Phil Bowell

Decided to have a very early start for work today to try and avoid having to work during the hottest part of the day. Quite enjoying the fact it’s 9:00 and I’ve already done a good hour and a half of work…

Went to upgrade to Alfred 5 and discovered I’m a mega supporter. Forgot about that. Free update!

For the best part of the last year I’ve been all in on Obsidian for my note taking. I’ve enjoyed writing in it, seeing it evolve, and playing with it’s theming engine (a bit too much sometimes) but recently I’ve been finding a few issues that have been getting under my skin. The experience of using it on my Mac is fine, in fact it works very well especially when paired with my large external display. When it comes to the iPad and my iPhone though, the experience is way too different. No matter how good the theme is something never quite feels right about the way the app looks and more importantly, the way the app functions.

Whilst I don’t want to confuse motion with progress, I’ve decided it’s time to try another app. One that I’ve found myself coming back to multiple times and have used for one off projects in the last 12 months. I’ve decided it’s time to give Craft a try for my note making. I gave Obsidian at least a 12 month run, so it’s time to give Craft the same.

There’s several things which draw me to Craft, most prominently is it’s native to all the platforms I use. I might be sat at a Mac all day while I work, but when I’m not I use my iPad as my personal computer and it’s during this time when I do most of my note making. Craft’s iPad app is excellent and I’m enjoying using it. The second thing which draws me to the app are it’s integrations. It works with Shortcuts with out me having to think of clever workarounds to do what I want. It has built in actions to send text to Things and Ulysses so I can turn notes into blog posts. Finally, it has many of the features of Obsidian that matter to me. I can connect notes together and see what is linked to it from elsewhere. I have templates for note types that I can easily use to start a new note. The only thing it lacks at the moment is some form of graph view so I can visually see connections between my notes.

I’ve still to decide where to do my journalling. I was using Obsidian for that, but again, for the reasons I’ve already outlined I don’t want to continue. It might be time to revert to Day One on my iPad, but I may also give the daily notes of Craft a try. This is after all an experiment in implementing a note making method in a new app. It works for some, the question is, will it work for me?

Considering installing the iOS and iPadOS betas… anyone done so yet?

For the best part of the last year I’ve been all in on Obsidian for my note taking. I’ve enjoyed writing in it, seeing it evolve, and playing with it’s theming engine (a bit too much sometimes) but recently I’ve been finding a few issues that have been getting under my skin. The experience of using it on my Mac is fine, in fact it works very well especially when paired with my large external display. When it comes to the iPad and my iPhone though, the experience is way too different. No matter how good the theme is something never quite feels right about the way the app looks and more importantly, the way the app functions.

Whilst I don’t want to confuse motion with progress, I’ve decided it’s time to try another app. One that I’ve found myself coming back to multiple times and have used for one off projects in the last 12 months. I’ve decided it’s time to give Craft a try for my note making. I gave Obsidian at least a 12 month run, so it’s time to give Craft the same.

There’s several things which draw me to Craft, most prominently is it’s native to all the platforms I use. I might be sat at a Mac all day while I work, but when I’m not I use my iPad as my personal computer and it’s during this time when I do most of my note making. Craft’s iPad app is excellent and I’m enjoying using it. The second thing which draws me to the app are it’s integrations. It works with Shortcuts with out me having to think of clever workarounds to do what I want. It has built in actions to send text to Things and Ulysses so I can turn notes into blog posts. Finally, it has many of the features of Obsidian that matter to me. I can connect notes together and see what is linked to it from elsewhere. I have templates for note types that I can easily use to start a new note. The only thing it lacks at the moment is some form of graph view so I can visually see connections between my notes.

I’ve still to decide where to do my journalling. I was using Obsidian for that, but again, for the reasons I’ve already outlined I don’t want to continue. It might be time to revert to Day One on my iPad, but I may also give the daily notes of Craft a try. This is after all an experiment in implementing a note making method in a new app. It works for some, the question is, will it work for me?

Just discovers that yesterday Anne Franck was trending on Twitter because she had “white privilege”. I’m disgusted, dumbfounded, and lost for words. Fuming.

We’re a week into July now and my decision to write some personal objectives for the quarter to go alongside my work objectives is proving to be an interesting experiment. I’ve begun to try and build some new habits to help me achieve not just my personal objectives but also my work ones.

The first of those habits has been to set aside the first 30 minutes of my work day to read and write. After I sit down at my desk with a coffee, I check in on Teams and my email to make sure there’s no fires, and then pick up my book. I open Obsidian to the literature note for that book, pick up my pencil and begin to read. As I go I underline anything that stands out, and then when I finish a section I write a note in my own words that covers those underlines. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite parts of my work day and I’m noticing an interesting side effect. When my time is up and I move on to some design work, I’m more productive and able to more easily focus on what I’m working on.

I’m pleased that I’m starting to build this habit and the influence it is having on my working day. My next small target is to keep some momentum now that I have finished reading the first book of this new habit. I have the next book lined up ready.

We’re a week into July now and my decision to write some personal objectives for the quarter to go alongside my work objectives is proving to be an interesting experiment. I’ve begun to try and build some new habits to help me achieve not just my personal objectives but also my work ones.

The first of those habits has been to set aside the first 30 minutes of my work day to read and write. After I sit down at my desk with a coffee, I check in on Teams and my email to make sure there’s no fires, and then pick up my book. I open Obsidian to the literature note for that book, pick up my pencil and begin to read. As I go I underline anything that stands out, and then when I finish a section I write a note in my own words that covers those underlines. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite parts of my work day and I’m noticing an interesting side effect. When my time is up and I move on to some design work, I’m more productive and able to more easily focus on what I’m working on.

I’m pleased that I’m starting to build this habit and the influence it is having on my working day. My next small target is to keep some momentum now that I have finished reading the first book of this new habit. I have the next book lined up ready.

A year or so ago I moved my blog from Wordpress to Jekyll, going from a CMS powered website to a static site generator. The idea behind it was to make designing and building the site easier from my iPad, and in the hope it would give me a push to post more often.

It didn’t work.

So I find my self making another move and switching to Ghost to give that a try. It works with Ulysses which is my text editor of choice and an app I have installed on all my devices. Posting should be a lot easier now, but I’m unsure whether that will really make much of a difference. As I write this post, the question I keep finding myself returning to is why am I not blogging more?

Is it because I don’t want to? I don’t think so. I always have it nagging at the back of my mind that I want to write and post more. Is it that I don’t know what to write? That’s probably got something to do with it. Is it that I get hung up on it being my personal site and I want the design just right? That also likely is a cause. All of those are things that I can change, finding the way to change them is the key.

The first step I’ve made is to write myself some objectives. It’s that time of the year at work where we are moving to a new performance year. Part of the process involves me writing some objectives, this year I’m trying to use the OKR methodology to give myself some clear objectives and measures. I’ve decided to also write some personal OKRs for this quarter. We’ll see if they have an impact, but this post is the result of one of them, and we’ll see if I can keep going.

Went for a walk with this little lady today. Had a fun time, she settled down with me after a few minutes walking.