport as “a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else”.


Exhausted from leading a digital life

One word that came up repeatedly in conversations that Cal Newport had with people following the publication of his earlier bestseller “Deep Work” was exhaustion. Many people feel exhausted from leading a digital life.

And many people he spoke to mentioned social media’s ability to manipulate their mood. Let’s face it: constant exposure to our colleagues’ and friends’ meticulously curated portrayal of their lives, careers and activities will inevitably arouse the feeling that our own lives, careers and activities are somehow inadequate.

The deep-seated psychological vulnerabilities that every single one of us has

If you’re a social media user, this book will hook you in right from the first page. “Digital Minimalism” is a hands-on guide to minimising screen time and becoming more mindful about technology use. It sets out very clearly and in the most striking way how social media apps target the deep-seated psychological vulnerabilities that every single one of us (!) has.



Digital minimalism is based on 3 principles:

Principle #1: Clutter is costly.

Principle #2: Optimisation is important.

Principle #3: Intentionality is satisfying.


Cal Newport suggests initially performing a 30-day digital declutter. He describes how he was hoping that for his research 40 to 50 brave volunteers would sign up for a digital declutter experiment and commit to recording their experiences along the way. His guess was very wrong: more than 1,600 volunteers signed up! (This even made national headlines.)

At the end of the digital declutter, volunteers had the opportunity to allow optional technologies back into their lives, on the condition that such technologies served something that they deeply valued. Volunteers would, for example, not allow a feature of an app back into their life if it offered just some vague benefit.

The aim of digital minimalism is to no longer experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Instead, as a digital minimalist you already know which specific online activities provide you with meaning and satisfaction.

In “Digital Minimalism”, Cal Newport argues that unrestricted online activity has a negative impact on our psychological well-being. He suggests digital minimalism as an alternative approach: using technologies in a way that supports your values and goals – rather than letting technologies use you!


Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who studies the theory of distributed systems. In addition to his academic work, he writes about the intersection of technology and culture. He is the author of six books. His work has been published in over 25 languages and has been featured in many major publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Washington Post, and Economist.


(Note that I haven’t yet had a go at implementing digital minimalism in the way set out in the book, but I will report back once I have.)

Blogging in a foreign language: good or bad idea?

Blogging in English has always been something that I’ve felt uneasy about. I’m a German translator, and my professional association’s code of conduct does not allow me to translate into anything other than my mother tongue. Translating is basically writing, so I can’t shake off the impression that it raises eyebrows when I blog in English.

Yet my English has been “okayed” by numerous people: an American colleague, whom I sometimes run blog posts past for feedback (thank you, Will!); other native speakers who read my blog; and a professional editor whom I’ve approached to ask for input into my English writing (thank you, Matt!). I was assured by everyone that my English is fine. Yet the deep-seated uneasiness remains.


I should add for completeness that my professional association’s code of conduct prescribes translating either into my mother tongue or into a “language of habitual use”. Note that, although I’ve lived in the UK for a very long time, my command of English is not (and will never be) as good as a native speaker’s.



As a German translator, I’m not qualified to translate into English, so blogging in English does not have any immediate benefits to my work. Blogging in English is simply something which I enjoy doing. To me, my blog is the perfect tool to further improve my English skills.

In my latest blog post I explain why blogging in English has always been something that I’ve felt uneasy about (and why I do it anyway). New on The Minimalist Translator: https://t.co/2uP2kU5ugS #blogging #xl8

— The minimalist translator (@detransferendo) April 23, 2020

(A German translation of this blog post is available here.)

Book recommendation: “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki

“Goodbye, things” by Japanese minimalist Fumio Sasaki, published by Penguin, is an inspiring and uplifting book. It explores the philosophy and cultural history of minimalism from Zen Buddhism to Steve Jobs. Reading even just a few chapters in it from time to time always puts a smile on my face!


Fumio Sasaki is one of the hardcore minimalists whom we sometimes hear about: he’s a writer who lives in a tiny studio in Tokyo with just three shirts, four pairs of trousers, four pairs of socks and not much else. Minimalism has opened his mind to happiness he’d never experienced before.

Fumio Sasaki is someone like any of us,
who struggled with what we’re also struggling with

I found “Goodbye, things” heart-warming because Fumio Sasaki does not proclaim himself to be a minimalism guru or a decluttering expert: he’s just an ordinary guy. He’s someone like any of us, who was weighed down by too much stuff and struggled with what we’re also struggling with.


