2022

“Because of the need for being more professional, more polished, more branding for your company, for your business, for your organization, there are more virtual backgrounds that are being created,” Golden says. “It helps you look more credible, trustworthy.” Steven Melendez https://www.fastcompany.com/90826656/more-zoom-users-are-coming-around-to-virtual-backgrounds I have to disagree here. Using a virtual background makes you look less professional and less polished, unless you use a proper green screen and good lighting. In most cases, you’ll look more profesional and polished if you simply fix and arrange what’s behind you on camera.

Is there any way to change the sort order of the reading list in Safari? I prefer to see the oldest saves post first.

Try to complete new tasks on the day you receive them

By tackling tasks immediately, you prevent them from piling up and getting in your way later. This is similar to the idea that a task is a debt you have to pay off in the future. While it can sometimes be useful to postpone things, it is usually better to handle them quickly. This keeps your task list short and allows you to make progress faster and adapt more easily to changes.

Is there any browser plug-in for Safari to remove those irritating Google login popups?

The human mind and brain lack the architecture to perform multiple tasks simultaneously

People are not good at doing multiple things at once. Our brains are not designed for this. Our cognitive and neural systems, which are responsible for mental functions, do not have the right architecture to effectively support multitasking. When we think we are working on different things at the same time, we are actually switching quickly between tasks. This back-and-forth switching costs energy and time. As a result, we make more mistakes and the work takes longer.

The benefit of using my own blog on my own domain for microblogging with ActivityPub is that Twitter probably won’t block links to it. You can follow me at @jeroen@jeroensangers.com from Mastodon.

Professionals spend about 60% of their time on work about work

“Work about work” refers to the activities you do to organize and coordinate your work, but that do not directly contribute to your main task. These include tasks such as communicating about work, searching for information, switching between different programs, dealing with changing priorities, and figuring out the status of ongoing projects. While these activities are necessary to move projects forward, they can be time-consuming and distract from truly productive work.

Professionals lose an average of three hours per week on unnecessary meetings

Professionals lose an average of three hours per week on unnecessary meetings, which has a significant impact on their productivity and job satisfaction. This waste of time can often be attributed to poorly organized meetings with no clear agenda or where the topics discussed are not relevant to all attendees. The feeling that “this meeting could have been an email” is a common complaint among employees, indicating that many meetings are not effectively utilized.

Escuchando al último episodio de @feliztividad, no podría estar más de acuerdo con @fjrascon y @jlgomezp. Necesitamos como mínimo dos repositorios de conocimiento, que no necesariamente debes estar en la misma herramienta: Documentos originales de terceros Nuestras propias ideas Y Evernote continúa siendo una buena solución para ambos usos.

🎉 Muy contento que Apple ha incluido el podcast de KENSO en sus lista de «Programas que nos encantaron en 2022» (estamos en las secciones «Programas más seguidos de 2022» y «Programas más compartidos de 2022»). 🙏 Muchísimas gracias a todos los oyentes para hacerlo posible.

¿Qué es este podcast recomendado por Amazon Music Podcasts? Sí, ¡es el podcast de KENSO! 🎉

📸 Delta de l’Ebre

Ya tenemos libro para la próxima reseña en el podcast: Ego is the Enemy de Ryan Holiday 📚

I really like the idea of receiving a yearly activity summary such as Spotify Wrapped or Apple Music Replay… but now now! We still have a full month to go and there’s a lot left to be listened, read, watched and done. Please, send me the final report on January 1st. 🙏

Mastodon could use a well-designed client. This is great news. Hello people of the Fediverse! Some of you may have heard that a new Mastodon client, Ivory,  is in development for iOS (and Mac!). This is true! Tapbots is going all in on Mastodon and we hope this place continues to grow and thrive. Tweetbot will continue to be developed alongside Ivory as a lot of code is shared. Ivory https://tapbots.social/@ivory/109433914793802708

Finished reading: Good Anxiety by Wendy Suzuki 📚

The story you tell yourself creates your reality. Part of the activation energy required to start any task comes from the picture you get in your head when you imagine doing it. It may not be that going for a run is actually costly; but if it feels costly, if the picture in your head looks like a slog, then you will need a bigger expenditure of will to lace up.

Today I received my invite to access Tana and immediately imported my Roam Research database. So far, I like what I see, but will have to do a lot of work to recreate a trusted system in Tana. There is still a lot to figure out, including some very basic stuff such as how to create an inline hyperlink and how to capture information from my phone and tablet.

Love it how an insurance company sent me my username and password in two separate mailings several days apart, but since international postal delivery is flakey, the mailman handed me both envelopes at the same time.

With Mastodon I get the same feeling as email in the early days. Remember the hassle to change from yahoo.com to hotmail.com to gmail.com? Having and using your own domain name makes switching email providers a breeze and should also be the norm for Mastodon. You can follow me at @jeroen@jeroensangers.com on Mastodon.

And yes: that’s certainly how a lot of capitalist cultures think about time — as something that can be wasted or optimized. It’s often predicated on the idea that you should be focused on doing one thing, and one thing only, very efficiently: time is money, etc. etc. But that itself, sometimes referred to as a “monochronic” understanding of time, is no more or less “natural” than other ways of conceiving of time, like “polychronic” culture, which understands time as dynamic, flexible, and filled with several tasks at once, each of which will take the time that they need.

