Focused - 188: Q4 Planning & The PKM Stack

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Welcome to Focus, the productivity podcast about more than just cranking widgets. I'm David Sparks and joined by the esteemed Mike Schmitz. Hello, Mike. Hey, David. How's it going? I am doing well. We've got a show today where we don't have any guests, so I get you all to myself. And we've got a bunch of great topics today. We're heading into Q4. We got some thoughts on that, toxic productivity, PKM stacks. This show is full of good stuff. But before we get started, I wanted to talk about the annual focus calendars. They're back. They are.

Yeah. I've been getting a couple of people reaching out to me directly saying, are you going to do a calendar? Well, yes, we've actually been working on them for the last several weeks, but didn't want to make any announcements before they were officially ready. I've had some conversations with Jesse at New Year, and he's assured me that they should be available for sale by the time this goes live. So there will be a 2024 version of the New Year focus calendar. And to be honest, I think the 2023 one was pretty awesome. So we kept it largely the same.

Yeah, it evolved over the first several years. But now we've kind of got it nailed down. And you get the benefit of our experience here. So the New Year calendar, first of all, the reason we partner with New Year. And we could have gone to a less expensive vendor. But we wanted the best quality calendar. And New Year makes them. If you want a calendar

on your wall, new year does so much, right? Like they've, we've got the thing where the months blend together. Um, the Monday is the first day of the week as it should be. Uh, we've got habit tracking boxes. So if you want to do the Seinfeld thing, we we've got all the features that you would want on one of these calendars. And, uh, I love having mine on the wall. I look at it every day. It's how I decide, frankly, whether or not to commit to something. Because I look up and say, whoa, that month is already pretty booked. I should slow down. But it's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm a big fan of the calendars. I'm thrilled that we are able to have a focus version because I've been using them long before we had a focus version. I was buying them myself and using them every year. We've got multiples at my house. I've got

one in my office, which is on the, uh, the foam board on the wall. And that's a great writing experience and it's right behind my desk and I see it every single day, but we've also got one up in the kitchen, the big open like kitchen living room area with all of the family stuff on it. And yeah, my wife and my family uses it just as much as I do in very different ways. They're not doing the habit tracking and things like that, but it's nice to have a place where you can see all of the upcoming family events,

all the soccer schedules, all that kind of stuff. So there's lots of different ways that you could use it, but I think it is a very useful, albeit analog tool. Yes, analog is fine. One of the tips you gave me this year is use wet erase as opposed to dry erase on it, and that was such a game changer for me. So I got some nice thin wet erase pens, and it makes it so much easier to kind of get it on there, but be able to take it off if you need to. And so I recommend the wet erase pins and that it makes it so much easier to kind of get it on there, but be able to take it off if you need to. And so I recommend the wet erase. Mike and I also mount ours. Now this is not included in the price. We couldn't mail them to you mounted to foam or the shipping would be

insane. But you get them, you can take it in anywhere and mount it on a piece of foam or do it yourself. There's two sides to the calendar, vertical and horizontal. So whichever one fits your wall better, you can just pick that to be the front side. Another upgrade I did to mine this year was I put some steel grommets in. So they're like little circle holes with steel reinforcement. And so I hung hooks on the wall rather than like stick it to the wall. It hangs on the wall and I routinely pull it down off the wall and lay it on my desk and work on it and then put it back up on the wall. I really think that was a great kind of upgrade for me this year, but man, I love this calendar. If we didn't make them,

I would find someone that makes them and buy one for myself. So there you go. But you know, you can help support the show. It says focused, you know, right at the top 2024, you know, we're about more than cranking widgets guys. And that's a nice reminder to have on your wall. It helps us out, helps you out. So, so go check it out. We'll put a link in the show notes. Yeah. And one of the killer features of the new year calendars, and this is brought over to the focus version as well, is that there is a background shading for the four different quarters. So if you follow something like 12-week year concept, which is actually what we're going to talk about here today with quarter four, it actually helps you visually distinguish where one quarter ends

and another quarter begins. There's even on the focus calendar different week numbers and day numbers. So you can see the day in the quarter and you can see I'm on day 72 of the fourth quarter when you look at today's date, but a very, very handy supporting tool. I mean, this isn't where you're going to do all of your calendar management, but it is where you're going to think bigger and more strategically about what you're trying to accomplish over the next 90 days or over the next calendar year. You know, and I'd also like to call out, if you're listening and you've bought one in the past and you've used it to great effect and you're willing to share a picture of it, send us a picture. I'd love to see what you're doing with your focus calendar. So either way you go check it out on the website, you can buy it right now, get it, get set up, get ready for the new year. And, uh,

and thank you for everyone who's bought them in the past. And we really appreciate your support. All right. So we talk about quarter four. Yeah. I felt like we haven't done this all year. We talked earlier in the year, maybe we would cover quarter planning sometimes during the show, but there's a lot of topics and a lot of guests, but quarter four in particular to me is unique. We just did a call on this in the Max Barkey Labs, and I felt like everybody in the room was having the same feelings about quarter four. To me, it's an introspective quarter because you feel the end of the year approaching on you, and it really is a time to reflect on, you know, how am I doing? What were my big projects and goals for the year? And as we enter October, you know, how am I doing? What were my big projects and goals for the year? And as we enter

October, you know, how am I doing with that? Yeah. I mean, the whole idea behind the 12-week year, which we mentioned earlier, is that you have that sort of experience multiple times per year, so you get more loops in. But I agree that even if you do follow that 12-week year format, there is something different about the last quarter of the year before you actually turn the page and get a new calendar and enter into 2024. Yeah, I'm weird because I really do try to make quarters my biggest planning unit. Like I don't try to plan in terms of years. It just always feels to me like it's too abstract. And I know there's like companies and people out there that work on five-year plans and 10-year plans.

