Updated: May 1, 2025
Hey there –
In April, I spent a lot of time evaluating – and re-evaluating – the workflows and processes I use every day. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole, searching for the perfect apps and systems, only to realize there’s no such thing as perfect. But I do think it’s good from time to time to try and improve your workflows and routines.
I knew a few things going in: I liked using Obsidian, but I wasn’t using it as much as I wanted to. I was also relying on TickTick for more than just task management. And I knew I enjoyed using pen and paper – so how could I also fit that into my overall workflow?
Honestly, it took a few iterations and plenty of trial and error. But I’ve finally landed on a setup that I’m really happy with. At a high level – and this might sound like common sense – I use TickTick purely as an inbox and for project and task management. Everything else – notes, files, archives – lives in Obsidian. And for my day-to-day logging, I stick with pen and paper: basically a bullet journal, but only for recording what actually happened, not for planning tasks or tracking the future.
📕Books I finished reading
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Elisabeth Tova Bailey
★★★☆☆
Well, the title doesn’t scream thriller, and this book isn’t one. But it was interesting. The author gets a disease that leaves her bedridden. She used to love the outdoors, so her friend brings her a snail and the snail becomes her companion. She observes every detail of its life: sleeping, moving, eating, laying eggs, and the eggs hatching. The point, I think, is to hold onto a sense of wonder for the world, even the small stuff like a snail. Some things in our world are pretty cool.
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
★★★★☆
I found myself searching for “the best audiobooks” several times and always at the top of any list was Project Hail Mary. I can understand why, It was a very good audiobook — it had a great narrator who really performed the book. I liked the story too… a middle school science teacher, alone, out in space, battling to save the world from a dimming sun.
🎸Music I’ve been listening to
SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver
I’m really not that big of a Bon Iver fan – but he seems to keep popping up in my newsletters. And I would be lying if I didn’t say that this album was easily my “album of the month”. I had it on repeat for days. It feels mostly upbeat and sounds joyful, though, of course, there’s a hint of sadness or melancholy woven in.
Rain in the River by Bruce Springsteen I’d also be remiss not to share my excitement for the June release of Springsteen’s Tracks 2, featuring seven full, previously unreleased albums. The first song, “Rain in the River,” is already out on Spotify.
💥Comic that sparked reflection
The New Yorker
🎥Videos I thought were worth watching
6 Mistakes DESTROYING Your Reading, Better Than Food “If you have 3 shelves of books you plan on reading… and your career does not require you or really allow you to read books… 3 shelves – it is entirely possible that you will not read all the books on those 3 shelves before you die.”
🎬 My recently published YouTube videos
The TickTick keyboard shortcut that will increase your focus – One of my favorite TickTick keyboard shortcuts is Ctrl + Alt + 0, which expands a task or note description to full screen.
An Alternative Take on the Kanban View – This video covers my attempt to tweak a Kanban view with a ‘Today’ column and set up a TickTick filter to show just those tasks. It’s a rundown of the long road I took to figure it out.
🖋 Quote I’ve been thinking about
“The most impressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare in the general population. If you find yourself always agreeing with whomever you last spoke with, that’s bad. You will of course be wrong sometimes, but develop the confidence to stick with your convictions. It will let you be courageous when you’re right about something important that most people don’t see.”
– Sam Altman, Productivity