Para un proyecto estoy buscando un proveedor acreditado para el #KitDigital con experiencia demonstrable en diseño web con Squarespace.

What’s the benefit of 4K video when YouTube by default fills only a third of the screen (at most!) with its video player. I always maximize the player, but know I’m an exception.

Now that everybody is migrating to Mastodon, I suddenly remembered that a few years ago I created an account on mastodon.social to try it out. It has been abandoned ever since, so today I deleted the account just to prevent people from subscribing to the wrong account. If your interested in following me on Mastodon, you can follow my personal site (the one true source of all my writings, toots and tweets) at @jeroen@jeroensangers.

Once in a while I go through the ever growing list of Roam Research extensions and find something useful that apparently had been available for a while already. Is there a newsletter, Twitter account or RSS feed to get notifications of new additions to the Roam Depot?

The expectation that you check email outside of working hours can lead to health problems, relationship issues, and anxiety

If employees always feel that they need to be available, even outside of work hours, it can cause a lot of stress. This constant stress can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure, sleep issues, and a weakened immune system. The feeling that you always have to be “on,” without a clear separation between work and personal life, can also harm your mental health and cause anxiety and fatigue.

Migrating my passwords from 1Password to iCloud Keychain

Why am I still using 1Password? A few days ago I asked myself this question, and the only answer I could come up with was “Because that’s what I have been doing for years”. Now don’t get me wrong, I like 1Password and in the past it was vastly superior to any alternative. I loved that it could handle two-factor authentication without needing an additional app, and I liked their password suggestions.

I dedicated some more time to reflect on yesterday’s thoughts and decided to map out my whole personal information workflow in Roam Research. It probably is incomplete and misses a lot of small nuances, but it looks complicated enough already and serves its purpose of getting a high level overview.

25 years of blogging

Today I should throw a party to celebrate this blog’s 25th anniversary. But lately I am not too proud of my blog. In contrast to the early days, when I was very inspired to write, I feel like the blog has fallen outside my regular information– and content workflow. That said, I should probably have a closer look at all parts implicated in that workflow and maybe even draw a diagram to get an overview.

It has only been a little over two weeks that I upgraded to macOS Ventura, and already got my ass saved twice by the ‘Undo Send’ button in Mail.

Focus modes in iOS make me happy

Not so much for focusing, but simply because it solves a practical problem for me. You see, just like many people of my age I need reading glasses. Now, when I am working at my desk, I usually have a pair handy, but when I am out and about I usually leave them at home. My solution in those cases is incrementing the text size in iOS to Extra Extra Extra Large, so I can read everything without glasses.

Currently reading: Good Anxiety by Wendy Suzuki 📚

Finished reading: Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan 📚

I updated my Now page and my list of the tools I use.

Just five minutes after reading Create link rel-me tags on micro.blog by @muhh, I already have the meta tags plugin for micro.blog installed and my link rel-me tags created.

📸 Wet leaves 🍃 Is autumn finally coming? Lleida, 12:20 CET A Day in the Life of Micro.blog

📸 All prepared for the trading course

While waiting to get access to Tana, I have watched some videos from current users. No doubt it is a very powerful tool, but in 75% of the videos I have the sensation that the person over complicates things that could (and should) be simple.

Today I was so focused that I forgot to post an image. But I don’t feel guilty, since there is no true commitment, just good intentions.

Now that most “social media” services by default show an AI-generated feed that has nothing to do with our contacts, why do we still call them “social media” services?

📸 Chores and a blue sky

📸 Patio

📸 Brand new cycling shoes Lleida, 18:59 CET A Day in the Life of Micro.blog

I agree with @jack: First, I don’t need a Zettelkasten. If you’re being honest, you probably don’t either. Jack Baty https://rudimentarylathe.org/2022/personal-knowledge-management/ For most people, a simple notes app to store a curated selection of bits of information is more than enough. A full-blown Zettelkasten is overkill. However, if you’re a thought leader and/or writer and need a systematic way to develop original thinking and store and retrieve those thoughts to combine them into new work, you may want to look at a Zetterkasten.

Currently reading: Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan 📚

📸 Cardona

Finished reading: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A - by Mark Manson 📚 This book did nothing for me. No new insights. Also, the language Mark uses doesn’t connect with me.

Employees with a private office have 70% more face-to-face interaction compared to employees in an open workspace

People who have their own office talk 70% more often with colleagues than those who work in a large, open space. This is remarkable because many people think that those in an open office talk more with each other. But that’s not the case. In an open office, people are often less inclined to talk to each other. This is likely because they feel watched or because there are too many distractions.

Ha sido un gran placer poder conversar con @DVC_tw. Próximamente en tu reproductor de podcast…

¿Por qué hablamos de un «destornillador» en lugar de un «tornillador»?

I am tired and feel like I am running around doing things the whole day. But when I look objectively at my day I see I get plenty of rest and downtime. More than usually even. So what should I do? Tell my emotions to get over it and accept reality or listen to my mind and body to hear what they are actually telling me?

📸 L’Almadrava

This quote merits to be converted into a nice poster in most offices: If you do anything at the last minute that takes more than a minute, you’re not organizing your project properly. The last minute is not a buffer zone, nor is it the moment to double-check your work. The last minute is simply sixty seconds to enjoy and to remind yourself that you successfully planned ahead. Seth Godin https://seths.

