Spotify is (was?) the best place to listen to music. It is, unequivocally, the worst place to listen to podcasts. They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars and their experience is the worst. I hope they are working on something great.
I’m collecting all of the responses to my typical day post under the typicalday tag for those interested in learning from other people’s routines. Some really great posts so far.
Rob Weychert’s typical day
Rob Weychart, tagged by Dan Mall, whom I tagged:
I keep my personal and professional web browsing segregated to different browsers, and I use a plugin to block Twitter, news, and other productivity draining sites during work hours.
I used to do something similar. I think I had an app that blocked blacklisted URLs. But I find myself so busy most days that if I am able to dive into Twitter or YouTube I allow myself.
Sara Soueidan’s typical day
Sara Soueidan, who was tagged by Dan, whom I tagged:
I think of day and time management in terms of blocks. Or, chunks of time, so to speak. I divide my day into “activity blocks” that are then distributed to occupy different time slots across the day.
Her post is a must-read even if you haven’t been following along with these “typical day” posts.
This bit hit pretty hard:
5:30am–7:30am: [Creative block] This can be anything I am inclined to do, as long as it’s meaningful work — “work that contributes to your legacy, helps you advance your career, expands your skill set, etc.… When you finish such work, you have the satisfying feeling of time well spent and a job well done.” (Jocelyn K. Glei, Unsubscribe)
“Work that contributes to your legacy”. Wow. I have a bunch of projects that are sitting on the shelf. Some half-started, others half-finished. I would love to dedicate a meaningful amount of time to getting projects out into the world that will impact my legacy.
Thanks to Sara for putting so much thought into her post.
Mike Carbone’s typical day
Mike Carbone, tagged by Dan Mall, whom I tagged:
10:30am: Wake up
OK, straight out of the gate this young lad is showing off. He continues…
4pm-6pm: Lift and work. This is something new I’ve been trying and it’s been going really well! I bring my laptop to the basement, blast some music, pump out some sets and write code in-between. Surprisingly productive.
Who is this guy? Lifting weights while writing code? We’re obviously not cut from the same cloth.
6:30-7:30pm: Consume enough food to feed a small African village, shower, protein shake.
My imagination of this gentleman is running wild.
Again, I’ll be collecting all of the links to those that participated on the original post in the coming days.
Courthouse Square, Honesdale, PA – January 2021
On Friday I drove to Honesdale to pick up some takeout food (Honesdale has some good food) and had a few minutes to kill. So I walked around the square with my Canon Rebel G filled with Ilford’s HP5+. When I got home I developed the roll in my sink.
Noah Read’s typical day
Most of the fall was absorbed with house-hunting, purchasing, finding new renters for our previous home, prepping for the move, moving, and unpacking. This has taken any spare moment and more than all my spare energy and attention to make happen.
In July, as Eliza and I soldiered on towards our new home’s closing day, I nearly threw in the towel. A new job, a pandemic, and buying a home almost did me in. But I’m extremely happy we muscled through it. We are far better off now than we were in the beginning of the pandemic.
I feel some of your pain Noah. And you have the added responsibility of homeschooling children! Hats off.
Dan Mall’s typical day
7:30pm–8:30pm: Optional work wrap-up time if there’s anything urgent from the day.
I envy that he has that evening time-slot to be productive. I find that my evenings are far less productive after I get into wind-down mode. I wouldn’t mind adding an hour or so of productivity to the end of my day.
Jeremy Keith’s typical day
Jeremy Keith, whom I tagged:
Y’know, in the Before Times I think this would’ve been trickier. What with travelling and speaking, I didn’t really have a “typical” day …and I liked it that way. Now, thanks to The Situation, my days are all pretty similar.
Waking up at 8:30 seems like such a luxury! I wish I could sleep in until then. It isn’t that I’m not allowed to do so – I simply haven’t been able to sleep past 8am in years. But then I see he doesn’t get into his pajamas until almost midnight and I realize he’s on a completely different rhythm.
At some point, I’ll update the original post with links to everyone’s daily routines for posterity.
Y’all ever scan black and white film as color film for about an hour before you realized it? No? Yeah, me neither.
Film cameras in TV and movies
If you’re like me, it is exciting to see an old camera in a movie or television show set in the past.
I’ve been known to pause to figure out the camera from time-to-time. I often remark that I wish there was a list of TV shows and movies that feature analog cameras. Now there is. At least the beginnings of one. Someone should turn this into a wiki.
Tonight I developed my first roll of film since the roll I lost. Feels good to see properly exposed negatives hanging to dry.
Chris Coyier’s typical day
That long of a workday means that I can be very flexible without feeling behind. If I need to run any sort of errand, I do. If I need to stay home a morning, I do. If I need to come home “early”, I do. And I can do that without feeling like I’ve meaningfully eaten into my work, which is a major stressor for me. It means there is some space in my day for play and exploration.
He and I share our love of mornings. But I also like this quoted bit because my entire reason for getting to the office earlier than everyone else is selfish. I want the freedom to bug out whenever I want.
Here is my typical day. Where is yours?
I filed a Radar (now called Feedback?) bug report for the bug I’m experiencing in Photos for Mac. I wonder if it will get fixed.
Julia Evans on Docker Compose
I’m very happy about this because previous to trying Docker Compose I spent two days getting frustrated with trying to set up a dev environment with other tools and Docker Compose was a lot easier and simpler. And then I told my sister about my docker-compose experiences and she was like “I KNOW, DOCKER COMPOSE IS GREAT RIGHT?!?!” So I thought I’d write a blog post about it, and here we are.
