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Digital Minimalism Book Summary

July 21, 2021 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

I grabbed a copy of digital minimalism as soon as it came out. After reading Cal Newport’s previous book, Deep Work, I knew it would be good. But there was another reason driving my reading that you may well be able to relate to.

I felt like the constant noise of the online world was just a bit too much. I loved the benefits of online tools, websites and communication, but it felt like a bike going down a steep hill that had changed from fun to unable to stop.

A few weeks back, I felt that same feeling again and as I woke up and found myself with my phone in my hand before a cup of coffee was there, I knew I needed to reread and reapply the lessons of the book.
So here is my book summary.

Table of Contents

Digital Minimalims Sketchnote summary

Yes, for the sketchnote summary of digital minimalism I went back to analog sketchnoting using my Neuland markers.

The most common approach to technology

Cal calls this approach “digital maximialism”: freely adopting any new technology that seems to offer some benefit to us.
This can seem a natural idea and positive as we gain the real benefits that these new tools offer us. A small example is that I can be connected with my family who live in a different country and my daughter has grown up speaking with her grandparents even though she hasn’t been able to see them in over a year due to the covid restrictions.

The problem of digital maximialism

There are there consequences that come out from our wild use of social media and related technology. These include

increased dissatisfaction and depression.
We’re hooked on the short term rewards from using our devices. This reduces our capacity to focus for a long period of time.
It becomes difficult to concentrate due to the noise and anxiety we feel
The net effect is we are less happy and less able to do the activities which are deeply satisfying.

What is digital minimalism

The alternative to this technological maximialist approach is Digital minimalism.

Digital minimialsm is an approach to using technology that focuses on getting the most of the benefits we wants from technology, in the least time via intentional and focused use.

Cal focuses on short bursts of time, but with high intentionality and optimized practices. A practical example is we don’t log on to social media whenever we want to mindlessly scroll, instead we schedule when we will log on for a time limited period and with clear goals before we do so.

A Digital Detox to readjust

The practices at the heart of digital minimalism.

A key part of digital minimalism is the practices that can help you apply these ideas in your life. One of the aspects I really appreciated is the positive actions not just negative avoidance. These are split into four sections.

1. Solitude in Suburbia

One of the key steps is to disconnect from all the noise around us and create our own “waldens” like Thoreau. Cal notes that during Thoreau’s stay at Walden pond, he was still connected to society and could still receive visitors or take the 30 min trip to the centre of town, at the same time, it was an intentional disconnecting.
Some practical ideas includes.

Leave your phone at home – go for walks without it. Enjoy the silence.
Go for walks

2. Engage in Rich Communications

Not all communication is equal. Some is richer than others. A quick “like” on social media isn’t as rich as a sit down conversation due to the deeper engagement of your senses.
However, these low quality communications feel satisfying as we get a hit of dopamine. These hits encourage us to stick to these lower quality communications.
Here are some practices

Avoiding hitting like
Find face 2 face communication opportunities (in person is best, video next.)
Instead of sending text messages throughout the day, set certain times to work through text messages (applies to email et al)
Set communication “Office hours” regular times when you can be contacted.
- You could be in a physical place too.

3. Reclaim Leisure

Most of us spend our free time passively consuming netflix or social media. While neither activity is wrong, the issue is unintentionality. It is better to have a plan for leisure that involves demanding activities. Here are some ideas.

Fix or build something each week (even if you aren’t naturally skilled. Developing and growing is rewarding).
Make a leisure plan (Decide what goals you will work towards in your free time)
Join something (groups and communities provide richer experiences )

4. Join the attention resistance.

The final practice involves activities that push back on attention stealing services and devices. While many people will accept the earlier practices, the following are the most likely to result in a “but you’ll miss out” reaction. At the same time, they are key to a full picture of digital minimalism.

delete social media apps
dumb down your phone

Use social media like a pro

Those who use social media for their profession often employee very different tactics to the average consumer. This is due to their focused goals and need to get the maximum value in the shortest time. These professional social media users can help provide a model for us regular users to more effectively engage with social media.

