The Weekly Review: this newsletter is suspended indefinitely
Friends, it feels surreal to prep this newsletter after everything that happened this week. But no, The Weekly Review is not suspended, postponed, or cancelled. Email is one of the ways we can still connect with each other while we all wait for some return to normalcy.
I'm not one to pay much attention to news, but this past week was different. As the days passed, I found myself less able to focus and spent a lot more time on Twitter and CBC news. I'm also not one to panic when big events happen — I'm no prepper. But I found myself slowly having thoughts like, “Maybe a few extra items in the pantry is a good idea”. Or, “It might be good to have a little extra cash on hand in the next few weeks.”
As I hope we can all agree, this is a situation where neither panic nor complacency are a healthy response. Precautions make sense, and are the right thing to do. Most importantly, it's a time for extra sensitivity to others, a little more patience, and a lot more grace. And I'll take a lot of comfort that although things can seem chaotic, there is One who is in full control.
So in all that's going on around you, I hope you find some time to enjoy this email.
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Movies are too long, or our attention too short
One interesting change I’ve noted in our family is how we watch content together. Once dinner clean up is finished and the next day’s lunches made, whoever is home for the evening gathers around for some family time. We do a short devotional, then take in some kind of entertainment together. That may be listening to an audiobook or playing a game, but 80% of the time we watch something together.
We have some “TV” shows we all enjoy, so many nights when we sit down for our shared time it’s easy to take in an episode of Studio C and then one episode of Murdoch Mysteries. But movies are a far different experience.
For one, finding something we all want to watch is difficult. But even when we do come to a decision, we often don’t get through a movie in one sitting. Sometimes that’s due to bed time coming before the movie ends, but often we agree to watch a portion of a movie, plus an episode of one of our regular shows. It would seem that we no longer want to fix our attention on one thread for a period of 90–120 minutes.
Screen time is a similar scene. Our boys will spend half their allotted time doing one activity (i.e. watching Youtube), then switch to another (i.e. playing on the Switch).
I wonder at the impact our streaming and connections have had on us. This is not a complaint or a caution, merely an observation. But I confess it brings me a lot of relief when I see our two youngest sit down and read a book for 30 minutes (which they love to do as well).
If you find your family struggles to sit through an entire movie, or you tend to always have 3–4 books on the go at a time, know that you're not alone. I suspect this may be common at this point.
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Thoughts on Tot
I was intrigued as soon as I saw the news about Tot on Twitter. A small scratch pad that lives in the menu bar brings value. However, it’s an idea that has been addressed often already. But since Tot is available across Apple devices, that also adds to its value. However, I already have Apple’s own Notes or a tool like Ulysses on all my devices. So how would Tot be useful enough to use?
For me, it comes down to ease of access. Yes, I use Ulysses across all my devices — it even has a sheet titled Inbox. But when I have a one-off thought to record, opening Ulysses and navigating to a specific sheet takes a few seconds. Using a keyboard combo to open Tot in the menu bar, jot down my thought, then move on, is a lot less friction and helps me keep focus on whatever had my attention at first.
Second, there’s just enough flexibility with Tot as it includes seven panes (distinguished by color). This fits nicely with my overall areas of responsibility in my life, giving one pane for each.
What do I collect in there?
Whereas Ulysses has lengthy notes and all my writing, Tot is simply a place to collect a loose collection of one liners. Maybe it’s a topic someone in the our family wanted to discuss, or a list of things to talk to a specific person about, or a few groceries I need to get from the store. I often have a thought that needs to be captured, but it doesn’t require its own sheet in Ulysses or a task in Things. It’s just a thought or note that I want to refer to later. And since the context of later will often be somewhere away from my desk, Tot scratches an itch I didn’t realize I had.
But what about the cost? When I first saw it was a macOS app, I expected a small cost as its more of a utility than a full fledged, feature rich app. But it was free. When I saw it also had an iOS version, I expected a subscription. But when I saw the price tag on the iOS version, I confess I was a little shocked. $20 USD is more than I’m used to seeing applications like this cost. It took about a week before I felt like it was compelling enough to pay that price.
