On a bit of a downer this week following a setback on my current project. The setback pertain to a matter far beyond the team’s control but it has nonetheless effected morale and, for me at least, focus.
My second disappointment of the week came on Friday night when I went to see Explosions In The Sky at Manchester’s Albert Hall. I’d seen them there a couple of years ago and it was a life-affirming experience (I cried) but this time I left unmoved. I think it was because, from where we were stood (pictured), we were constantly distracted by people walking out to go to the toilet or the bar or being told off for sitting in the aisles.
Watch the band, dickheads.
Todoist 🤝 Trello
My tasks are generally in one of two places:
- If it’s a personal task, or a project I share with my wife, then it’s in Todoist
- If it’s a business task, where I want to give visibility to colleagues or clients, then it’s in Trello
Whilst I love Trello I find it very easy to overlook tickets… especially if you are working on several projects at a time.
This week I discovered this IFTTT applet which automatically adds items to a Todoist project when you are assigned a card in Trello.
Neat!
2020 Goals Progress Report
Back in January I published my 20 goals for 2020. He’s a my 6-week check-in:
Stop Doing
Use the car less often
Failing so far due to weather and work and the fact that I’m too lazy to walk for a train.
Spend less time on social media and news sites
Spent very little time on social media (haven’t posted, checked Twitter a couple of times) but still regularly check the news.
Stop drinking (again)
Successful so far, not drank since December 26th. Drinking copious amounts of Fever Tree tonic water. Alcohol-free beers have gotten pretty good, too.
Start Doing
Start getting up before 7AM
Yep, mostly. Putting my lights on timer helps.
Improve my posture through exercise and stretching
I was getting better at this until life got in the way of my Thursday-night yoga class.
Eat better and less, get body fat around 12%
Failing badly at this: I just love crisps too much.
Develop a routine for housework
Doing really well at this. House has been consistently tidy since Christmas. I actually enjoy it.
Continue Doing
Complete on our first house
Exchanged contracts, complete in three weeks. Very excited.
Reading: read a book a month
Read a few in January, started about three in February but haven’t made much progress with any of them.
Exercise: run a marathon
I have barely moved this year. Again, the weather is partly to blame.
Weeknotes: publish at least 46 weeks
So far, so good.
Finances: try to save at least half of everything I earn, check-in every two weeks
Forgot to check-in, but have been fairly frugal so far. That’s definitely going to change once we move house though.
Continue to practice guitar
Started well but other interests have taken over in February.
Recommendations
I’m getting super interested in security at the moment so I’m enjoying the Darknet Diaries podcast. It’s true crime but with more Nmap.
Also, this was fun: I Add 3-25 Seconds of Latency to Every Page I Visit
So if you can inject latency into sites artificially, you can reduce the actual impact of the addiction in a controllable way while not denying the enjoyment of the Internet to yourself.
Hacker News with 100ms latency feels like liquor: Hacker News with 9000ms latency feels like small beer.
Reddit with 150ms latency feels like cocaine: Reddit with 8000ms latency feels like coffee.