Longer workdays undermine productivity and cognitive skills

Research shows that extremely long work weeks backfire. If you work more than 55 hours per week, you actually perform worse than colleagues with shorter work weeks. This effect is not only temporary: studies show that long working hours can lead to a decline in important cognitive skills such as reasoning, vocabulary, and memory in the long run. The problem manifests itself as early as middle age, suggesting that the effects of overwork accumulate throughout one’s career.

Currently reading: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A – by Mark Manson 📚

Every time I visit Twitter, which is not very often, I wish there was a way to remove the individual messages of threads from my timeline.

Finished reading: The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris 📚 Recommended for anybody who sometimes gets stuck in his/her own thoughts.

Edit and mix the recordings of instruments and vocals so that the song sounds clear and coherent

Music production ensures that a song sounds clear and coherent. This process is called audio mixing. It involves adjusting the volume, creating space and depth, and ensuring a good balance between the different sounds. The goal is to create a piece of music where each component is clearly audible and works well with the rest. During mixing, you use various techniques to control the dynamics of the music. This may mean using compression to manage the volume of certain elements, or equalizers to boost or reduce certain tones.

An open office is a cheap short-term solution with high intangible costs in the long term

Open offices initially seem like a smart financial choice. Companies can fit more employees into the same square footage, reducing rent costs per person. The setup costs are also lower—no expensive walls, fewer separate spaces, and simpler ventilation and lighting systems. For the finance department, the numbers look appealing in the short term. But this apparent saving comes with a heavy price that becomes visible only later. Scientific research repeatedly shows that open offices have negative effects on employees’ health, satisfaction, and productivity.

My first music mix

Three weeks ago I decided to get into music mixing and today I ‘finished’ my first mix. I put the word ‘finished’ in quotes, since any creative project is never truly finished. There is always more to tweak and polish. Anyway, for now I am quite happy with the result of this first project, though it is nowhere near a professional level, as you will hear. Selecting the song Since I am no musician, I first had to find the music tracks to mix.

Most people (myself included) should reduce the amount of information input and increment the amount of output (which may be public or not).

Every person is unique. Instead of trying to follow the daily schedule of your hero’s, you should carve out your own path. Their Daily Ritual, to whatever extent it was truly daily or truly a ritual, was likely an emergent phenomenon. They did not read tons of productivity books and then pick the routine that seemed best to them, as many of us feel compelled to do. They worked, and over time, their ideal routine for sustained output emerged.

📸 Sant Benet de Bages

I’m picking up music editing and mixing. Here’s why

For the past four years I have edited a weekly podcast. At first using free online tools, the in GarageBand and lately using Logic Pro. And the more I edit, the more I like it. At the same time I also realize that I still have a lot to learn. So I took some courses about voice-over editing, EQ, compressors, limiters. I read quite some manuals and watched many hours of videos on YouTube.

Working slower promotes deeper thinking processes and better results

We live in a fast-paced world. But sometimes working slower is better. This is called ’eufriction’. It means that a little resistance can be good. In the past, efficiency experts like Frederick Winslow Taylor thought everything had to be done as quickly as possible. But when we slow down a bit, we think more carefully about what we are doing. Just as exercising strengthens our muscles, working slower strengthens our thinking.

Why doesn’t have Amazon a language filter? Each time I search for a book by a best-selling author, I have to wade thought dozens of translated books in languages I don’t understand.

To get better ideas, group members first write down their own ideas

This process ensures that each individual has the chance to formulate their thoughts without influence from others. It prevents dominant group members from dominating the discussion and allows for a wide range of ideas. By first thinking individually, participants can let their creativity flow without worrying about direct criticism or judgment from others. This often leads to a greater variety and originality in the generated ideas. After writing down their own ideas, group members come together to discuss and further develop these ideas.

Should it be a meeting?

Esto explica muchas cosas: «Lentos, apáticos y con pequeñas pérdidas de memoria, así afecta el calor al cerebro». La efectividad tiene ciclos. Hay épocas en funcionas de forma óptima y épocas en que sencillamente debes aceptar que no da para tanto.

Apple is very fast! This morning I received an apology for a message they sent me by accident. That message arrived this afternoon…

Back on my ‘extended commute’

I work from home, so my regular commute from the dining room, where I eat my breakfast, to the office is about four steps. Nine steps if I pass through the kitchen to get me a bottle of water. I have always thought that not having to waste precious time on a commute was one of the perks of working from home. But lately I found that there are some benefits that I am missing out on.

A little time pressure while working on your tasks helps to reduce 'attention residue'

Time pressure can have a surprisingly positive effect on our productivity, especially when it comes to reducing ‘attention residue’. Attention residue occurs when we struggle to completely let go of our thoughts from a completed task, making it harder to fully concentrate on the next task. Research has shown that when people complete a task under high time pressure, they experience less attention residue. This is because the urgency and focus associated with time pressure help us to fully direct our attention to the task and let go of it more easily after completion.

A rough day 🚗

The moments in which my life is the most interesting are also the moments in which I absolutely don’t think about capturing and sharing.

📸 In the black forest, part 2

📸 In the black forest, part 1

Get a life

📸 Now this is how you take a coffee break

My rule: if you publish a text about “The science behind XXX” or “XXX according to science” you should always link to the corresponding scientific references.

