I want to start building up more thoughts as
chunks and relating them more logically instead of
just chronologically. I've been using categories
to organize my posts into buckets, but within a
category, it's still chronological. I also have a
large outline that includes posts from 2017
to 2024. I'd like to break it up into smaller
topic pages so that they're easier to link to,
although it's a little more challenging to search.
I also modified org-html-toc to not include the
Table of Contents header and to tweak the HTML
attributes assigned to it.
New table of contents code
(defunmy-org-html-toc (depth info &optional scope)
"Build a table of contents.DEPTH is an integer specifying the depth of the table. INFO isa plist used as a communication channel. Optional argument SCOPEis an element defining the scope of the table. Return the tableof contents as a string, or nil if it is empty."
(let ((toc-entries
(mapcar (lambda (headline)
(cons (org-html--format-toc-headline headline info)
(org-export-get-relative-level headline info)))
(org-export-collect-headlines info depth scope))))
(when toc-entries
(let* ((toc-id-counter (plist-get info :org-html--toc-counter))
(toc (concat (format "<div class=\"text-table-of-contents toc-id%s\" role=\"doc-toc\">"
(if toc-id-counter (format "-%d" toc-id-counter) ""))
(org-html--toc-text toc-entries)
"</div>\n")))
(plist-put info :org-html--toc-counter (1+ (or toc-id-counter 0)))
(if scope toc
(let ((outer-tag (if (org-html--html5-fancy-p info)
"nav""div")))
(concat (format "<%s class=\"table-of-contents toc-id%s\" role=\"doc-toc\">\n"
outer-tag
(if toc-id-counter (format "-%d" toc-id-counter) ""))
;; (let ((top-level (plist-get info :html-toplevel-hlevel)));; (format "<h%d>%s</h%d>\n";; top-level;; (org-html--translate "Table of Contents" info);; top-level))
toc
(format "</%s>\n" outer-tag))))))))
(with-eval-after-load'org
(defalias'org-html-toc#'my-org-html-toc))
I customized my visual book notes - all view to show the thumbnails of the images, and I added
You can get to it by going to the visual-book-notes category from a post and then choosing "All".
I like the new "View slideshow" and "Shuffle slideshow" buttons I added.
Figure 1: Screenshot of my visual book notes gallery
I also fixed some of the broken images in older
posts, so there should be 43 posts with images
now.
Someday I want to add a way to go from the sketch
in the slideshow to the post, but it might require
upgrading the version of Photoswipe I have. I'm
currently on 4.x, which hasn't been updated in
years.
worth doing even if you don't feel like you can draw well
really, I just draw stick figures
good for your own thoughts and other people's
own thoughts:
non-linear
visual metaphors & organizers can be helpful
can be a launchpad for more details
other people's thoughts: distill key points from a talk, book, etc. using my understanding
visual cues make it easy to see important things first
doodling is fun
IDs help with linking (ex: 2024-10-17-02)
How I use sketchnotes:
Flesh out an idea, especially during non-computer time
Sketch talks or books to make them easier to review
Optical character recognition (Google Cloud Vision API, etc.) to blog text: I edit this to provide a good text alternative in blog posts
My evil plan
Sketchnotes are very shareable
People are always looking for visuals to add.
When people share them, they usually tell me about it
I get to find out what else people are thinking about & learning from.
More learning! More fun!
It's also a nice way to give back to people who've shared what they learned
Then they might share more!
I've been enjoying using sketchnotes as an idea
launchpad for audio braindumps or blog posts, as a
quick way to review the key points of a book or
talk, and as a way to participate in the larger
conversation. It's easy for me to link to sketches
and extract the text within them.
