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This week —
We can be more whole as individuals when we work together toward the creation of systems that sustain us all. — Adam Greenfield
I knew when I saw some recent posts by Adam Greenfield, despite not understanding much of it, that I was looking at something important and deeply profound.
I believe that when we finally understand the profound complexity of the natural world’s systems, our own systems will tend to the robust and simple. The better the understanding we have of the way the Earthly ecosystem sustains itself across deep time, the more lighthanded we can be in our interventions.
This is the kind of thinking that can and should guide everything we do. From software development, to city planning, to the way we structure our to do lists. How do your productivity systems fit in with the natural flow of the planet you live on? Ponder the ebb and flow of light to darkness, warm to cold, growth to hibernation, birth to death to new life.
Seeds in my system love to germinate in the cool, dark hours before 6 am. When the house is quiet, and all is still. This is when ideas flow, and I feel free to write and plan and explore, giving my right brain the reins and trusting where it leads. When is your best time for deep work? Is there something you can change to shore it up, to stop the erosion?
I can’t tell you how an awareness of natural ecosystems should shape your productivity habits and systems; I just know that with the right kind of intuition, they will. And that much needed peace and harmony will be the result.
I’m using a @focus tag as a reminder for what I’m working on right now. When I’m called away to a different task (laundry, lunch, business meeting, nap, phone call), clicking on the focus tag reminds me what to get back to without being distracted by everything else. I generally have only one — maximum of two — focus tags in use at any one time.
Regular searches and queries in Obsidian don’t reference the parent project for tagged tasks, so I add the project number as a prefix to tasks that are likely to surface in isolation, as an efficient way of providing context. Full article on the TaskPaper syntax in Obsidian is in the works. (TaskPaper is available on Setapp—affiliate link)
As previously mentioned, I’ve stopped looking over my shoulder longingly at plain text accounting, knowing that my time for this may come, but it is not now.
Tried out MoneyWiz as an alternative to YNAB, because it’s included in my Setapp subscription (affiliate link — go get your free month!), but I don’t think it’s for me. YNAB is so simple, so accessible, it’s perfect for where I’m at right now.
I’ve started curating a list of Setapp apps that fit in well with a plain text life. Stay tuned.
This week’s favourite: Popclip! It puts some useful text (plain and otherwise) manipulation tools at your fingertips. I’d used it in the past, but quickly turned it off as I found it got in the way. This time, I’m ready! Used it today to convert a headline to title case in 2 seconds flat.
Setapp truly is amazing value. I was with them from the beginning, during their beta phase, and have been a paying subscriber for more than three years. I regularly go through my budget looking for places to consolidate and cut back, and my Setapp subscription remains safely in place. There’s a generous trial period, so I encourage you to try them out.
My affiliate link gets you a whole month for free to see if it’s a good fit. I’ll receive a commission if you become a subscriber, but rest assured, I will never promote something I don’t believe in and use myself.
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