Messy work environments have no effect on either creativity or executive functions

On one hand, some studies suggest that messy spaces can stimulate creativity. A 2013 study from the University of Minnesota showed that people working in messy rooms were more likely to come up with creative ideas than those in tidy offices. This may mean that a chaotic environment helps to think differently and come up with new ideas. On the other hand, there are also studies that say messy places do not affect how well you can think.

This morning I gave my personal site some 💝. First I updated the My Tools page with my new iPhone and my current favourite audio plugins. Then I spent half an hour tweaking the design of the site. Of course, the changes are so tiny that no casual visitor would ever notice. But I do notice, and that is important.

About time: I updated my Now page.

Finished reading: Training From the Back of the Room! by Sharon L. Bowman 📚 I took a lot of great ideas from this book to make our workshops even more interactive. Recommended reading for all trainers and teachers.

Sí que tens temps, encara que és un recurs que està mal distribuït (igual que els diners). (Re)plantejar la qüestió del temps és, en realitat, (re)plantejar els models de treball, de salut, d’educació, d’alimentació, de mobilitat, de consum, de reforma horària… Sergi Picazo https://www.elcritic.cat/opinio/sergi-picazo/no-tinc-temps-132921

📸 Nos encanta que los planes salgan bien

When was the last time you took an hour just to be with your thoughts?

When capturing information, give context by specifying why this note is important

Storing information is super important for knowledge management, but you also need to understand why you’re keeping it. By clearly writing down why your notes are important, you immediately give them context and meaning. This not only helps you remember the information better but also makes it much easier to recall why you found it important later on. Adding a simple “motive” field to your notes can really help. This ensures you pause to consider why you’re keeping something, leading to more conscious knowledge management.

Currently reading: The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris 📚

Finished reading: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 📚 In current times, this is a very necessary book (with could have been a lot shorter). My main takeaway: I am already quite a digital minimalist, but could focus on having more conversations.

After listening to the Micro Monday interview with @sod, I added the Conversation on Micro.blog plugin to my site. Now, if you have a Micro.blog account (you have one, don’t you?) and you want to comment on a post you found on my site, you have an easy link to take you to the conversation.

I made it! Mythic level in MTGA.

This resonated with me: The difference between things and events is that things persist in time; events have a limited duration. A stone is a prototypical “thing”: we can ask ourselves where it will be tomorrow. Conversely, a kiss is an “event.” It makes no sense to ask where the kiss will be tomorrow. The world is made up of networks of kisses, not of stones. Shane Parrish https://fs.blog/creating-love/ Most ‘things’ in life — this blog, our house, yes, even my life itself, are actually events.

I wish MTGA had an option to quickly copy my opponent’s deck after a game.

Currently reading: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 📚

Finished reading: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker PhD 📚 This book made it clear to me how my (bad) sleeping habbits are affecting my quality of life. I really should sleep more hours! (Reseña en español para los miembros de KENSO Círculo)

I love this idea to schedule your “Uh Oh” moments:

The workdays of so many professionals are dictated by urgencies and emergencies. But there is another way to work, which I call ‘Calm productivity’. This is a major paradigm shift, which not many organisations are willing or able to make. We can build slack into our lives. We can create cycles so that we don’t need to dance with a crisis around time on a regular basis. Seth Godin https://seths.blog/2022/06/the-next-train/

How is it possible that I have to pay 90€ for a digital license key for Microsoft 365 Family, while for only 70€ they will send me a physical box containing the license key at home?

I am thinking about buying a Kindle to use instead of the iPad for reading at night to avoid light exposure before going to bed. What’s kept me away until now is that I trust Apple more than Amazon with my data, but maybe in this case my health should get priority over my principles.

Waiting on a sunny day…

An increase of 10 dB noise in the workplace reduces productivity by 5%

This is because environmental noise has a significant and negative impact on cognitive tasks that require concentration. Noise pollution leads to increased mental load, making it more difficult for employees to concentrate and causing errors to occur more quickly. This effect is particularly noticeable in tasks that require a longer duration and a high level of accuracy, such as problem solving or complex calculations. Additionally, research shows that noise pollution does not directly affect the effort of employees, but it does affect their ability to think clearly.

A moderate level of background noise enhances creativity

Research shows that a little background noise can help you think more creatively. This is because a moderate noise level, such as 70 decibels, stimulates your brain to think in a different way. This allows you to be more creative, as you look beyond the obvious solutions and discover new ideas. It’s similar to the effect of a café or a busy street, where the constant noise distracts your thoughts just enough to flow freely without becoming overwhelming.

Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn't need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive

By setting aside time for tasks that are not urgent but important, you create space to think strategically and work on long-term goals. This prevents you from constantly being in a reactive mode, where you’re only focused on putting out fires. It gives you the chance to be proactive and concentrate on what truly matters, ultimately leading to greater satisfaction and less stress. Time blocking is an effective technique that can help with this.

Why mine is so small

Whenever I show the new iPhone 13 Mini I bought a few weeks ago to friends or family, often I get the same reaction: “Nice! But it’s really small…”. Yes, it is small, but that is exactly what I want from my mobile phone. I know that the general consensus about phone sizes is to get the biggest screen possible in the smallest device possible, but my phone use is atypical.

I’m not so sure about this.

