Well the snow appears to mostly be melting in Chilliwack. My biggest issue with snow is that it reduces the mobility of so many of the people in town. At our last house I’d end up giving rides to people who couldn’t walk to get groceries or drop people off at work that couldn’t ride bikes. This time around I’ve been helping older people navigate the snowy and icy sidewalks.

We need to do better about making sure we don’t impact the mobility of everyone that doesn’t choose to drive and doesn’t happen to be healthy, younger, and able bodied.

If you’ve found my content helpful then new in 2019 I’ve opened up a Patreon page. You can help ensure that more helpful content keeps coming.

I Shipped

Monday I talked about how I use Ulysses to produce all the content you see here. It involves Shortcuts, and a few other tools. If you’re looking to make iOS a bigger part of your life, take a look.

Wednesday I shared a vlog from a week or so ago about a snow day with the kids. I always find it interesting to hear adults and kids talk about snow. Kids see endless possibility while adults see difficulty. What does that say about our thought processes?

Over at Asian Efficiency there is a short profile on me if you’re interested in reading a bit about my journey to productivity.

Friday Five

1. iPad and Mac Mini

My next computer will be a mini so I liked this post about what Frederico Viticci is doing to control his Mac from his iPad.

Aligned with this is that I’m trying out a LunaDisplay. It’s part of a bigger piece for The Sweet Setup, but also I’m looking at dropping my big monitor and using my iPad as the screen for my Mac full-time.

2. Where are thou weekend

Katrina for The Guardian:

When my own son, then aged 12, started asking on Sunday nights, “Was that a weekend? Are you kidding?” I knew what he meant. In my family of four, weekends had become as gridlocked as weekdays. My husband and I were shuttling the kids to sports and playdates, cleaning and fixing our old, broken house, doing the washing – in short, tackling all the tasks neglected during the time-crunched week of a two-career household. And in between, we were scheduling pockets of work.

I look at this weekend with a morning run for me with a friend. A day of figure skating group pictures for my wife and oldest. I’ll make a quick stop with my youngest for her pictures.

Then I need to record some audio for the skating club, put up a shelf, build the programme for the skating carnival. I was thinking of recording a vlog of Saturday and I’m probably missing something else on the books.

Yup plus laundry and all the other house tasks it takes to get a family of 5 going into the next week.

So yup I ask where is my dang weekend and I’m saying that I’m not going to record a vlog on Saturday even if it will be cool. Let’s just take that day off video work.

3. Shane Parrish on how to read

Over at GQ, Shane Parrish tells us about his reading and note taking routine. It’s not the system I use, but I admit that I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit as I feel so busy. My system involved writing a review of the books I had read and connecting them with the other books I had read.

I’ve even tried to do a podcast on them, but keep having long breaks.

I need to get back into my system, because I haven’t stopped reading. I’ve only stopped the most crucial part, synthesizing the information to help hold it in my head longer.

4. Revamping my research workflow…maybe with DEVONThink?

Yup, the resources on my site aren’t working like I had hoped. Mainly because the WordPress admin is a dog and I can’t kill 5 minutes to enter a single quote. One of the apps I’m looking at is DEVONThink for iOS and MacStories has a great piece on automation for DEVONThink.

Stay tuned for where I end up storing my research.

5. Yes I’d get a job

This is a great post from Steve Campbell following his journey from leaving his corporate job to starting something on his own. To pivoting, to running out of money and time to make it work. Now to polishing his resume.

I’ve always said that I’ll work any job that I don’t find morally objectionable to keep things running. I stand beside that still. It’s possible that one day this whole working for myself thing won’t fly and I’ll get a job.

Photo by: 57875964@N08