Limit your time on social media – set deliberate times, don’t constantly use.
Use filtered lists and searches to find really valuable content (The twitter advanced search can let you find the most engaged tweets on a certain topic which are more likely to be high value.)
Limit the number of people you follow. (You might want to consider Dunbar’s number as your guide. )

How I’m applying Digital minimalism.

As I said at the start, this is my second time working through digital minimalism. Although I introduced many of the old measures and intended to introduce others, overtime I stopped being as intentional.
In my first pass, I

deleted my social media apps and set up limits using Apple’s limit features
reduced the number of people I followed on Social media
tried leaving my phone at home
set two quarter’s of leisure goals.
Took more walks
avoided hitting like

The practices I stuck to the best were walking more and reducing the number of people I follow. These are activities that have stuck around and the second was one I can occasionally do but regularly benefit from. The most difficult to implement have been those that require multiple other people such as joining a club and office hours.

I am only a couple of weeks into my return to digital minimalism so it’s difficult to say how well these practices will actually turn out but I want to share my ideas anyway.

I’ve set Saturday as a digital downtime day. This is my day to leave the phone at home and do something physical as well as spend time with people. That’s been the big difference so far, I have both the negative idea (get away from the phone/screens) with a positive (spend quality time with people).

Building and fixing is the practice I most neglected last time and yet is the one that appeals deeply to me this time. The closest practice I could point to that I previously took up was calligraphy but that slowly drifted to being mostly digital on an iPad.
This time I am interested in doing more DIY projects as well as investigating some wood craft to learn to make a ukulele.

Our recent DIY projects have set a great start and I intend to continue, but intentions are a dime a dozen so we’ll have to watch how this turns out.

Get your copy of Cal’s book

if this has whet your appetite for Cal’s book and you want to know some more details of the problems with Social media, why the practices are beneficial and how you can apply them, use the link below.

Get a Copy of Digital Minimalism

Hello, My Name is Awesome Book Summary

June 14, 2021 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

I’ve taken part in a few brand naming exercises over the last couple of years. Most of these were for products but the need for a good name was the same. While it’s easy to spot a good name in the wild, coming up with one is another matter.

For years I had just assume that it was a matter of luck, thinking and waiting, but the action plan in the book Hello, my name is awesome makes this process more straight forward, even if it does still require a lot of time, energy and thought to come up with a good name.

This books summary has my main takeaways and will provide you with a guideline that you can implement as well.

Table of Contents

How to create brand names that stick Actions steps to come up with a brand name

There are really four steps to generate a brand or product name.

Generate 12 words that describe or are related to your brand.
Follow a nine step brainstorming (or expansion) of these words
Synthesize your research into name ideas
Use the SMILE and SCRATCH criteria to review the possible names you have

Why this process works

This process is based on the same mindset as that in “A Technique for Producing Ideas” by James Webb Young.

You immerse yourself in a topic till you gain mind fog, you distract your mind from the task and let your subconscious chew on it, you wait for eureka and then refine the idea from there.

The process in Hello, My Name Is Awesome just helps you drown yourself in the topic of a product name.

The additional aspect I recommend from “A Technique for Producing Ideas” is to engage in an emotionally stimulating distraction when you feel overwhelmed by a topic.

The list of 12

To start, you need a list of 12 words that describe or are related to the brand. Look for a diverse list and avoid just stating synonyms; that will come later.

The brainstorming process

The brainstorming process is about turning that list of 12 into a list of 1200!

You want to dive into a wide variety of different stimuli to find alternative ways of saying a word or how others have used the name in the past.

The nine steps are

Using a thesaurus for synonyms
Using image search to see visual associations
Using a Glossary to find related industry words
Using Dictionaries to see idioms and expressions
Using Clichesite.com to find Cliche’s related to the term
Using Google suggestions and related searches
Using movie titles
Using book titles
Using song titles

Book titles are particularly useful as they aren’t subject to copyright and so can be reused.

