I had a running list of movies that I made years ago, probably around 2010, that I wanted to watch. I’ve updated it a few times. Since then, I’ve moved my watchlist around so many times, I can’t find them anymore. Some have been lost to the ethers of the Internet’s walled gardens like my old Netflix watch list. Some movies I started but never finished.
Some are top movies, some are recommendations, some are the ones you see on everyone’s lists, but I still haven’t made the time to watch them all. And we all know - we will never watch them all. There’s too much media to consume.
The Original List, by only the ones that I haven’t seen
There’s a small subset of these that I started to watch, but never finished.
Or in the case of Apollo 13, walked into it midway while roommates were watching
it and only saw the second half.
Review “Anytime” (especially “Obligation” tag, or open loops)
📆 Calendar
Review week’s events invites (Work)
Review week’s events invites (Home)
Review any birthdays. Make sure we add them as recurring items on Things
Physical Journal Planner
📓 Notes
Clear the inbox
Filesystem - Downloads Folder
Filesystem - Inbox Folder
Physical Mailbox
Any outstanding Drafts
How did I come about this process?
Tiago’s pillars of productivity can be broken into four categories: tasks, calendar, notes, and reading later. Of course, there’s the inevitable email inbox as well, which I’ve also included. And there’s this, the weekly review.
Prior to taking the course, half of my weekly review was tidying up, and the other half was reflection. One of the major changes that has helped me make the weekly review more accessible for me is to split those two things apart. My weekly note that I write on the website is part of my weekly reflection, and the tidying is the weekly review.
Pillars of Productivity give a ton of tactics to help tidy up for work week ahead. What I found enlightening was only to take the few things, at most two, that you can start this week. As it becomes intuitive, then continue refining the process. “Plan, Do, Check, Act”, as they say.
Annotation: Emails
📧 Emails: Work Email
I’ve made it a point to try to reduce the email load to very little. As a developer, most of my conversations are around Slack. Emails are for external chatter or sharing documents amongst a larger group. And even then, if it’s not a Google Doc or a Confluence Wiki, then I usually start one so that we can end the email chain. I know not everyone at my company likes this as there are non-technical people who are used to email transaction. It’s slowly changing, but it’s a process.
📧 Emails: Personal Email
I’ve made a point to unsubscribe to newsletters, promotions / advertising, and any other recurring email. I don’t care about weekly usage reports, social media updates, and any other periodic updates. When there’s follow-up actions involved with email, I go ahead and forward it to Things, which I’ll cover in the next section. Also, I only check my personal email at a dedicated time in the morning. Otherwise, I’ve found myself hitting refresh way too often.
When I have to reply to someone, and I have to put more thought into it, it also goes in Things.
The reason I’ve come to this conclusion is I used to use Superhuman. It was way too expensive for what it was worth for my workflow. What I took away was the following.
Use shortcuts
Get to archiving an email quickly
Unsubscribe from anything unnecessary
YMMV for the definition of “unnecessary”. I’ve found that I’ve been able to reduce my email load to a very manageable level.
Annotation: Tasks
✅ Tasks: Clear Inbox
My task manager of choice is Things. I love that it’s a one-time fee. I love that I have a special shortcut to create a new Todo. And I like how they integrated Areas and Projects to it. While I’m not strict to PARA (I have a modified system), the mental model makes sense. Especially for my work area that has many projects.
Also, I waver between my inbox and anytime. The inbox is a holding area for me to add a todo to a project and attach a date to it. If unattached, it could wind up in my “Anytime” box, which would get lost to the void. Having a weekly check-in for this helps immensely as I figure out what I have to do for the week.
📣 Shoutout to Ayush who introduced me to Things. Who also introduced me to Todoist, although I found Todoist much harder to not be overwhelmed by.
✅ Tasks: Review “Anytime” (especially “Obligation” tag, or open loops)
Cal Newport talked about an obligation list on his podcast, and it stuck with me. Tiago’s phrasing for this is an open loop. There’s no next action you can take as you’ve “delagated” this to someone else, but there might be some follow-up later (see David Allen’s GTD about how he delagates).
This could also be you promised to do something for someone else, but that time has not come yet. Like tell someone you can make it for their New Years bash in August. I’ll typically plan to put something, but not sure what that task will be just yet. There’s usually an element of time and duty. For a rule of thumb, I don’t rely on others to remember for me, so I put this in Things in a personal project that has no “when”.