Someday I'll probably improve my ability to search
for the text within sketches. Right now, I just go
by filenames and the text in my blog posts. I can
probably make something that goes through the text
annotations in the JSON files from Google Cloud
Vision, or maybe I can turn them into a text file
that can be updated when I write a blog post. Hmm,
that actually sounds pretty straightforward, I
should go do that…
<?xmlversion="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><xsl:stylesheetversion="3.0"xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><xsl:outputmethod="html"version="1.0"encoding="UTF-8"indent="yes"/><xsl:templatematch="/"><htmlxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"lang="en"><head><title> RSS Feed | <xsl:value-ofselect="/rss/channel/title"/></title><linkrel="stylesheet"href="/assets/style.css"/></head><body><h1style="margin-bottom:0">Recent posts: <xsl:value-ofselect="/rss/channel/title"/></h1><p> This is an RSS feed. You can subscribe to <ahref=" {/rss/channel/link}"><xsl:value-ofselect="/rss/channel/link"/></a> in a feed reader such as <ahref="https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed">Elfeed</a> for Emacs, <ahref="https://www.inoreader.com/">Inoreader</a>, or <ahref="https://newsblur.com/">NewsBlur</a>, or you can use tools like <ahref="https://github.com/rss2email/rss2email">rss2email</a>. The feed includes the full blog posts.You can also view the posts on the website at<ahref="{/rss/channel/atom:link[contains(@rel,'alternate')]/@href}"><xsl:value-ofselect="/rss/channel/atom:link[contains(@rel,'alternate')]/@href"/></a> .</p><xsl:for-eachselect="/rss/channel/item"><divstyle="margin-bottom:20px"><div><xsl:value-ofselect="pubDate"/></div><div><a><xsl:attributename="href"><xsl:value-ofselect="link/@href"/></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-ofselect="title"/></a></div></div></xsl:for-each></body></html></xsl:template></xsl:stylesheet>
atom.xsl
<?xmlversion="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><xsl:stylesheetversion="3.0"xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><xsl:outputmethod="html"version="1.0"encoding="UTF-8"indent="yes"/><xsl:templatematch="/"><htmlxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"lang="en"><head><title> Atom Feed | <xsl:value-ofselect="/atom:feed/atom:title"/></title><linkrel="stylesheet"href="/assets/style.css"/></head><body><h1style="margin-bottom:0">Recent posts: <xsl:value-ofselect="/atom:feed/atom:title"/></h1><p> This is an Atom feed. You can subscribe to <ahref=" {/atom:feed/atom:link/@href}"><xsl:value-ofselect="/atom:feed/atom:link/@href"/></a> in a feed reader such as <ahref="https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed">Elfeed</a> for Emacs, <ahref="https://www.inoreader.com/">Inoreader</a>, or <ahref="https://newsblur.com/">NewsBlur</a>, or you can use tools like <ahref="https://github.com/rss2email/rss2email">rss2email</a>. The feed includes the full blog posts.You can also view the posts on the website at<ahref="{/atom:feed/atom:link[contains(@rel,'alternate')]/@href}"><xsl:value-ofselect="/atom:feed/atom:link[contains(@rel,'alternate')]/@href"/></a> .</p><xsl:for-eachselect="/atom:feed/atom:entry"><divstyle="margin-bottom:20px"><div><xsl:value-ofselect="substring(atom:updated, 0, 11)"/></div><div><a><xsl:attributename="href"><xsl:value-ofselect="atom:link/@href"/></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-ofselect="atom:title"/></a></div></div></xsl:for-each></body></html></xsl:template></xsl:stylesheet>
tldr (2167 words): I can make animating presentation maps easier by
writing my own functions for the Emacs text editor. In this post, I
show how I can animate an SVG element by element. I can also add IDs
to the path and use CSS to build up an SVG with temporary highlighting
in a Reveal.js presentation.
Convert PDF to SVG with Inkscape (Cairo option) or pdftocairo)
PNG / Supernote PDF: Combined shapes. Process
Break apart, fracture overlaps
Recombine
Set IDs
Sort paths -> Animation style 1
Adobe Fresco: individual elements in order; landscape feels natural
Animation styles
Animation style 1: Display elements one after another
Animation style 2: Display elements one after another, and also show/hide highlights
Table: slide ID, IDs to add, temporary highlights -> Reveal.js: CSS with transitions
Ideas for next steps:
Explore graphviz & other diagramming tools
Frame-by-frame SVGs
on include
write to files
FFmpeg crossfade
Recording Reveal.js presentations
Use OCR results?
