lower your blood pressure and add years back to your life by looking at your stats in landscape mode

pic #1 is my february views graph, viewed on my phone in portrait mode (i.e., the way most of us are looking at our stats)

pic #2 is my february views graph, viewed on my phone in landscape mode

idk about y’all but to me, the second photo looks like a much more manageable, much less catastrophic, much less stressful situation than the panic spiral depicted in the first photo.

we are all dumber when our brains are in panic mode. we can’t think as clearly, we can’t see as far into the future, we can’t pull context from the past, and we’re worse at making strategic decisions. i really think that fyp-induced anxiety creates a positive feedback loop of worsening performance - see a dip in performance, panic, make panicked decisions, performance dips even more, and so on.

to test my theory, starting today i am only going to look at my graphs either on my laptop or in landscape mode on my phone.

even if it doesn’t make a significant difference in performance, i think it’s still worth doing if for no other reason than i’ll feel less bad less often. i invite y’all to join me and liberate yourselves from the emotional tyranny of the Spikey Graphs.