Annotation: Calendar
📆 Calendar Review week’s events invites (Work)
I use Google Calendar as the default base calendar. I use Fantastical to create events easily, and Notion Calendar to indicate the time between meetings, and to pick up the zoom meeting link invites. Honestly, after Cron rebranded, I might drop it.
At the beginning of the day, I see if there are new meetings, or changed meetings, that I have to update my RSVP. During the weekly review, I use the existing meetings to plan when I’ll need focused time. I think a lot about Paul Graham’s Maker’s Schedule vs. Manager’s Schedule.
When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting.
Paul Graham
While Paul uses Office Hours to work in a manager’s schedule within a maker’s schedule, I opt for deep focus sessions that are unstructured. I have enough tasks through my task manager to indicate to me what to work on next, so I never worry about the content.
📆 Calendar Review week’s events invites (Home)
Whenever I plan a date weekend, or have obligations for others, I’ll schedule it in. I stopped putting recurring tasks on my calendar and shoved them over to my task manager.
📆 Calendar Review any birthdays. Make sure we add them as recurring items on Things
This one is simple. I exported all of the birthday dates from Facebook or other social media of choice and give them a text or a phone call. It’s something to remind them that I’m thinking of them and an easy lift to do.
Also, I’d rather have this in Things, so I’m doing a slow migration.
📆 Calendar Physical Journal Planner
I’ll have both calendars open and pen them in my physical planner. I use the physical planner as a working area to help me slot other things in. Paper and pen helps a lot better for me to think about the week ahead. See The Extended Mind.
Annotation: Notes
📓 Notes: Clear the inbox
I’m a prolific Obsidian user as my primary personal knowledge management (PKM). My default note folder is ”+”, previously called my inbox. Each note belongs somewhere, and maybe I’ll talk about my PKM more publicly. First, I have to hide all the private notes.
📓 Notes: Filesystem - Downloads Folder
My laptop’s downloads folder is the clutter area where anything can go in. Either they belong in by inbox, they get organized, or they go in the trash.
📓 Notes: Filesystem - Inbox Folder
The inbox folder is something worth saving and ready to file. I use my modified version of PARA to organize where things go.
📓 Notes: Physical Mailbox
Snail mail! This is a two-fold action. I rarely check my mailbox, so I go to the mailroom. Then I review quickly anything that has a follow-up action, otherwise it goes in the recycle bin.
📓 Notes: Any outstanding Drafts
I use Drafts on my phone and laptop to write down anything. Calculations, initial ideas, a working draft of a next blog post. Really, this is my scratchpad, and I’ll file them away or archive them. The syncing is the reason I keep coming back.
After Thoughts
I try to minimize this time as much as possible. Tidying up isn’t the work, so I do this to prep for my focus productive time.
Yesterday was my 34th birthday. It was a wildly unexpected year, full of twists and turns that I could not have seen coming.
How did the annual theme go?
The thought process behind my annual theme, the Year of Intention, was to make time more intentional. In Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman writes about the finite time we have. To balance out my active vs. passive time, in which you need both, I want to guard what little precious time I have. In a way, this is a scarcity mindset and one which I should remind myself of often.
Intentionality is planned focus. Meaning I focused my attention on specific areas of my life. After planning, there’s a phase of reflection, like reviewing the initial plan and how it went, doing goal setting and planning, and reviewing my energy management. In the past, I would like entropy to set in and stop planning altogether, drop my long-term goals, and let the energy demons enter. Demons may include procrastination, burnout, and being overwhelmed.
At the beginning of the year, I put a few things in motion.
Daily Reviews
Weekly Reviews
Monthly Reviews
Quarterly Goals
I thought having a lot of reviews would help me with goal setting, reviewing those goals, and avoiding crashing and burning.
So, the big question is, how did it go?
The short answer is not well. The longer answer is it went partially well. Daily reviews have been great. Weekly and monthly reviews crashed and burned. I did half of my quarterly goals. Let me dive deeper through a short detour on what happened this year.
Family Emergencies
This year will go down as one of the worst years when it comes to family. While I can’t go into too much detail in this area, I can tell you it was a terrible time for my parents. My aunt passed away last January and my father had a terrible accident. Both incidents left us in the hospital far longer than we ever expected.