I often have a hard time organizing my thoughts into a linear
sequence. Sketches are nice because they let me jump around and still
show the connections between ideas. For presentations, I'd like to
walk people through these sketches by highlighting different areas.
For example, I might highlight the current topic or show the previous
topics that are connected to the current one. Of course, this is
something Emacs can help with. Before we dive into it, here are quick
previews of the kinds of animation I'm talking about:
Figure 1: Animation style 1: based on drawing order
Animation style 2: building up a map with temporary highlights
Getting the sketches: PDFs are not all the same
Let's start with getting the sketches. I usually export my sketches as
PNGs from my Supernote A5X. But if I know that I'm going to animate a
sketch, I can export it as a PDF. I've recently been experimenting
with Adobe Fresco on the iPad, which can also export to PDF. The PDF I
get from Fresco is easier to animate, but I prefer to draw on the
Supernote because it's an e-ink device (and because the kiddo usually
uses the iPad).
If I start with a PNG, I could use Inkscape to trace the PNG and turn
it into an SVG. I think Inkscape uses autotrace behind the scenes. I
don't usually put my highlights on a separate layer, so autotrace will
make odd shapes.
It's a lot easier if you start off with vector graphics in the first
place. I can export a vector PDF from the SuperNote A5X and either
import it into Inkscape using the Cairo option or use the command-line
pdftocairo tool.
I've been looking into using Adobe Fresco, which is a free app
available for the iPad. Fresco's PDF export can be converted to an SVG
using Inkscape or PDF to Cairo. What I like about the output of this
app is that it gives me individual elements as their own paths and
they're listed in order of drawing. This makes it really easy to
animate by just going through the paths in order.
Animation style 1: displaying paths in order
Here's a sample SVG file that pdfcairo creates from an Adobe Fresco
PDF export:
Adobe Fresco also includes built-in time-lapse, but since I often like
to move things around or tidy things up, it's easier to just work with
the final image, export it as a PDF, and convert it to an SVG.
I can make a very simple animation by setting the opacity of all the
paths to 0, then looping through the elements to set the opacity back
to 1 and write that version of the SVG to a separate file.
From how-can-i-generate-png-frames-that-step-through-the-highlights:
my-animate-svg-paths: Add one path at a time. Save the resulting SVGs to OUTPUT-DIR.
Figure 2: Animating SVG paths based on drawing order
Neither Supernote nor Adobe Fresco give me the original stroke
information. These are filled shapes, so I can't animate something
drawing it. But having different elements appear in sequence is fine
for my purposes. If you happen to know how to get stroke information
out of Supernote .note files or of an iPad app that exports nice
single-line SVGs that have stroke direction, I would love to hear
about it.
Identifying paths from Supernote sketches
When I export a PDF from Supernote and convert it to an SVG, each
color is a combined shape with all the elements. If I want to animate
parts of the image, I have to break it up and recombine selected
elements (Inkscape's Ctrl-k shortcut) so that the holes in shapes are
properly handled. This is a bit of a tedious process and it usually
ends up with elements in a pretty random order. Since I have to
reorder elements by hand, I don't really want to animate the sketch
letter-by-letter. Instead, I combine them into larger chunks like
topics or paragraphs.
The following code takes the PDF, converts it to an SVG, recolours
highlights, and then breaks up paths into elements:
my-sketch-convert-pdf-and-break-up-paths: Convert PDF to SVG and break up paths.
(defunmy-sketch-convert-pdf-and-break-up-paths (pdf-file &optional rotate)
"Convert PDF to SVG and break up paths."
