Ways I Am Simplifying My Life in 2025

And what's coming up for Notes from the Town Hermit next year

Dear Inklings,

I cannot believe we are now at the end of 2024. Last year, I shared the ways I was simplifying my life. I’ve kept up with all of those, and my days are full and content.

This next year, I’m going further. Life has only gotten busier somehow. I find myself yearning for more simplicity and quiet in the midst of chaos.

Read last year’s reflection:

Ways I Am Simplifying My Life

So, without further ado, these are some ways I’m simplifying my life for 2025:

I am switching out my smartphone for a Light Phone.

I’ve been wanting to switch back to a dumb phone for years, but I’m also attached to listening to music and podcasts during my walks and drives, so I need bluetooth, you know. The Light Phone doesn’t have the ability to download apps or even take photos. It’s a phone that only has basic functions: call, text, navigation, calculator, music, podcasts.. That’s about as much as it does. Will it become my permanent phone? We’ll see.

I’m so ready to be unreachable (mostly).

This might also help me get back into photography, which I have neglected since my daughter was born.

I am spending less time on Substack.

Substack is a magical place. I do love it. However, it can still be a time-suck—especially the Notes. I gave in a little while ago and downloaded the app, but found that it didn’t add much to my life. It was too much like social media in its addictiveness and tone, so I’ve since deleted it again (which is going to be moot once my Light Phone arrives, anyway).

Being active on Notes did wonders for my growth, but I’ve noticed that once I hit a thousand subscribers, I didn’t really care to keep growing. I’m content. My focus now is on the people who are already here—you—my actual subscribers, and especially my patrons for literally keeping this publication going. I post notes when I want to, but don’t feel obligated to spend a lot of time there.

To further limit my time on Substack, I’ve started saving articles to Pocket. This syncs with my Kobo e-reader. If you have a Kindle, you can also share Substack articles to your Kindle (thank you,

S.E. Reid

for this tip!). The biggest downside with this is I can’t react or comment as immediately, but maybe that’s a good thing? It helps me be more intentional when I do sign on to Substack.

I am quitting Amazon for good.

Last year, we had cancelled our Prime membership, but I lamented that it was hard to leave Amazon completely as an indie author. Well, I have since discovered Draft2Digital, which distributes wide, including to Amazon! I can do away with KDP! They still use humans for customer service! I could have cried.

Take a look at my author page to see all my available e-books. This universal link is included with my Draft2Digital account—so convenient.

I’ve also started trying out Kobo Writing Life for ebook publishing, to take advantage of their free promotional tools. It’s been a joy so far.

For print books, I’ve used IngramSpark in the past and have been satisfied with their print quality. In the future, I’m planning to print through BookVault and distribute through IngramSpark. BookVault print quality is supposedly better. We shall see.

Will report back on these as I experiment.

I am doing all my writing on paper before transferring it to a laptop.

This might be the most difficult to maintain, simply because time is so limited, and like many others, I type much faster than I write by hand. I do have a typewriter, though. Before homeschooling, I often typed up essays before copying them over to my laptop. That might be a good compromise.

Ultimately, I want to spend far less of my time looking at a screen. I want to be more focused and intentional with my time.

We cancelled our subscriptions to streaming services.

Ah, the sadness. Whatever shall I do without my horror shows/movies? Just kidding. In reality, we were watching so little TV already that this just made sense. This was for our children’s benefit, as we want them as little exposed to screen as possible. We haven’t had Netflix for over a year. We only share a Disney+ account with my family of origin, but don’t use it often. We’re still old-school in that we have DVDs of our favourites. Remember DVDs?? Did you know that public libraries (in the U.S.) let you borrow DVDs? It’s great.

What’s one small thing you can do to live with more intentionality next year? Respond to this email or share with me in the comments.

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Plans for this Publication

Most of the content will remain similar. However, I way overestimated my capacity for running a reading challenge, homeschooling, and serialising a short story collection during the busy fall season and election year, all at the same time. I was fortunate in that I did most of my writing in the summer to prep beforehand, but it still ended up being overwhelming.

In reevaluating for the coming year, I’ve decided to slow down. Here’s my tentative monthly working schedule for 2025:

• 2 essays on the 1st and 3rd Mondays

• 1 town square gathering—a space for us to interact and discuss a topic (for patrons)

• monthly digest—recommendations and a summary of everything I published that month

Fiction will be published in seasons. In February, I’ll resume Revenir, which will continue to be posted on Fridays. This should be more manageable for all of us. It’ll also give me more time to work on my long-term projects.

As always, you can choose which emails to receive from me by managing your account here. If you only want to hear from me once a month, you can do that by selecting only the “Monthly Digest.”

Toggle to the emails you want to receive from me

If I do run a Lord of the Rings or other book challenge again, it will likely be in 2026. Life also got in the way, so I apologise for missing two of the weeks. The final two Lord of the Rings essays will come your way soon. It seems autumn isn’t the best time, as people get busy with the holidays, including me.

Thank you so much for a wonderful year. Through your support, I’ve gained the courage to write and share words that have long lain dormant. This publication would not be able to continue without you, so thank you for giving me this incredible privilege of sharing my words with you and the world. 2025 will see me diving into even more scary topics. I know I can; my Inklings have made me braver.

An Invitation

Finally, as we head into the new year, I invite you to join our fellowship of kindred spirits. All of my writing is 100% supported by YOU.

This publication is my job. Churn is part of it, which means I regularly need new patrons to step in and keep this newsletter going. If you find value in my writing and want to support it, please consider upgrading your subscription or giving a one-time donation so I can continue writing high-quality articles you enjoy. Your sponsorship literally pays for my family’s groceries!

Here’s some feedback from the community:

Tiffany’s writing is like the gift of a warm fire on a winter’s night. A poignant alchemy of all layers of the experiences and emotions that make up the human condition, her words will continue to resound in your heart long after your first encounter with them.

I supported your work (actually I’m just interested in seeing more of it now) because you started it for your son and continue it for yourself. The name “Notes from the Town Hermit” and the descriptive phrases about a refuge for deep feelers or deep thinkers held my attention and stirred my curiosity. I need to cancel some TV stuff first.

Dearest Tiffany - a small gift to say thank you for the part you have played in inspiring me to write again. If I could give more, I would. I adore your words and I thank God that He has given you courage to share them with the world.

Tiffany, every connection I've made with you on this platform has made me realize there are other writers out there with sensitive souls, who understand the depth of both suffering and compassion and who are using their gifts to heal the world. Thank you for being here.

I love what you do, I love what you write. And I truly appreciate your support and the way to lift up other writers, even newbies like me. I’m so grateful to be on Substack and to have found you - that’s why you’re actually my first paid subscription! I look forward to connecting with you more in the future.

Tiffany writes from a place of courage and she will help you find yours too!

I love Tiffany's writings because they are vulnerable, authentic, and speak to the human condition. She knows how to tug at my heart strings and I feel less alone.

Come join us where we dive deeper into the things that matter. Together, let’s keep this space one where you’re free to talk about taboo subjects you can’t anywhere else.

With Love from Your Town Hermit,

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