Bonus points: an app icon on my iOS home screen that is not the same color as all the others.
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Items of note
Fears of coronavirus contamination prompt coffee chains to temporarily ban reusable mugs
I’ve been staying on top of the news a little more of late, and that means reading a lot of COVID-19 coverage. While the entire thing feels a little blown out of proportion (hey, reporters gotta report), some of the steps being suggested by governments and health officials seem like common sense.
This move by Starbucks (and now Tim Hortons as well) does not.
Decisions like this are more than knee-jerk, it shows how prone we are to making convenience the number one priority. No one is suggesting that people stop getting their coffee — but you can’t use your perfectly good, reusable mug.
I was saddened to see corporations so easily put aside measures to reduce environmental impact for precautions of very negligible effect.
[Editor's note] My notes on this first article were written 9 days ago. It was interesting to note the change in my stance on this in the space of a week. While I still scoff at Starbuck's claims to care about sustainability, I have changed my opinion about this decision. But I wanted to publish my original reaction to illustrate the impact of how quickly we get information in 2020, and how it can affect our thinking if we're willing to take the time to educate ourselves and listen to all opinions, not just those that match our own.
The Core Habits of a Successful GTD System
Joe Buhlig makes some good points about using GTD in this post. As someone who’s followed the basic principles for a long time, he knows where he struggles to be consistent in the process. I definitely get where he’s coming from as I have my points where I could always use some improvement.
This caught my eye in particular:
It’s one thing to collect items on a someday/maybe list. It’s another to put them to work. I can capture ideas all day long every day of the week. But incubating them, curating them, and activating them is work in itself.
Amen to that. This also makes it harder to do a thorough weekly review — you have a list of projects/areas with tasks that you don’t have any firm intention of doing anytime soon. That friction makes it hard to review everything.
And another point that grabbed me:
In the case of GTD, we often think about this through the lens of contexts, a set of tools or periods when we work on certain lists. And a common misunderstanding here is working from these contexts “when you find yourself in that context.” I’m sorry, but I don’t “find myself” anywhere by accident. Even if that is the way life worked, I’m pretty sure that working from lists whenever you accidentally end up in a context wouldn’t allow you to complete the tasks you need to complete each day.
Instead, you have to choose to put yourself in those contexts. And I have found that the best way to do that is by scheduling time for different projects and contexts throughout the week. You see this concept employed in a lot of ways: time-blocking, daily themes, yearly themes, tasks on a calendar, etc… Choose the method that works for you, but don’t expect the contexts to magically appear and the work to complete itself when that happens.
For me, this issue is less about contexts and more about roles or areas of responsibility. If I don’t purposefully schedule time for home maintenance or certain tasks for my role as director of IT at our church, those things will always take a back seat to my roles that get a higher priority. Over time, that results in guilt or increased stress for those roles as the feeling if I should starts to build.
This is where Matt Perman’s weekly routine or Mike Vardy’s themed days can help.
Drew Coffman mentioned this note tool to me. Like The Archive, it’s purposefully created for building a repository of linked thoughts. I did not see any references to Zettelkasten on the site, but it’s definitely related to the concept.
It has not grabbed me, but I have seen enough chatter about it since Drew mentioned it to me that I'll follow its progress.
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Quote of the week
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
C.S. Lewis, “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays as quoted on The Gospel Coalition
They highlighted his thoughts in light of everything related to COVID-19 (replace that for atomic bomb). While some of the activities he suggests may not be what we should do now, I like the spirit of his comment.
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Currently
Listening The Olympians. I just love this album for so many contexts. While working, or cooking dinner, it's super easy on the ears and relaxing without being super slow.
Reading: Just started The Gutenberg Elegies and it caught me right off the start. I'm not sure why I so enjoy reading about reading.
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That's it for today. Wherever you are, I pray you're able to be with friends and loved ones (as much as possible), and safe and stocked up on comforts. Take time to reach out to someone important to you — and let us be thankful we live in a time where we can see and talk with each other from wherever we are.