Steve Holden's Blog

Thoughts & Tips On Digital Reading

Photo by Frank Holleman on Unsplash

In a recent episode of Cal Newport's The Deep Life Podcast -- Episode 238: The Joys Of The Reading Life -- Cal provided his well-thought-out ideas on how to have a deep reading life and how that intersects with our digital technologies.

I agree with Cal that reading deeply needs concentration and is free from distraction. Physical books are excellent for those that want that experience.

I also agree that reading on the Kindle (or other dedicated eBook readers) can be a deep reading platform. My Kindle Paperwhite is my primary device for all my reading with my eyes. [NOTE: Listening to audiobooks is reading. Don't get me started.]

He is also correct that reading on most people's standard mobile phones or digital tablets like an iPad is not a deep reading platform.

If you do end up reading on a phone or tablet, here are my recommendations.

My phone already has very minimal alerts, but with a quick swipe, I turn on "Do Not Disturb."  And in my Kindle application on the phone, I have changed the background color (Layout > Page Color) from white (default) to green. The other options are: tan, white, or black. I'd choose tan if you don't like the green color.

I find having that green background - uncommon like the tan - tells my mind that I am now in reading mode and not scanning mode (like with a white or black background). This lets me read more deeply when I don't have my Kindle and only my phone. Once I finish reading, I turn off "Do Not Disturb."

Reading on my iPad is more straightforward, as I have 'Do Not Disturb' always on. And I am only reading content on my iPad with colors: comic books, WWII books with maps, Star Wars guides, recipe books, etc. I don't change the background color on my iPad.

Thoughts? Comments? Feedback is always welcome!

White Coat Ceremony Oath - Long Beach State University

My daughter Crason recently participated in a White Coat Ceremony at Long Beach State University at the start of her nursing program.

This ceremony is done at"enlightened" medical schools for doctors and nurses that expose their students at the beginning of their program with their "oath" of service vice at the end.

I believe this follows the best practices from Franklin Covey's thinking of "The End In Mind" and David Allen's thoughts on "Outcoming Thinking."

This is the oath the student took at the end of the ceremony:

In dedicating myself to the profession of nursing, I solemnly pledge that I will:

• Uphold the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering as my primary concerns;
• Act in a compassionate and trustworthy maner in all aspects of my care;
• Treate my patients, peers, and faculty with kindness, respect, and dignity;
• Apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal outcomes of my patients;
• Exercise sound profressional judgetment while abiding by legal and ethical requirements;
• Accept the lifelong obligation to improve my professional knowledge and comptenence;
• Contribute to a healthy and safe learning environment;
• Promote, advocate for and strive to protect the health, safterty, and rights of the patient, regardless of their social or economic status, personal attributes, or nature of their health problems.

With this pledge, I accept the duties and responsiblities that embody the nursing profession.

I take this oath voluntarily and with the full realization of the responsibility with which I am entrusted by the public, my patients, and thier families.

My 2023 Daily Morning Personal Devotion Plan

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Back in 2019, I embarked on a daily morning personal devotion and growth plan by reading these two books on my Kindle Paperwhite (no ads):

• “Unshakeable: 365 Devotions for Finding Unwavering Strength in God’s Word” by Christine Caine
• "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday &  Stephen Hanselman

Since then, I've rotated the faith devotional book yearly, but I have kept re-reading the The Daily Stoic (it is really that good).  The previous faith devotionals were:

• “God Is With You Every Day: 365-Day Devotional” by Max Lucado (in 2020)
• “Fixing My Eyes On Jesus: Daily Moments in His Word” by Anne Graham Lotz (in 2021)
• “The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge” by Coach Tony Dungy (in 2022)

In addition to reading these, I have been practicing journaling whatever comes to mind before my readings. Looking back over my journaling, I see some themes: what happened the day before, or what is going to happen soon; prayers; concerns/worries; and insight into how I am feeling or how I am doing professionally and personally.  I also capture some thoughts or ideas that stand out from my readings. I have tried to journal both on paper and digitally. I have currently settled on paper.  I am currently using a Moleskin that was given to me by Manager-Tools.com.

Another practice I have been doing is high-lighting those verses mentioned in the faith devotionals in my Bible (NIV Faithlife Study Bible: Intriguing Insights To Inform Your Faith).  It is becoming very interesting to see what verses get used across different authors, and those that only get one or two mentions.  An additional insight is how much of the Bible hasn't been referenced. It is also especially interesting to me when my "Faith Daily Devotional" is very aligned with the "Stoic Daily Read."

This year I am going to read in the morning:

• “Quiet Times with God Devotional: 365 Daily Inspirations” by Joyce Meyer
• "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday &  Stephen Hanselman
• "The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel" by Rolf Potts

I am looking forward to Rolf's book as I've been listening to his podcast for years, and he inspired me to take this Europe Trip in 2019.