Needless to say, both incidents left me extremely frazzled. As part of my theme, I wanted to leave my “Hyperactive Hive Mind”, but after half a year, I had it worse than ever. After being at the hospital for a full day, I would come home and crash by being on my phone. Quite the opposite of turning off for the day. And to put matters worse, I almost drove my partner insane by barely making enough time for our big move.
The Rest of the Year
While the family emergencies occupied my mind for a good portion of the year, many other things happened. Here’s a shortlist.
My work went through two reductions in forces (round of lay-offs). Luckily I was not impacted
We moved to San Jose
We checked out our first antiquarian fair
I got to catch up with old friends who I haven’t talked to in years
We checked out the Dandelion Chocolate Factory tour
We got to go to 2 musicals and an opera (see more in my logs)
Visited Christmas in the park for the tree lighting ceremony
Closing Thoughts
While 2023 will go down as a year to remember, I am hopeful for 2024. I’m going to get married! Also, I’ve taken a lot of lessons learned from a more intentional life and will be taking those with me in the next year. As I make those changes, I’ll reflect and write about them in the future.
Season’s greetings! And for those who follow the Christmas tradition, a happy, Merry Christmas!
I hope you are all spending time with your loved ones, or thinking about them dearly. It’s the end of my very long and tumultuous year.
In my tough times, I wish I could see everyone again in some capacity. Life changes, our circumstances change, and friendships grow and drift apart. The paradox is that we are hyperconnected and missing out on each other in person. A train ride from San Jose to San Francisco is approximately 65 minutes. And yet it is hard for any of us over 30 to make a spontaneous plan to travel. And when distances span across states or countries, we find ourselves in a long text chain in one of seven apps on our phone.
In my current state of self-reflection and the beginnings of my annual review tradition, the word that has stuck with me this year has been “calm.” When things feel like they are at their worst, my borrowed mantra has been to “share your calm.”
Over the summer, one of the worst things happened. I got a call I feared: my dad was rushed to the emergency room. He fell from the roof while climbing down a ladder, leaving him with a bad concussion that led to a brain bleed. After surgery, being in the ICU, then hospital, then rehab hospital, then assisted living, he’s finally home after a long 4 months. For this period, I’ve taken a part-time caretaking role, and have spent more hours with him than any other time in the last decade. It’s been grueling watching him wax and wane on his road to recovery. Some days would be fantastic, while others felt like major setbacks.
One time when I was shuttling him, he mentioned he only wanted to remember the good memories, and none of the sad ones. It was like reliving the lowest moments of his life, like when his mom and brother died. I cried a little, and I’ve never heard my dad be so vulnerable before his accident.
As my caretaking responsibilities wind down, how do I redistribute that energy? I’m also asking myself, what do I have to accept? And what can I leave behind?
My dad’s injury reminds me our time and attention are precious, and we shouldn’t take those for granted. Recovery isn’t an end condition, but an endless journey. Have grace and patience.
If something I wrote resonated with you, or you just want to say hi, please reply. I miss you all, and I wish you a wonderful 2024. May our paths cross again soon.
I took Tiago Forte’s course, “Building a Second Brain” back in 2021, and one of the first exercises we did was “12 Favorite Problems”. The idea is to lay out your favorite questions, and these questions are long-term problems without easy answers. The following are some questions that I continue to think about often, and take notes when I find new insights.
Questions
How can I build my relationship to be of equal partnership, while respecting what makes us unique?
How do I create and maintain a healthy lifestyle?
How do I maintain relationships with family, friends, and community that builds and encourages bonds, trust, and healthy lifestyles?
How do I incorporate rest alongside the stress of everyday life? Related: Tidying up and clear mental space
How do I build a solid financial future for my family and myself?
How can I grow my technical and interpersonal capabilities that continues to solve problems rather than cranking out widgets?
Interpersonal meaning soft-skills
What are the small, incremental changes that, if continued on a short time interval, can have compounding effects over time? Thinking habits, routines
How can I foster inspiration for creative output? Related: music, writing, and painting
How do I actively engage with content rather than passively consume it?
What are your favorite problems? Feel free to email them to me 😄.
When you start the year heartbroken and scared to start again, where do you go? In my mind, being 32 meant looking forward to getting married, starting a family, buying a home. Life had other plans for me. I took some time to reflect, and I started by selecting an annual theme. It was my “Year of Challenges”, where the theme at first meant to start again and regain a sense of agency. It ended as a way to look at events outside your control.