But for me, a quarter at a time is good because I feel like it allows me to adjust. I don't want to be stuck with something I decided was important two years ago. And I like the quarter idea, but I mean, there's just something about January 1, right? Even when you work on quarters, I think it's because everybody around you is feeling the sense of renewal. And there is like, I don't know, it's just a digit on a calendar, but there is something special. You hang your new focus calendar on the wall. It's like a fresh, clean slate. You know, everything to me about January 1 feels good. I really don't plan too much around the year, but I do feel it. Like for me, one of the big things this year was getting out of what I've been calling

transition mode. Like when I stopped being a lawyer, which will have been two years on January 1st, I thought that it would take me a couple months to kind of get through transition time. And that is foolish because transitions just take a long time. And even in my case, where I had been being Max Barkey already for 15 years, it wasn't like I was quitting one career and starting a brand new one. It was just like I was choosing one of two. But it really changed for me. I felt like I wanted to up my production values and I wanted to do the labs. And there was a lot of change involved with that. And also just

kind of adjusting to a different life where I had been doing that one career for 30 years and suddenly I'm not anymore. So it took about a year and a half in hindsight. Now, granted, I also added a construction project to the mix and I added the labs, but, but I, uh, I feel like that's a reasonable amount of time when you make a major change in your life, about a year and a half and coming into January one this year, although it wasn't like a year project, I did know that I wanted to stop saying, this isn't working quite yet because I'm in transition and I haven't got it all sorted out yet. I felt like I was using that excuse too much in the first year. And I feel like I'm solidly

past that. So heading into quarter four, looking back, I'm like, well, you know, that one big thing I wanted to make sure happened this year. Well, that that happened. So I'm good. At least that part of it. But all of us, as we head into quarter four, may have a couple of big things that we were thinking about in the year, whether or not we do annual planning. And this is kind of your last chance. Like, let's let's get it going between now and December. And we all know that December usually is rough because you have a lot of family and holiday and different things going on. So it's hard to get a lot done then anyway. True. you are wanting to make progress at the end of the year, but you haven't set any sort of intentions, quarterly intentions previously, it's not too late. That's the whole promise of the 12-week year is that you can get, you know, traditionally we set these annual goals and we procrastinate for 11 months

and then we try to cram at the end. And then we don't quite hit it, but we made we made some progress well why don't you just shorten the time frame and kind of sprint and recover a couple of times throughout the the year so i actually think that quarter four is the perfect time to gain some traction and some momentum going into 2024. I don't have that clean cutoff date. Like this is the January 1st is the day that I became an independent minus kind of somewhere in the middle of quarter two. Uh, but I was reflecting on, um, the intentions that I had set during quarter or four quarter three last time I did a personal retreat and there were a couple related to the next version of the Obsidian University cohort which I am smack dab in the

middle of and then focusing on growing YouTube and the email list because as an independent creator the email list is the thing that allows you to survive so I've been neglecting that for a very long time realized that I need to pay more attention to that I need to survive. So I've been neglecting that for a very long time, realized that I need to pay more attention to that. I need to send newsletters consistently for one thing. And looking back on it now, I see the intentions that I set. And I feel like what they did is they gave me a compass,

but not a blueprint. They gave me a direction. When I created those intentions of obsidian university version 2 and then growing the newsletter i had kind of a number in mind with the newsletter that obviously i was not going to hit if i'm looking back at it now and know what i know now that was completely unrealistic but there's a lot of positive signs there and then with the the city university v2 i initially thought that i'm just going to repeat the first core first cohort material and i'll make a couple of tweaks. But actually, I ended up changing pretty much the entire thing. I took a totally different approach with it based on feedback. And I'm glad that I set those intentions because that allowed me to make the progress that I made. And now going into Q4, I feel like, okay, the Mike that set the Q3

intentions had no idea what he was doing. But that set me up to learn a lot. And now for the next quarter, I feel like I'm more prepared because this is now the second quarter of me being independent that I can accelerate that learning curve that you were talking about. I feel like if you take this approach and do it repeatedly, it doesn't have to take a year and a half. And I don't think that's good or bad, by the way. I think everybody's kind of got their own pace at which they learn and grow and figure things out. But if you want to do it sooner rather than later, you want a bunch of iterations of this. You don't want to just set the intention and then check back on it, you know, 12 months from now. And did I hit it or not? Well, Oh, not quite there yet, I guess. Well, we'll just stick with it and see what happens.

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the Focus podcast. All right, so we've kind of all made our confessions and discussions about the importance of quarter four. Mike, what are we doing with our quarter four planning? Have you finished yours? I have not finished it yet, but I've done a bunch of pre-work. As we were talking about before we hit record, I am actually leaving for my personal retreat. As soon as we are done here, I'm going to go to Getaway House, which is a tiny house in the middle of the woods. And I'm going to finish the process there. But I've kind of got a note started and some things that I've been thinking about and a lot of things that were spurred by activity that happened in quarter three. So definitely enough to kind of talk about the big things here, but still don't have

all the details on like, what are the specific things that I want to start, stop and keep doing that kind of stuff. I'm jealous of you because you guys can get those tiny houses so cheap over there. In California, it's actually quite expensive to go get one for a few days. But I'm going to do that at some point anyway. I've always wanted that. I feel like there's a part of me that could live in one of those. I could be one of those minimalist folk, except I would miss my wood shop, I think. But otherwise, I think I'd be good. But yeah, that's good. I did mine last week.

I just had no appointments from Thursday afternoon till Friday night. So I did it in a day and a half, locked myself in indoor studios, and I went through the steps. And we've talked about that before, kind of what we do on our, our personal retreats. And I know that doing it at home isn't as good as doing it away. I have experienced that, but sometimes you just got to do it at home and whatever works, right? Yeah.

I don't think it's necessarily a deal breaker. I do recommend that when people are going to get away and think about the future, it does help to get into a different space than where you are all the time. Your brain just, maybe this is just me, but if I walk into my office at home, I'm immediately thinking about what's the next video project or what are the other things that I have to edit because that's where this type of work happens for me. And the thinking happens when I am in a different location. And the getaway house is pretty cool. The URL is just getaway.house, but there will be a link in the show notes if you're interested in

these sorts of things. They're kind of positioned as a way to get in nature for people who live in big cities. I do not live close to Milwaukee, but that's the big city in Wisconsin. That Madison, I guess. But Milwaukee is about two hours away. However, this getaway house location where they have a whole bunch of these campsites, they are on the website marketed as the Milwaukee getaway houses, even though they are about 40 minutes from my house and about an hour and a half from Milwaukee. Sure. So I don't know. And you can get passes by the way, for six days or something. And then you can use those at

any of the getaway houses across the, the, uh, the United States. I don't, I don't think they're international, um, yet, but yet, but I was pretty pleased to find these so close to home. And they are really nice. It's a tiny house that has indoor plumbing. It has electricity. So it's got a range. You could cook up some meals, a fire pit outside. It's the perfect environment for this. I did my last one there and I'm excited to go back. And with the code that they had available at the time, it ended up being less than a hundred bucks for me. So less than a decent hotel room, you can't beat that. No, that's perfect, right? Getaway.house. And I too am super interested, but when I was pricing them, they were more like $400 a night

and that was Southern California. So maybe it's, I'll have to check again, but you got me thinking about that. I think the problem with doing it at home is that is your maker space. Like if you, or at the office, you know, if you're somebody who works in a certain space all the time, when you try to do this, this planning in the same place that you make stuff, whether it's writing contracts or making videos or whatever, it is really difficult to get your head into what I would call a manager mode, which is really the goal of these retreats, right? Is to think about the big picture, not doing the work, but about the work. One of the things I've done is I have a comfy leather chair in my studio. Got it years ago and I love it. I sit in it and I do two

things in it. I do manager stuff and I do consumption stuff. Like I read books in that chair and I do planning and stuff in that chair. So I can write there. I've got a little desk I can pull up to it. I've also got the ability to dictate there, but I don't ever do this stuff at my desk with my Mac and my big monitor and the thing where I actually create stuff. And that does help having a little bit of distinction, but it's much better to go off into the woods. And these getaway houses are great because they always have big plate glass windows. So you've got a nice view out into the woods while you sit in bed and gaze on your future. I think you're onto something. You definitely want to do this, get away if you can, but, but I did mine. I did it at home and that's just the way it kind of worked this year. Daisy and I share one car. We got some stuff going on

with the kids. I can't really get away for a few days right now, but it is nice. Yeah. You don't have to get away for a few days. I mean but it is nice. Yeah. You don't have to get away for a few days. I mean, maybe you do. Maybe that's where the closest thing like this is, um, a 40 minute drive for me. You know, I can leave at the end of, uh, I can cut my work day a little bit short because the check-in is at 3 PM and you can get early check-in late checkout, that sort of thing, but essentially 3 PM till 11 AM. And that 3 p.m. to 11 a.m. And that's enough time for me to get a personal retreat done, especially if I don't have access to any of the other stuff,

which is kind of the whole promise of these places. They even have like a wooden cell phone lockbox, they call it. The whole idea is that you're supposed to put your phone in there when you come and then you don't take it out again until you leave. A lot of these places, they don't have cell reception where they are anyways so they tell you you got to download the code to get in before you even get in the car to drive there i mean it's definitely disconnecting and disconnecting uh whatever way shape or form you can do it i think helps you to think more uh i was gonna say clearly or strategically but really i just think there's a whole other level that you get to. It's kind of hard to explain.

But if you are used to thinking about your business or your life in a specific way, you will be shocked the first time that you completely disconnect from everything. And then just consider all of the possibilities. It might be a little bit scary and intimidating at first, actually. I know it was for me, because it's like, wow, I could do all this stuff, but I'm not doing any of it.

What's my problem? You got to figure out what, well, the goal is not to, the trick is not to bite off more than you can chew, not to try to change everything at once. But what's the one thing I can do that's going to make the biggest impact? Tomorrow term move the the needle so maybe that's a good place to get into the the actual actual plans because i know what's going to move the needle

for me yeah yeah what's so what's going to move the needle for you mike yeah well there's actually two things that will move the needle uh one is going to be to continue to grow Obsidian University. I'm in the middle of the second cohort. And I was talking to a couple of people, some close friends who have gone through and run cohort-based courses before. And they basically all told me, you know, you're starting this new business

as an independent creator. You're going into the second cohort. This one's going to be the worst one. The next couple of months are going to suck, but you're going to be able to get through it. And for whatever reason, that was actually really helpful when I heard that. Obviously, I don't want it to be hard. I wish things would click and the money would just start coming in. But I also realized that the first cohort that I launched, there were a bunch of people who were familiar with my work and this was something new that I was doing. And so they jumped on it right away. And the second cohort, all the super fans were already in the first one.