Once you have completed this process for every word, you will have a long list of ideas and inspiration to draw upon. You may be starting to feel mental and topical fatigue. That’s a good sign that you have fill your brain with the topic.

Synthesis

The key part of synthesizing an idea is subconscious, but you should still start by consciously trying combinations of words and name ideas. You may find THE idea this way, but even if you do, let your subconscious have a go at crunching all the information you’ve filled it with and see if it can generate a better idea.

Deliberately give your brain a break when you can’t think any more, but keep a note book with you. This break could be a shower, a long walk, a good film or a trip to an art gallery. relaxing and emotionally stimulating tasks work best.

Once you’ve got a few idea down, it’s time to evaluate.

The review process: Smile and scratch

You’re review process has two steps.

Smile – finding good names.
Scratch – eliminating bad ones.

SMILE: 5 Qualities of sticky names

Suggestive – It doesn’t describe, it evokes.
Meaningful – Something that will resonate with potential customers
Imagery – Something which is visually evocative
Legs – An idea which can be extended
Emotional – Something which moves people, reminds them of memories and associations.

SCRATCH: Ideas to remove

Spelling – don’t use clever spellings, it confuses people
Copycat – don’t follow other companies, be original
Restrictive – It doesn’t allow for future growth
Annoying – Something that is forced or just doesn’t work.
Tame – Don’t go for a safe, boring and forgettable name
Curse of Knowledge – Don’t use a name that only makes sense to you and your inner group
Hard to pronounce – Make sure people can tell others what your name is

Finding the domain

Once you’ve gone through all this process, then you should look at domain names and usernames on social media platforms. This might seem like it’s too later and it might but the copycat step should help eliminate some problems by this point. If you find there’s another company with the same domain (and there’s a good chance of that now), you can either use a more unique TLD or add a verb to the start of your website domain, like getflywheel.com which offers domain hosting.

Grab a copy of Hello, My Name Is Awesome

If you’d like to read the whole, short book, grab a copy bellow.

Grab a copy of Hello, My Name is Awesome

Or you can check out other book summaries here.

How to Create A Substack Newsletter in WordPress

June 2, 2021 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

In the last year and a bit a few friends have started sending newsletter using either Substack or Ghost. Both offer a similar service with the option to restrict some or no content and provide the rest for free.
Yesterday I realised that the same effect could be created using WordPress and at a very affordable rate. So here’s how you can make a Substack newsletter in WordPress.

Table of Contents

The Tech stack

an installation of WordPress with a hosting company
any basic WordPress theme. I haven’t found anything that looks exactly like substack but the default theme is very minimal.
either
- a dedicated solution like newsletter glue
  - with an email service (Mailchimp is in the free plan free)
- or a combination of
  - a restrict content plugin like Restrict content (You can use the free or pro version)
  - an email sending service like Mailpoet (or Mailgun for WordPress, Mailchimp, Sendfox or ConvertKit.

Newsletter glue vs a custom set up

My initial inspiration for this article was to use the newsletters and plugins that I was familiar with to restrict content. During my research, I discovered the plugin “newsletter glue” an all in one plugin that integrates your WordPress site with a one of the most common newsletter providers.

The free version of Newsletter glue is sufficient if you want to use mailchimp and lock certain content. If you want to use a different newsletter service like mailerlite or campaign monitor, or you want some of the advanced custom block, the pro version is for you.

Newsletter glue does have a very easy set up and after filling in your API, you’re good to go. A custom set up would let you use a different email service but I suspect newsletter glue is the best choice for most people.

Either way, you’ll need content

The next section focuses on the content you should create and how to set up your homepage and applies to using newsletter glue or a different service. After that there are instruction to create a custom set up using restrcit content pro.