Wake Up Call
One of my biggest takeaways from the past year came from the book “Four Thousand Weeks ”, by Oliver Burkeman. “Seek out novelty in the mundane”, Burkeman writes. When you’re a child, more experiences are novel because those are first time experiences. When you’re an adult, most experiences are mundane because most experiences are routine. Burkeman’s suggestion for making those mundane activities novel is to take the time to notice them and reflect.
A way I’ve been tracking this is by utilizing a second brain and reviewing notes that I’ve saved throughout the week. Little tidbits from articles I read, ideas that are in their infancy, potential future projects I may want to start. It’s like reviewing your journal in a more systematic way, and remembering what your past self said to help inform your present self, and potentially make decisions for your future self. (In the future, I will write about my experiences with developing a second brain, what it means, and how I utilize it).
How Love Lasts
I never expected the year to be where I entered heart broken, and exited engaged. I had a lot of re-learning to do when it came to love. Furthermore, I read through How Not To Die Alone by Logan Ury to be an indispensable resource. Some big takeaways were “Date for a life partner, not a prom date”, and “Screw the spark”.
I had this erroneous belief that you should wait three years to propose to someone.
Year 1. The honeymoon phase.
Year 2. Share life experiences together through integrating with your partner’s family and friends.
Year 3. Share a home together.
But when you know, you know. Instead, I scrapped waiting years and I jumped straight to the ring and question. I was second guessing my plan. I wanted to surprise her at a rose garden in Oakland, but it was far too dark when we arrived. She was annoyed by the midterm elections, and I was thinking, what could a Plan B mean? I proposed in front of Fenton’s Creamery, and her annoyance became a delightful surprise. She was in tears, and I’ll never forget that moment.
A Run To Remember
I ran a marathon! I hadn’t been to the gym in two years, neglected my physical health during the COVID years, and was afraid to start working out again. What was different from the last time I found myself in similar circumstances was that I learned many lessons from my former physical trainer. I found an accountability partner in a friend who moved back to the area.
At first, it was just running every Saturday morning at Golden Gate Park. Then a different friend suggested I run the SF Half Marathon with her. I created a daily workout plan to get myself back in shape in 7 months, and it paid off. I ran the fastest half-marathon I could ever ask for, and it felt much better than the past two years combined. My biggest hope is that I take this feeling away with me for future years to come.
Exiting Thoughts
I intend to write about more experiences in short essays. Returning to writing is scary. I remember the video Ze Frank made about the “An Invocations on Beginnings”. He says “Let me think about the people who I care about the most, and how when they fail or disappoint me, I still love them, I still give them chances, and I still see the best in them. Let me extend that generosity to myself.” I think it’s hard to give yourself another chance, and easy to say “I’ll do this again another day”. Writing was my form of zen, and I miss it so much. Please consider continuing to read what I have to write, and support me in future endeavors.
Initially from OpenAI’s fine-tuned GPT-3 version called Codex
AI-powered Code Generation, a smarter text expansion
Trained on open source code from Github
Reinforcement learning means it gets better with time, but maybe just incrementally
Prompt Engineering
Surprising use cases
Giving enough in the comments for generate decent code. Still needs some analysis
Giving a template for unit tests.
A lot of times, developers skip this step. By having an outline for it, the time to write tests go down
AI-powered tools as paired programming
Great alternative to the question and answer sites like StakeOverflow
Limitations
Answers are generative, meaning what you use in the prompt and how the model was training will determine the output
If you are looking for structured data, Google and Wolfram|Alpha do a much better job
Code that’s complexity is still hard to write
Can get very buggy
Training models in a rut w/ a Glitch Token
SMEs need to be the adult in the room
Legality
A class-action lawsuit against GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft claims that the training of Codex violated open source licensing agreements. The outcome could have legal implications for models that generate text, images, and other media as well.
Places like PromptBase are an open marketplace for text strings that generate interesting output
Limitations
Training set based off online images, which have inherit biases (see bad algorithms)
For example, sexualizing women unfairly
Concerns
Concern with legality
Concern with artists
ArtStation, an online community for visual artists, launched its own text-to-image features. Many artists, feeling threatened by computer programs that can reproduce an artist’s hard-won personal style in seconds, boycotted the website.
