This is a repost from my newsletter Makzan’s Dispatch 2020 week 16 and 17. I apply these strategies to minimize my mobile phone distraction: Turning display into grayscale Minimal apps on home screen. Turning off most notifications I have been turning my iPhone into grayscale for months. I found it an effective way to minimize […]
Read Post / 2020-05-03
10 years ago when I was starting my game development company, I used the Pomodoro technique®. The key point there is to boost for 25 minutes of focus work and then break for 5 minutes. The theory is that we can only focus for 25 minutes before our energy is too low and get distracted. […]
Read Post / 2020-03-22
There are different tools for remote works. Many may use Slack. Some may use Telegram, WhatsApp or even WeChat. But to me, any tools that are not threaded nor allow non-instant responses are not optimal tools for a remote team. That’s because the team cannot store decisions and the team cannot easily discuss different threads […]
Read Post / 2020-03-16
It is the attention that drives our daily life. The attention drives the flow of energy on our our limited time. Work done = Energy x Time Work done ≠ Productivity Work done Work done towards Goal = Productivity Our attention shifts from time to time. The attention drives where our energy goes. Over time, […]
Read Post / 2020-03-05
We encounter many inputs every day. There are different links from our favorite websites. There are different development snippets. There are working instructions. Tons of inputs every day. These data inputs needs to be organized so that they become useful for me to make decision. By tagging and organizing data into groups, data becomes information. […]
Read Post / 2020-02-08
I write a lot with my pens. As an IT guy and programmer who built my own digital collection system, I still believe in analog writing. The writing process is a reflection to myself every day. It is kind of diary but divided into 3 stages: Planning the day in the morning Fragment notes during […]
Read Post / 2020-01-29
Recently I updated my 2016 Macbook Pro 13″ to the new Macbook Pro 16″. Here are the system setup for my Macbooks. System preferences For appearance, I use blue color with yellow highlights. For web search default, I use DuckDuckGo. For display, I turn on the “Increase Contrast” in accessibility setting. I also enable zoom […]
Read Post / 2020-01-12
A conclusion of my last 10 years. This is the last month of the decade. Let me take some time to round up my last 10 years. Here are the highlights. Began my book writing e-Learning and MakClass Building my own productivity and knowledge system. Coming back to WorldSkills skill 17 Got married and built […]
Read Post / 2019-12-31
Recently, I write in Basecamp. It helps me to focus on the single piece of document. Basecamp is project management tool that encourages context based communication for teams. I have been using Basecamp solo and enjoying the tools it provides. Recently, I’m using Basecamp to write. There are 2 states when writing a document in […]
Read Post / 2019-10-25
Link: https://mailchi.mp/makzan/2019w17 The shortcuts app and Pythonista app allows us to create many different kinds of automation in mobile devices that fit our own needs. For example, a simple python script to download file into iCloud Drive. A simple PDF to image conversion. Or we can create more complicated shortcuts. Building this kind of automation requires the sense of programming. By making […]
Read Post / 2019-05-01