The content we are going to copy

When you land on Substack, you are greeted with a sign up form or you can click “let me read it first.” Substack also creates default about pages and subscription pages. So let’s duplicated these.

Making the homepage

Substacks homepages are simple and limited. They have

an icon,
a headline
a description
an email signup form
and a button to let me read first.

To replicated it, all we need to do is…

Create a page (If you can disable the text on the page, call it whatever you like e.g. home. if it will show up, set this as you headline)
Add an image, set it as a thumbnail size and centre it.
Add a headline (H1 if you can disable the page title as a heading text, h2 if you can’t)
Add a paragraph block with a description
Add your email sign up form
Add a button with the text “let me read first” give it the link to whatever your articles page will be called (blog/newsletters/articles/etc I like “articles” personally)

If you have newsletter glue pro, you can use the subscribe form block. If you only have the free version, you can use other solutions to get a form to embed such as genesis blocks, mailchimp for WordPress or just getting the HTML code from Mailchimp.

Make the past issues page

Create a new page and give it a title like newsletter / articles or blog. Set this as the URL. You don’t need to do anything else to this page, it should be blank.

In settings, reading, set the page you just created as the “Posts” page. At the same time, make the homepage you created the homepage.

Making the about page

About pages are often in the top two most visited pages on your website. The biggest mistake is to make it about you and not the customer. This is on of the core lesson from Marketing Made Simple.
The substack default content has a simple template you might want to use including

Headline (What your newsletter is about)
- A short description (what sort of content you provide )
Why subscribe
- Some subheadlines including “stay up-to-date and “join the crew”.

Here are a few tips for a more effective about page

Speak about what you can do for the reader, not state what it is

Most about pages describe a thing rather than focus on the benefit for the user. That’s like Pepsi saying their a sugar water drink or a Mercedes being a luxury car from Germany. Focus on how it will help the reader.

Set expectation

Tell them how often you send your email, when and what they will get.
Aim to be as specific as possible but you can give your self wiggle room while you develop the habit.

For example, “I send a newsletter every Monday morning with tips, tricks and tutorials on video production.” is clear “I send emails approximately weekly on a range of subjects that catch my attention including…” is not as clear but still better than “sometimes I send a newsletter.”

Include a quote if you have one

Ask any current subscribers what they like about the newsletter and add that to the about page, that can help guide you to what people like in your newsletter and help convince people to subscribe.

Writing your first post

Once you have the rest of your content set up, the only thing to do is write your first post and start promoting your newsletter. You can do this using regular posts and gating some of the content, or you could create a custom post type called something like newsletter and use that for your posts.

The choice is yours.

Set up a custom configuration

While newsletter glue is a great service offering an easy and affordable system, you might want to do something more custom

Set up your email service

You can use any email service you want for this but if you want something deeply integrated with WordPress, pick mailpoet.
Some alternatives I like include

Sendfox (my personal recommendation. Start free, one time fee over at Appsumo unless you have big needs.)
ConvertKit (great email service, now has a free plan but limited features.)
Set up the service you pick according to the settings.

Restrict some of your content

You could keep your newsletter open to the world with no restrictions. This would help encourage more people to share and aids discoverability in search.

But if you to convince people to sign up so that you can contact them or you want to make offer a subscription, you’ll need a way to restrict that content.

I’ve used restrict content pro for a few years after I got it for an online course. It can work for newsletters too. The free version let’s you restrict content so only subscribers can access it, the pro version let’s you charge people for access.

The free version requires no set up, just pick a post to restrict or use the restrict shortcode to lockaway certain content.

The pro version has plugins to connect with a newsletter and automatically add subscribers as well as offering a payment gateway.
An alternative is memberful which let’s you collect payments (minus their 10% cut ) but to offer free memberships, you need to pay a monthly fee.

Getting Subscribers

Once you’ve got your technical stack set up, the real challenge is getting subscribers. This could be a post in itself but here’s a couple of quick thoughts.

