My movie watching habit in org-mode
Not too long ago, I organized my routines on Emacs with new habits. I’m particularly satisfied with my “watch a good movie” habit:
This chart might look confusing, but it’s simple once you get used to it.
Each colored rectangle represents a day. The exclamation mark represents the current day, and an Asterisk represents the last time the habit was completed. The green is the “good range” of the habit in days, which means I have that many days to complete the habit. For example, the head buzz habit above the movie one has today and tomorrow (one more green rectangle) to complete. A day after that is yellow, indicating the last "good day" to do so. After that, the red rectangles indicate days behind on completing the habit.
Once I mark a habit complete, the colored rectangles disappear from my agenda until I'm in range (green) again. The blue rectangle represents the days before this happens. For both the head buzz and movie habit, I have two days (two blue rectangles) after I complete the habit before I should do it again.
So, for the movie-watching habit, today is the first day to watch a movie, after I watched one two days ago. If I don’t have time, I still have about a week ahead of me (in the green).
In addition, I also started to log what movies I watched and when:
As you can see, Emacs keeps a log of when I complete each habit. I then
add a note with the movie name (C-c C-z) in the logbook
drawer.
This is another fine example of why I love using Emacs org-mode to organize my life.
Grumpy Old Men, 1993 - ★★★
I felt like I wanted to watch something lighter, and this was definitely it. It's the 90s through and through, with humor and the budding start of giving women a role that's going a bit beyond (but not enough) the constant cringy 80s roles. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are of different time periods, but that doesn't mean they can't deliver good comical relief today.
Pouches and Organizers
As evident from the notebook, I was thinking about pouches this morning. I was inspired by Adam Savage’s YouTube video. His company makes nice sturdy ones, but they also have a nice sturdy price - a set of 5 for $125. That’s a bit much, so I spent a good chunk of time looking for ones on Amazon and elsewhere, realizing in the process that the good ones cost over $10.
Thinktank, the makers of my awesome camera messenger bag, make a nice looking one at the size I’m looking for (more or less) for $16. I might end up with two of those and probably pay around $50 with tax and delivery. Actually, they’re available on Amazon, so I can get them for a bit over $30 if I want two.
These will be useful for hygiene/shower stuff (toothbrush, contact lenses, solution, glasses, nail clipper, etc.) and charges for both my phones with extra cables. If I find the older pouch I buried around this room somewhere, I will have three total and use one from the two I’m going to get for my pens and notebook, which are scattered right now without a suitable placement.
My brain when I don’t sleep:
“I think I can figure out how to get Emacs Org-mode instead of my work’s annoying GUI options for text.. a bit of Pandoc magic here, a bit of HTML source grab from the site, and poof! There we go!”
My brain when I sleep:
“Do what now..? Nah, Let’s go for a walk.” 🤷♂️
Finished reading: The Maid by Nita Prose 📚 yesterday. Nicely written, from a somewhat different perspective of Molly the maid. Suspense and a couple of plot twists, I enjoyed this one overall. Got it from the library.
The latest S3 video is now up:
I was looking into Star Trek strange new worlds yesterday, then realized I never watched it’s predecessor or Enterprise. That last one is with Scott Bakula, one of my favorite actors thanks to Quantum Leap. I got the first season on the spot. So far It’s such a fun show!
Joyland, 2022 - ★★★★
When this movie starts throwing punches, it doesn’t let go. Joyland has many layers that are both beautiful and terrible. It’s culturally refreshing, emotionally draining, romantically charming, gender and traditions devastating. It’s a milestone when you consider its Pakistani origins.
What I immediately liked the most about it was its slice-of-life manner of delivery. Nothing is fantastical. The actors are authentic and candid (especially Alina Khan and Rasti Farooq). You get a front-row sit into the intimate life of a family who could easily be your neighbors, sans the language and the country. The assumed culture is, surprisingly, too uncomfortably close to home.
Go in emotionally prepared and with a box of tissues nearby. This one’s gonna hurt.
Productivity tricks at work
The quality of work at my job this week has been higher thanks to a couple of renewed workflows I adjusted to my current role. I wanted to share some of these “mind tricks.”
I got my new sand timer (I don’t like the word hourglass, it doesn’t make sense) Tuesday. A big 30-minute glass with a sky-blue sand version of the pomodoro technique, it has two roles. First, it divides my work into 30-minute sessions; this keeps me productive while motivating me to pull through and finish a task as I watch the steady flow of sand getting me closer to a break. Second, it measures how many “sessions” I have in a day, which makes my productivity measurable in units. Having my time tangible like this is a nice boost to creativity I didn’t expect.
My checklists are back as well, and the effect was immediate. I found patterns in my workflow that allow me to automate more tasks mentally and spend time on details. One outcome, for example, is more organized communication with coworkers and adding it directly into each task’s notes rather than replying to endless email threads or chat logs. The details themselves are helpful and would make it easier to find references in the future.
I also started using the Microsoft style guide more often. This guide is generally accepted among technical writers for editing and regulating instructions. Now I have “use” and “do not use” word lists. For example, using “select” over “click” or “tap” when writing instructions for users to choose an option in a workflow, the manual is full of such examples to interact with the UI. I also hope to review our own work guide and add information about visual aids, headings, fonts, colors, etc. Rather than correctness, the emphasis for me is on uniformity.
