Time flies when you are writing a weekly status update almost every week, edition 30 is here! 30 weeks of blogging, although not entirely consecutive. This week featuring: pomodoros, Todoist, implants, a new laptop and reviews:
- I’ve been noticing a drop in focus and productivity lately. I know where it comes from, I am not motivated to rework the rejected PacificVis work and instead of finishing it as quickly as possible, my brain is trying to trick me into postponing it all the time. I think there is only one cure for this type of behavior, so I started Pomodoroing again. I fell off the Pomodoro wagon for a good long time, thinking I don’t need it anymore, but apparently I still do. There is now a post-it on my screen at work to remind me to ‘Always be Pomodoroing’. I am still using Pomotodo, to keep track of statistics and progress.
- Todoist, my task manager, was kind enough to send me a yearly summary of my productivity and to my great surprise:
Todoist Trophy Top 2%? Really? I did not see that coming. Do keep in mind that I also use Todoist for my housekeeping/cleaning recurring tasks, so that adds up quickly. Still, not bad! Thank you, Todoist!
- I went back to the dentist this week for preparations to place a crown on my dental implant. I was expecting a nice dental impression session (yes!) that typically features having a metal tray/spoon type thing shoved in the back of my throat, while choking on a mouth full of nauseating substances. But I got nothing of the sort! The future is now people, they used a tiny hand-held scanner to make a digital scan and do an instant 3D surface model reconstruction. What a pleasant surprise 🙂 The models looked really pretty and accurate too. I should have taken a picture, but well, I was kind of busy being in that chair and all. I wonder if they will 3D print it as well, or work completely digital on designing the crown. In any case, 10/10, would recommend!
- So last week I was whining about my broken laptop, but soon this whining will end. I did not mention this, I think, but it was my work laptop. And this week I found out I will get a new one! The old one will be fixed up and can be used by the group to borrow for presentations and whatnot, but I will get a shiny new one. I picked this pretty little thing, the Dell XPS 12 Ultrabook™ Convertible. It transforms into a tablet, so I can read papers while commuting and impress people with it’s Transformer-talents. I should try complaining a little less, I am lucky to have such cool work benefits.
- This weekend, I am working on reviewing a paper for a major conference. Of course I should have done this during the work-week, but somehow I did not manage and as a result of that, no weekend for me! Thanks, past-me, for this excellent gift…. I wish I could punch that bitch in the face.
On that note, I should get back to reviewing. Thanks for reading and have a great week!
I too am back on the pomodoro boat. I somehow devolved to a state where I saw the pomodoro not as a mechanism to keep me focused, but as a mechanism to get me to go take a walk every 25 minutes (after 25 minutes of intensive web surfing), but I’m much better now.
BTW, mytomatoes was down due to server cost. I’ve made my little contribution to http://www.gofundme.com/k265c0 even although Magnar Sveen had already reached his target to fund server cost for a year. I did take the opportunity to test a number of other apps and sites, but I really like this one the most due to the pomodoro tracking (i.e. the fact that you can write down what you did, or didn’t do).
ARGH, I’m supposed to be in a pomodoro now, byeeeeeeeeeee!
That is really great news! I was on Pomotodo for a while, but it just wasn’t the same. They somehow try to combine it with a not so well executed todo list and that is annoying. I did like the writing what you did, it’s similar to mytomatoes in that way. Ok, Pomodoro time! 🙂