Go to where your potential subscribers already are.
Create great content
Invite people who would be interested in your topic
Share sneak peeks and invite people to subscribe.

Ready to make a Substack newsletter in WordPress?

Substack and Ghost are certainly easier to set up for a restricted newsletter, but if you are interested in a free to start newsletter and want to use WordPress, then it’s perfectly possible to create a Substack like experience.

How to Make A Linktree replacement in WordPress

May 28, 2021 by Chris Wilson 2 Comments

Disclaimer: This is not a full like for like replacement for linktree in WordPress, but it can satisfy many people’s needs.

The first “Link in bio” like service I came across was Linktree, a tool to help you get around Instagram’s single link limit and instead direct people to multiple sites. At the time, I remember wondering why people didn’t just get a personal site or set up their landing page but I could also see some benefits.

After all, Linktree was easy to use and could easily be updated without needing to go to the website team. That’s a big plus for the social media manager who has no interaction with the web team or for the small-time creator who doesn’t want to create a full website.

Recently, I saw a tweet from Brian Gardner announcing that he was making a WordPress theme that emulated these sorts of Link in bio landing pages. I instantly realized that thanks to Gutenberg blocks I could easily do the same using my existing theme and so could you too.

Table of Contents

Why WordPress over something like Linktree?

If you can make quick and easy edits to your WordPress site (without requiring formal requests to a development team) then there’s a compelling case for making your landing page over using something like Linktree.

Price (you’re already paying for WordPress, you can get “pro” linktree features for free)
Custom Domain (a pro feature in Linktree, built into your site)
Users stay on one site, ignoring the middle step.
You can easily duplicate and make unique pages for different services.

Why use something like Linktree

The only aspect you can’t get from something like Linktree (as far as I know) is time-based links (i.e. expire after X time or appear after a certain point). Perhaps this is possible in WordPress but I don’t know off the top of my head.
The other reasons are

If you don’t have a WordPress site and don’t want to create one
If you want to have a payment gateway/donation button like a service like Kofi
If you can’t easily adapt your site (i.e. you are a social media manager, not a website developer)

In these cases, it might be best to use a linktree-like tool.

Picking the right theme

One of the main things you need is a theme that suits a link in bio page. Some core requirements will almost certainly be taken care of nowadays (like being mobile responsive) but there are others you need to watch out for.

For example, you may want to have a theme that provides a landing page system without a top menu bar or header image. Alternatively, some themes provide options to turn off certain elements on a page or are specifically created to use blocks for the full width.

The new twenty twenty one theme doesn’t let you turn off the header text (which is why mine shows the headline “links”. An alternative would be something like revolution pro from Studiopress where you can change to a “landing page” page layout.

Create your link in bio page on WordPress

Thanks to Gutenberg blocks, you can take a very flexible approach to how you want yours to look. Before you start filling yours in, plan what content you want to include. You should think about the most important links you want to share as well as any email forms, videos or other content to show off. Here are some suggested items you might want to gather.

a profile image or logo
a short description focused on your customer. (Check out the one-liner in my marketing made simple summary for ideas)
A collection of social links to your top accounts
An email form for a newsletter or lead magnet
A premium offering (apparel /whatever )

Design and tech tips

You can use a circle image outline for your profile to match social media image trends.
You can either use the button block or change the background color of your blocks to help them stand out. (Buttons have the advantage of not changing link color once pressed.)
You can use the social icons block to include your social media accounts.

What I did for mine

First I created a page called Links to act as the foundation. I copied much of my content from my linktree page and started with a very basic setup.

At first, I changed the background color of my blocks and used links but then I realized buttons would be a better option and I could set their width as 100% to ensure they filled the whole page.

I included some subheadings to break things up and social icons at the top to link to other pages.

This matches my minimal theme and looked much the same as my linktree page however it does have the unnatural heading and top nav menu that I’d like to remove.