This hit me at just the right moment as this morning I was thinking I should keep more in touch with my friends. I already texted one of them to get together for lunch next week. Thanks @Patrickrhone! So that has me thinking a lot about friendships – especially amongst guys. We tend not to prioritize them. We tend to think that to get together there has to be a reason involved.

Writing is the best medium for deep thinking

Writing is often seen as the best medium for deep thinking because it offers you a structured way to organize and explore your thoughts. When you write, you force yourself to formulate your ideas clearly and coherently. This process of turning vague thoughts into concrete words helps you better understand and analyze difficult concepts. Additionally, writing allows you to look back on what you have written, so you can revise and improve your thoughts.

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right

The statement “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right” highlights the importance of your beliefs in what you can achieve. This phrase, often attributed to Henry Ford, suggests that your mindset greatly influences your success. If you believe you can do something, you are more likely to work hard and overcome challenges. This idea is similar to a growth mindset, where you believe that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and hard work.

Most marketing techniques only work when selling marketing techniques.

📸 Day 16: Time Seconds and minutes don’t matter. #mbmay

Give yourself permission to be human. It can be easy to consider a temporary habit a “failure” because it wasn’t permanent, but a temporary habit can still add value to one’s life.Temporarily doing an activity every day can help one decide if that activity really reflects their desires and priorities.A temporary habit can help someone build a skill, even if it doesn’t need to be continued long-term to retain the skill.

I had an absolutely fabulous boring morning. I had nothing to do, so I simply walked though the city letting my mind wander and observing people on the street and anything else that caught my attention.

I should frame this quote and put it in a very visible place in my office: If you think technology will solve your problems then you don’t understand technology – and, you don’t understand your problems. — Laurie Anderson

Work in a daylit workspace

Natural light is very important for regulating our biological clock, which helps us sleep well and stay healthy. Research shows that daylight can reduce stress and improve your mood, allowing you to concentrate better and work more efficiently. Additionally, natural light can help with certain health issues, such as seasonal depression. A workplace becomes more productive when there is plenty of daylight. By designing offices to allow a lot of natural light in, companies can ensure that their employees feel better and are more satisfied.

Add some art to your workplace for reduced stress and increased creativity and productivity

Artworks can create a calming and inspiring environment, which helps improve the overall work experience. This is because visual stimulation through art can contribute to a positive mood, which in turn reduces stress and promotes a sense of well-being. Additionally, art in the workplace can stimulate creativity. Artworks can serve as a source of inspiration and new ideas, which is especially useful in creative professions or during brainstorming sessions. By being regularly exposed to art, employees can improve their imagination and problem-solving skills, leading to innovative solutions and a dynamic work environment.

🙋‍♂️ Hablando del #libroic, tengo una pregunta: Si el método es el factor clave para un proceso de Inteligencia Colectiva y además es preferible que todos los pasos del proceso sean colectivos, ¿cómo podemos asegurarnos que el método sea implementado correctamente, si este se decide en un proceso colectivo?

Siempre me gusta participar en eventos donde haya una gran capacidad humana en la sala. Es lo que pasó ayer en la presentación del #libroic de @arey. Dejo aquí el excelente resumen de @ictlogist.

📸 Day 10: Pot Usually I focus on the plants, but today I made an exception. #mbmay

Currently reading: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker PhD 📚

Finished reading: How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler 📚 This was a hard one to read. I will probably make a few adjustments on my reading process after having gone through the book, but I would have preferred reading a summery over reading the whole book.

Me ha encantado el último episodio del podcast Productividad y Salud de @fjrascon y @jlgomezp sobre el «exocortex». Desde hace tres años uso Roam Research después de haber pasado por NVAlt, Evernote y  Notes. Recomiendo a José Luis que prueba Logseq en lugar de Roam Research.

📸 Day 5: Earth View from planet earth. #mbmay

📸 Day 4: Thorny After not having touched a face mask for several weeks, it stings to wear one again, even if it’s only for a day.

📸 Day 3: Experiment Today I tried something new: without looking I took a photo out of the train window. It turned out a lot better than I expected! #mbmay

📸 Day 2: Photo Last year I used my fancy pants camera to participate in the Micro.blog Photoblogging Challenge, but since I got a new phone last week I decided that this would be the perfect occasion for trying out mobile photography in different situations. #mbmay

Sorting emails into folders wastes a lot of time; use one archive folder and search for emails when you need them instead

Sorting emails into different folders may seem like an efficient way to keep your inbox organized. However, research shows that creating complex folder structures does not necessarily lead to higher efficiency in retrieving emails. The process of manually sorting emails into specific folders takes a lot of time and effort (an average of 67 hours per year!), and these preparatory actions often turn out to be inefficient. Instead of spending time categorizing each email, this time can be better spent on other productive tasks.

📸 Day 1: Switch Today we finished the first part of the home entrance restyling. Previously we had dark brown painted doors and brown tiles. We lightened things up by painting the tiles light gray and adding gray chalk paint to the doors for that vintage effect. #mbmay

I never understood the appeal of the digital nomad lifestyle. Sure, it’s cool for about a week, but after that it gets really uncomfortable. As Oliver Burkeman explained exquisitely in his book ‘Four thousand weeks’, it is a lifestyle fueled by egoism. If you’re thinking about taking off for far-flung locations so you can keep your job while seeing the world, think of this as a checklist of things to prepare for—and a warning that it won’t be as glamorous as you may imagine.

