I am close to reading 50 books for the half-year, and I am excited about the things I am building quietly. Recently, I invested in improving my environment design. I set up a walking pad near the television, I have a posture corrector in my chair, and I have an aluminum stand that makes sure my laptop’s screen stays at eye level when I do my work. It is amazing how these ridiculously small environmental changes make a huge difference to how I approach my daily grind.
I am still crazy about my blue switch keyboard that makes that super satisfying clicky mechanical sound while I code and write. I just do not feel as complete when I don’t hear the familiar clickety sounds though it makes me less qualified to stay in a library.
It was not just things that I adjusted but I also started with some tiny habits that make a huge difference for the tenor of my entire day. I deferred my morning coffee for at least 30-60 minutes after waking up. I put my workout clothes near the bedroom door on my way downstairs so that I have a seamless change from pajamas to exercise attire. I also configured my smartwatch to track the metrics properly. As much as possible, I wake up before the kids do so I have a lot of quiet and focused time to do coding sprints.
For a few years, I was in the manager’s schedule. I had meetings, action items captured in each hour, and I was clocking in with a feverish alertness reserved for my inboxes and chat windows.
I did a rather huge pivot recently. I am now back to the maker’s schedule, and I found it refreshing, calming, and very conducive to doing my best work. With this peace and quiet, I am relearning my nerd rabbit hole topics with maximum absorption and balancing my priorities. When I interact with people, it is often an intentional one and a carefully built connection that does not spill over to take over my important priorities and non-negotiables.
I know eventually I will share a bit more of what I am working on with more useful detail. But it’s still in the planting or infancy stage, and I don’t like forcing any of it to bear fruit too soon. I’m not sure when I’ll start elucidating the nuts and bolts, but it’s definitely something I am continuously working on. In the meantime, I’ll keep reading, building, and keeping the high energy frequencies.