(interactive (list (read-file-name
(format "PDF (%s): "
(my-latest-file "~/Dropbox/Supernote/EXPORT/""pdf"))
"~/Dropbox/Supernote/EXPORT/"
(my-latest-file "~/Dropbox/Supernote/EXPORT/""pdf")
t
nil
(lambda (s) (string-match "pdf" s)))))
(unless (file-exists-p (concat (file-name-sans-extension pdf-file) ".svg"))
(call-process "pdftocairo" nil nil nil "-svg" (expand-file-name pdf-file)
(expand-file-name (concat (file-name-sans-extension pdf-file) ".svg"))))
(let ((dom (xml-parse-file (expand-file-name (concat (file-name-sans-extension pdf-file) ".svg"))))
highlights)
(setq highlights (dom-node 'g'((id . "highlights"))))
(dom-append-child dom highlights)
(dolist (path (dom-by-tag dom 'path))
;; recolor and move
(unless (string-match (regexp-quote "rgb(0%,0%,0%)") (or (dom-attr path 'style) ""))
(dom-remove-node dom path)
(dom-append-child highlights path)
(dom-set-attribute
path 'style
(replace-regexp-in-string
(regexp-quote "rgb(78.822327%,78.822327%,78.822327%)")
"#f6f396"
(or (dom-attr path 'style) ""))))
(let ((parent (dom-parent dom path)))
;; break apart
(when (dom-attr path 'd)
(dolist (part (split-string (dom-attr path 'd) "M " t " +"))
(dom-append-child
parent
(dom-node 'path`((style . ,(dom-attr path 'style))
(d . ,(concat "M " part))))))
(dom-remove-node dom path))))
;; remove the use
(dolist (use (dom-by-tag dom 'use))
(dom-remove-node dom use))
(dolist (use (dom-by-tag dom 'image))
(dom-remove-node dom use))
;; move the first g down
(let ((g (car (dom-by-id dom "surface1"))))
(setf (cddar dom)
(seq-remove (lambda (o)
(and (listp o) (string= (dom-attr o 'id) "surface1")))
(dom-children dom)))
(dom-append-child dom g)
(when rotate
(let* ((old-width (dom-attr dom 'width))
(old-height (dom-attr dom 'height))
(view-box (mapcar 'string-to-number (split-string (dom-attr dom 'viewBox))))
(rotate (format "rotate(90) translate(0 %s)" (- (elt view-box 3)))))
(dom-set-attribute dom 'width old-height)
(dom-set-attribute dom 'height old-width)
(dom-set-attribute dom 'viewBox (format "0 0 %d %d" (elt view-box 3) (elt view-box 2)))
(dom-set-attribute highlights 'transform rotate)
(dom-set-attribute g 'transform rotate))))
(with-temp-file (expand-file-name (concat (file-name-sans-extension pdf-file) "-split.svg"))
(svg-print (car dom)))))
You can see how the spaces inside letters like "o" end up being black.
Selecting and combining those paths fixes that.
Combining paths in Inkscape
If there were shapes that were touching, then I need to draw lines and
fracture the shapes in order to break them apart.
Fracturing shapes and checking the highlights
The end result should be an SVG with the different chunks that I might
want to animate, but I need to identify the paths first. You can
assign object IDs in Inkscape, but this is a bit of an annoying
process since I haven't figured out a keyboard-friendly way to set
object IDs. I usually find it easier to just set up an Autokey
shortcut (or AutoHotkey in Windows) to click on the ID text box so
that I can type something in.
Autokey script for clicking
import time
x, y= mouse.get_location()
# Use the coordinates of the ID text field on your screen; xev can help
mouse.click_absolute(3152, 639, 1)
time.sleep(1)
keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+a")
mouse.move_cursor(x, y)
Then I can select each element, press the shortcut key, and type an ID
into the textbox. I might use "t-…" to indicate the text for a map
section, "h-…" to indicate a highlight, and arrows by specifying
their start and end.