So now it's a numbers game with the email list that I had neglected. So the thing that I want to make sure that I do though, is I want to focus on the quality before the quantity I don't want to grow the list and get a bunch of people in Obsidian University if I can't deliver a top-notch experience so I went through the first one got a ton of great feedback changed basically the entire thing so it focuses more not just on the technical features of Obsidian, but it's more the values-based productivity and creativity workflows. It's kind of my wheelhouse anyway. And when people were telling me that's what they liked and that's what I should do more of, it's like, okay, well, I'll do that. And so I feel like what I've got now is a very great experience, a very great material

that I'm finishing up this next one. And then the way that I am focusing on growing the list is not just, hey, everybody sign up for my list, but I've been experimenting with YouTube over the last several weeks. This was something that was spurred by something from my previous personal retreat. I have my 2023 Q3 document open in front of me. And the number one thing I wrote down under what should I start doing? I have work with Matt Raglin for the newsletter, question mark. Well, you know that I ended up working with Matt and he gave me a bunch of great feedback that led to Obsidian University being what it is. And one of the things that he told me right when we

started working together, he's like, you got to start cranking out these YouTube videos. Like, okay, I guess I'll do it. I don't know if I can, you know, it was one of those things where I didn't know if I had enough ideas to make enough quality YouTube videos, but I've done one a week now for I think six or seven, maybe even eight weeks. And the growth is starting. I'm starting to see the growth. And the thing with YouTube for me is I don't want to get my YouTube channel to a certain number of subscribers, and now I can monetize and put all my eggs in that basket.

I'm not a YouTuber first. I am an Obsidian coach first. Obsidian University is the thing that I want to get people to because that's where I feel like I can provide the greatest value. But building the YouTube videos and talking about Obsidian templates and having the free starter vault that people can download. I guess I really haven't mentioned that in this medium. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes if people are interested in it. But that's all the thing that I'm able to help people with the problems that they have

regarding Obsidian. And then the Obsidian University thing is the next logical step. Not everybody's going to be interested in it. That's fine. But enough people will be. That's going to be the thing that's going to help me to grow and survive as a creator. And honestly, that's the thing I love helping people do is set up their technology and their PKM stacks specifically around Obsidian because I think it's such a great tool for thought in a way that helps them be intentional with their life so they can collect the information that's actually going to be useful for them and generate better ideas and take better actions to live a life in in alignment with their their vision and their values well i mean i think youtube makes a ton of sense for you it's been on my short list forever too

and like i do i did like something like 200 videos for the labs in the last year for YouTube that nobody sees unless you're in the labs. And like we've been working, me and my helper, JF, have been working on refining the production of videos and making them good and get them out. But I haven't shared much publicly and that's something I want to do, but I've got a bunch of ideas for that. And I never seem to quite get to it. That's definitely on my list for quarter four, too. I don't think it's going to hit full stream, but I'd like to get to a point where I at least release two public ones a month. And we're taking steps to do that as well. So I guess we've got similar goals, except you're ahead of me there.

You're getting them out. You're actually getting them out the door. Yeah, well, I don't know if the term ahead is the right one to use there, because the mistake I think you can make with creating in general, but YouTube specifically, is to look at somebody who's been doing it for a while and say, oh, well, they've got 10,000 subscribers, and that could have been me if I had started earlier. Yeah, don't do it that way really all you can do is make good stuff for the people who you can help and you got to know where they are I mean YouTube's not the right answer for for everyone for for Mac Sparky it probably makes a a lot of sense there are probably some some Mac nerds there who could benefit from some of the field guide materials that you put out. But then it's just consistency and you continually show up and

you continually make good stuff. And what I love about YouTube specifically is that's the one where the algorithm is incentivized to help you find the people that you can help if you do it the right way. I mean, I don't see you making the clickbaity titles and all that kind of stuff. Well, it's definitely something on my list for quarter four. And for me, it's the next field guide. I'm always thinking about the next one. And the Obsidian field guide took eight months. It was a really hard thing to produce. You're an Obsidian teacher, too. You understand the challenge of this thing is that it can do anything. And that's the beauty and the reason we love it. But it also makes it really hard to teach, which is why things like Obsidian University are so good.

But it takes work to figure out how to teach that. It takes work, and then takes uh continual updating um this is both a blessing and a curse with obsidian specifically is that the team is on a tear and it changes uh at least weekly sometimes daily uh and you know that means that if you're gonna have uh up-to-date materials that are gonna teach people how to how to use you got to stay up with all the updates. Also on my list as we head into quarter four is family time. I want to make sure that this holiday season is special for us. My kids are getting older.

At some point, I'll see them maybe less often. What if one of them gets a job and moves to the other side of the country or something? So I definitely want to make sure that as we get to the holidays, we continue our family traditions and we have time to do that and for me to be fully present when that happens.

So I've looked at the things that we often do and I've made time for it and blocked off entire days in some places and I've done that already. So that time is sacred and people are not going to be able to take it over and I'm not going to let my, uh, my maker addiction take over those days either. Yeah. That one, uh, it's interesting because, um, as I'm thinking through Q4, there's a lot that needs to happen for the future of Mike Schmidt's industries. Um, and we've kind of talked about it as a family that this is going to be a busy season. So I intend to take some time off at strategic points.

Like actually, I staggered the Obsidian University launch a little bit so that it wraps up before my son's end of the year. They've got this national high school soccer tournament that they play in in Tennessee. And so Obsidian University will be done before I go down there because I want to not have to worry about that for those couple of days. And there'll be time at the very end of the year between Christmas and New Year's where I'm going to be setting that aside to be with family also. But the rest of the time, there's kind of a collective understanding in the Schmitz household that dad's going to be less available over the near term, but with the belief that that is going to free some things up in the long term. And you have to have the right approach with that

because it's got to be systems. It's got to be things that can scale and automate. Not that I'm going to completely automate things, but I need to make things as repeatable and as simple as they can be so they take minimal effort because that is the long-term goal. By March of next year, I want to be in complete control of my calendar. And that means that I've got to have enough in the pipeline that it can support me just deciding, you know what, my kids need me today and I'm going to take

the day off. Don't feel like I can do that right now. And that's kind of the trade-off that we've made is that it's going to be busy for now, but by March of 2024, it's going to be different. And I guess if we get to that point and it's not different, then we got to have a more serious discussion. But I think it's okay to have the ebbs and flows kind of to your point previously, recognizing, well, this is what Q4 is going to look like for me. But you can't just pedal to the metal all the time. That's not sustainable. You are going to burn out.

So if you have a period of real intense work, like I'm going to have over the next 90 days, honestly, then that's got to be followed by a little bit of a deceleration. You got to come up for air. Yeah. And I think we all have periods like that, whether we work for someone else or work for ourself. And I know that you're going through that right now because you've made some big changes and you want this to work. So you're going to have to put the time in. It's also true in terms of just general bandwidth. And I think this is a good time as you're doing your quarter plan to look at your general bandwidth for the quarter. You know, for instance, that you're going to not have much because of what you're doing, but that's okay once in a while. Just don't make it the full-time thing.

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ZocDoc.com slash focused. Our thanks to ZocDoc for their support of the Focus podcast and all of RelayFM. We talked about toxic productivity a few times with our guests over the last couple of shows, but we touch on it and move on with a guest. I wanted to go deeper down that rabbit hole. We did a show on it, what, about 18 months ago now? I've kind of lost track of time, but this continues to be an issue. And I get lots of email from people who found Focus Podcast and, and are

specifically complimentary that they like the fact that we don't tell people we have all the answers all the time. But I think this issue of toxic productivity is one that anybody interested in this stuff needs to be aware of and, and avoid. And I thought it'd be fun to kind of talk about how we find ourselves getting trapped in stuff like this. Have you found yourself getting trapped in toxic productivity as of late? I've gotten trapped in a maybe different version of this. So toxic productivity can manifest a lot of different ways. a lot of different ways. Uh, but the one that it is showing up as for me is, uh, these other things that I quote unquote should be doing because as a new, uh, full-time creator, I'm still trying to

figure out what are the best places for me to concentrate my efforts. And I believe that, you know, in the past segment, we talked about YouTube being one of those, but that was from trial and error. This is not the first time I've tried YouTube. I went through Ali Abdaal's part-time YouTuber Academy about a year and a half ago, and it just never really stuck for me. And then you go to something like craft and commerce and you meet all these cool people and they're doing all these amazing things and you're like, oh, I should do this. I should do that.

I should be on TikTok. I should do all these things. And you have to figure out as a creator, what are the ones that are worth showing up at? And so I feel like I'm still kind of scrambling because I want to gain traction. But at some point, I've got to be able to say, you know what, the other opportunities that are out there, those are nice. Maybe I'll check those out at some point. But for me, for right now, that's just not the thing. And I'm going to focus on this thing for now. And YouTube is the

thing that I am focusing on. The newsletter is kind of coupled with that. But I know that there's people who say, oh, you should be on LinkedIn. That's where the people who are willing to spend the money on professional development are going to hang out. I haven't really done anything on LinkedIn. Yeah, that is an opportunity, but if I try to do that now, I'm going to be spread too thin. And because I can convince myself that this is something that I should be doing, and it's going to be a busy season for myself anyways, it's easy for me to just add one more thing, one more thing, one more thing. And pretty soon now I've got absolutely no margin. I've got no downtime. I'm working all weekend and that's not a good or a healthy thing. So I'm trying to find that balance of, yeah, I know that this is going to be a busy season and I got to grow as quickly as I can,

recognizing there are no shortcuts for that. So I'm not gonna, you know, find some magic beans somewhere that are gonna just magically transform my, my, uh, creator, uh, my creator life. Uh, it's going to take some time and some consistency to get to the level of some of the other people that I, I look up to up to, yourself included. But that's okay. And just picking my horse and riding that one. I'm not sure if that makes sense. But for me, it's real easy to get excited about something that I see somebody else doing and be like, oh, well, I could probably do that too. And having to force myself not to entertain those thoughts and stay focused on

the thing that I've decided to do for the next 90 days, which is honestly why I love the personal retreat so much. When I say I'm not going to worry about that right now, what I'm really saying is I'm not going to think about that for the next 90 days. But at 90 days, I give myself permission to go back and reconsider it if it's something I'm still interested in. Yeah, I think there's something to that. And it really does help to have that renewal after 90 days. I think there's also a couple elements of toxic productivity. Because the thing you're talking about, I think of as creator addiction.

The thing is, I love making stuff, right? And there's a part of me that just really can't help myself, right? It's like, oh, I learned about something. I'm like, oh, I could share this. Or, oh, I want to go further down the stack on this and see what I could do with it. And everything I do goes that way. Like I was working in the shop the other day, like I talked about on the show, the wood shop for me is a little kind of escape from being super productive. It's a place where I work slow. And I was thinking, well, I should make some videos on how I do this. And it's like, no, you have to slow down. You know, it's like, so I guess that is an element of toxic productivity

is not stopping. And it's even harder when you enjoy doing it all. Like I was a lawyer for 30 years. Some of the stuff I did was not fun, right? But you did it anyway. And like with the stuff I do now, it's all fun and it's all interesting. And so much of it leads to positive feedback from other humans. So it triggers the chemicals in your brain. So that, I guess that's one form of toxic productivity. What I was thinking about also when I introduced the topic, though, is this idea that, oh, there's a better, more productive way to do this. And you just have to get this app or you just have to get this service or you just have to do this thing. And then all of a sudden it gets better.