It has made me consider changing WordPress themes again but I’ve had some issues with the last theme I was using and want to make sure I can avoid that with any theme I’d change to.

You could use Notion

Notion, while not intended to replace a website, can share pages to the internet. Like WordPress, it also has a block based editor and can have links and embeds. The options are perhaps not as easily customizable and you have to do some hacks to get a custom domain, but it can work.

See an notion example

Examples

Conclusion

This really isn’t rocket science and Gutenberg (for all its faults) is largely responsible for the ease of duplicating a service like Link-in-bio with just WordPress. If you are a WordPress user, I’d seriously suggest you consider this approach over a linking service.

Why and How I use Obsidian

May 15, 2021 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

In the last few years, there has been an explosion of new note taking apps which only seems to be accelerating. This has been a wonderful blessing to those of us who got fed up with hearing about work chat (and even more fed up with jokes about work chat) and wanted something more than just the default Apple notes or…whatever Android people use.

Table of Contents

Why Obsidian?

After exploring a few options I’ve settled* on Obsidian as my note taking/personal knowledge management application (*terms and conditions apply). I present this post not as a case for why everyone should use Obsidian, but why I like Obsidian and have chosen it. There may well be a better option for you (and there’s possibly a better option for me!) so if you want to keep exploring, go for it.

It’s free to start

I have no issue with paying for a good app but the main reason I settled on Obsidian was it’s free entry point. I had been playing with notion but wanted to try one of the new internal linking note taking apps. Roam seemed like the obvious choice but the $15 a month price point was enough to make me wait. As Obsidian was free, I had no barrier to download and play.

Once I started exploring, it soon convinced me to stay thanks in part to it’s strengths over an app like roam.

Interlinked notes works for me

I had previously been exploring Notion which Anne-Laure Le Cunff aptly described as an “architect” style note app. That is, one which requires you to create a structure to organize your notes.
There are some great aspects of a system like this such as tracking a project in a Kanban view or viewing all delivery dates in a calendar view. But, I don’t really need those for my personal notes. In fact, creating those layouts and organizing notes took more time than using those notes.

Interlinked notes is completely different. It’s a bottom up approach where you don’t need to start with a grand structure. Instead you make a note (either just a thought or in reference to a topic) and think about what it might be related to. If you can think of a connection, link to that note (warning, you don’t want to link to everything. Eventually links can get overwhelming).

This approach allows for topics and trends to emerge naturally and even unexpectedly as you follow your curiosity. I suspect this is better for most individuals with eclectic interests whereas something like notion is better for focused organizations but I know there are some people who prefer Notion/Evernotes approaches.

It uses plain text files

Plain text both makes it far easier to move note application in the future (if I so choose) as well as opens up compatibility with other apps. It’s very easy to save notes from drafts to obsidian, or edit and publish this article using iA Writer (I’m currently writing in Obsidian).
I can even easily share these notes to a Jekyll based digital garden if I so wish.

It’s cross platform

Thanks to electron, there are PC, Mac and Linux apps. I was using the PC app for a long time while working on my company provisioned computer. Unlike an app like craft (which is just starting to provide a web client), this means I am not limited to windows or mac.

This was another significant factor in getting me hooked on Obsidian. Now that I can use a Mac for work, I could switch to something like draft, but the assurance that I can move to my work PC whenever I need is persuasive.

You can even use your own sync services

Obsidian provides an end-to-end encrypted, paid sync service at a reasonable cost. But you can use your regular Dropbox or iCloud sync at no additional cost.

The community

I am a real lurker in the Obsidian forums and discord but I am really grateful for the people who are contributing fantastic work there. Some are simple ideas or tips on how to organize notes and sharing ideas they’ve saved. Others have provided really fantastic resources to help and a select few even create community plugins which can add some powerful functionality.

Everyone seems very friendly and I don’t get an arrogance that I feel from some other note taking communities.