My iPhone is not mobile anymore; it only works when I have it connected to a power supply. To make things worse, I just got the message that my new phone is delayed one more day. I am counting the hours, or better: minutes, until Thursday when it arrives.

Avui, per celebrar Sant Jordi, no m’he comprat cap llibre, sinó he decidit dedicar la tarda a llegir un dels llibres que ja tenia comprat fa temps i que m’estava esperant a la prestatgeria.

After several days with battery problems on my Phone 7, yesterday I did a full reinstall from backup. However, the issues are only getting worse, now with random crashes of the iPhone. I uninstalled all third-party apps and am now going to try a restore with DFU mode.

Ayer, después de terminar el taller de efectividad de @beKENSO que llevamos impartiendo desde hace más de 4 años, @EnriqueGonzalo me enseñó dos hojas con sus ideas para mejorar el taller. Así se consigue la excelencia…

¿Qué haces cuando debes escribir un texto largo, pero no tienes ganas de hacerlo? Efectivamente, actualizar la gran lista de blogs sobre la productividad personal.

Wow! This is going to cost me a lot of time to study: Index of productivity patterns

📷 Staircase

Decision fatigue only affects people who believe that willpower runs out quickly

Psychologist Carol Dweck has discovered that how we think about willpower affects how tired we feel after making decisions. People who believe their willpower is quickly depleted often feel exhausted after a difficult task. However, those who believe that willpower is not quickly depleted are less affected and may even perform better after a challenge. This idea is related to Dweck’s theory of the “fixed mindset” and the “growth mindset.” People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities and resources, such as willpower, are fixed and limited.

Keep essential information in your mind so you can access it quickly without having to look it up

It is important to keep essential knowledge at hand so you can use it immediately when needed. This means training your brain to recognize and remember important information, allowing you to respond faster and better in different situations. This process helps you become less dependent on external tools because you already know a lot yourself. An important part of this is actively engaging with information. This means not just reading or hearing information, but also working with it by discussing it, trying it out, and applying it in different situations.

With al this attention for creating an external brain (David Allen) and building a second brain (Tiago Forte), we might forget this: But it’s also important to practice holding things in mind. That’s how we exercise the brain, folding ideas into our intrinsic memory and rebuilding them when they go awry. Kourosh Dini https://kill-the-newsletter.com/alternates/4rp96homg9rh1nw0.html

Tengo una cosa claro: cuando no terminas tus tareas dentro del plazo, el tiempo no tiene la culpa.

Finished reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚 Though i finished reading this book, I will be thinking and reflecting on its contents for many more weeks.

I don’t like having too many meetings, because I am the kind of person who leaves a one hour meeting with four more hours of work to do.

Nir argues that Time blocking can be useful for everybody, as long as you use it for Reflective Work (and not for Reactive Work), start small (maybe with a 15 minute block) and try to use it also for fun activities. When you timebox fun, you’ll see what true leisure feels like, unencumbered by the nagging feeling that you should be doing something else. Nir Eyal https://www.nirandfar.com/timeboxing-works-for-anyone/

I totally missed #MyTwitterAnniversary 🎉 last week.

Zoom prioritises refresh rate over resolution for camera streams, so presentations shared over a virtual camera are not as crisp as screen sharing

Zoom chooses to prioritize speed over image quality when streaming camera footage. This means that if you use a virtual camera in a Zoom meeting, the images are often less sharp than when you share your screen. Zoom ensures that the video runs smoothly, meaning the images move faster but are less sharp. This is done so that the video does not stutter when someone is speaking. When you share your screen, image quality is more important.

When the latest version of Overcast came out, I decided to try to change my podcast listening workflow and use the built-in queue. On the home screen, Overcast shows new episodes and I can long press them to add them to the queue. Though it worked alright, it was more work than my previous workflow, so I switched back to to using my previous list. I simply have an ‘All podcast’ playlist which collects all unplayed episodes.

The days that I feel most tired usually end up being also the days in which I work more hours. Somehow, feeling tired makes it more difficult to reach the point where I feel I have done ‘enough’. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of what I should do.

Your own implementation is the correct way of doing GTD

David Allen, the creator of GTD, says there is no standard way to use his method. Although his books and workshops provide a lot of explanations, it is important for everyone to create their own system that suits their needs and preferences. The goal of GTD is to get tasks and responsibilities out of your head, so you have space for creative and productive thinking. This works best when the system you use fits you well and feels easy.

Tiredness + an addictive game (such as MTGA) = destroyed productivity

People who do not experience stress often have a lower level of cognitive ability

It may sound surprising, but research shows that while people without stress are less likely to have chronic illnesses and often feel better, they also perform worse on tests that measure memory and cognitive flexibility. It seems that a little stress can help keep our brains sharp. Stress acts as a kind of training for the brain, allowing us to use our cognitive skills better and more efficiently. This does not mean that we should always be stressed to think well.

So this device measures breathing patterns and uses that to calculate focus levels. The app contains 4 protocols to help reduce frustration, anxiety, burnout, procrastination and distraction. I already have an Oura ring capable of measuring my breathing rate, so all I need is a software update to control focus modes.

