Things I did today

Chapter 20, Hack Back Online Articles Eyal takes this chapter to discuss the prevalence of keeping multitudes of tabs open, filled with articles yet to read but sound promising. I admit, I have that problem as well. I decided to keep mine all in one spot, emailing them to myself for the idea of using them as ideas for blog posts: But so far, I've been ignoring the folder in favor of other things, like Coronavirus news (though much less of that now), chapters of Indistractable, and distracting myself with other nonsense. Eyal pairs keeping the articles in the Pocket app with only listening to the articles in the gym as a reward. He gets his cardio workout in, and enjoys his time learning something that isn't taking away from his time at his computer. Eyal also discusses multichannel multitasking - being able to do two things at once that don't require full attention to one of the activities - similar to knowing how to do one thing so well that it becomes second nat

Chapter 19, Hack Back your Desktop Eyal discusses a person who took heart at one of his conferences to declutter his digital space and clear all the files and folders on his desktop, and replace his busy desktop wallpaper with a black background. Instead of having all his files in random places on his desktop, he organized them into folders to find what he needs. Eyal also discusses removing desktop notifications at least during focused work times, so those triggers are not requiring extra attention. For my own desktop, I keep it clean with the exception of files that I need to upload or work on that week. The only desktop notification I have is for my work laptop, Outlook. While I have a Facebook and Twitter account, I don't allow those services to send me notifications. They're just not important to me. Chapter Summary Desktop clutter takes a heavy psychological toll on your attention. Clearing away external triggers in your digital workspace can help you stay foc

Chapter 18, Hack Back Your Smartphone I actually started many of the practices mentioned in this chapter, months ago. I didn't like the pull that the phone seemed to have on me. I decided to get rid of all games and other apps I didn't use. I then blocked every app except text messaging, work email, and phone calls from  notifying me. I also instituted grayscale and Do Not Disturb after 9pm until 6am, when I get up for work. I used to think I needed to answer, or just immediately look at, each personal email I got. I tried the experiment to see how I got along for a week just checking email when I remembered it existed, and it turns out I'm not needing to look at personal email all that much. I find more freedom not getting nearly as many notifications, and I'm working on not checking my phone often. As a person who is not in a medical field and would not be a good choice in a medical emergency, there aren't many instances when I would need to be called and I

I guess I am no good at timeboxing. I didn't get all the tasks done. Some days I didn't get one task done. I felt guilt for tasks I didn't complete, and eventually was just annoyed and didn't care. I tried revising to focus on just one project in a day, but that even didn't work. I didn't go to the gym very often at all, but I did get injured for part of the time. I think this biggest issue with timeboxing was not understanding how tired I might be on a particular day or severely underestimating the time it takes to complete some of the tasks. I wasn't good at studying for the exam, then I learned last week that they are going to retire the exams in June in favor of other exams that only deal with Azure, which my company does not use. I'll ask my manager tomorrow to see if the certification will help my career progression at the company or not. If it doesn't matter, I'll still learn the material, just at a slower pace. If it does matter, I'

I felt awful this evening, not in a "I have a contagious disease" way, but in a "While watching almost nothing but the news and reading nothing but the news and not seeing anyone except apartment office people for 2 minutes to pick up my package since Friday at 5pm" stressed out kind of way. I've been sleeping poorly but at least I have been eating well. Things I will stop doing:  Watching the news daily, including late night shows. I'll only watch those types of shows on Saturday. Unsubscribing from r/coronavirus on Reddit I guess I should stop reading the news, but that seems like a rather drastic action. I'll start with, I will not read the news on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Things I will fill my time with: Reading not-the-news. Going back to Indistractable and other books. Playing piano If I had an easy day, try a video game. I have a computer, a Nintendo Wii, an N64 and an Atari, each with multiple games. Good things I am co

Unless you plan to stay at home. Which you should. I called the orthodontist's office today to see what measures they're taking, as I have an appointment on Friday morning. They are disinfecting common areas several times a day and requesting parents and other family members of the patient (because most of an orthodontist's caseload is minor children) to stay in the car. I'll just wear gloves and wash my hands. I wonder if my neighbors are moving their furniture after some large grocery run. It's been nearly non stop booms and bangs, sometimes shaking my couch, for the last hour. I hope they get it right and don't move anything for the next two months. The US has passed 4,000 cases, mostly in Washington state, California and New York. North Carolina currently stands at 34 cases, and Ohio at 50. We're still hoping for widespread testing to start so we can quarantine early cases. I'd rather have a curve like South Korea rather than Italy. I'

That statement was given by Dr. Fauci, an excellent and well respected doctor who is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Coronavirus in the US will get much worse before it gets better. The UK is rumored to suggest or require all citizens 70 and over to self isolate for four months. Schools in the US are shut for at least two weeks if not more. Most businesses have instituted work from home schemes. France, Italy and Spain have their countries on lockdown and people can only venture out to get food, medicine, medical care, or work. There are a few cities in the US that are closing restaurants and bars, grocery stores around the country are reducing shopping hours and retail shops are closing entirely. The US has (at least) 3244 cases and 62 deaths. Apple has closed all stores outside of China, and is reopening stores in China as the outbreak there has stopped multiplying. I'm staying home, but making sure I sit on my patio for at least 5