Setting IDs in Inkscape
To simplify things, I wrote a function in Emacs that will go through
the different groups that I've made, show each path in a different
color and with a reasonable guess at a bounding box, and prompt me for
an ID. This way, I can quickly assign IDs to all of the paths. The
completion is mostly there to make sure I don't accidentally reuse an
ID, although it can try to combine paths if I specify the ID. It saves
the paths after each change so that I can start and stop as needed.
Identifying paths in Emacs is usually much nicer than identifying them
in Inkscape.
Identifying paths inside Emacs
my-svg-identify-paths: Prompt for IDs for each path in FILENAME.
(defunmy-svg-identify-paths (filename)
"Prompt for IDs for each path in FILENAME."
(interactive (list (read-file-name "SVG: " nil nil
(lambda (f) (string-match "\\.svg$" f)))))
(let* ((dom (car (xml-parse-file filename)))
(paths (dom-by-tag dom 'path))
(vertico-count 3)
(ids (seq-keep (lambda (path)
(unless (string-match "path[0-9]+" (or (dom-attr path 'id) "path0"))
(dom-attr path 'id)))
paths))
(edges (window-inside-pixel-edges (get-buffer-window)))
id)
(my-svg-display "*image*" dom nil t)
(dolist (path paths)
(when (string-match "path[0-9]+" (or (dom-attr path 'id) "path0"))
;; display the image with an outline
(unwind-protect
(progn
(my-svg-display "*image*" dom (dom-attr path 'id) t)
(setq id (completing-read
(format "ID (%s): " (dom-attr path 'id))
ids))
;; already exists, merge with existing element
(if-let ((old (dom-by-id dom id)))
(progn
(dom-set-attribute
old
'd
(concat (dom-attr (dom-by-id dom id) 'd)
" ";; change relative to absolute
(replace-regexp-in-string "^m""M"
(dom-attr path 'd))))
(dom-remove-node dom path)
(setq id nil))
(dom-set-attribute path 'id id)
(add-to-list 'ids id))))
;; save the image just in case we get interrupted halfway through
(with-temp-file filename
(svg-print dom))))))
Then I can animate SVGs by specifying the IDs. I can reorder the paths
in the SVG itself so that I can animate it group by group, like the
way that the Adobe Fresco SVGs were animated element by element.
The way it works is that the my-svg-reorder-paths function removes
and readds elements following the list of IDs specified, so
everything's ready to go for step-by-step animation. Here's the code:
Animation style 2: Building up a map with temporary highlights
I can also use CSS rules to transition between opacity values for more
complex animations. For my EmacsConf 2023 presentation, I wanted to
make a self-paced, narrated presentation so that people could follow
hyperlinks, read the source code, and explore. I wanted to include a
map so that I could try to make sense of everything. For this map, I
wanted to highlight the previous sections that were connected to the
topic for the current section.
I used a custom Org link to include the full contents of the SVG
instead of just including it with an img tag.
#+ATTR_HTML: :class r-stretchmy-include:~/proj/emacsconf-2023-emacsconf/map.svg?wrap=export html
my-include-export: Export PATH to FORMAT using the specified wrap parameter.
I wanted to be able to specify the entire sequence using a table in
the Org Mode source for my presentation. Each row had the slide ID, a
list of highlights in the form prev1,prev2;current, and a
comma-separated list of elements to add to the full-opacity view.
Reveal.js adds a "current" class to the slide, so I can use that as a
trigger for the transition. I have a bit of Emacs Lisp code that
generates some very messy CSS, in which I specify the ID of the slide,
followed by all of the elements that need their opacity set to 1, and
also specifying the highlights that will be shown in an animated way.
my-reveal-svg-progression-css: Make the CSS.
(defunmy-reveal-svg-progression-css (map-progression &optional highlight-duration)
"Make the CSS.map-progression should be a list of lists with the following format:((\"slide-id\" \"prev1,prev2;cur1\" \"id-to-add1,id-to-add2\") ...)."