Our (productivity) issues are not new. Read the great masters and find answers to current issues

Our productivity problems, such as information overload from emails and chat messages, may seem like a modern issue, but they are not new. As early as 1916, similar problems were discussed, showing that this has been an ongoing issue. Often, this is due to poor management of information and communication. Great thinkers have long ago devised solutions for these issues. By looking at their ideas, we can learn how to better handle our current problems.

I still haven’t found the perfect work-from-home coffee break activity. I’m looking for something which I can do while drinking my coffee, which will disconnect my mind from work and which can be completed in about 15–20 minutes. I found that the activity should have a definite end point as I tried reading and gaming, which had the tendency to expend my break with at least an hour.

📈 Algo estamos haciendo bien en el podcast de @beKENSO: ¡Nº 35 en el top de España!

Currently reading: Sona la cançó by Lluís Gavaldà 📚 Si també estàs llegint aquest llibre fantàstic de @luisgavalda, he creat la llista de concions que acompanya el llibre a Apple Music: Sona la cançó.

My plan was to take a short break, cross the street to buy some pineapple in the vegetable store and then drink my coffee while continue to work, but when I came back decided to play ‘just one game of MTGA’… I managed to limit myself to play just this one game (mainly because I won), but then looked up some information about the MTGA and updated my Now page.

After 45 years, these tips are still valid:

Follow Seth’s advice and avoid dong things at the last moment whenever possible. You don’t want to have to deal with Murphy’s Law. The last minute is an easy habit to fall into. Once you start focusing on crises, it makes it really difficult to find the focus and energy to begin planning ahead. But the last minute can be risky and expensive. Seth Godin https://seths.blog/2022/03/calculating-the-last-minute/

I love how @patrickrhone explains a simple habit with a lot of depth behind it: Basically, on the front of the card I write down the tasks I’d like to get done today (and really believe I can get done). On the back of the card, I capture any incoming tasks that pop up or things I need to write down — like a scratch pad (i.e, things that won’t get done today but I’d like to keep for some other time).

Mi granito de arena para reivindicar el #8M2022: kenso.es/episodio/…

Once again the UPS delivery person was somehow not able to deliver a package, even though I did leave home for a second. Now I have to pick it up myself at an access point 20 minutes away 😡

Currently reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚

Finished reading: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely 📚 I liked this book, even though in the end I got a little bit tired of so many examples of irrational behavior. Also, in general I like more actionable books.

Try to get four hours of concentrated work into a workday, and never more than six

Our brain can only work well for a limited time. Research shows that people can usually only think well for a few hours a day. Most people cannot do difficult thinking work for more than 4 hours a day without making mistakes. By working shorter but more concentrated, we can get more done without becoming too tired. We often think we need to work 8 hours a day. But this is not always feasible for work that requires a lot of thinking.

Busco por la canción Carnaval, carnaval de Georgie Dann en Music y la aplicación de música falla. ¿Será porque no le gusta el carnaval?

Who else has created a list to know which streaming service to use for each of the tv series you are watching?

Nothing to comment: Perhaps like you, I naively started out thinking that Google Slides was just a poorly maintained product suffering from some questionable foundational decisions made ages ago that worshipped at the shrine of PowerPoint and which have never since been revisited, but now, after having had to use it so much in the past year, I believe that Google Slides is actually just trolling me. Laura Javier https://medium.com/@laurajavier/google-slides-is-actually-hilarious-83c1ced857ee

This afternoon, for the first time this year, I left home without needing a coat. Too bad, however, that at night the temperatures drop until just above freezing.

This:

The words you use influence how you see the world

Language is not just a way to communicate, but also a way to shape our thinking. For example, if you tell yourself “I can’t eat X,” it feels like a restriction. But if you say “I don’t eat X,” it feels like a conscious choice. Research shows that people who say “I don’t eat…” are more likely to make healthy choices than those who say “I can’t eat this.” This small difference in words can greatly affect how we see ourselves and how motivated we are.

Now that most texts are read on a screen, why would anybody still use a page-based text editor?

I enjoyed this view behind the curtains of making the new ‘Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’ card set for Magic: The Gathering. There is a whole lot more going on than simply brainstorm some ideas and paint pretty pictures for the cards.

We’re almost two years in, and I still find a lot of people who do not have a headset for videoconferencing. When you’re speaking to a muted room, it’s eerie and unnatural — you feel alone even if you can see other people’s faces. You lose all of those spontaneous reactions that keep a conversation flowing. Matt Mullenweg https://ma.tt/2020/03/dont-mute-get-a-better-headset/ Once you have a headset, the next step is to clean up the space behind you, so you won’t have to use those horrible fake backgrounds.

📸 A walk in the park

A Zoom (or Teams) call is not a meeting. There are no humans on this call. Yes, there are 14 participants with their video on, one with their video off, and someone dialing in. Yes, you can gather some interesting signal from a single frame of this meeting, but this is a crappy 2D representation of the team; both essential signal and purpose are missing from this situation. Michael Lopp https://randsinrepose.

📸 Spring is coming

There are some very interesting ideas in this proposal, but will Apple go that far? With “Ask app not to track” Apple recently changed the game of privacy, at the dismay at the global advertisement industry. We think they could go even further: To lead the industry towards technology that is truly respectful of human attention. To align the incentives for developers with the users best interest. To change the course of technology once more.