NOTE: Links to things you can buy go to Amazon Prime.

#human_generated_content

2023 Continuous Year Calendar PDFs For Free Download

Just like last year, I have created some downloadable files of "continuous" calendars for 2023:

• Vertical version (PDF)
• Horizontal version (PDF)

I hopefully did the conversion from 2022 to 2023 correctly.  If you find an error then please let me know.

These were inspired by Kairos Cognition very elegant calendar:

Laptop Sticker Fun!

I recently picked up some fun stickers for my new work laptop from Etsy:

• Capt. America
• R2D2
• California Republic

I highly recommend them.

Two Weeks Into Moving To Obsidian As My GTD System

Introduction

About two weeks ago I decided to move my personal David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system (aka "External Brain/Trusted System") to Obsidian.md (a "free" personal knowledge management application -- note I previously thought that Obsidian was open-source but it is not).

I don't have a huge set of reasons for the switch, it just seemed like something I was very interested in doing after testing Obsidian over the last 6 months for writing, note-taking, organizing, etc.

My previous personal system was Nirvana (for everything GTD-related, but Reference), and Google Keep (for Reference). This system was up and running from January 2019 until now.  Before that, I had a customized GTD-system in Google Keep. The full Google Keep system was ~5 years old.  Before that, it was all Microsoft Outlook-based. 

My work GTD system is Microsoft Outlook based with all my References in Microsoft OneNote or in the Windows filesystem.

Setting Things Up

My first step was to relieve my concern about being able to work across all devices.  So, my first three next-actions were:

1. Get Obsidian working in Linux on my Chromebook.
2. Get Obsidian working on my Windows 11 Desktop.
3. Sync those two systems using Google Drive.

This was pretty straightforward and was probably working seamlessly in less than 10 minutes.

Then I had to figure out how to get things to work on my Android Phone and Apple iPad:

1. First I tried an Android sync tool called Folder Sync, but the changes were not very dynamic.  I had to force a sync from the application before I'd see any updates in Obsidian.
2. Then I realized for the Apple iPad, the options for syncing seemed to be limited to two: Apple iCloud or Obsidian Sync (paid service).  With my primary data files on Google Drive, it seemed like Obsidian Sync was the better option.
3. So I paid for Obsidian Sync (to get both Android & iPad sync going).  I can report that this has worked very well, I've had no issues, and it is very responsive on both my Android phone and my Apple iPad.  Definitely worth the money.

Learning

Now that I could trust that data would be synchronized, and available no matter which device I was using, I just started learning more about what other people have done:

• Reading up on GTD related posts on Reddit.
• Watching the following YouTube subject matter experts (SMEs):
  • Linking Your Thinking.
  • John Mavrick.
  • Obsidian & GTD Video Search on YouTube.
• Signing up and reading through this excellent weekly newsletter.
• Reading through all the Obsidian documentation.
• Reviewing Markdown formatting options.

The current setup is pretty minimal after migrating my current Tasks and Projects from Nirvana, and my current active Notes (Project Support, References) in Google Keep.

Future Projects To Work On

I have used this tool -- keep-it-markdown 0.4.3 -- to migrate all my notes out of Google Keep into .md files to Google Drive. However, I still need to import those into Obsidian.

I also need to migrate a couple of lists in Nirvana -- Later & Someday/Maybe -- to Obsidian.

There is also an effort to figure out if there are other Obsidian plugins, themes, or templates I should be using.

Questions, comments, suggestions, etc. welcome!

GTD Tip: Moving Content Someday/Maybe Items Into A Different List Manager

My current personal external Getting Things Done (GTD) brain/tool is Nirvana.  I recently decided to move some of my "content" related items in my Someday/Maybe list to external list options in tools that are native for that type of content.

For books I moved them to an Amazon Book Want To Read List.  This is using Amazon's Wishlist option.

For movies and TV shows, I am using the Watchlist feature in IMDB.

One of the benefits of this approach was it got each of these content types into a more "non-text" list in Nirvana with more visuals, and it helped to speed up my review of my Someday/Maybe items during my GTD Weekly Review.

I also have a Wishlist on Amazon for physical things I might want to purchase.  When something new comes a long that looks interesting, but I don't know for sure that it will be useful, I put them in this list.  And then I review it every month or so to see if any items are really something I need.  Not just something I wanted at the spur of the moment.

If you have any suggestions on other types of list tools for content, then please let me know.

Thoughts & Tips for June & July 2021

This photo is part of my Blurry collection.

CURRENT HAPPENINGS

The last two months have been going well.  Mother's Day in May was great, and so was Father's Day in June.