And there's so many snake oil salesmen on the Internet that are telling you that repeatedly. It's very hard to not get trapped in that once in a while. That's true. Although I lately have been going to the other extreme with that. So I do some writing on the side still for the suite setup. And we literally had a call this morning where we talked through what we're going to be writing about over the next couple months. And there's things that people are interested in new apps, new operating systems, uh, that I have

no knowledge about. And what was kind of alarming to me today was I have no desire to go download the latest calendar app and figure it out. You know, I'm perfectly happy with the things that I've got. And maybe part of that is Obsidian because the community plug-in architecture and like there's constantly new things that you can do with it. Like that's going to keep me busy because I'm kind of chosen that that's, that's going to be where I'm going to plant my flag for now. But I don't know, it's, it's different. I, I don't feel the need to try the latest task manager or the latest calendar application. Maybe they've just gotten to the point where what, you know, we've got an embarrassment of riches and I feel like whatever I would choose

is going to be good enough for my simple needs. But yeah, that is a flavor of toxic productivity, but it was kind of jarring to me today when I realized that I don't really struggle with that part of it anymore. Yeah, and I do think that what you just said is absolutely true. These tools have matured to a point where any number

of tools can do the job for you. And if you're spending your time, spending hours trying to say, well, is this one better than that one? Is this the good thing that's going to make it possible? Then you are worried about the wrong problem. And anytime you catch yourself into that rabbit hole, then you need to be careful. You mentioned calendar apps. There's a new thing going on where everybody's making web-based calendar tools that have tasks built in. And what they're really doing is time blocking. It's an app that allows you to put your task on a calendar and time block. Time blocking has been around since a long time. Let's say at least Ben Franklin, probably Aristotle. And so this is not new science

here. And you don't need an app that combines them. You can time block with a piece of paper. But when you catch yourself going down those rabbit holes saying, well, if I just get this app, will this make it possible for me? That is toxic productivity. That is, to me, the thing you need to say, red flag, I need to stop exactly what I'm doing and get down and sit with my list and do something that I need to ship rather than worry about this. Even as a guy who makes a living teaching about these things, where I could, I guess, say I'm doing it as research, even for me, it's toxic productivity.

So I think that's one of the easy traps to get in is like, I need the best workflow. I need the app that's going to suddenly make it possible to get things done. Well, I got news for you. There's lots of people that actually ship things that don't have that tool. Yeah. The biggest hindrance to you doing the thing is no longer the technology at your disposal.

It's a gray matter between your ears. Yeah. So when I see myself going down those, those, those bits, I try to stop and sometimes I journal about it. You know, I guess the bell should ring.

I talked about journaling again. The other thing I find useful for this is when I find a tool that I like, I write down the reasons I'm using it. I just keep a running list. Oh, this is what I, this is the app I like. This is what I'm doing with it. This is why. And that's a page in my Obsidian database. And, and every time I get tempted to replace it, I go read that. And then suddenly that helps kind of cure me of the, of the disease of, Oh no, there's something newer and shinier that I must go use. No, that, that doesn't, that helps. It's like, I've already, I've already done the homework. I've already written down the research. Something's going to have to be way better for me to spend the time to transition. One of the things that I have, uh, I'm teaching in the Obsidian university, um, sessions this

time around, uh, is picking the, the apps that you're going to use. And a lot of the people, obviously in Obsidian university, Obsidian is going to be part of that, but it's not going to be everything yeah and you need to set up your your system so that these things can tie together and and before you can really do that you have to know what jobs you are hiring your apps to do i remember friend ernie telling us about the Christian Clayton's in video Clayton Christiansen Clayton Christiansen yes correct he his firm was working with McDonald's to help them make better milkshakes and they were optimizing for all the wrong things at first until they started interviewing the the customers

who were buying them because they realized half of them were sold before 8 a.m. and the people who bought them were alone. And so why did you buy that milkshake? Well, I got a long drive to work. I don't want to be hungry when I get there and I need something that's not going to be messy in the car. And at that point, you know, it doesn't matter how chocolatey it is or anything like that. You maybe want a thinner straw so it lasts longer, something like that. And the tools that we have at our disposal, there's so many features and they're so powerful, they can do all of these different things.

But you need to know exactly what the apps that you're using, the intention that you are going to have behind them. And one of the things I've battled with, maybe this fits in toxic productivity, is you have this app and Obsidian is a great example of this and you feel bad because you're only using it for this one thing and you know people who are doing all of these things out of it. The one that kind of stands out to me is OmniFocus because I remember being in a Tim Stringer Learn OmniFocus session and people making a comment about how my setup was pretty simple. And the further I get from that event,

the further I realize that I shouldn't care what anybody else thinks about my system. I shouldn't care if I'm only scratching the surface of the functionality of that particular application. If it's an application I like to use and it's providing me value, then I should just use it and enjoy it. And likewise, if you are looking for a new app to plug into your workflow, you got to know exactly what you at least think it's going to give you that the current apps that you're using are not. Because to your point, you're not just going to download whatever app and move everything over

there and now it's going to click and it's all puppies and rainbows you're just going to replicate the problems that were in your previous system now in a new system yeah and you're going to be looking for whatever replaces that instead of actually doing the work that is toxic productivity i mean it's it's reading the next hot book but downloading the next hot app and thinking this is the answer that i've been waiting for my whole life look the answer is already there you just got to find it you know and i like books and i like apps don't get me wrong but you when it when the rubber meets the road, it's on you. And whether you're using OmniFocus or a napkin or Obsidian or Reminders or whatever, are you shipping? Are you getting the work done? That's the question. This episode of the Focus Podcast is brought to you by CleanMyMac X.