As a result, he set out to explore minimalism. He figured out that incorporating minimalism into your life not only transforms the physical space around you, but also can bring about a fundamental shift in life and lead to more happiness.

In the book, he offers 55 tips to help you say goodbye to your things and 15 more tips for the next stage of your minimalism journey. In addition, he sets out 12 ways in which he himself has changed since he said goodbye to his things.


His tips and his insights into minimalism are neatly packaged into short, compact chapters, which are written in a punchy and highly readable style. Special praise to translator Eriko Sugita!



In “Goodbye, things” Fumio Sasaki explores the philosophy and cultural history of minimalism from Zen Buddhism to Steve Jobs. It takes the reader on a fascinating journey into minimalism, which is defined as a lifestyle in which possessions are reduced to the absolute minimum that one needs.



Related links:

- Penguin webpage for “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/131952/fumio-sasaki.html

- “Goodbye things, hello minimalism: can living with less make you happier?” (Guardian article of 12 April 2017): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/12/goodbye-things-hello-minimalism-can-living-with-less-make-you-happier

- An in-depth look at “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki (book summary) (by Kyle Kowalski): https://www.sloww.co/goodbye-things-fumio-sasaki-book-summary/

- What I’ve learned from “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki (by Meziah Ruby):
https://medium.com/moychoy/what-ive-learned-from-goodbye-things-by-fumio-sasaki-d5a497823fa7

Coronavirus crisis and using time wisely while stuck at home

Suddenly, with massive restrictions imposed on our work and social lives following the worldwide spread of coronavirus, most of us are finding ourselves stuck at home. I’m sure we all wish to spend that extra time at home wisely.

Minimalist Joshua Becker (whose books back in April 2014 inspired me to want to also become a minimalist) has published an appropriately timed article in which he sets out 14 achievable tasks to help declutter your home while stuck inside. You’ll find it on the Becoming Minimalist website.

Feeling braced for the impact of the cataclysmic coronavirus crisis
(Image source: Alexey Hulsov on Pixabay)

I hope I, too, will be able to set aside some time to tackle some of those tasks, although for the time being I intend to mainly carry on working in my home office, as I’ve done for many years. Right now, I’m fully booked for some time to come, with yet more orders coming in over the past week.


The impact of the cataclysmic coronavirus crisis

Without a doubt, the huge economic shock we’re currently experiencing is going to be felt by everyone around the globe. As far as my translation job is concerned, it remains to be seen what the exact impact will be on the IP industry, which I mainly work for these days.

I am under no illusion that the current cataclysmic crisis has the potential of impacting my business, with perhaps noticeable effects such as fewer translation projects available or a degradation of my current good standard of living. Am I feeling braced for this?


Social distancing, solidarity and love

Yes, the fear of the impending economic downturn and the hit my small business is potentially going to take from it do bother me; yet it bothers me (a lot) less than it would have in the past. After all, less often frees up the space for more, and thanks to my new minimalist mindset, I now know work isn’t the main thing in life.

Over recent days, I have witnessed people coming together (while adhering to the new social distancing rules) in extraordinary acts of solidarity and human warmth. What really matters in life is these things: kindness, empathy, love for oneself, and love for others.


Stay healthy, happy and safe, everyone. And perhaps you, too, will find some time to tackle some of the tasks that are set out in Joshua’s article “14 Achievable Tasks to Help Declutter Your Home While Stuck Inside”.

What really matters in life: kindness, empathy, love for oneself, and love for others
(Image source: drawing by Hannah Heisler)

My (unusual) approach to minimising social media time

As I work at a screen all day, I’m faced with this problem: I don’t have much “brain capacity” left to absorb yet more online content, such as social media contributions, blog posts or online newspaper articles. However, I want to read online outside of work, too. And I am keen to interact with my colleagues and friends online as well, and want to show an interest in what they have posted.


A minimalist’s approach to social media use

How to make time for (non-work) online reading? As I work all day at a screen already (and blog as a hobby), spending lots of time in addition on social media isn’t really what I’m after. I’ve therefore adopted this approach, which minimises my time on social media and news sites:

I simply copy interesting content (whether in the form of whole articles or even just interesting bits of online discussions) and paste it all (without any photos) into a Word file. Once that Word file is long enough, I send it off to my e-reader. This often takes just a few minutes. I can then enjoy reading it at my leisure – away from my work screen!

I also use social media apps minimally. I maintain an active presence on Twitter (for English here and for German here), whereas I just lurk on LinkedIn. I’ve never felt the need to own a tablet, but I have Twitter installed on my phone. However, I don’t have LinkedIn or Facebook (or WhatsApp, for that matter) on my phone.