What’s not great

Obsidian isn’t without faults and there are certainly some aspects I dislike and envy in other apps including.

it uses electron not a native app
navigating the mobile app is very awkward (thanks electron)
it’s not as attractive as tools like craft
publishing is a pricey addon
you don’t get some of the organizational tools of an app like
you have to keep all your images and files locally (you can’t hide images etc in the cloud)

How

In this section I’ll explore the different ways I use Obsidian and take notes in general.

With Evernote

I still have a paid Evernote plan, in no small part because I have an exceptional ongoing discount as well as a significant backlog of reference notes.

Evernote has become my storage locker for reference notes, pdfs and files (and even Twitter threads). It’s also the place where I may save a copy of a web page (you never know if a website will disappear). Obsidian is where I write notes and reflections on what I have saved.

RRR approach

I want to share about this properly but I came across this approach to help learn and remember a topic called Read, recite, review. The basics theory is the best way to develop knowledge/a skill is to DO that skills, but we often do limited forms of it. So most people just read and reread their notes and never actually practice recalling information. As such, they don’t really take the information in.
This approach involves

reading some material
reciting (or in this case writing a note from memory)
Once (and only when) you have finished writing a note, you go back and review the material.
Add any information you forgot (from memory)

This results in making a personalized note, with only the key information (or information that resonated with you) and helps embed it in your memory.

Book notes

I enjoy reading a wide range of non-fiction but especially christian books. I use a book note template to save my reflections and thoughts.

I will also make individual notes with key points and ideas from a text and link those back to the main book note.

Random ideas

Sometimes I have a random idea or theory and save it as a note to investigate and explore. For example, I came up with the idea of “superhero syndrome” as an alternative to “impostor syndrome”. My vague idea is that we should imagine ourselves as Clark Kent, who seems out of place and an impostor, but really we are superheros who have to hide our true identities.

I have no idea how realistic this idea is and maybe I need to refine it, but I like the name and I certainly struggle with impostor syndrome, perhaps it will become something in the future.

Meeting notes

I recently started saving my meeting notes in obsidian. I have a simple template that adds a link to my daily note (below) and fills in the topics I plan to discuss and do discuss as well as listing next actions. It helps make sure I prepare for meetings and can check who is responsible for what.

Daily notes using the storyline productivity schedule

I’ve used the Storyline Productivity schedule since about 2013 and Don Miller has updated it for his new book and course; Business made simple.

Everyday I press the button to open the daily note, fill in my primary tasks and answer the question “If I could do today again, I’d…” This simple practice has been fantastic for me.

You can watch a video on how it works here.

Study notes

I’ve taken a few courses recently and I use Obsidian to take notes on readings, tutorials and general ideas. These are all linked back to a central page which keeps track of my module and progress.

Sermon planning

In the last year, I’ve started preaching at my church. Preparing for a sermon takes a lot of research and work to come up with suitable examples, applications and illustrations (and then organize them together). Obsidian works fantastic for putting ideas down, embedding illustrations, and then exporting a finalized PDF that I can preach from.

Want to start with Obsidian?

If you are interested in getting started with Obsidian, I made an Obsidian starter kit that provides an opinionated set of files to help you structure your Obsidian system.

Get Started with Obsidian

Designing an ideal week calendar

May 11, 2021 by Chris Wilson Leave a Comment

I’ve heard many people discuss the benefit of creating an “ideal week” template to help guide your planning. While many of us can’t direct our schedules to achieve our ideal week calendars, it provides a useful reference that we can turn to and guide our planning. In the past, I’ve used a google spreadsheet, but this week I created a new ideal week calendar using iCal.

Table of Contents

What is an ideal week calendar?

An ideal week calendar maps how you wish your week was. If you were in complete control and could set the time you wanted/need for each task, then your calendar would look like the ideal week calendar.
I’ve created an ideal week schedule (a static doc) before but I’ve only had a calendar for the last couple of weeks and found it helps em feel on track.

Now when you say ideal…

You could either approach this in one of two ways.

