I’ve been continuing to seek out a notes app that works for me as well as I would like it too. A couple of weeks ago I posted about what I’m looking for and since then I’ve been giving a couple of the contenders a try.

When I wrote that post I had been using Craft for around a week or so. It’s a very good app, I like that it is native on all my devices, has good shortcuts support and is a pleasure to write in. It lacked a couple of the features on my list out of the box, but a quick shortcut was able to fix the lack of a daily note and I was happily on my way giving it a run through it’s paces.

Having been forced into a week off work thanks to some strong side effects from my Covid vaccine, last weekend I started to play with Obsidian to see how it worked. Initially put off by it I found a theme that makes it look and feel a lot more like a native macOS application. So last week I started giving it a run through it’s paces. It’s lacking a first party iOS and iPadOS app at the moment, but one is in beta and seems to be developing quickly and since there’s nowhere to go at the moment it’s not the end of the world.

I intend to give Obsidian a similar amount of time to Craft and then I’ll try to make a decision. There are a few things about Craft which started to really annoy me before I decided to give Obsidian a try, and I’m sure there will be some things about Obsidian that annoy me as well.

So far Craft feels better placed for meeting notes and capturing tasks along the way. It’s ability to easily send something to Things is great. In contrast Obsidian seems to handle referencing and embedding blocks more efficiently. Craft can do this but I ended up having some real difficulties finding blocks I wanted to reference and once I had figured out the syntax that Obsidian uses it made a lot more sense. Both apps have their strengths, I have a feeling it will be about refining how I take notes and which one will handle that.

For the last 6 months or so I have been using Roam Research as my notes app. The daily note turned into my home from home allowing me to capture things throughout the day. Thoughts, feelings, meeting notes, tasks, articles I read, videos I watched, everything got noted down in the daily note. Using the service has encouraged me to read more wisely, making notes from articles that are useful and capturing highlights and thoughts as I read books.

Over the last month or so, I’ve noticed my usage start to drop off. Some of it is related to me having days off from work, so I’m not in front of my Mac all day, but that’s not the sole reason. I’m writing this on my iPad which has become my main personal computer. Mac for work, iPad for me. I started to realise that this is part of the reason I’ve been using Roam less even though I still wanted to capture notes and thoughts. I don’t find the experience of Roam on the iPad to be that pleasant. There are too many little quirks and bits that don’t quite work properly that mar the experience enough to to make me want to stop using it.

So in the last week I started to draw up a shortlist of apps to try in an attempt to replace Roam. In order to really understand if something can grow in to a replacement I need to understand how I’ve been using Roam and what I have come to find really useful about it.

What are the key features I’m after?

Daily Notes

I’ve come to realise the joy and freedom in having a Daily Note open on my screen all day. It has become my main place to capture anything and everything. Articles I read, what’s on my mind, notes from meetings I’m in, tasks that come in. Each new item gets a time stamp and then I write down what I need.

References to blocks and pages

This is new functionality to me but one that I’ve quickly understood the value of. Being able to reference something with a back link is really powerful. If I’m in my Daily Note and jot something down about a project, being able to quickly link to that project page and have what I wrote appear there is invaluable. It frees up thoughts for thinking instead of focusing on putting it in the right place in my system.

Embedding blocks

These are even more powerful and I think have become really important for me. On a Sunday as I watch church on YouTube (who knew that would be a thing?) I make notes on the sermon. I’ve taken to adding the bible passage broken down verse by verse in a separate note, then when I need to make a note about a verse I embed the block and write a note under it. Having the text visible is really useful and having the bible passages automatically reference all the notes I make over time will be really insightful.

Capturing tasks

This is a simple one, but a quick way to capture tasks in a meeting without having to change app focus is great. Even better is the ability to send those tasks to my dedicated task manager where I can organise them after the meeting.

Journal

This final one is a little up in the air at the moment. I used the Daily Note of Roam to help me start journaling again and since beginning this quest to find a more native experience I’ve dusted off Day One and started to use that instead. As I reflected on how I had been Journaling in Roam, I realised that I didn’t intentionally use any of the connected thought features for it. Questioning why that was, I realised it’s because what I’ve been journaling about isn’t necessarily related to what I’ve been thinking about or working on, instead it’s more about processing how I feel and am handling situations. So for now I’m going to use Day One for this part of my writing, although it lacks the convenience of having one place to write I think the trade off is better for me.