We use Docker Compose to make it simple for people to spin up their own personal environment for Unmark. It works incredibly well. You install Docker, download Unmark, run Docker Compose and voila — it installs the entire stack you need, creates a web server, database server, and storage area then you just install Unmark (which is really just creating the needed database tables) and you’re off and running.
You don’t even need to know what any of this means to appreciate Docker Compose.
My typical day
Here is a general overview of a typical day for me. Routine makes me happy but it also lends to my productivity. The more each day is the same the more I can accomplish.
I’m sharing it because I would like to see other people post their typical days – as mundane as they may be. To that end I’m doing the old-school blogging tactic of tagging others to share their typical day. I’m tagging Manton Reece, Julia Evans, Dan Mall, Chris Coyier, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Matt Mullenweg, and Jeremy Keith.
Update, January 19, 2021: Many of the above tagged have responded with their own posts on their own blogs! And they, in turn, have tagged others! I’m going to keep track of all of the posts that I see and put them under my typicalday tag. So if you’re interested in the routines of others, I suggest you browse through them. There are some gems already!
If you’d like to share your schedule or tag others please do and let me know about it!
- 6-6:30am – I usually wake in this window. If I don’t, by 6:30 the Apple Watch taps me on wrist.
- 6:30-7:30 – Read and meditate on daily scripture using JW Library app. Shower. Dress. Coffee. Recently, Duolingo Spanish lesson. I also typically watch about 20 minutes of YouTube. Most of which is saved in my Watch Later list there or in Unmark. Latest topics include photography, chess, NBA highlights.
- 7:30am – Drive to work. Listen to a podcast in Pocket Casts.
- 8am – Arrive at work. Virtual asynchronous “stand-up” in Trello with team remarking what will be happening for the day.
- 8-9am – Project management in Trello in some form. Making sure the team has what they need to get their work done. Work of some form usually prepping for any meetings. Slow days I open NetNewsWire.
- 9am – Daily meeting with CEO. Pretty much a stand-up.
- 9:30-12am – Work.
- 12pm – Packed lunch. Catch up on news (very briefly, usually via Twitter). 20 minutes of YouTube. Usually something I am learning from programming to marketing.
- 1-2:30pm – I schedule any meetings in this time period before I get back to work after lunch. Usually only on a single weekday. So if I may have a meeting at 1pm on a Tuesday but no other day that week. So, only about 10-20% of the time do I have an afternoon meeting.
- 2:30-4pm – Work. Listen to music while working via Apple Music. Sometimes a podcast or a long YouTube video in picture-in-picture but only if I can concentrate.
- 4:30pm – Typically read a few things in my Unmark queue. Then make end day notes for the next day.
- 4:30-5pm – Arrive home. Dinner.
- 6-10pm – My time. This can be filled with time in my darkroom, watching some TV, or yes, more YouTube. Reading a book, etc.
- 10-11pm Go to bed.
At first glance it may seem like my week is meeting heavy. However, most weeks my meetings are less than 4 hours total. When meetings are on a schedule, have a purpose and most often an agenda you’re able to block those times out in a such a way that you remain productive in the other times. Unexpected meetings with no agenda are the ones that are the killer. Very short daily meetings cut down on the need for any other meetings.
Obviously, this schedule varies a lot. I may have meetings with new clients or other things that break up my day. But in general I’m able to keep this routine and I’m feeling just about as productive as I’ve ever been in my career.
See also Benjamin Franklin’s.
Shift Nudge
Matt D. Smith (@mds), explains what Shift Nudge is:
Shift Nudge is the systematic process to learn the visual skills of interface design, even if you don’t have a design background. Perfect for those wanting to enter or advance in the field.
Let’s say you’re sitting there reading this and you’re a coder that wishes they had more experience with and confidence in interface design. You have ideas. You can build them quickly. But you think they don’t look as good as they could or work as well as they need to. A program like Shift Nudge can help build your vocabulary, skillset, and train your eye for good, usable interface design. And Matt is the perfect person to teach you that.
I met Matt in 2013 in Greenville, South Carolina at the Greenville Grok. I was impressed with him then. He’s be upping his game ever since.
The most important blog
Even if no one but you reads it. The blog you write each day is the blog you need the most. It’s a compass and a mirror, a chance to put a stake in the ground and refine your thoughts.
And the most important post? The one you’ll write tomorrow.
His post is about the most important blog post. I’m saying that the most important blog is yours.
Black Women Photographers
Laura Beltrán Villamizar, writing for NPR, describing the website Black Women Photographers:
Her site, Black Women Photographers, is a forum where members can celebrate each other’s work. It’s also a platform both to elevate the work of Black women in the photo and documentary industry as well as to help financially support photographers whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic. And it’s a database, so editors and curators can reach out to new talent and expand inclusive hiring practices.
The “her” in that quoted bit is photographer Polly Irungu who started the site. It is a great site to browse. Bookmark it. Use it to be inspired by great photographers. Use it to find the next photographer for a gig.
Firebase is awfully nice. Wow. Side note: I had an idea rolling around in my head for 13 years that I’ve wanted to try and I was able to make a prototype of it in just a few hours.
Simon Collison on personal websites
You tend your domain like you steadily improve your home, and it can take years of false starts and incremental commits. Don’t think of it as urgent work, or — heaven forbid — a “side-hustle”.
Well, well over twenty years on. Still loving it.
The last few months I’ve been hyper productive both at work and on my own projects. I think that is what scares me most about updating to Big Sur and why I’m holding off. I’m at an age where I want zero downtime.
Music at Lucky Hare Brewing – March 2020
Just prior to lockdown, we were able to listen to this lovely chap play some music at Lucky Hare Brewing in upstate New York.
I rescanned this 35mm negative to get a better quality version than my first scan.
Shot on Kodak Ultramax 400 using the Canon AE-1 Program.