If you’re that lucky, you have to share it: Wordle 229 2/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Productive procrastination tip by @PatrickRhone: Task yourself with a huge must-do project that has a deadline far out enough that you can safely procrastinate on it for a day or two. Watch your productivity on every other possible thing go way up to avoid that one. Patrick Rhone https://www.patrickrhone.net/11288-2/

Spend a little attention on planning and organizing your tasks, but not more than necessary; then, get to work

It is good to spend some time planning your day, tidying up your inbox, and setting goals. This helps you clearly see what you need to do and how to approach it. But be careful not to lose too much time on these preparations. Overplanning can lead to procrastination and spending more time thinking than doing. Finding the right balance between planning and doing is important for your productivity. It can be tempting to plan everything in detail, but often it’s better to quickly make a list of your most important tasks and start right away.

📸 Street art

Today a family member asked me whether I use the Telegram messaging service. My answer: “Technically yes, but not in the way you assumed when asking this question”. The full explanation is simple. I do have the Telegram app installed on all my devices, but hardly ever use it to communicate with other people. However, I have one main contact I use daily: a bot named Telegroam, which I use to send ideas and information to my Roam Research graph.

Empezando a leer el siguiente libro para reseñar exclusivamente para los miembros de KENSO Circulo: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions de Dan Ariely 📚

This looks very promising: As a result of the non-standardization of blocks, our end-users suffer. If someone is using my blog engine, they can only use those blocks that I had time to implement. Those blocks may be pretty basic or incomplete. Users might want to use a fancier block that they saw in WordPress or Medium or Notion, but my editor doesn’t have it. Blocks can’t be shared or moved around very easily, and our users are limited to the features and capabilities that we had time to re-implement.

Teaching online with the cameras turned off

This tweet caught my eye this morning: ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ Not wordle, just a zoom class. Dr. Ji Y. Son https://twitter.com/cogscimom/status/1486209994085179394 The issue of turned off cameras in zoom classes is, as many other issues, nuanced. I have been on both sides in online workshops and can sympathise with both the teacher and the students. A student might not have the fancy videoconference gear I have, nor a nice background.

Recién llegado y con muchas ganas de leerlo: Superhábitos de @BertoP 📚

Finished reading: El regalo by Eloy Moreno 📚 Los miembros de KENSO Círculo tendrán la reseña la semana que viene.

Hoy es el Día Internacional de la Educación (¡todo el día!). En KENSO lo celebramos con tres acciones: Un episodio especial en el podcast Hemos lanzado un libro gratis para los suscritores del boletín ¡Un nuevo curso online!

I’ve got sooo many questions after watching What does single women do after work? (hat tip: Frank Meeuwsen). This woman lives on another planet! What does the device she put in the water with cherrie tomatoes do? What does the ‘Hello Kittty’ style device on the water tap in the bathroom do? Why is there no device to cut the lettuce? (Just kidding 😜) Does the knife block automatically clean her knives?

My biggest frustration playing Magic: The Gathering is randomness: those occasions I can’t play because I don’t get any land or because I only get land.

¡Increíble! 🤯 El podcast de KENSO está en la posición 23 de los podcast más populares en España según el ranking de Apple Podcasts. Probablemente sea un error de sistema…

How many hours of work have been lost since Microsoft decided to deactivate the auto save feature in Word for macOS (Windows as well?) unless you store your document in OneDrive or Dropbox?

This is a great feature: The “Title bar window shake” is a lifesaver for those times when you have a million windows open and you need to really drill down and focus on just one of them. To do so, you simply click and hold on your desired window’s title bar and, while holding the mouse button down, give it a little wiggle back and forth. All the other windows you have open will be minimized.

Why do people believe the weather can affect cloud computing? op @diggingthedigital.com Woorden hebben een betekenis. Dat kan in je voordeel werken als je een metafoor gebruikt om nieuwe techniek uit te leggen, maar het kan ook tot dit soort verwarring leiden.

Try this genius hack to clear your inbox and start fresh… without deleting everything! As someone with anywhere upwards of 10,000 emails in my inbox — many of them unread, to the dismay of my OCD friends — I am always looking for tips and tricks to help me manage my email. One of those is to start each new year with an absolutely clean inbox. Remember what that looks like?

Fun thread of company logos showing the fonts each uses From: How Do You Like Them Wordles? by @mattbirchler

Aparentemente, muchas personas consultan las recomendaciones en la App de  Podcasts. El podcast de @beKENSO está entre los 30 podcast más populares de España simplemente por salir en un lugar privilegiado entre las recomendaciones.

Una coincidencia fantástica: Seth Godin publica un post sobre el mismo tema y en el mismo día que nuestro último episodio del podcast de KENSO

When starting a new habit, routine, or project, it is important to consider the future maintenance costs that may arise

When starting a new habit, routine, or project, it is essential to think about future maintenance costs. This means not only considering the initial effort or costs but also what is needed to sustain it in the long term. Just like a ship that requires regular maintenance to function well, habits and projects also need ongoing attention. For example, setting up a complex system to manage your tasks might seem useful at first.

I just call this providing value. It is also the basis of any link blog… The Case for Permissionless Co-Marketing

Tomorrow is the first ‘real’ day of the new year. Are you ready?

AMS 🛫 BCN 🛬

First day of the new year, and I have mistakenly wished several people a great 2021 😱