On my lunch break today as I sat reading some RSS feeds, I came across a [Daily Blogging Challenge] that started on the first of March. As I clicked through to the organising site to find out more I discovered that each day they are sharing a prompt word that everyone taking part should use to kickstart their post for the day. I'm not going to commit to taking part everyday, but I liked the prompt from 1st March, [routine].

Routines have always been a bit of a comfort to me, mostly they just happen and I realise that I've settled in to one without considering what I'm doing. My morning routine for example is one that I've realised I've settled in to without really considering.

I wake up with my alarm around 07:00 and spend the next 45 minutes or so waking up. That involves a bit of snoozing, a bit of morning messaging, and a bit of bumbling around on the internet. Then I get out of bed and head towards the shower.

I'm usually dressed and ready to start my day by around 08:20. The next step is a glass of juice and my meds, followed by a sit down in my chair and a bit of time to have a quiet time with whatever reading plan I'm using in the Youversion app at the moment.

Around 08:40 I'll turn on my Mac and head to the kitchen to make coffee and sort out some food for myself before I settle at my desk to contrive the days business.

I didn't realise this was a routine I'd fallen in to until I came across Pablo Picasso's daily schedule and it started me on path looking in to the routines of other famous creators, something I'll be looking into and sharing here.

I’ve recently made some changes to the hosting for my blog and other websites as part of the consolidation of my many websites in to one. I had been aiming to have one website to rule them all integrating my portfolio and my blog into one site.

I’m in the process of creating a new theme to help accomplish that, but I realised that for a long time I’ve not wanted to post the short status posts and images on to this site. I used to use Twitter for that, and whilst I’m still on the site I rarely use it. I’ve also been a member of [Micro.Blog] since the kickstarter days, but lately I’ve found myself just observing with only the occasional reply and not actually contributing. So I’ve decided to give something a try.

I’ve setup a hosted Micro Blog, which will use one of my spare personal domains, and I’m going to try posting to there with the short status posts and images as I would’ve done on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll likely use it to share things links and things along the way. In contrast I plan to keep this blog as somewhere to post longer posts and in time to add my portfolio as well.

To simplify things, I’m thinking about using my Micro Blog and this blog as ways of generating some [Stock and Flow]. As Robin Sloan put it:

Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that reminds people you exist.
Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.
I’ve realised I’ve lost those concepts in my creative work. I no longer tweet and I don’t blog regularly, so if I can start to correct that I hope that the two blog formats can inform one another with more content.

As an extension of that I’ve also been thinking a lot about Austin Kleon’s book [Show Your Work], something which I’ve also not been doing much of lately. My hope is that I’ll be able to combine these two sites and ways of posting with showing some of my work. Be it personal or professional (when appropriate). We’ll see how it goes.

We have been in Lockdown 3 for a few weeks now as Covid-19 continues to spread through the population. The government issued stay at home notices again, but this time people don’t seem to be following things quite as closely.

It’s both frustrating and annoying seeing so many people still meeting up with friends, even travelling across cities to meet in the park for birthdays. Everyone it seems is able to find a way of exempting themselves from the rules.

I’ve decided to approach this lockdown differently as well. Maybe because it’s also a new year, I’m not sure. I’m trying to eat more healthily, snack less, and exercise more.

The nations favourite–or maybe least favourite judging by some of social media–PE teacher Joe Wicks, has been doing his live workouts again. This has been my workout of choice so far, I’ve not been doing it live as it’s at an inconvenient time for work, but I’ve been doing the recorded versions at a later time. I’m 6 for 6 so far, and I’d never thought I’d say this about HIIT workouts, but I’m actually enjoying them. Although not the ache or stiffness in my legs after.

I’ve also been taking more time to read this time. In the first lockdown I couldn’t concentrate on a book, I wasn’t able to focus for more than a couple of minutes and would find myself rereading sentences over and over. This time however has been different. I’m finding that familiar refuge in fiction again. Getting lost in another world that exists only in my imagination and one that doesn’t have the anxiety that comes with the world we live in right now.

I’ve also been watching the last season of Portrait Artist of the Year. It’s one of the few “reality” tv shows I enjoy. Previous series have always made me feel inspired, but this time around it seems to be more so. I’ve even sorted out all my old art materials with the aim of finding some time to pick up a brush. We will see what happens there.

