Makzan / I share what I learned

My productivity tools in the first half of 2020

We are now 50% of 2020.

Let me review my productivity tools in the first half of 2020. I discovered Roam Research in February. Then I learned the power of bi-directional linking. And I implemented it into my MZHub notes system.

I built MZFocus in March to better organize my daily focus sessions. It syncs with my calendar. MZFocus gives me two useful views: week view and month view. In week view, I have a big picture of how I shall focus on the week. In month view, I can look back to see how much I have done and review the categories to see if I’m giving enough time to my higher importance projects.

I also started using Hey.com as my email imbox. That’s not a typo. They called it “Imbox” that stands for “Important Inbox”. Hey gives email processing a new approach to save time and make working with emails delightful again.

Lately, I’m reading the preview edition of the book “Mind Management, not Time Management”. It aligns with my productivity strategy that attention management is more important than time management. Our mind, our focus, our attention decides if we are moving in the right direction. The book goes further by stating that squeezing time is not the optimal case for productivity. Using all the time doesn’t necessarily mean moving forward. The preview edition contains only part of the book with unedited content. But still, it is already mind-blowing just by reading chapter 1. Highly recommended.

Looking forward to the 3rd quarter:

I just started re-organizing my teaching notes into the freemium model. My first course is Beginning JAMStack with Eleventy and Netlify. The second course is Beginning Python Programming. The course materials and lesson notes are in Creative Common license hosting on Github and Netlify. Then I will record the screencasts of the course and put them up and sell them on Teachable.

I’m also planning on a new course code-named “Things Productivity”. Things app to me is more than a daily task management tool. It is also my life goals tracker, annual goals list, and my backlogs of may-be tasks and ideas bin.


Published on 2020-07-01. More articles like this:
- Productivity
- Personal

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