Efficient and proper reading of online content

Reading on my e-reader makes sure I am shielded from the myriad of online distractions and can block out interruptions. That way, I can properly absorb the content (AND appreciate the way in which it’s written). If you’ve ever received a response from me to one of your social media contributions one week or so later, now you know why! It does sometimes take me that long to send stuff to my e-reader and read it.

Sounds like this is not for you? Yes, I do realise this approach may not work for most people; yet it works for me. Although my English is getting better, in the end, I'm still a language learner, and this is the best way for me to pick up new words and phrases, including colloquial ones. What's more, as a translator I’m by nature a text-oriented person. I am therefore perfectly happy in the black-and-white, text-only world which my e-reader provides me with.

This is my current approach to social media use. Watch this space as it's likely I'm going to tweak and further optimise it in the not-too-distant future once I've finished my current book, “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport. (Cal Newport's books were recommended to me by Sean Reid from Aye Run, who introduced me to the beautiful city of Glasgow on a sightseeing run last year.)



As I'm usually short of time, I use a dedicated approach to minimise the actual time spent on news sites or social media, while maximising what I get out of it. This approach involves sending online content in a Word file to my e-reader so that I can indulge in interruption-free reading.

The unfortunate thing humans do in conversation

How often do we say something to others, only to regret it afterwards? This often happens because we didn’t take enough time to think. How often do we allow ourselves the luxury of a pause in a conversation to think?


The astoundingly short gap between spoken turns

My friend Kasia last year tweeted an article about a (rarely thought-about) phenomenon that is typical of conversations between humans: the astoundingly short gap between spoken turns. This gap is usually just 200 milliseconds in duration (although there are slight variations across different cultures). 200 milliseconds is, for example, the time that runners take to respond to a starting pistol. So it indeed is not very long! Read the article here.

It means that when we’re engaged in a conversation, we are pressed for time (which never is a nice state to be in). We are forced to think about and form our responses while we’re still listening to what the other person is saying, to be able to reply at the earliest possible opportunity. It’s a culturally imposed conversation pattern: we minimise the gap of silence between turns in a conversation because it’s expected of us.

A culturally imposed phenomenon:
when we’re engaged in a conversation, we're pressed for time
(Image source: Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay)

The lasting effect of childhood experiences

The article reminded me of how as a child I was once mocked (first by a stranger, then by a relative) for not replying quickly enough. It wasn't the first time it was suggested to me something was wrong with me in that respect. In some odd way, certain experiences from our childhoods tend to have a lasting effect on us, although the human mind is also good at simply shoving such memories away. But the memory of being mocked for not replying quickly enough stuck with me subconsciously: I henceforth believed conversations were supposed to be a quick exchange of spoken turns. 

As children we tend to believe what the grown-ups tell us; as grown-ups we’re free to think our own thoughts. As a grown-up, I now think it should really be the other way around: conversations should not be of a rapid-fire nature, but ideally should be deep, perhaps even slow. And pauses for thinking, by all means, should be allowed.


The benefits of pauses in conversation

Pauses for thinking may be necessary for various reasons: so that we don’t offend the other person; so that we’re able to come up with something better than the usual platitudes that mark a lot of our conversations; so that we can give our full, undivided attention to what the other person is saying.


What does it take to have a really good conversation? To take one step in the right direction, let’s prolong what Stephen Levinson from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the article terms “the minimum human response time” at least a bit. Time in our day and age is a luxury and should be employed wisely, not least in conversations!

Why translators don’t fear the machines

The takeover of translations by machines is impending (or so we've been told).Why then don’t human translators fear the much talked-about rise of the machines?

As I see it, it all boils down to one simple answer: translators don’t fear the machines because a translation is created in a series of stages.


Most translations require human input

Machine translation is sometimes helpful in the first stage of creating a translation, but it then cannot contribute to what happens in subsequent stages. And where machine translation is no longer helpful, a human translator’s input will be required. 

Why don't human translators fear the rise of the machines?
(Image source: Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke on Pixabay)

The translation stages where machine translation is not helpful include, for example:

- Researching terminology in the particular field of the text

- Identifying and pointing out issues in the source text to the client, using appropriate grammatical terminology to describe and explain those issues, suggesting improvements

- Discussing the approach to “untranslatable” terms with the client

- Finding workaround solutions to tricky terms and phrases

- Applying client style guidelines to the translation

- Creating coherence between the individual parts of the text

- Improving the first draft of a translation (also known as “rough translation”)

- Improving the translation further

- Checking that correct punctuation has been used

- Formatting the file

- Eradicating errors (including errors potentially introduced by machine translation!)

