Tick/Tock : My Experimental Produce / Consume Clock
For the last fours weeks I’ve been trying a new method for getting things done in the evenings. Very simply put on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I produce something. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday I consume something. Sunday is whatever I feel like or in some cases what needs to get done with my limited data set I’ve noticed I end up doing both.
On consume nights I read a book/paper/article, watch a show/movie, study a paper/article, play a video game, tease apart a puzzle, have a conversation, go out, etc.
On produce nights I write, code, build, continue a project, cleanup, do maintenance, or play with that thing I’ve had sitting around for years that I’ve been meaning to get to.
Consume nights have been very successful. I’m slowly getting caught up on my research, technical reading, and non-light reading. In the mean time while building a rhythm I’ve managed to finish two games, the last of the TV and light reading on my list for the year. My stress level has also been noticeably down.
Produce nights have been a little rocky to start as I had a bit of cleanup and throwing out of various 1/2 completed projects that needed to happen before I could really get in the flow. Even so they’ve managed to net several blog posts (including this one), creating a security tool, and progress on various home projects. Now that I’m past the time debt stage I’m looking forward to getting a good rhythm going to get some more things out the door.
On very short reflection one of the things I really like about my tick tock model is that it forces me to hack off part of a project that can be done in an evening. At the same time I don’t burnout or get bored with creation or consumption. One of the biggest benefits so far has been hushing the “You should be working on that other thing” nag in that loves to find a way to crawl into the back of my brain when I’m trying to get started on a task.
I also no longer feel like I’m pushing something off that needs to get done or something I want to do because whatever the thing I’m currently not doing is, is literally getting done tomorrow. One of the unplanned side effects has been that I’m getting more and more excited to do things. I’ve noticed when I stop my brain knows that thing I want to do is pushed out a bit and my mind begins to build anticipation to getting back to it.
While I’m 11 months away from claiming victory with my new time management model, it has in less than a month created a positive feedback loop. That alone has helped me feel like I’m starting to get ahead instead of feeling eternally behind. My ACTD list getting more and more checked off is proof that it’s not just a feeling.
Like all good routines few survive contact with a travel schedule. This month is packed with trips so I’m hoping my experimental clock is tray table compatible.
Town Hall : Cyber Security
Spoke as part of a panel at the Cyber Security Town Hall for Komo news on various cyber topics and the concept of a cyber Pearl Harbor.
In the absence of caffeine
In the absence of caffeine I decided on a brief constitutional to drop a few things at the post. My attempts at self betterment were met with flying debris landing in my eye, dodging falling foliage limbs, and a brief moment where it was raining upon my damaged visage and at the same time sunshine baking my coat tails.
Having enough of these “modern times” I quickly returned home to find the home service wire severed by some rogue oak or pine. I give thanks to miracles of Tesla and Marconi for by their graces I triumph in updating my status to the world.
Adam Cecchetti ToDo
On occasion someone will ask me how I keep track of all the things and stay focused. At first I thought it was odd that anyone would care about my personal management but the frequency has increased enough over the last few years that I must be doing something right. In hope that others will benefit from my efforts I decided to share my todo/life management list with everyone.
A long time ago I made myself a list format to keep track of things in life and school. I’ve been tweaking this on and off for the last 16 years.
I’ve tuned it over the years and I feel it has a good trade off of overhead. It goes from paper to computer and computer to paper well. It also helps me lock focus and most importantly it helps get things done. It used to have more features but I cut them because they got in the way of getting things done.
My meeting calendar is managed in Outlook. Meetings make it onto this list if they are of high importance or need prep items. Otherwise they stay off. I found over the years the less time stamps in the file the better as they are just another thing to manage. What I do find incredibly useful is being able to go back 3 years to see what I did the first week of January.
Every file is a single week in a format the OS sorts. Example 05_24_05_30.actd
Every file for every week is kept in a folder for the year so 2013, 2014, 2015 etc.
Every file contains a week of things that got done or is the current week.
Every day is marked simply by the name day of the week in {}
sat
{
}
I put things in two buckets. Two buckets works for me I tried more a few times but more than 2 buckets becomes another thing to manage. And the point of this list is to spend as little time working on it as possible.
Dej – (Deja)
Per – (Personal)
sat
{
Per – run 3 miles
}
Simple attributes on each of the items help me do visual sorting.
A leading ! means the item must happen today.
A leading * means that the item has been completed.
A trailing -> means a larger task got delegated
*Dej – Write backup script -> Tom
The list is always also in priority order. What I’m currently working on is the top item. If I get randomized “What was I doing?” becomes what’s on the top of the list. What needs done is Ctrl-F !