As I finish writing this the sun is coming out. The covering of snow I woke up too this morning is still there, but I fear it may not last long. Time to dig out the wellies and go for a walk.

Over the years I’ve amassed a number of domains for various websites I’ve wanted to create. A few of those are related to my former freelance business, and two relates to blogs. This week I got a notification that 3 of them are up for renewal in January, it’s left me questioning if should renew them all or if it’s time to let some go.

I have the domain for this blog, philbowell.com, which I will definitely renew. I have philbowell.blog, which I used briefly for this site, and I have philbowell.design, which is what I used for the last couple of years of working for myself.

Since I started working as part of an in-house UX team, I’ve been intending to consolidate my portfolio into my personal site. One domain for both places. What I hadn’t thought of was how to handle the domains. A redirect seems to make the most sense, but the cost of renewing them is much higher than I expected it to be. Letting go of domain names is something that I don’t like doing and I’m trying to work out the impact of doing that. It’s a tricky conundrum.

Today has been a grey and foggy day, it’s felt like a real reflection of the mood of the last month. As I’ve driven around Cheltenham today doing some bits and bobs, I’ve seen more and more people starting to put up Christmas trees and lights. It’s been nice to see them emerging out of the gloom.

Today marks the start of Advent, with the first candle being lit in churches across the country we are reminded of the hope that comes from Jesus. The arrival of the King.

At the start of this year I started to go to a new church, given the pandemic if might not have been the best time, but the services I’ve been attending online have been ones of great comfort. They have shown great care, sensitivity, and compassion throughout the year, and I’m incredibly thankful that God guided me to this church. I’m looking forward to being able to go to a service again, I hope it is sooner rather than later. I’m sure it will be.

Today is Thanksgiving in America, and despite being a Brit I thought it would be good to try and post something I’m thankful for this year. I started to write this post at lunchtime, and struggled, I couldn’t zero in on something. This evening after my counselling session I realised what it is I’m thankful for this year. I’m thankful for all the people who have helped my family navigate through the year. The members of their church, some old friends from previous churches, some new friends, some new colleagues who have become friends. Some people who were friends and I’ve discovered are now very good friends. For all of them I am thankful, we couldn’t have done it without you.

I’ve had this blog in one form or another since I was 21, earlier posts have been lost in the many transitions it has made but it’s always been there. A hobby that taught me how to design and build websites that has since become my career.

At the moment I think I am in one of the longest streaks of not posting to the site that I’ve ever been on. For the last few weeks I’ve wanted to start posting again, I’m seeking to revive a hobby that was once very enjoyable to me. The trouble is I don’t know where to start or what to write. So, I’m writing this post as an acknowledgement of some very difficult events.

The last two years have been two of the hardest of my life. This time two years ago I was working part-time in a speciality coffee shop, doing some freelance design work, and contracting in to a local studio. There was a promise that my contract position would become full time in the next six months. At the beginning of April last year, a conversation that I thought would be about going full time was a conversation about the studio changing their mind. A month later I was no longer working there. A month after that the final client for my freelance business, which I was winding down due to the aforementioned promise, understandably told me they had made other arrangements for their website.

Alongside the work situation I was dealing with some things in my personal life. The culmination of all these events, alongside an unsuccessful gruelling seven week interview process, resulted in a mental breakdown and the return of my depression in August last year.

One positive is that somehow, in the middle of that breakdown I managed to think clearly enough for an hour-long interview that resulted in the job I have now been in for over a year. I can only thank God for that.

Then 2020 happened. A global pandemic has thrown the world into chaos as Covid-19 has swept across the world. Normal life has been taken away which for everyone has been a difficult adjustment. In the midst of this my Mum has been undergoing treatment for cancer and my Dad has had and recovered from a stroke.

I’m hoping that by writing this post it will help to remove the block I have been struggling with when it comes to posting to this site. Through counselling I have come to realise the importance of taking care of yourself properly. I have realised that I need hobbies in my life and I would like to start blogging here again as a first tentative step to building some healthy habits. I didn’t feel I could get that going again without acknowledging recent events, so here I am taking a scary step and daring to put into words some of the hardest experiences I have had to go through.

Feeling the itch to redesign my blog for the first time in a long time. Might use it as a way to establish my own base theme as a starting point and then design on top of that.