You see, I realized that trying to keep up with the news through all of the newsletters, which I receive on a daily basis, was a little bit too much for me to do!
Now, the reason that I realized this is because I was dutifully reading my usual "email news alerts, newsletters and actions" from two days before, on September 3rd, 2026, which I started doing really early in the morning (around 2:00 AM) and finished by late morning (around 10:45 AM). So, it took me almost 9 hours just to read that day's emails (67 of them). After that, I read my local "city, state, county and regional news," through Google searches, which only took about 20 minutes.
Then, because I had gotten up so early, I took a really, really long nap starting just before noon (around 11:30 AM) and ending later in the evening (around 6:35 PM), which segued into the end of my "working day," so to speak, on my smartphone (around 7:00 PM). And you, my readers, can see all of this outlined below on the Google Calendar entries that I use to track what time I start and end certain tasks that are related to Internet usage because I have a semi-limited amount of cellular data available per month on my cell phone data plan, which is actually 20 GBs per month, per smartphone.
You see, I use Google Calendar entries—specifically the calendar entry description—in order to document how much, and how often, I used cellular data for my cell phone data plan on both of my smartphones.
(By the way, the reason I have two smartphones is due to the fact that my mobile phone carrier is CREDO Mobile and they don't have brick-and-mortar stores. Thus, you have to call them, or contact them via the Internet, in order to receive customer service on any of their products. Therefore, if I have an issue with one of my phones, I can contact them by using the other phone! Besides that, the other reason that I have two smartphones is because my cellular data plan is semi-limited in that it is "unlimited" up to 20 GBs per month for each phone—which is about 0.65 GBs each day for a 30-day month—but, after 20 GBs of use per month, the data slows. So, with the two phones, I actually have a total of 40 GBs per month across both phones, thereby essentially doubling the cellular data that I have to available use each day to 1.30 GBs.)
Without further ado then, here is the calendar entry description for September 5th, 2026, which shows that day's worth of cellular data usage for one of my phones, including the "start of day" and the "end of day," along with what each portion of data usage was for and the time each one started and finished:
09/05/2026
Start of the day.
8.43 GB (most recent data usage)
- 8.39 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.04 GB (equals current data usage)
+ 0.00 GB (plus total previous data usage)
= 0.04 GB (equals total current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 1:05 AM
Started reading Thursday, September 3rd email news alerts, newsletters and actions (1 of 67 with 66 left), which included watching websites videos, including YouTube.
8.43 GB (most recent data usage)
- 8.43 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.00 GB (equals current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 2:00 AM
Finished reading Thursday, September 3rd email news alerts, newsletters and actions (67 of 67).
9.09 GB (most recent data usage)
- 8.43 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.66 GB (equals current data usage)
+ 0.04 GB (plus total previous data usage)
= 0.70 GB (equals total current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 10:45 AM
Started reading city, state, county and regional news, which included checking my other email.
9.09 GB (most recent data usage)
- 9.09 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.00 GB (equals current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 11:00 AM
Finished reading city, state, county and regional news.
9.22 GB (most recent data usage)
- 9.09 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.13 GB (equals current data usage)
+ 0.70 GB (plus total previous data usage)
= 0.83 GB (equals total current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 11:20 AM
Went back to bed.
9.22 GB (most recent data usage)
- 9.22 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.00 GB (equals current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 11:30 AM
Got back up, which included checking today's emails.
9.24 GB (most recent data usage)
- 9.22 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.02 GB (equals current data usage)
+ 0.83 GB (plus total previous data usage)
= 0.85 GB (equals total current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 6:35 PM
End of the day.
9.24 GB (most recent data usage)
- 9.24 GB (minus previous data usage)
= 0.00 GB (equals current data usage)
Updated on 09/05/2026 around 7:00 PM
After the end of my "work day," I decided to wash my hair, which takes me a while because I have really long hair, as can be seen in my profile pic (https://www.blogger.com/profile/16003448099940521425), so I have to wash it multiple times in order to get it clean. Now, I am no spring chicken, since I am pushing 60 years old, and to have my hands above my head while washing my hair can be kind of tiring, especially since it takes multiple washings to get that much hair clean!
And I was so exhausted from doing all of that smartphone work, that I started to feel my like I was going to pass out in the shower! By the way, my parents always taught my siblings and I that if you feel like you are going to pass out, get down on the floor/ground, so that if you do end up passing out, you don't fall and hurt yourself. So, I got out of the shower and got down in the floor of the bathroom, just in case I was going to lose consciousness!
Thankfully, that didn't happen, but I was so stressed out about having reached the point of exhaustion to where I felt like I was going to pass out! (The reader should know that I am HIV-positive with full-blown AIDS, so I have immune system issues that may have contributed to the fact that I felt like I was going to lose consciousness.)
Anywho, I realized that I was pushing myself way too hard to get all of these emails read on a daily basis, besides the reading of the news that I do through Google searches, in addition to the all of blogging that I do (like I am doing right now), plus my regular day-to-day living!
Therefore, I decided to pause reading the email newsletters and to focus on keeping up with the news via Google searches, which is about twice per week, or approximately every three to four days, in order to allow myself time to get other things done. (I do, however, check local news every day.)
And I have been testing this "new system" for the last month, which has been working quite well! However, I have not read any "email news alerts, newsletters and actions" since September 4th, 2026. Thus, I have a total of 1,621 emails still to read, as of yesterday, October 3rd, 2026, for an average of about 54 emails per day!
But I really don't have time to read all of these emails, so I am having to decide which ones I am going to start unsubscribing from in order to greatly reduce the number of news-related emails that I get each day, which is a very difficult decision to make because I value each one of these emails that I receive for the individual stories, and the coverage perspectives, which they provide me about the current news!
Anyway, I wanted explain what was happening with regard to this change that I have made regarding how I am keeping up with the news. And, eventually, I will be editing the list of newsletters that I receive from the above-mentioned news organizations, which can be found in the very first "P.S." of this blog post update!