We have been slowly getting back out to our favorite places to eat, visiting breweries, attending church in person without masks, seeing friends, and having more group events at our house.

Getting vaccinated has a ton of benefits!

Biggest news is that Carson graduated from High School:

Another nice piece of new news is that my niece Hayley and her husband Alex are having a baby girl in December:

I have also been able to teach two Getting Things Done (GTD) classes in-person at work which has been very enjoyable.  One class was in May and the other in late June.

LOOKING FORWARD TO

The epic D&D battle I have been DMing for several months has finally ended, and we are on to a new "underwater" related adventure created by our other DM Darren.

We have several mini-vacations coming up across July & August: one week in Mission Beach at a condo rental; a weekend retreat at The Oaks; a couple of days in Las Vegas for Def Con; and then beach camping at San Elijo. It will be nice to get out and about, but also not have to travel too far from home.

TECHNOLOGY, TIPS, & SUGGESTIONS

If I had to pick a single glass style to drink craft beer out of I think it would be this one (Amazon link):

Since May 20th I have been charging all my mobile electronics off-grid using this setup from Jackery (originally purchased just for camping):

This includes: cell phone; iPad (didn't realize what a power hog this was); Garmin watch; bike lights; Go Pro & other camera batteries; all the new Rode podcast/audio recording gear; and a variety of  smaller battery packs.  Hard to say the total impact to our home electrical bill, but kind of a fun experiment.  It will be interesting to see how long I can do it.  My cell phone does get charged when it is in the car, so that makes things a little easier. I am not charging my main personal Chromebook computer this way until we go camping this summer.

The solar unit is the SolorSaga 100W (Amazon Link), and the portable battery unit is the Portable Power Station Explorer 240 (Amazon Link). 

QUOTE I'M THINKING ABOUT

"Saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is like a time credit. You can spend that block of time in the future. Yes is like a time debt. You have to repay that commitment at some point. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility." - James Clear

Near Real-Time Tracking

You can find out what I'm up to in near real-time via: Twitter (@sholden) Instagram (@sholden), or Facebook (sholden). I also recommend checking out my AztecMedia.net produced sites: Chvrches Fan Podcast (@chvrchespodcast), ThePodCraft Beer Show (@thepodcraft, @techguysteve, Untapped, @techguysteven); Tech News Radio (@technewsradio), Air Gapped Networks (@airgapnet), Jersey Boys Podcast, and Veteran Stories. [Updated: May 9, 2021]

Thoughts & Tips for May 2021

This photo is part of my Blurry collection.

CURRENT HAPPENINGS

All but one of us is vaccinated. Guess which one? Ha Ha! #stay_home_if_sick, #wash_your_hands, #social_distance, #wear_a_mask

Christy and I had a great 2nd retreat to The Oaks to celebrate our 27th Wedding Anniversary.  It was super reflective and restful.  Here are some photos!

I recently did a Getting Things Done (GTD) related presentation to Manager-Tools' M Conference attendees alumni group.  Here is more information about the presentation with an offer to present to other groups or organizations that are interested in productivity.

My work did a virtual Spring Break scavenger hunt (above are some of the photos).  It was super fun and collaborative with friends & family helping out. It was also nice to get out-and-about little bit more. I highly recommend doing something like this if you have the opportunity.

LOOKING FORWARD TO

Carson is going to be graduating high-school soon, and has decided to go to Long Beach State to study nursing.  We are very proud and excited for her upcoming college season.

Summer vacation plans seem to be coming together: Mission Beach beach house rental, back to The Oaks, Def Con (Las Vegas), and camping at San Elijo State Beach.

I am hoping that my friend's D&D session (mentioned in previous posts) will get us through this epic battle I have been DMing for months, and on to a new "underwater" related adventure created by our other DM Darren.

TECHNOLOGY, TIPS, & SUGGESTIONS

Here are some greate Windows 10 tips from ZDNET. The one about the new Clipboard History is especially useful as I have had to use a 3rd party tool to do this in the past.  To open Clipboard History, press Windows key + V. Neat!

I have been experimenting with these Rode Wireless Go Compact Microphone Transmitter & Receiver Systems for The PodCraft Beer Show.  So far they are working well, and they definitely decrease the amount of gear I need to drag to each recording.  I think they are also making the conversational style of the podcast easier to record, and edit on the back end.  I'll probably do a future full review, so standby for more information.

Engadget's article on "Google makes it easy to jump back to the search box by pressing '/' -- The new shortcut makes it easier to refine your search results." should enable you to quickly expand searches to include addition terms.

I knew how to schedule the release of emails, but this article from Wired describes how to do this on Apple iOS devices and on Google Android devices for text messages.  Super handy to know.

QUOTE I'M THINKING ABOUT

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” - Peter Drucker