It’s been a long week. I feel tired but accomplished. I made good progress this week in the right direction, and in turn, this will lead to better work and more quality in my free time.
Good morning!
Todays breakfast sandwich 🥪 is one of my favorites: goat cheese, reddish, brussels sprouts, and mustard.
Have you ever read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? There’s a catchy phrase there, TINSTAAFL: there is no such thing as a free lunch. I want to suggest TINSTAFM: there is no such thing as five minutes. Any takers?
I tried to get into Stage Manager like all the cool kids for the last two days, but I can’t. The idea is nice, but it’s just so unintuitive. I keep fighting the UI, and I don’t need this level of separation between apps. I’m used to work with virtual desktops.
I picked up The Maid by Nita Prose 📚 at random from the library recommendations (most popular list of fiction). Read a sample, felt the writing is to my liking, and now I’m two chapters in. I think I will enjoy this one.
On my way back from the coffee roaster, I took a detour with my camera. Most of the photos didn’t come out interesting; I now call those “Zoom background” photos. Here are two that I liked. 📷
Anyone has an idea how to quickly scan something to iCloud as a PDF file? I want an independent PDF, not the Notes version.
Currently I go to Files > menu > scan document. I want something quicker and more intuitive.
I finished reading: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 📚 last night. I feel the central idea of this book, multiple parallel dimensions, is discussed too often these days. The story takes it a little further and gives it more of a scientific flavor. The plot is interesting, though cliche and somewhat flat.
Checklists, the me version
A good checklist…
- Breaks down complex known projects (“How do I start this huge task?")1.
- Shows a clear start and a clear end (has a known goal)
- Goes by order (first A, then B, then C. Not A and then D)
- Contains short steps (the law of three to four words)2
- is NOT time-based (a time of day, how long to do, etc.)
Here’s a good example, my “Rebound” checklist:
- Check ServiceNow (SNOW) for new Tasks
- Check Outlook for current flags/pins
- Check Outlook for new emails to flag
- Check Teams' activity for chats I’ve missed
- Check Slack
It is a complex project, and I can feel lost starting when I need to catch up with work, and I’m worried I missed something.
It does not show a clear start or end, though those are known: I start not knowing what’s going on, and by the end, I have an idea of what I missed.
Interestingly, order here is not critical, though it is implied by my priorities. Tasks in SNOW are the first to catch up with, then Outlook for flags and pins I tend to use when I can’t digest emails fully and convert them to a doable task.
Then, read emails to search for potential emails that look important and make them into tasks (or respond to emails and ask for more information to determine if there’s a task to do there and what it is.)
Then, Check Teams. People chat me, and I can miss it. Usually, when I receive a chat through Teams directly (someone is giving me a task), I create a task workflow on the spot or create it through our digital form at work (or ask them to do it so I have a record). The case here is not for that; it’s just to catch things I might have missed when I was grabbing lunch or something of the sort.
Lastly, Slack is our announcement medium for outages or similar events, though I usually get the information via Email or Teams first. It’s a good place to check to be aware if something should be made into a website announcement, a mass email, alerts, etc.
With checklists, the longer they are, in a way, the better they justify their use case. The best examples I remember are my checklists for setting up computers manually. Some of those include information that is still relevant today. At the same time though, if a checklist starts to feel tedious and I check certain items off automatically or delete them because they are not applicable, it needs to be adjusted/shortened.
Let’s talk about what checklists are not.
Checklists are not what’s going to make my day a productive one. They are a part of of my toolset, so I have to use them first. Besides, I can’t just make up stuff to use checklists for and hope to feel “productive.”
To reinforce my idea above, Checklists are not a workflow or a knowledge article. Explanations and visual aids do not belong in checklists; they belong in notes associated (and linked) to the list. Why? Because instructions make the checklist long and bloated. It’s also not a good place to find the needed information in the future. Finally, checklists are personal and should be adjusted as such, but information should be basic and accessible to others.
Because checklists are often closely associated with information and remind me of the “whys” of a certain thing, putting them at the head of an information article or a note makes sense, as long as a header or a subtitle separates them.
Footnotes
1 : This means checklists are used for known procedures. Don’t use checklists for new tasks and projects which require more exploration. The brainstorming at the start of a new project is not a checklist. However, familiar components inside a new project (for example, a packing list as part of a trip which in itself is a project) can be checklists.
2 : Checklists sum up information and may follow procedures. If explanations are needed, these should be in the notes below the list. It’s OK to have a whole workflow explained as long as the steps are clear and short in the checklist itself.
So I gave up on Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake 📚 a few weeks back. I found that the more I read, the more I forced myself to keep it up. It’s an OK book, well written, but there isn’t much content, and it seems like the author is repeating the same points over and over. Still, I learned fascinating things about mushrooms (for one, they’re not really plants; for another, they are the most likely to cause a zombie apocalypse), and I have way more respect for them now.
I guess it’s my turn to test Scribe from @amit. I’m especially interested in it because I tend to use the micro.blog web interface often. My tool of choice when writing long-form is Emacs. This post is in Scribe, and I closed the tab by mistake. Good test because when I re-opened Scribe, what I wrote was right there. It’s very clean, and I like the font of choice. It doesn’t look like it works with Grammarly (which I use in my browser), but that might be because of my own configuration on this Mac.
Another good design call is Markdown formatting when highlighting text. Some options are missing (like strikethrough, which I’m trying out above, and links), but most writing functions are there.