- Printing off the translation and checking it on paper

- Double-checking that correct numbers and/or reference numerals (in patents) have been used

- Rewriting the translation (where required) so that it reads like a text that is idiomatically phrased in the target language

- Ensuring that the underlying meaning of the original text has been accurately conveyed (as we know, language is full of ambiguities!)

- Checking that technical terms have been used consistently throughout the translation

- Editing, fine-tuning and polishing the translated text

- Putting a human touch to the translation


Anyone who believes that a translation can be produced by the simple push of a button is unaware that a translation is created in stages. Machine translation may be useful during the first of those stages, but creating a fit-for-purpose translation is a long, drawn-out and intricate process.

A good translation cannot be produced by the simple push of a button
(Image source: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay)

Afterthought: Nobody knows, of course, what's still going to happen on the AI front, and some of the tasks above will maybe be taken over by robots one day. Right now, we're still very far away from it. I also personally believe that we will never get to a stage where robots will be like humans.


(A German translation of this blog article is available here.) 

Why negative thoughts exist and how to counter them

For a long time, I thought it was just me: vortices of negative thought, with negative thoughts occupying my mind. Then I realised it wasn’t just me. I found out: negative thoughts are a “by-product” of evolution!

Negative thinking is a primordial instinct that helped our ancestors survive millions of years ago
(Image source: drawing by Hannah Heisler)

Survival of the fittest

Our brains are more receptive to bad than positive news. As John Cacioppo demonstrated, our brains react more strongly to stimuli that it deems negative. There is a greater surge in electrical activity.

The negative thoughts pestering us today have derived from a primordial instinct that originally was designed to protect. So today we are still heavily influenced by the brain’s same negativity bias which millions of years ago helped our ancestors be alert to potential dangers around them and which helped them survive.


A primordial instinct: alertness to dangers

Whenever the mind perceives a threat (of whatever nature), it attends to it very quickly. This has implications: negative information is prioritised over positive information; criticism has greater influence on us than praise; worries about our jobs, health, families, the future of the country that we live in can all easily drag us down (Brexit-related thoughts are a notable example!).

So even when a string of good things happens to you, it will be enough for one (possibly trivial!) negative thing to happen, which will then become the only thing occupying your mind. Suddenly, all your attention is drawn to that one negative thing and will stick with it (while the many good things will suddenly be erased from your mind). It’s an evolutionary reaction.

Techniques for amplifying positive emotions

As I’ve already noticed in a previous blog post, negative thinking is the default mode of our brains, but the good news is once we’re aware of it, we can learn to switch to a different mode of thought. We can learn to control our thinking, even amplify positive emotions! Of the techniques I’ve adopted to keep my primordial gloomy thoughts at bay, these are my favourites:


1. Affirmations

I have a set of ‘customized’ affirmations that I tend to repeat to myself whenever I find my thoughts are drifting into negative territory. They’re statements that are both positive and powerful. I have found that diverting thoughts to affirmations is hugely effective. I often also switch to my “affirmations mode” whenever I don’t quite know what to think of in particular (e.g. during a run).


2. The morning gratefulness exercise

This is an easy and popular exercise: it involves calling up in your mind 3 things that you’re grateful for right before getting up in the morning. They can be ordinary things that we maybe take for granted: the health of our children, our own health, having a job, being able to afford so many things. Also life circumstances in general. (Tip: I’ve heard you can increase the effect if you stay with each thing in your mind for at least 20 seconds.)


3. The engagement in flow activities

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues we can learn to control our consciousness by engaging in so-called flow activities, which strengthen our sense of purpose. Flow is defined as a blissful mental state in which you are totally absorbed in an activity, unaware of how the time goes by. While we’re engaged in flow activities (I’ve described mine here), we don’t waste time on worrying.


4. Living in the moment

Life can take unexpected turns from one minute to the next. We all know that. What’s more, wandering thoughts frequently are negative thoughts. I’ve found that therefore one of the best techniques to counter negative thinking really is “living in the moment”, living in the here and now.


At first I thought it was just me, then realised it wasn’t: negative thinking grips us easily, but is really just a primordial instinct that helped our ancestors survive millions of years ago. Once we’re aware of this mechanism, we can aim to control our thoughts – even amplify positive emotions – by using specific thinking techniques.

We can learn to control our thinking, even amplify positive emotions