Monthly review: January 2015
Posted: - Modified: | monthly, review
2015-02-01 January 2015 – index card #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 Why Emacs – index card
- 2015-01-15 Planning a bibliography Org file – index card #emacs #org #reading
- 2015-01-18 Journey to Emacs – stages – index card #emacs
- 2015-01-18 Journey to Emacs – Beginnings – index card #emacs #beginner
- 2015-01-26 Emacs microhabit – multiple selection in Helm – index card #emacs #helm
- 2015-01-26 What would make my Emacs experience better – index card #kaizen #emacs
- Experiment
- Finding a model for my sharing
- Filling in the occupational blanks
- 2015.01.08 Imagining coaching or guiding others – index card
- 2015-01-07 What am I happy to pay for in money or time – index card
- 2015-01-26 Contemplating businesses – index card #experiment #business
- 2015-01-27 Financial goals – index card #finance
- 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 kitchen – index card
- 2015.01.03 Making better use of phone – index card
- 2015-01-15 Helping people be more selective about email questions – index card #teaching #email
- 2015-01-15 What if I required people to pay it forward – #workingoutloud #sharing #teaching
- 2015-01-16 How can I improve my experience of e-mail – index card #email #kaizen
- Learning
- Learning to work on my own things
- Learning a little more quickly
- 2015-01-31 Most of my questions are 'How can I…' – index card #learning #question
- 2015.01.04 Rhythm for learning – index card
- 2015.01.08 Learning as an event – index card
- 2015.01.09 Cross-pollination of ideas – index card
- 2015.01.12 How I stopped looking for answers – index card #reading
- 2015.01.12 What am I learning about – index card #plans
- Life
- 2015-01-27 Field's metal – index card #hacklab
- 2015-01-31 What's worth remembering – index card #memory
- 2015-01-31 Clearing my fabric stash – index card #tidying #decluttering
- 2015-01-27 Resetting my mental state – index card #emotions
- 2015.01.08 Team-building activities – index card
- 2015-01-16 Thinking about why I don't meditate – index card #reason #meditation
- 2015-01-29 Being okay with unfair – index card #stoicism
- 2015-01-17 Weekend routines – index card #life #routines
- 2015-01-17 Evening tweaks – index card #routines
- 2015-01-18 Narratives – index card #storytelling #perspective
- 2015-01-25 Walking in High Park – index card #relax
- Mapping and planning
- 2015-01-23 Rough notes on goals and questions – for follow up – index card #rough #notes
- 2015-01-21 Goal strategies – index card #popular-goals
- 2015-01-20 Skill trees – writing – index card #skill
- 2015-01-20 Skill trees – asking questions – index card #skill
- 2015-01-20 Skill trees – web – index card #skill #coding
- 2015.01.06 Figuring out information flow – index card
- 2015.01.07 Mapping the connections in my blog – index card
- 2015.01.05 How can I get better at summary posts – index card
- 2015-01-25 Phrasing goals – past, future, present – index card #goals #planning #language
- 2015-01-27 Thinking about a goal graph – index card #visualization #planning #goals
- 2015-01-22 Buffet of other goals – index card #goals
- 2015-01-22 Imagining a good quest or skill discussion – index card #goals #conversation
- 2015-01-22 Goals and skills – index card #goals
- 2015-01-22 Thesis projects for 2015 – ideas – index card #sharing #plans
- 2015-01-20 What do I want from this quest list and skill tree visualization – index card
- 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 Writing on Both Sides of Your Brain – Henriette Anne Klauser – index card #book #raw
- 2015-01-15 Think Better – Tim Hurson – index card #book #raw #thinking #creativity
- 2015-01-15 How to Read and Why – Harold Bloom – index card #book #raw #reading
- 2015-01-23 Book – Leaving a Trace – Alexandra Johnson – index card #writing #book
- 2015-01-18 The Sense of Style – index card #book #writing
- 2015-01-14 On Desire – Why We Want What We Want – William Irvine – index cards #book
- 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 I tend to think in circles around a topic – index card #self-directed-learning #learning #questions
- 2015-01-28 What areas of knowledge do I want to organize – index card #writing #pkm
- 2015.01.11 Learning from what I like about books – index card #writing
- 2015.01.11 What makes a good other-focused post – index card #writing
- 2015.01.12 Undirected questions versus directed questions – index card #writing
- 2015.01.13 Evaluating posts written for others – index card #writing #questions #blogging
- 2015-01-13 What's getting in my way when it comes to reverse outlining – index card #outlining #writing #obstacle
- 2015-01-19 How can I get better at research – index card #learning
- 2015-01-19 Improving my sharing – index card #writing #sharing
- 2015-01-19 Deeper outlines – index card #writing
- 2015-01-19 A good way to track writing revisions – index card #editing #tech
- Review