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apps as it pertains to toxic productivity. And that leads into a concept that I have been anxious to talk to you about. That is the PKM stack. And I don't know, maybe there's someone else who came up with this concept before I did but just my thought process as I was thinking about this was when you've got a web application you've got a technology stack which is a whole bunch of different things that have to communicate together in order for the software to be delivered And I started thinking about how that actually applies to our personal knowledge management systems. And we've got all this information that's bouncing around and what are we doing with it? How is it connecting and moving between the different pieces

of our PKM system in a way that allows us to actually make something out of it. You kind of mentioned there has to be an output. You didn't say those exact words, but I agree. There's got to be some sort of, even if you're not a creator, there's got to be some sort of creative act associated with all of this knowledge that we're trying to manage. And I like this idea of the stack with these different levels because I feel like there's two different ways that information can come here. It can come the default way from the bottom up, or it could come the intentional way from the top down. So you've come up with a little bit of a hierarchy.

So you've come up with a little bit of a hierarchy. Let's go through it. Yeah, I have. And then I'm curious to hear where you think, like, which of these really stands out to you or maybe what of this is different for you. But yeah, so I call this the PKM stack. And this is really at the heart of my personal knowledge management system. At the bottom level is the information. And that's basically the stuff to keep. A lot of people in the Subsidium University cohort are coming from Evernote. And they've got the traditional approach with Evernote, which is I've sent stuff in there. I haven't

looked at it for a long time. And now I'm looking to bring it over into a new system. And I tell them, don't just transfer it. Don't just import it all into Obsidian because you want to go through and you want to make a quality check and see if that stuff is actually going to be valuable for you. But then even beyond just like the archive, which is really the tool that you use at this information level, I can stick something in there and I can dig it up later if I need it. Just thinking about what is the tool that you use at this information level. I can stick something in there and I can dig it up later if I need it. Just thinking about what is the information that I choose to feed on? What is the thing that I allow to come into my sphere of influence? I'm reminded of Jim Rohn's three questions. Who am I allowing to speak into my life? What impact is that having and is that

okay? I think that applies to the information that you're consuming as well. Now the next level is the ideas and these are things that you need to develop. And this is kind of in between the information and then the actions. So the tasks, the projects, the things that you're going to be doing. And for me, that's really important. I've got my creativity flywheel, which is the whole process that's behind how I develop my own ideas. And I think this is the one that maybe a lot of people don't really think about. They've got the information they're consuming, the RSS that they're reading, the podcast that they're listening to, the courses that they're going through, YouTube videos that they're watching. But you don't take any time to

think about, well, what does this really mean to me? It's just information that you consume. There is no output. And I really believe that your mind is kind of like a water wheel. There's got to be an inflow and there's got to be an outflow. And it doesn't have to be, well, I published something, published a blog post that articulates my thoughts on whatever thing. If you want to do that, great. But really even just something like an opinion note in Obsidian I found really helpful for answering the question, what do I really think about this? From there, obviously the actions level,

this is the tasks and the projects, but it's also the habits and the routines. And at this point, you've got information, ideas, and actions. If you just let a default lifestyle, you could work that from the bottom up. And I think that is what a lot of people do unintentionally. And it causes a lot of stress and anxiety because they have trouble finding purpose and meaning behind what they do.

So I've added another layer at the very top, which is the philosophy. This is the vision and the values. And this is what you want your life to be about and what are the things that I'm going to do that are going to help me live in alignment with that. When you have that philosophy, now you can work from the top down. And instead of being a default life, now you're leading an intentional life. So you got your vision and your values, and then you can look at the actions and the projects and what you do for work and all that type of stuff and ask yourself, does this line up? And if not, you can make some changes. If it does, great. It's possible at this point, all of the actions that you're engaged in aren't really going to change. But

once you realize that they are in line with your vision and your values, now you've infused meaning into them and they're more exciting. It's something that you look forward to. And then once you have that, I believe even the ideas that you entertain and the information that you choose to consume changes because you're looking for those little mental Lego bricks that are going to be helpful and they're going to help you create something new down the road. And the process, I think, that kind of keeps this in check because you've got this intentional life from the top down. And I'll put a visual in the show notes. I've also got a YouTube video about this where I've talked through some of this. But the thing that keeps you living the intentional life from the top down instead of just reacting to the information that's before you

from the bottom up, in my opinion, is the reflection piece. And that's everything we're talking about today, the quarterly retreats, the thinking time breaks, the journaling, the mindfulness meditation. These are all practices that can help us just stay on that right path. But this is a constant battle. And we have to recognize that just because we've lived an intentional life for a little while doesn't mean that that's going to all of a sudden become the default. There's still going to be a struggle and we have to daily fight to protect that. And I have a lot of feedback on this really, to tell you the truth. To me, the entry level is, I guess I would say philosophy or core beliefs. And that is what everything has

to be grounded on. That's why we talk about going to quarterly personal retreats and getting in touch with yourself with journaling and meditation. You're right. I think that has to exist in order for any of the rest of it to make sense, at least for me. But to me, the next block after that are the ideas that come out of those core beliefs and philosophy. And then that gets translated into action. So I think I would flip those two on your stack. And then, so for me, it would be philosophy followed by ideas arising from that, and then actions arising from the ideas. But this is all semantics. And then for me, the information doesn't fit in the PKM stack. Information is the bombardment you receive from the world.

And you have a PKM stack. And then information slams against those walls. And you decide what gets in the door and what you decide to ignore. Because the true problem, I think, of the modern world is too much information. against those walls and you decide what gets in the door and what you decide to ignore because the true problem i think of the modern world is too much information like um no generation before us has had so much at their fingertips my own parents didn't have it and certainly my grandparents my grandfather worked in a coal mine i mean i think he went to work every day he came home he probably had a beer and went to bed. He didn't have the internet.

