Monthly review: January 2015
Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review
Last month, I wrote that in January, I planned to:
- Set up a rhythm of monthly Emacs hangouts and Emacs chats: Scheduled a few more
- Shift my finances around a bit so that I'm more relaxed: Refilled, yay!
- Sort out some small snags with consulting: Smoothed out
- Get the exercise ladder habit going again: Associating microwaving with exercising is a small start.
- Make little improvements around the house, so it doesn't end up waiting for vacations: W- has been doing most of this, so I've been focusing on cooking instead.
It was a good month for thinking about questions and goals. Eric's update on his Quest of Awesome at the Quantified Self Toronto meetup inspired me to list accomplishments, goals, and questions, and I'm gradually making sense of those things.
I've been relaxing my self-imposed one-post-a-day limit, since there's so much I want to write about and I've built up quite a backlog. I need to think about how to keep this manageable. Sometimes I really like having posts scheduled but not posted, since that allows me to update them when I find little bugs in the code or opportunities to improve. On the other hand, there's something to be said about faster feedback cycles. Hmm.
At work, I've learned a lot about using Tableau for recursive queries, dashboard actions, and filters. Level up! Speaking of data and analytics, my self-tracking got mentioned in the Toronto Star.
Focusing on Emacs microhabits has been paying off nicely. I'm still not as fluent as I'd like to be in terms of abbreviations and window-switching, but I'm better at them than before. I'll continue working on those habits in February, and maybe I'll delve into Helm too. I've also been writing little Node and Emacs Lisp scripts to automate parts of my workflow, which makes me happy.
In February, I'm looking forward to:
- Preparing for some projects
- Hosting another Emacs Hangout
- Learning more about Helm (in Emacs)
I'm experimenting with a combined outline that includes my blog posts and sketches so that things are logically grouped. Since I have lots of sketches, I've skipped the ones that have already been included in blog posts. Sketches are the ones that start with the date, and blog posts have regular titles. Might be useful, might be noisy, but I won't know until I try. =) Here's what I wrote and drew this month:
- Cooking
- Decisions
- Drawing
- Emacs
- Getting data from Org Mode tables
- Emacs microhabit: Switching windows with windmove, ace-window, and ace-jump
- Emacs kaizen: helm-swoop and editing
- Emacs Chat with Steve Purcell
- Developing Emacs micro-habits: Abbreviations and templates
- Improving my evil plans for Emacs
- 2015-01-09 Emacs Hangout (blog post with video)
- Thinking about how to make better use of Yasnippet in my Emacs workflow
- Emacs kaizen: ace-isearch combines ace-jump-mode and helm-swoop
- 2015-01-03 Making better use of basement - index card
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-18 Digging into my thoughts about emptying one's cup -- #emacs #writing
- 2015-01-18 Digging into my thoughts about emptying one's cup -- #emacs #writing
- 2015-01-26 Book - How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci -- index card #raw #book
- 2015-01-26 Book - How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci -- index card #raw #book
- Experiment
- Improvement
- 2015-01-12 Coding improvements -- index card #workflow #coding
- 2015-01-03 Making better use of basement - index card
- 2015-01-03 Making better use of basement - index card
- 2015-01-03 Making better use of basement - index card
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-16 Emacs community -- index card #emacs
- Learning
- Learning to work on my own things
- Learning a little more quickly
- 2015-01-31 Clearing my fabric stash -- index card #tidying #decluttering
- 2015-01-04 Automating text -- index card
- 2015-01-08 How to use what you read -- index card
- 2015-01-09 Cross-pollination of ideas -- index card
- 2015-01-12 Coding improvements -- index card #workflow #coding
- 2015-01-12 Coding improvements -- index card #workflow #coding
- Life
- 2015-01-27 Field's metal -- index card #hacklab
- 2015-01-31 Clearing my fabric stash -- index card #tidying #decluttering
- 2015-01-31 Clearing my fabric stash -- index card #tidying #decluttering
- 2015-01-27 Field's metal -- index card #hacklab
- 2015-01-08 How to use what you read -- index card
- 2015-01-16 Emacs community -- index card #emacs
- 2015-01-29 Being okay with unfair -- index card #stoicism
- 2015-01-17 Evening tweaks -- index card #routines
- 2015-01-17 Evening tweaks -- index card #routines
- 2015-01-18 Digging into my thoughts about emptying one's cup -- #emacs #writing
- 2015-01-25 Learning from people -- index card #learning #people
- Mapping and planning
- 2015-01-23 Book - Leaving a Trace - Alexandra Johnson -- index card #writing #book
- 2015-01-21 Goal strategies -- index card #popular-goals
- 2015-01-20 Asking better questions -- index card #asking
- 2015-01-20 Asking better questions -- index card #asking
- 2015-01-20 Asking better questions -- index card #asking
- 2015-01-06 Abbreviations -- index card
- 2015-01-07 Code insertion -- index card
- 2015-01-05 A reflection on diminishing returns versus compounding growth -- index card
- 2015-01-25 Learning from people -- index card #learning #people
- 2015-01-27 Field's metal -- index card #hacklab
- 2015-01-22 Book - Leading the Life You Want - Friedman 2014 -- index card #book
- 2015-01-22 Book - Leading the Life You Want - Friedman 2014 -- index card #book
- 2015-01-22 Book - Leading the Life You Want - Friedman 2014 -- index card #book
- 2015-01-22 Book - Leading the Life You Want - Friedman 2014 -- index card #book
- 2015-01-20 Asking better questions -- index card #asking
- Mastery
- Productivity
- Move your goalposts to get around an inability to finish projects How redefining your projects can help you satisfy a novelty-seeking brain, and how you can deal with interests or experiments that don't have clear ends
- Predictable advice about productivity
- Morning, afternoon, evening, commute: thinking about what to do when (sketched)
- Read business books more effectively through application, visualization, or reviews
- Quantified
- Reading
- Sketched Book: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – Simon Sinek
- 2015-01-22 Book - Leading the Life You Want - Friedman 2014 -- index card #book
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions -- index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-23 Book - Leaving a Trace - Alexandra Johnson -- index card #writing #book
- 2015-01-18 Digging into my thoughts about emptying one's cup -- #emacs #writing
- 2015-01-14 Breaking down excuses -- index card #excuses #breakdown
- 2015-01-26 Book - How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci -- index card #raw #book
- Talking
- Tools
- Writing
- Writing: Open loops, closed loops, and working with forgetfulness
- Visualizing the internal citation network of my blog
- Breaking down the skill of outlining
- Thoughts in context: Connecting posts to my blog post index
- Think more effectively by typing to yourself
- Deliberately making sense
- 2015-01-28 Cheesy vegan alfredo -- index card #cooking
- 2015-01-28 Cheesy vegan alfredo -- index card #cooking
- 2015-01-11 Current state and future states -- index card #writing
- 2015-01-11 Current state and future states -- index card #writing
- 2015-01-12 Coding improvements -- index card #workflow #coding
- 2015-01-13 Emacs and the beginner's mind -- index card #emacs #beginner
- 2015-01-13 Emacs and the beginner's mind -- index card #emacs #beginner
- 2015-01-19 A good way to track writing revisions -- index card #editing #tech
- 2015-01-19 A good way to track writing revisions -- index card #editing #tech
- 2015-01-19 A good way to track writing revisions -- index card #editing #tech
- 2015-01-19 A good way to track writing revisions -- index card #editing #tech
- Review