thought management - 2024-10-13T21:24:39.185Z

I think I don't have a task management or even a knowledge management challenge, I have a thought management challenge. I want to think more thoughts through to a reasonable level of completion (blog post, commit, sketch, even a toot) while still honouring the kiddo's desire for snuggles and playtime. My brain gets cranky about unfinished thoughts because of the Ovsiankina effect[1]. Sometimes I can get away with just adding a note to myself, and sometimes I end up telling the kiddo, "Let me just finish this thought..." My brain also gets cranky if I don't get time to focus on my own stuff, so it's a bit of a balance.

I like sketchnotes[2] because I can use non-computer time to think nonlinearly and make a thing I can refer to, a chunk I can use to build up other thoughts. I'm working on getting used to even smaller chunks so I can feel like a thought is complete without needing to fill up the page.[3]

Audio braindumps[4] let me explore thoughts, which is nice. WhisperX gets me reasonable transcripts. The transcripts are unfinished chunks, though, so they often go back into my inbox and feel like an open loop[5]. I'm experimenting with LLMs to help me neaten them up, but I haven't figured out a prompt that I'm happy with yet.

So here I am: picking up a thought, putting it down, picking it up, putting it down, capturing a bunch of other thoughts that come up along the way. It'll do for now. This is a temporary phase. Just gotta keep sane!

- [1] Ovsiankina effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovsiankina_effect
- [2] sketchnotes https://sketches.sachachua.com
- [3] cropping https://sachachua.com/blog/2024/09/org-attaching-the-latest-image-from-my-supernote-via-browse-and-access/
- [4] audio braindumps https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/12/audio-braindump-workflow-tweaks-adding-org-mode-hyperlinks-to-recordings-based-on-keywords/
- [5] open loops https://gettingthingsdone.com/2011/10/gtd-best-practices-collect-part-1-of-5/

(... Hmm, does my brain like inline links or footnotes when it comes to stuff like this? What does your brain like? I think inline links might be slightly easier when it comes to grabbing segments and using them in other chunks like a blog post, but it might be worth trying different ways.)

my personal knowledge management workflow - 2024-10-13T03:35:27.740Z

I have an inbox via Orgzly Revived (thanks, GTD). On good days, I distinguish between TODO and SOMEDAY; other times, everything starts off as SOMEDAY. I try to have very few commitments or deadlines. I tag some tasks with keywords (consulting, emacsconf, writing, need) to make them easy to refile automatically so that I can see what's left. I don't really worry about tagging by context (computer, errands, phone) because I still don't have enough focused time to batch things. (Sorry, GTD.) My main Org file is roughly organized along the lines of PARA - projects, areas of responsibility/interest, resources, archive. I have yyyy-mm-dd-nn IDs for my sketches and journal entries (thanks, Zettelkasten) and some support for linking between things, but I haven't gotten around to implementing backlinks or spending more time linking concepts.

I move ideas between sketches and audio braindumps and outlines and notes and toots and blog posts depending on what I can use at the time. Some of them even get turned into audio recordings and videos. Other times, I refile things to rough locations in other parts of my outline; maybe someday I'll get to use them. I tend to use org-refile or ripgrep or Google to try to find things again.

I'm usually skewed by recency/availability bias, focusing on stuff in my note inbox or scheduled tasks. Sometimes I pick a project and focus on it. I use Org Mode's clocking and capture features to help me manage interruptions from life, other ideas, or other tasks.

It's a mish-mash of #PIM approaches, nothing particularly elegant or sophisticated, but it helps me get by and I'm looking forward to tweaking it further.

evolution of my personal information/knowledge management systems - 2024-10-13T03:00:21.459Z

I started thinking about the evolution of my personal information management systems from 2001 to now. Rough timeline:

- 2001: university: assignments, class notes, projects; Planner Mode in Emacs (daily tasks/notes, category notes, blog with RSS feed)
- 2003: teaching: lesson plans, notes; Planner Mode
- 2004: internship in Japan: language learning; Planner Mode, flashcard.el
- 2005: master's degree: research, class notes, finances; Planner Mode, Ledger
- 2007: sketchnotes, working at IBM: internal vs. external notes, publishing to internal blog, moving my public blog to WordPress; Org Mode, org2blog, WordPress
- 2012: self-directed learning - what do I want to spend my time and energy on?; time tracker
- 2015: Emacs News; categorizing Org Mode list items
- 2016: parenting - sleep deprivation, interruptions, limited computer time; MobileOrg
- 2017: web-based journal so that I can easily update it when traveling without my computer
- 2018: switched from MobileOrg to Orgzly
- 2019: EmacsConf; Org Mode for scheduling and automation
- 2021: switched from WordPress to the Eleventy static site generator to reduce security things to worry about
- 2023: SuperNote A5X - easier black/white/gray sketches
- 2024: starting to have more predictable focus time, can revisit my Org Mode notes and projecrs; WhisperX for audio braindumps

Started processing videos for EmacsConf - 2024-10-14T23:03:02.187Z

It took a bit of figuring out, but I managed to spin up our #emacsconf video processing pipeline and got the first uploaded video through the process and into our backstage area, complete with edited captions. I experimented with using the word-level timestamps from WhisperX, but merging them was a little tedious. I might go back to using the text output and then using either Aeneas to align or splitting based on the word data from the WhisperX JSON. Could try finding some other subtitle segmentation thing - maybe give lachesis another try, or check out recent research, or just go with something based on length+punctuation+gap...

Got stuck with Etherpad 2.x, staying with 1.9.7 for now - 2024-10-14T16:11:27.704Z

Got stuck trying to figure out how to install Etherpad 2.x, so I'm going to leave Etherpad at 1.9.7 for #EmacsConf until I have more brainspace.

write-region - 2024-10-14T14:09:06.333Z

#emacs tip for copying text from a region to a file: M-x write-region (https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/1fzmgwb/comment/lr35bm5/)

Emacs screenshots? - 2024-10-09T12:54:35.785Z

https://screenshots.debian.net/ is neat. Do we have one of those for #Emacs packages? Could be a long-term project.

small ideas - 2024-10-13T15:18:05.139Z

I was thinking about my visual book notes [1] , my stack of unread books from the library, and my general feeling of time scarcity that makes it difficult for me to sit down with a book (or even a video). I think for this phase of my life, I'd rather reflect on people's personal blog posts and toots about what they're learning, and that's okay. Small (manageable, hold-in-your-head-able) ideas can be much easier to deal with than something that's trying to be a big enough idea to justify the costs of physical book distribution.

[1] https://sachachua.com/blog/category/visual-book-notes/