Blog
Building A Consistent Writing Habit
I’ve been writing quite a bit about goals, reviews, and routines lately as a result of the new year and that’s going to continue in today’s article. One of the goals I’ve set for myself for the first quarter of this year is to build a consistent writing habit. This might seem like a vague goal in a sense but I’ve broken it down using the SMART Goals method of goal setting.
January 25, 2021
How To Read A Book by Mortimer Adler – Book Notes, Summary, Review
You might think you know how to read a book but you’re probably not remembering much of what you’re reading. That’s where this book comes in. It describes the different levels of reading and how you can get much more out of the books you read. While the book may be challenging to read, it’s important to read books that challenge you, so where better to start than with this book.
January 22, 2021
Determine The Why Behind Your Work For Increased Motivation
At the start of a fresh new year, or when you’re planning out the week ahead during your weekly review, it can be tempting to pile on more and more things to your to-do list. More projects to work on, more goals to achieve, more habits to build. You’ll have a list of amazing things to do and to work on. Then you get even more inspiration from other influencers who are sharing all of the amazing things they are doing and working on.
January 18, 2021
The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey – Book Notes, Summary, Review
Reading The Productivity Project showed me that being busy isn’t the same thing as being productive. When we are productive we are accomplishing the right things that we intentionally set out to work on. Each productivity experiment the author undertakes is detailed using his personal experiences to great effect. This allows us, the reader, to better understand how each one could impact our lives if we were to try them.
January 15, 2021
Restarting The Weekly Review Process
The start of a new year brings with it the chance to review and refine our routines. Of course, you can do this at any point throughout the year but there’s something about seeing January 1st on the calendar that motivates us to reflect and optimize our routines. One of the things on my agenda was to restart my weekly review process which I did this week. Those of you that have read [Getting Things Done] will be familiar with this concept. In fact, I’m re-reading this book as we speak which is why I have renewed motivation to pick this habit back up.
January 11, 2021
Sprint by Jake Knapp – Book Notes, Summary, Review
Running a sprint is an excellent way to test out a solution to a problem without sinking lots of time and money into it. In the world of agile software development, many people may be familiar with the concept of sprints but may not understand them fully. As someone in this position, I knew about sprints but wanted to learn much more about the intricacies of them and how to fully run one from start to finish.
January 8, 2021
Don’t Get Overwhelmed By Your Goals – Keep It Simple
As it’s the start of a brand new year, we’re all in the throws of reflecting over the last year and setting our new goals for the year ahead. I’ve been looking at goals, yearly themes, and reflections, but I’ve found that it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of coming up with and working towards new goals. The fatigue that comes with trying to decide between hundreds of goals can leave you in a state of analysis paralysis.
January 4, 2021
How To Build A Flow Diagram In Obsidian Using Mermaid
As an avid Obsidian user, I am always curious to learn how I can get the most out of this application. I love watching YouTubers live-stream their work process in Obsidian and I’m constantly scouring the Obsidian Forums for nuggets of helpful tips and tricks. If you’re not familiar with Obsidian, it is a popular knowledge management tool built on markdown files. I started using it after reading the book How To Take Smart Notes and learning about the concept of Zettelkasten and permanent notes.
December 21, 2020
The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll – Book Notes
Each time I re-read The Bullet Journal Method, I come away with something new that resonates with me. This book has inspired a pen and paper revolution among those of us that were previously slaves to our digital devices. I now have a bullet journal that accompanies me everywhere and is part of my productivity/task management/mental health toolkits. The Book In 3 Ideas Self-reflection and introspection are important so that you can learn from your experiences and improve. Regular reflection of your life and work is important to ensure a healthy productive life. Writing things down and getting them out of your mind allows you to think more clearly. Writing by hand allows you to slow down and carefully consider what you’re writing. This allows you to write in your own words and makes remembering what you write down more effective. What Is Bullet Journaling? It’s a system of note taking that allows you to define what’s important, why it’s important, and how you can work on those things. It’s a modular system you can pick and choose from (like Lego blocks) to create a toolkit that works for you. It’s not about how the system looks, it’s about how it makes you feel and how effective it is. Your bullet journal will evolve over time as you continue to use it and learn new things. “All tools, whether digital or analog, are only as valuable as their ability to help you accomplish the task at hand.”
December 18, 2020
UI Design Patterns - What’s The Difference Between Search and Filter?
As a UI designer at the company where I work, I am often tasked with creating new designs for complex systems that manage a lot of data. One thing I can be sure of is that the design will require tables of some sort. The next most frequently used components are either searches or filters to manage data. Over time designing these complex UIs, I found that what I imagined in my head and my prototypes weren’t always what came into fruition.
December 11, 2020
Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon – Book Notes, Summary, Review
From reading Steal Like An Artist, I learned how to become more confident in sharing the work that I create. By learning that nothing is truly original, simply a mashup of other ideas, I learned how to harness my creativity to generate ideas that are unique to me. This is the second book I’ve read by Austin Kleon. The first was Show Your Work, which I found to be equally as insightful and as motivating as this book.
December 4, 2020
Notion Library Tour - How I Capture Knowledge On What I Watch & Read
In this article, I would like to walk you through my Notion Library setup. I use this Library database inside of Notion to manage the content I consume daily like YouTube videos, web articles, and books. This allows me to build up my knowledge and to learn more with each new thing I read, watch, and listen to. Hopefully, you’ll find this walkthrough helpful, especially if this is something you are looking to implement for yourself inside of Notion.
November 27, 2020
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon – Book Notes, Summary, Review
Reading Show Your Work unlocked the motivation I needed to be more confident in sharing my thoughts with the world. This is a helpful book for content creators, knowledge workers, and creatives alike. Another great book I read by Austin Kleon was Steal Like An Artist. If you feel motivated and inspired by reading Show Your Work, then Steal Like An Artist is certainly worth adding to your books to read list.
November 25, 2020
How To Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens – Book Notes, Summary, Review
How To Take Smart Notes completely changed the way I look at reading books and taking notes based on what I watch, read, and listen to. This is a must-read for anyone that really enjoys reading but wants to get even more value and insight from the books they read. Who Should Read This Book? I would recommend this book to anyone that really enjoys reading but wants to get even more value and insight from the books they read.
November 20, 2020
A Starter Guide - Color Theory For Web Designers
Color theory is a fundamental concept used in a wide variety of disciplines, from artists to architects to web designers. Ever wondered how interior designers create color schemes for their rooms? You can be sure they are using their knowledge of color theory. Knowing just a small amount about this subject will help you in many more ways than you might realize as a web designer. I have written this article to give you a quick and easy to follow starter guide to color theory for web designers.
June 4, 2020
Creating A Recipe Web Page with QR Code
Each year, the company where I work organizes a bake-off / coffee morning in aid of Temple Street Children’s Hospital. We all bake something to contribute, sweet or savory. All of the other businesses in the building drop by to sample the tasty treats on display. The most popular sweet and savory entries at the end of the morning win a special prize. In preparing for this year’s bake off, I decided to add a little bit more to my entry. I wanted to make sure people knew exactly what was in what I was making in a quick and easy way.
April 2, 2020
How To Make A Digital Photo Frame With A Raspberry Pi
The idea of a digital photo frame really appealed to me as I tend to take lots of photos but am reluctant to print them all. Having one would let me display all the photos I want in a nice display without the complication of sending them away to be printed, collecting the photos, putting the photos into frames, photo albums etc. I did price digital photo frames online but liked the idea of building my own, and what better way to go than with a Raspberry PI!
April 1, 2020