You open your phone and check your emails.
You scroll through the news.
Iran. Trump. Israel.
You put it down.
Someone messages you.
You pick it up.
Cartel boss dead in Mexico.
Hotel hit in Dubai.
Pakistan declares “open war” on Taliban.
You open instagram.
You watch a video.
You wonder if it was real… or AI.
Without realising it, half an hour has passed.
In consuming the world, the world consumed you.
There’s a word for this:
Doomscrolling.
Endless scrolling through negative news, alarming content.
It feels informed, but rarely is.
What it actually does is fragment your attention.
So if this feels like you, let me present you with an antidote.
A short story.
Fifteen minutes to read.
One clear narrative.
(It’s online - so yes, you will have to scroll.)
But this time, you’ll be choosing what you consume.
Make a cup of tea and read a story. In English of course.
This week’s three tips:
SOMETHING TO AVOID 🫣
🤦🏻♀️ “I prefer don’t know”
After prefer, we need a noun or an infinitive.
I prefer coffee.
I prefer to leave early.
✅ “I prefer not to know”
To use it in the negative you need the negative infinitive: Not + infinitive.
“Don’t know” is a finite verb form (it has a subject implied: I don’t know)
I prefer not to say anything
SOMETHING TO SOUND CONFIDENT 🧐
👔 Business expressions
“To get sucked into something”
To become involved in something unintentionally, usually something distracting, unproductive, or negative.
It suggests:
You didn’t plan to do it
It pulled you in
You stayed longer than you meant to
There’s almost a loss-of-control feeling in the phrase.
We got sucked into debating minor details and lost sight of the strategic objective.
SOMETHING TO WATCH 👀
NEXT STEPS ➡️
Keep learning,
Jack & Krystallo
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