To see if everything got done at the end of the day I look at all the items missing a *.
No week is an island so longer goals for the year or projects get pushed into other {} Which I manage ad hoc. When a large enough gap opens up I move something from other to a part of a week.
The most important part is Gravity. There is no going back in time so everything moves down. When an item hits the bottom of a day it goes to the next day. Hit the bottom of a week it gets triaged for importance. If it makes the list it gets pushed to the top of next week’s Saturday or Monday. If it’s not something I really needed to do then it hits the ground and dies at the end of that week.
I keep an “other” category which always stays with the current week’s file. At the end of the week other is moved to the new week and deleted form the current week.
On the last Friday of the year I look at other category to triage and move what remains to the next year. If other gets too big I simply delete it.
To keep this example readable I’ve removed my Work items (Dej) and reduced the others, but you should get the general gist of it.
08_15_08_21.actd
sat
{
*Per – Read papers
*Per – Art Studio
*Per – Write crypto lib
}
sun
{
*Per – Brunch
*Per – ACTD app – Create iOS viewer/file association
*Per – Run 3 miles
}
mon
{
*Per – 7mW/chuck/stretch
!Per – ACTD/Photo post
!Per – Rotate various passwords
}
tue
{
!Per – Run 3.5 miles
!Per – Get new running shoes
!Per – Friend’s Birthday
}
wed
{
!Per – Build sniffer host image out
}
thur
{
!Per – Run 3.5 miles
}
fri
{
}
other : 2015
{
}
Things people have asked me over the years:
Q: Why?
A: Everything about this is designed to be light weight and not a task unto itself to manage. I use it to lock on something and it seems to have the exact right balance for me.
Q: Why not use JSON/XML/ASN.1/etc?
A: Too heavy weight the point is to manage my life not the list/data format or create a parser library.
Q: Why not use Org Mode?
A: Incredibly too heavy weight and it doesn’t export well for my use cases.
Q: Why not use the other million Todo apps / services already created.
A: Normally they require me to be online, none of them export well or allow fast editing. The second you require me to click a + to add a task you’ve lost me. None of them can be edited instantly/universally as my little file.
Q: How do you access this from my iThing/Work/Home/etc?
A: Make a folder and use your favorite service: S3,Dropbox,Box,SpiderOak,GDrive, OneDrive, doesn’t matter it’s a folder of text files.
Q: But my stuff is sensitive!
A: It’s just a text file encrypt/decrypt it.
Q: Can I get a blank Template?
A:
sat
{
}
sun
{
}
mon
{
}
tue
{
}
wed
{
}
thur
{
}
fri
{
}
other : 2015
{
}
R40
Really looking forward to the R40 show tonight! Last time I saw Rush was in 1997 and it was my very first real concert.
Previous to that show my live music experience was limited to standing in the fire exit door frame of a family owned bagel shop with James Weinheimer pretending the local punk bands were “good”.
Turns out it was amazing..
Moon
Moon was incredible on my walk home so I took a minute to take a picture.
SEM Party
Last Friday Unit 15 was kind enough to invite us down for the unveiling of their working Scanning Electron Microscope! Rob managed to get the broken Scanning Electron Microscope working again. Really looking forward to some of their pictures!
Northern Light Chase
This previous Friday we chased the Northern Lights. Didn’t see any fun collisions in the atmosphere but did manage to snap this shot.
Tanzania Part 10
Day 10-12: Kilimanjaro National Park
We were pretty spent at this point the Safari portion of our trip was over so what’s the best idea after 10 days of African Massage? (Riding in around bad roads in a land rover)
A quick day hike! After a half day of rest we did the tourist part of Kili on day 11. 3 hours 9 kilometers, and 841 meters of elevation change. Both ways.
Day 12 was sponsored by Advil, Kindle, and Tusker Beer.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcecc/sets/72157653907898868
Tanzania Part 9
Day 9: Tarangire National Park Part 2
We had a late start to the day breakfast and coffee overrode the need to get back to being Tsetse fly bait. Rounding the first bend into the park we were accosted by a wall of smell that I can still feel lingering in the horrors section of my brain. The smell over rode several senses; it smelt like an elephant had died. That’s because an elephant had died. A few hundred feet later we had found the departed creature. The vultures immediately scattered as we made our way to it.
Uncommon test of true love #128 your travel companion tolerates the smell of a dead elephant long enough for the scattered vultures to return so you can take a few shots of heavy metal album covers.
This pic was worth every putrid minute.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcecc/sets/72157654295833452
Adam Cecchetti 