The Hidden Month

    New Year, new ambitions: start your own business and take control of your time and finances.

    But here’s the harsh reality: the adrenaline fades, and most give up within weeks.

    Here’s a suggestion…

    Dedicate your weekends this year. Spend four hours each on Saturday and Sunday building your business.

    That’s a solid month (26 days) of focused work without sacrificing sleep or your regular schedule.

    Speed to market is overrated. Success comes from execution and continuous improvement, week after week, month after month.

    Posted initially to X: twitter.com/scottw/st…

    Finding Joy in Fitness: The Importance of Enjoying Your Training

    Last week’s early morning gym commutes were far from ideal. One morning, I attempted to leave and discovered I had a dead battery (actually, two dead batteries). Two days later, I had a close encounter with a deer while driving. Temperatures were in the low 30s at best.

    However, at approximately 4:35 am on a Monday (today), I found myself not only commuting to the gym again but also feeling quite excited to get to work. It struck me then that it all comes down to finding the type of training you genuinely enjoy. While there may be exercises considered “the best” or “better,” even engaging in the most mediocre exercise is far better for you than doing nothing.

    This wasn’t always the case for me. It took some trial and error, along with the willingness to start something, fully commit to it, and then be open to finding something that I both enjoyed and that yielded better results.

    Ultimately, what truly matters is taking that initial step and sticking with it. It is crucial to listen to your body and determine what it will take to enjoy the work.

    Fear is our true enemy

    At the root of most fear is what other people will think of us. It’s paralyzing. It’s skewing. It distorts the very fabric of our reality – makes us behave in such utterly insane and cowardly ways that it’s hard to even describe.

    - via Ryan Holiday in Courage is Calling

    The older I get, the more I see this every day. Science says we only use about 10% of brains. But that is not what holds us back. We hold ourselves back because we are afraid of looking like a failure.

    Book: Built to Move

    Finished reading: Built to Move by Kelly and Juliet Starrett 📚

    While the Starretts are known for movement and mobility, the chapters on breathing and eating are the two that stuck with me for weeks after finishing it.

    Overall the book is filled with many great tips with no gimmicks, supplements, or additional purchases needed.

    I rearranged my office over the long weekend

    • Back to a multi-monitor setup. I have been team one larger monitor for the last few years, but I felt like some of the work I have been doing benefits from having more fixed windows.
    • I moved my desk back against the wall. It had been floating in the room for the last couple of years. I prefer not to stare at a wall in the background, but a floating desk that can also be stood at gets messy on the backside. In addition, the internet speed is nearly 1 Gbps when plugged in vs. 300/400 MPs over wifi.
    • Removed the XLR mic and went with an Elgato Wave 3 USB mic. In quick testing, it seems more than adequate for my needs and does not require a Cloud booster, Focusrite Scarlett, extra cables, etc.
    • Moved my Anker camera to the top of my MBP instead of the separate arm. Minor change, but one less thing on my desk. I still find it pathetic that Apple has not shipped a better laptop camera. It is cute I can use my iPhone, but who wants to go through all that effort every day.
    • Semi-related, I disabled “Displays have separate spaces.” I heavily use spaces and typically have a space for specific tasks with keyboard shortcuts. Once each display has its own space, this gets messy. The downside is I cannot just dock a window in a display across all spaces.

    Recommended Book: Die With Zero

    The first completed book of 2023 is Die With Zero by Bill Perkins (@bp22).

    I heard about this book a couple of years ago, but I thought it was a “fuck the kids and spend it all” kind of book. I was very wrong.

    Instead, the book focuses on the following:

    • Understand how much money you need for the rest of your life and adjust your work habits based on this (slow down when you have enough, find more meaningful work, etc.)
    • Do your best to have amazing experiences sooner than later. We often push things off for the future, but as you age (and your loved ones as well), your ability to enjoy those experiences in a meaningful way diminishes
    • Don’t wait until you die to give money to your children, charities, etc. Like you, a $1 today is far more valuable than a $1 tomorrow.

    The audio version of the book takes about 4 hours (I think) on 1.2x speed and is worth a listen.

    Quick Tip: This All the Hacks interview made me reconsider reading/listening to the book.

    AltTab

    I have been a user of CommandTabPlus for years, but it is not working reliability anymore. I am unsure if this relates to Ventura or whatnot, but it was time to move on.

    AltTab does everything in CommandTabPlus, but with more reliability (and it is free/open source).

    The only feature it is missing is an option to group windows from the same apps, but for anyone who uses OS X spaces and wants to ensure CMD+Tab only shows windows in the current space, AltTab is a great tool.

    In addition, I like the option of having multiple keyboard shortcuts to cycle through windows differently.

    I am currently using three:

    1. cmd+tab - windows in the current space
    2. option +` - active app in the current space
    3. option + tab - active app in all spaces

    I’ll be back with Ivory, but for now, it is time to increasingly minimize time on the birdsite.

    Slightly less dramatic with the expiration in April. 🫢

    Good Bye Tweetbot

    On Grammarly

    Grammarly is the most essential browser extension I use daily and happily pay for the premium edition.

    It does the small things you expect, like correct spelling and highlighting missing (or unnecessary) commas. However, my favorite feature is calling out words that are not necessary.

    For example, “would” was originally in the sentence, “It does the small things you would expect.”

    Shipping is Never Free

    The biggest fallacy in online shipping is free shipping. UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, etc., all charge for their services.

    When shipping is free, it just means the product is being sold for enough to cover the shipping cost.

    Amazon has driven this home the most, but most of us are paying for shipping with Prime membership fees anyway.