The Weekly Review

In this episode James shares a quotation about meditation that he heard during a Mindful Qi Gong class that he has been taking online. The quote talks of seeing meditation as an act of friendship towards yourself, as opposed to a way to ‘fix yourself’ or ‘improve yourself’. It also mentions removing the ‘subtle aggression of self-improvement’. Jean and James talk about those ideas but from the perspective of the focus on productivity and how sometimes we feel driven to get more done. The conversation turns to perhaps thinking of our trusted system as an act of friendship to ourselves, to allow us to not worry about the things that have been captured and that will surface when required, so we can focus on doing the things we feel are most important in our lives.

The quotation is from the book Meditation: Calming the Mind by Bob Sharples. The book seems to be out of print but an online search should turn up used copies. (Note that neither Jean nor James has read the book — just the quotation from it.)

Jean is reading the book Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood, and it is providing many insights based on scientific research around the question of how to establish strong habits. James reports on his new Dance Party! habit, which is going well thanks to the combination of automation, repetition, and fun. Dexter interjects with habit advice for cats (we think), and even Siri has something to say.

In this episode, Jean and James talk about trying to establish regular exercise as a habit. James reveals that dancing may be the only form of excercise he truly enjoys—except maybe hikes through the woods and walking ten miles a day at Disney parks. James talks about configuring the Apple Home app to have his HomePod automatically play a dance music every afternoon. Instant Dance Party! Jean and James talk about the new Dance workout on Apple Watch and are excited and optimisitc by the prospects of regular daily enjoyable exercise. Jean also talks about the wonderful September 21 video from this year.

9/21/20 video by Demi Adejuyigbe

James and Jean review the latest Apple product announcements and consider which new devices and services will promote better productivity. The new Scribble feature in iOS 14 definitely has the potential to reduce friction when capturing to-dos. Fitness+ is appealing, even if we can’t include our cat and guinea pigs on the Apple One Premium family plan.

In this episode, James talks about his experiences using SaneBox for the past few years. With his inbox and email subscriptions under much better control, James is weighing the decision of continuing to use Sanebox or possibly letting his subscription lapse. Jean and James talk a bit about the western wildfires, including those near their homes. Plus, James celebrates his three-year garageversary.

Get $25 off Sanebox (referral link)

Get $5 off Mailstrom (referral link)

Previous email episodes

114: It Has Been 399 Days Since The Topic Was Email (Jun 19, 2020)

57: I Have to Laugh (May 17, 2019)

52: Emailiversary (April 12, 2019)

28: The Big Email Processing Episode (October 26, 2018)

3: Brute Forcing Our Way ot Inbox Zero (May 11, 2018)

Picking up some steam after last week’s episode, James is on a streak of two weekly reviews in a row. Jean planned to get hers done, but low energy and inability to focus foiled her ambitions. This episode then focuses on one of the causes of these issues: lack of sleep. We’re no sleep experts, but sharing our experiences with each other always helps us gain some perspective and get ideas of new things to try.

Stress Management: Breathing Exercises For Relaxation (Univ. of Michigan Medicine; includes the 4-7-8 method)

This episode Jean and James talk about times when you are not feeling well but still feel guilty for not getting things done. The conversation proceeds to putting times like that into the context of your trusted system. Dexter the cat makes a guest appearance as the topic turns to cat and guinea pig productivity.

As severe lightning, power outages, a heat wave, and numerous fires affect California, Jean and James talk about emergency planning. James talks about some planning he had done earlier this spring helped this past week. Jean talks about how preparation for past events helped her to have things when needed in the present. James reflects on his gratitude that he has not had to evacuate due to the fires as many have but realizes he doesn’t have any sort of evacuation plan. Both Jean and James put a project to prepare an emergency plan into their trusted systems.

In this episode, James and Jean explore the connection between action and motivation, which relates to last week’s episode about procrastination. Waiting for motivation to strike us is a well-known source of procrastination, whereas taking any action to get going on a project often generates the motivation to actually finish the thing.

Thanks again to J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly, whose article Action Creates Motivation provided some much needed inspiration this week!

Jean and James talk about procrastinating on one task by making progress on another. Using this technique, James launched a website for his free utility app BuildSettingExtractor. Jean’s weekly todo took longer than she thought it would when it unexpectedly took her down memory lane. The conversation turns to whether procrastination-based productivity is a good thing. Is it just part of the GTD practice of choosing the best thing to work on next in the moment or if it might mask a real resistance to getting the procrastinated item done?

Here’s the result of James’ procrastivity this week: