I’ve been thinking about minimalism again. My main prompt is reading “The Life We’re Looking For” by Andy Crouch. He lays out how “devices” can take as well as give and advocates for technology that makes us more engaged with our whole being rather than passive. As is common, I’ve started to see patterns everywhere. Suddenly stoicism seams very minimalist, I started to look at some of Patrick Rhone’s old essays and I’m wondering about how Christian “simplicity” is similar and different to minimalism. Oh and I’ve coincidentally decided to clear out my desk and draws at the same time.

In the past I commented that my big issue with minimalism is that it provides a diagnosis without a prognosis. I still believe there’s truth to that critique, but it doesn’t make the diagnosis less true.

Now excuse me while I go back to holding some old T-shirts and asking “does this spark joy?” Over and over again.

I’ve got the week off work (but my daughter is still going to pre-school) so I’ve drawn up a list of things to do that I would normally struggle to do due to lack of time or her presence! There’s a lot of big topic conversations with my wife plus making sure I’m fully present and engaged with her in the evening.

First item on my list - cleaning up my desk, notes and old clothes that need to be thrown out.

I had to renew my phone contract and had a chance to upgrade my four year old phone. In the end I decided against it. The offer sounded good but I wouldn’t have wanted to upgrade this year anyway so it was just spending money I didn’t want to spend.

As I reached the conclusion that I should declining the offer, I felt an uncomfortable pain. I knew it was a good offer, I knew I wanted the new shiny thing, but I also knew it wasn’t a good use of money and I’d be getting a phone and deal I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise.

I knew the decision was right, but I didn’t want it to be the right decision.

The end of the year is in sight.

And while there’s still time for me to purchase a new piece of tech, I think it’s safe for me to create this roundup list (especially with my current financial situation).

I haven’t bought too many items this year, but these three stand out above the rest.

AirPods Pro

My wife is the best.
I had resisted replacing my old AirPods with news ones but my wife convinced me.
She was right. They’ve helped me with countless video calls, blocking out noisy neighbours (and kids) not to mention hours of podcast listening.

And It sounds like the second gen are even better.

Samsung M7

There’s no perfect cheap monitor for Apple computers, but this is close.

It’s a

• 32"
• 4k
• USB-C connection monitor.

Back when I was deep in spreadsheets, reports and editing every day, this screen was invaluable. Now it is amazing for editing videos, recording screen casts (I can record a limited space on the screen and have notes in the rest) and for opening a ton of resources from Logos.

Caldigit ts3+

The two ports on the Macbook Air just aren’t enough.

Well, not when I make a video and have my camera, microphone, streamdeck, iPad, monitor and external hard drive all hooked up. This handy little device has made it all a dream.

Previously, I had a dongle that required some careful planning to get everything connected. Now I hook one thunderbolt 3 cable into my Macbook, and away I go.

**What about you? **What have been your favourite hardware tech purchases of the year.

6 years ago I started making some simple videos for students of English as a foreign language because it was a more valuable “proof of work” as a freelance teacher than the alternatives.

Today, I’m using those skills (and more I’ve learned since) for the onboarding videos project at work.

Plus I got a review copy of Logos 10 for the video review I published earlier this week.

You never know where a little decision might lead you in the future. Or how a fun little skill project might open other doors.

But also, don’t feel ashamed about having a hobby which is just a hobby.

As I read CJ Chilver’s recent post on the lazy billionaire, I was reminded of Patrick Rhone’s approach of using the Apple default apps as much as possible.

• Notes in Notes
• Tasks in Reminders
• Events in Calendar
• Podcasts in Apple podcasts and so on.

Some of these feel more controversial than others. Could I really give up my beloved obsidian? Would I be prepared to give up smart skip in a podcast player? How will I GTD if I don’t have a full armed and operational battle station, I mean task manager.

And I do notice that Patrick does make a couple of exceptions such as using a markdown writing app instead of the notes app (unless that has changed since his minimal mac days which it may well have).

In truth, there are some apps (like Snipd my current podcast app) where I don’t really use their functionality. I do capture clips from podcasts, but I don’t tend to review them. And it’s even rare that I use those snippets when they are automatically imported into my obsidian vault from readwise.

So I’m reviewing all my fancy third party apps. Maybe they’ll go and maybe they’ll stay.

Carrot weather is definitely staying.

Metaphors create new worlds.

They focus our attention, open our imaginations and help us to see connections.

But no metaphor is perfect. If there weren’t any limits or exceptions to a metaphor, it wouldn’t be a metaphor. (this is an extension of the ideas “the map is not the territory")

So it’s no surprise that our choice of metaphor can be important.

An example: consider these two metaphors for a journey.

Depending on the one you select, you will have a very different perception of the journey you will undertake.

• One might help you prepare better, the other might help you enjoy it more.
• One might focus you on the destination, the other might help you take in the scenery.

Rushing for the first and most obvious idea can trap us in typical ways of thinking.

So what are the implications

Three easy ideas to help explore more metaphors

1. Think of a metaphor for ideas or strategies
2. Consider the limits of the metaphor
3. Generate more metaphors and reflect on their strengths, weaknesses and differences.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve left todoist.

I’m not sure why I was on todoist recently but probably because I wanted a task manager on a windows PC. That’s my usually reason for choosing todoist.

But now I’m working in an Apple only environment and I’m free to choose.

While todoist has some nice aspects such as its flexibility, boards, web based automation and generous free plan, I wish it was more opinionated and native to the Apple platform. By trying to work with many task management systems, it doesn’t really encourage any system and requires hacks for a gtd style approach.

picking a new app

But what should I choose?

Well, I’ve been playing around with reminders, things 3 and OmniFocus on mobile (as I own all three) and I think I’m ready to pick.

So stay tuned for a post detailing my migration and how I set up my new system.

I've Joined PomPom as a Marketing Executive

Back in 2013 I started a small podcast to promote our English School in Badajoz, Spain.

We shared our thoughts on Spanish life and made some materials based on the topics we discussed. Our students loved it! The content was intimately relevant for them, and they got free lessons each week.

To our surprise, we ended up in the top 50 language podcasts in iTunes.

By that time I was already a major podcast fan having discovered them after graduating from university in 2008 and working scanning documents while searching for a more permanent job. The work was boring, but it let me listen to whatever I wanted while I worked.

Today, I am taking the next step of my podcast journey

I'm moving beyond just listening and creating a podcast but joining Pompom— a podcast studio application native to the Apple platform.

After speaking to the team a few months back and bonding over our loves of all things Apple, great podcasts and getting excited about their vision for the app, I knew I wanted to join. Fortunately for me, my ideas for how we could promote pompom made them want me to join as well.

I'm sure I'll share more in the future but if you're looking for a simple podcast editing app with time saving features to help you product podcasts faster, you should definitely check out Pompom on the Mac and iOS app stores.

I’m starting a new job on Monday so this is perfect moment for me to consider changing task management systems.

After all, I have a string of out of tasks for my old work that no longer matter. And this would be a great way to mark the end of my work there and a fresh start.

Losing tasks in the migration would be a feature, not a bug.

I’ve been “using” Todoist recently but I’m mighty tempted by things and omnifocus. The cost of upgrading to get the mac version would be about the same for me but I know omnifocus 4 is on the horizon so that’s another expense.

so maybe I should just push reminders as far as I can stretch it!

I just published issue 50 of my newsletter! (It’s actually a few extra which I didn’t import).

It’s gone through about four iterations during that time but the sketchnote roundup format really seams to have worked for me.

• I was sharing this content without the newsletter
• It’s simple enough that I can produce it every week
• I’ve had some really nice comments as well.

It’s certainly not perfect and I wish I had managed to get a few more subscribers it a bit more, but I enjoy making it so that’s enough for me.

I spent ages debating whether or not I should call my site Learn Create Share or keep SketchnoteClassroom or do something else.

In the end I changed to Learn Create Share as I wanted an impulse to make sketchnotes about other topics rather than just make sketchnotes on sketchnoting.

That was a fantastic personal decision.

It completely changed my approach and I am really pleased with the sketchnotes I’ve made since then.

At the same time, I’ve basically stopped making any sales of the courses I made since then!

So it was a great personal decision, but terrible “business” or brand decision. And I’m totally happy with that.

I’ve asked some friends for advice on managing a team and a lot of people respond with things on “leadership”.

I find that jump interesting. Of course there’s a lot of crossover between the two but I don’t view them as the same.

Leadership involves setting the vision and prioritise for a team. It’s about knowing where you should go and communicating that vision.

Management is about getting the most out of the people who report to you. Leadership and vision help with that, but it’s not the end of the discussion.

You can set and communicate a great vision with everyone bought in, but there can still be management issues (conflicts between team members, under performance from a team member, one team member needs a different approach, someone isn’t doing their best work) and when the vision is less than perfect, more problems can be added on.

I’m not saying that I’m a perfect leader, but I believe that my management issues aren’t related to my leadership but to my management. It’s even possible that my focus on setting a vision might be interfering with helping my team members. What I mean is I can be so focused on the goal that we should be going towards, that I miss the issues that are preventing team members from reaching that goal.

I suspect that I’m being tough on myself here (as I often am) and overthinking this, but it’s certainly an interesting area for me as I’m in the process of changing my mind on this subject.

Perhaps I’ll share more soon.