Monthly review: February 2015
Last month, I wrote that in February, I was looking forward to:
- Preparing for some projects: Done!
- Hosting another Emacs Hangout: Done!
- Learning more about Helm (in Emacs): Customized!
What a month for cooking, drawing, writing, sewing, and tweaking Emacs. Somehow I managed to make more progress on personal projects and do lots of consulting.
Time
| Category | Last month (%) | This month (%) | Avg h per week | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business – Earn | 4.1 | 7.8 | 13 | 3.7 |
| Unpaid work | 8.5 | 9.9 | 17 | 1.4 |
| Discretionary – Productive | 11.9 | 12.6 | 21 | 0.7 |
| Discretionary – Social | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2 | 0.7 |
| Discretionary – Family | 4.4 | 5.1 | 9 | 0.7 |
| Sleep | 35.3 | 35.3 | 59 | 0.0 |
| Personal | 15.1 | 14.7 | 25 | -0.4 |
| Discretionary – Play | 3.8 | 2.8 | 5 | -1.0 |
| Business – Connect | 5.4 | 2.8 | 5 | -2.6 |
| Business – Build | 11.1 | 7.8 | 13 | -3.3 |
As an experiment, I tried treating consulting as a "dessert" task to encourage me to work on my personal projects. I also stayed late at the office when I happened to have evening get-togethers scheduled downtown. I made decent progress on my other projects, I got more consulting in, and my clients were happy for the help. Still, my personal projects and interests are starting to be more motivating for me, so I think I might be able to rely on their intrinsic motivation soon. =)
This month, I spent some time thinking about clothes, shopping, sewing, and how I can make this experience better. It was a little stressful trying to find clothes for a family event (I ended up going in my office clothes), so I've resolved to try:
- shopping more frequently
- giving myself permission to spend more money
- investing in learning how to sew
So far, so good. I've found a simple pattern for tops and am working on filling my wardrobe with them. Some people like variety. I think I get a kick out of consistency.
I've been cooking a lot too, yay!
I expect next month to focus even more on personal projects. I'd like to:
- finish a few more tops in this season's colours
- bake a few pies for Pi Day
- work on a few personal projects
Blog posts
- Sketched Books
- Drawing
- Emacs
- Using Emacs to prepare files for external applications like Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
- Learn how to take notes more efficiently in Org Mode
- Emacs: Peer-to-peer coaching is easier when you use impatient-mode to share your buffer
- Org Mode: Reusing the date from file-datetree-prompt
- Continuous integration and code coverage for Emacs packages with Travis and Coveralls
- Getting started with Emacs? Empty your cup
- Digital index piles with Emacs: Rapid categorization of Org Mode items
- Let's have a virtual Emacs conference in August – help me make it happen!
- Learning
- Writing
- Tech
- Experiment
- Life
- Review
Sketches
- Happiness
- Pace
- 2015-02-12g Community and divergence – index card #pace #niche – ref 2015-02-12f
- 2015-02-12f Is what I can contribute through slowness more useful or interesting than what I can contribute through speed – index card #pace – ref 2014-02-12e
- 2015-02-12e When do I savour slowness – index card #pace #leisure – ref 2015-02-11e
- Philosophy
- Productivity
- Sewing
- 2015-02-25b What's next for sewing – index card #sewing
- 2015-02-24d Improving my sewing experience – index card #sewing
- 2015-02-24a New pattern, or several of one – index card #sewing
- 2015-02-11c What were the friction factors for sewing last time, and how can I improve – index card #sewing #kaizen #reducing-friction
- Cooking
- Tech
- 2015-02-24c Update on phone decision – index card #tech #decision
- 2015-02-21a Plan for replacement phone – index card #tech #phone
- 2015-02-20c Hmm, phone seems to be limping along – index card #phone #tech
- 2015-02-20b Flagship phone features – index card #phone #tech #decision
- 2015-02-20a Flagship or midrange or budget – index card #phone #tech
- 2015-02-19b Phone battery – index card #phone #tech
- 2015-02-13d Setting up a fake NTP server for testing time – index card #sysad #ntp #tech
- 2015-02-13c What did I learn from Google Helpouts – index card #experience #helpouts
- 2015-02-09 How can I make better use of my laptop – index card #tech
- Clothing
- 2015-02-16a How can I play the long game when it comes to stuff – index card #clothing #maintenance
- 2015-02-14d What colour combinations do I like – index card #clothing #colour #wardrobe
- 2015-02-14c Ideal for things to wear – index card #clothing #wardrobe
- 2015-02-11d Do I want to invest in clothes or in sewing – index card #sewing #clothing – ref 2015-02-10
- 2015-02-10e Shop or sew – index card #clothing #sewing #shopping
- 2015-02-10d Things I would like to sort out clothes-wise – index card #clothing
- 2015-02-07 What would dressing better be like – index card #clothing
- 2015-02-07 What do I want from my clothing and appearance – index card #clothing
- Writing
- Connecting
- 2015-02-11b How can I help friends who are struggling with work – index card #friendship #unemployment #freelancing #connecting
- 2015-02-06 What if I made myself take someone out to lunch or coffee every month – index card #connecting #friends
- 2015-02-06 What activities would I like to share with friends – index card #connecting #friends
- 2015-02-05 How can non-profits regularly reach out to people over social media – index card #social #social-media #connecting
- Life
- 2015-02-17b What kind of interesting people do I want to have more of in my life – index card #connecting
- 2015-02-08 What do I want from cooking – index card #life #cooking
- 2015-02-08 Playing video games – index card #life #gaming #relax
- 2015-02-07 Alternative shopping experiences – index card #clothing #shopping
- 2015-02-05 Biscotti – index card #cooking #baking
- 2015-02-04 Yay, passport – index card #canada #travel #paperwork
- Drawing
- 2015-02-20d Tips from my digital workflow – index card #drawing #process #digital
- 2015-02-10 Evolution of my index card workflow – index card #drawing #workflow
- 2015-02-09 How can I make better use of my index card drawing process – index card #drawing #index-cards #zettelkasten
- 2015-02-08 Reflection on 5 index cards a day target – index card #drawing #reflection
- 2015-02-06 How can I more regularly add entries to my private journal – index card #drawing #journal #habit
- 2015-02-06 How can I more regularly add entries to my private journal – index card #drawing #habit #journal
- 2015-02-04 Digital index cards are working well – index card #drawing #digital
- Planning
- Sharing
- 2015-02-24b Exploring idiosyncratic questions – index card #questions #sharing
- 2015-02-09 Why do I respond differently to variants of the same question, and what can I learn from that – index card #coaching #preference
- 2015-02-09 What characterizes people I like helping – index card #coaching #preference
- 2015-02-06 What kind of coaching do I like to give – index card #coaching #teaching
- 2015-02-03 Scooped – index card #writing #sharing
- 2015-02-03 Benefits of sharing my index cards – index card #sharing #drawing
- Experiment
- 2015-02-13e Turning money into other things – index card #finance #decision #money
- 2015-02-12d What are the roots of my difficulties delegating – index card #delegation
- 2015-02-12b What do I want from Thursday evenings – index card #consulting #experiment #leisure #evening #relax – ref 2015-02-05
- 2015-02-11a How do I recognize, work around, or make the most of my impostor syndrome – index card #impostor #self-doubt
- 2015-02-05 If consulting is dessert, what are my vegetables – index card #consulting #experiment #balance
- 2015-02-05 How can I make Thursdays more like other days – index card #experiment
- 2015-02-03 Delegation and dreaming small dreams – index card #delegation
- 2015-02-02 What if I use the lure of work to help me grow – index card #consulting #experiment
- 2015-02-02 Core areas – index card #life #priorities #values #goals
- PKM
- 2015-02-06 How can I brainstorm and organize questions in order to speed up my writing and drawing – index card #thinking #questions #pkm #acceleration
- 2015-02-05 How can I organize my questions – and why – index card #questions #organization #pkm
- 2015-02-03 What kinds of personal knowledge do I want to manage – index card #pkm
- 2015-02-03 Tree view, forest view – index card #org #pkm #tasks
- 2015-02-02 Plain text – index card #data #organization #pkm #org
- 2015-02-01 Index card sketches and monthly reviews – index card #organization #pkm #indexing
- 2015-02-01 Digital piles of index cards – index card #indexing #organization #pkm
- Emacs
- 2015-02-13b What are the benefits of watching someone code an idea in Emacs Lisp – index card #coaching #emacs #teaching #emacs-lisp
- 2015-02-09 How can I take advantage of the Emacs widget library – index card #emacs
- 2015-02-09 Capturing Org Mode notes more efficiently – index card #emacs #org #capture #refile
- 2015-02-06 How can I improve my Emacs habits and workflows – index card #emacs #kaizen
- 2015-02-04 Yay, testing in Emacs – index card #testing #emacs
- 2015-02-04 Improving my Org clocking workflow – index card #org
- 2015-02-03 Better Emacs Testing – index card #testing #emacs
- 2015-02-02 Making a virtual Emacs conference happen – index card #emacs #organizing-people #conference #planning #questions
- 2015-02-02 Imagining an Emacs conference – index card #emacs #conference #plans #organizing-people
- 2015-02-01 Accelerating the Emacs community – index card #accelerating #emacs
- Learning
- 2015-02-16c Thinking, learning, doing, sharing, and reviewing – index card #thinking #balance #learning #sharing #reviewing #doing – ref 2015-02-16b
- 2015-02-16b Finding a good mix of thinking, learning, and doing – index card #balance #thinking #learning #doing
- 2015-02-13a How does experience change what you get out of manuals – index card #learning #coaching #teaching #reading
- 2015-02-06 What would my ideal question-thinking workflow be like – index card #learning #questions #thinking
- 2015-02-06 What do I like or dislike about learning online – index card #learning #online
- 2015-02-04 Shrinking my Learn-Do-Share cycle – index card #sharing #learning
- 2015-02-03 Why map what you're learning – index card #mapping #learning
- 2015-02-01 Accelerating my learning – index card #learning #accelerating
- Review
- Journal
- 2015-02-28a Saturday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-27a Friday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-26a Thursday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-25a Wednesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-24e Tuesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-23a Monday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-22a Sunday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-21b Saturday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-20e Friday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-19a Thursday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-18a Wednesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-17a Tuesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-16d Monday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-15a Sunday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-14b Saturday – relax, tidy, connect – index card #journal
- 2015-02-13f Friday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-12a Thursday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-11f Wednesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-10f Tuesday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-09 Monday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-08 Sunday – index card #journal
- 2015-02-07 Journal – index card #journal
- 2015-02-06 Journal – index card #journal
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