(setq highlight-duration (or highlight-duration 2))
(let (full)
(format
"<style>%s</style>"
(mapconcat
(lambda (slide)
(setq full (append (split-string (elt slide 2) ",") full))
(format "#slide-%s.present path { opacity: 0.2 }%s { opacity: 1 !important }%s"
(car slide)
(mapconcat (lambda (id) (format "#slide-%s.present #%s" (car slide) id))
full
", ")
(my-reveal-svg-highlight-different-colors slide)))
map-progression
"\n"))))
Since it's automatically generated, I don't have to worry about it
once I've gotten it to work. It's all hidden in a
results drawer. So this CSS highlights specific parts of the SVG with
a transition, and the highlight changes over the course of a second or
two. It highlights the previous names and then the current one. The
topics I'd already discussed would be in black, and the topics that I
had yet to discuss would be in very light gray. This could give people
a sense of the progress through the presentation.
As a result, as I go through my presentation, the image appears to
build up incrementally, which is the effect that I was going for.
I can test this by exporting only my map slides:
Graphviz, mermaid-js, and other diagramming tools can make SVGs. I
should be able to adapt my code to animate those diagrams by adding
other elements in addition to path. Then I'll be able to make
diagrams even more easily.
Since SVGs can contain CSS, I could make an SVG equivalent of the
CSS rules I used for the presentation, maybe calling a function with
a Lisp expression that specifies the operations (ex:
("frame-001.svg" "h-foo" opacity 1)). Then I could write frames to
SVGs.
FFmpeg has a crossfade filter. With a little bit of figuring out, I
should be able to make the same kind of animation in a webm form
that I can include in my regular videos instead of using Reveal.js
and CSS transitions.
I've also been thinking about automating the recording of my
Reveal.js presentations. For my EmacsConf talk, I opened my
presentation, started the recording with the system audio and the
screen, and then let it autoplay the presentation. I checked on it
periodically to avoid the screensaver/energy saving things from
kicking in and so that I could stop the recording when it's
finished. If I want to make this take less work, one option is to
use ffmpeg's "-t" argument to specify the expected duration of the
presentation so that I don't have to manually stop it. I'm also
thinking about using Puppeteer to open the presentation, check when
it's fully loaded, and start the process to record it - maybe even
polling to see whether it's finished. I haven't gotten around to it
yet. Anyhow, those are some ideas to explore next time.
As for animation, I'm still curious about the possibility of
finding a way to access the raw stroke information if it's even
available from my Supernote A5X (difficult because it's a
proprietary data format) or finding an app for the iPad that exports
single line SVGs that use stroke information instead of fill. That
would only be if I wanted to do those even fancier animations that
look like the whole thing is being drawn for you. I was trying to
figure out if I could green screen the Adobe Fresco timelapse videos
so that even if I have a pre-sketch to figure out spacing and remind
me what to draw, I can just export the finished elements. But
there's too much anti-aliasing and I haven't figured out how to do
it cleanly yet. Maybe some other day.
I use Google Cloud Vision's text detection engine to convert my
handwriting to text. It can give me bounding polygons for words or
paragraphs. I might be able to figure out which curves are entirely
within a word's bounding polygon and combine those automatically.
It would be pretty cool if I could combine the words recognized by
Google Cloud Vision with the word-level timestamps from speech
recognition so that I could get word-synced sketchnote animations
with maybe a little manual intervention.
Anyway, those are some workflows for animating sketches with Inkscape
and Emacs. Yay Emacs!
Inspired by Arne Bab (who mentioned being inspired by my sketches)
I've been drawing daily moments since 2023-03-20. Nothing fancy, just
a quick reminder of our day.
I draw while the kiddo watches a bedtime video. Sometimes she suggests
a moment to draw, or flips through the pages and laughs at the
memories.
I also have my text journal (occasionally with photos) and my time
tracker. It doesn't take a lot of time to update them, and I like what
they let me do.
I like this. It makes the path visible. I'm looking forward to seeing
what this is like after years
I used to draw and write monthly reviews. I'd like to get back to
those. They help with the annual reviews, too.
phone: review sketches, jot keywords on phone
computer: draw sketch, braindump, blog
Right now I put 12 days on one A5.
Week? nah, not really needed
More details? longer to review, though. Redirect drawing to monthly notes
Still working on shaping the day/week more proactively. A+ likes to
take the lead, so maybe it's more like strewing.
If you're viewing this on my blog, you might be able to click on the
links below to open them in a viewer and then swipe or use arrow keys
to navigate.
What can I learn from thinking about the flow rate?
input > output, and that's okay
Parts:
idea: agenda/review?
capture: refile to tags
toot: use this more, get stuff out
braindump: use transcripts or outline
sketch: bedtime
post: cut off earlier, can follow up
video: workflow tweaks
Thoughts:
more input is not always better; already plenty, not limiting factor
prioritize, review
overflow: add notes and pass it along, if poss.
can add things later (results, sketches, posts, videos)
manage expectations; minimize commitments
favour small things that flow easily
collect things in a container
tags, outlines
posts, videos
minimize filing, but still find related notes
become more efficient and effective
The heap:
Org dates have been working for time-sensitive/urgent things
Lots of discretionary things get lost in the shuffle
waste info collected but forgotten
half-finished posts that have gone stale
redoing things
late replies to conversations
things that are just in my config - some people still find them, so that's fine
Next: toot more experiment with braindumping, video
I come up with way more ideas than I can work on, and that's okay.
That's good. It means I can always skim the top for interesting
things, and it's fine if things overflow as long as the important
stuff stays in the funnel. I'm experimenting with more ways to keep
things flowing.
I usually come up with lots of ideas and then revisit my priorities to
see if I can figure out 1-3 things I'd like to work on for my next
focused time sessions. These priorities are actually pretty stable for
the most part, but sometimes an idea jumps the queue and that's okay.
There's a loose net of projects/tasks that I'm currently working on
and things I'm currently interested in, so I want to connect ideas and
resources to those if I can. If they aren't connected, or if they're
low-priority and I probably won't get to them any time soon, it can
make a lot of sense to add quick notes and pass it along.
For things I want to think about some more, my audio braindumping
workflow seems to be working out as a way to capture lots of text
even when I'm away from my computer. I also have a bit more time to
sketch while waiting for the kiddo to get ready for bed. I can use the
sketchnotes as outlines to talk through while I braindump, and I can
take my braindumps and distill them into sketches. Then I can take
those and put them into blog posts. Instead of getting tempted to add
more and more to a blog post (just one more idea, really!), I can try
wrapping up earlier since I can always add a follow-up post. For some
things, making a video might be worthwhile, so smoothing out my
workflow for creating a video could be useful. I don't want to spend a
lot of time filing but I still want to be able to find related notes,
so automatically refiling based on tags (or possibly suggesting refile
targets based on vector similarity?) might help me shift things out of
my inbox.
I'm generally not bothered by the waste of coming up with ideas that I
don't get around to, since it's more like daydreaming or fun. I
sometimes get a little frustrated when I want to find an interesting
resource I remember coming across some time ago and I can't find it
with the words I'm looking for. Building more of a habit of capturing
interesting resources in my Org files and using my own words in the
notes will help while I wait for personal search engines to get
better. I'm a little slow when it comes to e-mails because I tend to
wait until I'm at my computer–and then when I'm at my computer, I
prefer to tinker or write. I occasionally redo things because I didn't
have notes from the previous solution or I couldn't find my notes.
That's fine too. I can get better at taking notes and finding them.
So I think some next steps for me are:
Post more toots on @sachac@emacs.ch; might be useful as a firehose for ideas. Share them back to my Org file so I have a link to the discussion (if any). Could be a quick way to see if anyone already knows of related packages/code or if anyone might have the same itch.
See if I can improve my braindumping/sketch workflow so that I can flesh out more ideas
Tweak my video process gradually so that I can include more screenshots and maybe eventually longer explanations