What you would choose without any external influence. (Ideal = utopia)
How you would allocate your time if everything went according to plan (Ideal = intended).

While the first is a useful exercise as it helps to highlight the activities we enjoy and dread, providing a guide to help increase and decrease activities accordingly; the second is more practical for day to day planning.

Why an ideal week calendar helps

You should review different aspects of your work, life and preferences as you plan your ideal week (prompts below). This review process is valuable on its own. You’ll no doubt notice some tensions between activities you dislike but are valuable or appointments when you do your best work. You might also noticed how well (or not) your current time consumption matches your desires.

The real value of the ideal week calendar is that it provides a guide for what activities you should and shouldn’t do now. This is a framework to guide what activities you should do now.
If you are in complete control of your schedule, you can aim to stick to it rigidly; but if your manager has a magic lamp to sum you to any zoom call, you can use ideal week calendar as a guideline to adjust.

Why you should make an ideal week calendar not a doc

I first came across the ideal week concept from Michael Hyatt where he advocated using a google spreadsheet to create a doc for your ideal week. That’s a perfectly acceptable option and it’s better for some people to make a doc than a calendar.

those who time block and plan every day
those who find notifications distracting.
For creating your true “ideal” week that you can’t possibly stick to (at least yet).

But I was taken by the idea of making a calendar I could reference as…

I could access this anytime, anywhere
I have to adapt on the fly to my manager and co-workers activities but I want a guideline for activities for each day.
There are certain infrequent, important but never urgent tasks that can easily get neglected, using this method sets a time each week and provides a prompt to do them.

How to create your own ideal week calendar

Below is the five step process I used to create my ideal week calendar. While you don’t have to follow these steps and can probably work it out for yourself, you can use my process for yourself.
(The review prompts in step on and the final, sixth step are certainly worth considering).

1. Reflect

To start, we need to work out what we want to do and when is best to do it. You might want to consider the questions below to help clarify your thoughts.

When you are the most and least productive?
What activities can you only (or are easiest to) complete at certain times or locations? (i.e. the Gym is half way between work and home so it’s easiest to go before or after work)
What activities are the most crucial for you (both for work and personal life.)
How much time do you ideally want to dedicate to each area or core task?
How little time do you want to set aside for distracting activities (i.e. only 1hr of twitter a week)
When should you do your most valuable tasks? (guided by previous points)
When should you do your least valuable tasks?
What non-moveable appointments do you have?

2. Create a calendar

The first step is to create a calendar that you will fill.
As a Mac and Apple user, I went for an iCal calendar with my iCloud account. If you use Google calendar or a different tool then go for that.
Using a separate calendar allows you to turn it on and off rather than having “conflicts” with events.

3. Add the “big rocks”

With the calendar in place, add the most important task and the non-moveable items. Match your most productive times with your most valuable tasks.
These should be recurring events not one time events, i.e. a weekly meeting with friends or taking your child to their after-school club, not “taking my kid to camp”. One time events go in your regular calendar.

4. Fill in the gaps

With the key tasks in place, you should have some gaps left. These will probably be at times when you aren’t productive or have no clear purpose. The tasks will be part of two groups: those you forget and distractions. For distractions, make sure you set clear limits. For neglected tasks, be careful when you place them.
If a task is one you often neglect them, there’s a chance that you need more willpower to complete them (but you don’t have it when you normally turn to them).

5. Review

At this point, it’s good to review everything. You may have lost the big picture in the details, causing you to not give enough time to certain tasks, or create a schedule that won’t really work.
Look at the zoomed out view and make some adjustments.

6. Have the calendar at hand

The final step is to keep your calendar accessible so you can use it to guide you.
I have it appear on my Apple Watch in the central complication, showing whatever I want to be doing right now.
I also keep it in the calendar app on my Mac so I can look at that during the day.

Have you created an ideal week calendar?

Do you use an ideal week template or calendar? How has it helped you?