But the unique problem as humans we have now is there's so much information coming at us. And some of it's right. Some of it's wrong. Some of it is of good intent. And some of it is of ill intent. And we are getting pummeled with all of it. And unless you have the walls that a PKM stack represents, the philosophy, core beliefs, and ideas that you can judge them against, how do you know what to let in and not

to let in? So this is an interesting concept. I think I would go a little different direction with it, but I love the exercise of it, of going through and thinking about it. But I love the exercise of it, of going through and thinking about it. Nice. Yeah, I think the ideas that I'm talking about are maybe a little bit different than kind of the code that you're talking about. Sure. I think that's how Cal Newport would define it. But essentially, I've started with the problem, the default lifestyle, because that information piece, this is the one that we can't escape. And if we don't curate the information that we collect, we don't realize

the impact that it has on us. And I'm reminded of Tiago Forte's quote from Building a Second Brain, that information is the fundamental building block of everything that you do. So I started from there and then realized that the information that you collect can spark ideas, but oftentimes it doesn't spark ideas. So at that point, why? Because I remember talking to a bunch of people when I was with the Sweet Setup, biggest obstacle they have to idea management. And there were quite a few people who said, you know, I don't think I'm creative. I have trouble coming up with ideas. And there were quite a few people who said, I don't think I'm creative. I have trouble coming up with ideas. And I relate to that, my own creative journey. I said at one point, I guess I'm just not creative. And then I realized that I read Austin Kleon's

Steal Like an Artist and realized that creating is just connecting dots in different ways. Oh, well, now creativity is a system or a formula. If I collect better information, if I collect better dots, then the results are going to take care of themselves. And I feel like that's kind of what's happened in my life. And that's why I love something like Obsidian with that graph view, specifically the local graph, because it visualizes how these connections I feel are being made in my, my brain anyways. So then, you know,

I've got this information. I have an, I have ideas or a lack of the ideas. And then because of that, am I choosing intentional actions or am I just showing up every day and doing the thing because this is what I do. Yeah. And so that's the actions level to me is the one where the switch gets flipped if you've got

that philosophy piece but you are absolutely right that philosophy piece that's the one that you got to figure out there's no shortcut to that uh you can say well i can't you know make judgment calls on the things that i'm doing because i don't have that piece and I can't figure that part out because I'm too busy. Well, eventually you just got to take the break and figure it out. And when you do, it's going to provide the clarity that you need to make the right adjustments. I feel like that's something everybody should take the time to figure out. It's why I do the life theme cohort, which I guess I should have mentioned, I'm hoping to do one of those this next quarter as well, which is all about figuring out what are my personal core values? What is my personal mission statement? And then once you've identified that stuff, then it's a lot easier to

live in alignment with it. Without that piece, you're left just kind of grasping at straws and hoping that something somewhere is going to resonate. It's tough. And honestly, the technology piece of this is you do need to figure out a way to make sense of it. And this is a place where technology can help you if you're smart about it. Yeah, exactly. Which is why so many of us went crazy for Obsidian, because it's like a tool built for this. Yeah, exactly. And that's why in the cohort, one of the things that I make people do is diagram their PKM stack.

So these are the different levels, but the next step then is like, well, what are the apps that support my intentional actions? Okay, how do I manage tasks and projects? And I can tell you for me, I've got different apps for personal and work projects. I use Notion for all the work stuff because I have to collaborate on that. And for the personal stuff, I'm using Todoist.

And how am I developing my ideas? I've got that creativity flywheel. I've got different apps at different places that help me execute on that creativity flywheel. And what are the ways that I consume information? And what are the sources of the information that I'm consuming? You know, if you start with the vision and the values and like what you want your life to be about, it's a lot easier to plug in things that support the positive outcome that you're after.

that support the positive outcome that you're after. But without that piece, you're left kind of trying the new shiny because you feel like, well, the tasks and projects that I'm working on, you know, I feel frustrated every time I open my task manager. I don't really know why. It must just be the UI or something about the design. And eventually I'll find something that clicks. No, it's probably the stuff that's on your list, the projects that you're engaged with. I mean, that's the thing, right? You said, well, this, this app will solve all my problems. It won't. The fact that you're looking for that solution outside yourself is the problem. Yep. And, and you can find an app and be happy with it. I've been using the same task manager for 15 years. I could have done it and probably some other task manager, but I'm not looking at

the task manager as the source of the problem. I'm looking at the thing between my two ears as the source of the problem. You know, the resistance, the, the fact that some days it's on the list. I have a perfectly capable app of showing me the list and I don't do the list. Well, what is that problem? And it's not the app guys. It's you. Yep. You are the problem, but also you are the solution. And that's why the quarterly thinking and figuring out your intentions and ultimately like what thinking even bigger about your life and the type of life that you you want to live is is so important you're not going to hit it perfectly but it doesn't matter progress not

perfection you can move even a little bit more in alignment with that future that you're envisioning that's a win and you do that consistently enough and you've made a positive impact in the world and you can define for yourself what that positive impact is. But it's up to you to do the best you can with what you've got to work with. That kind of gets at my, I mentioned my life theme previously. And I revamped mine a little bit ago. a little bit ago. And the one that I've landed on is essentially I'm a multiplier is how I condense it. I help people find their way, multiply their time and talent, leave a bigger dent in the universe. And once I've got that, now whenever I'm presented with an opportunity, is it in alignment

with that? Is it in alignment with the core values that I've identified that we've got printed and hanging on our living room wall? If it's not, then it's a lot easier to say no to those things. And the more things that you say no to, the better you are at the things that you say yes to, the less overwhelmed you feel, the more you feel like you're hitting the mark. I mean, you got to start somewhere, but the minute that you start moving in this direction, I feel like the compound effect kicks in. And the more that you move in alignment with your vision and values, the more momentum you gain and the more exciting life becomes. But you're never going to even start that journey if you're just waiting for somebody else to fix it for you you have to i hate the term you know take responsibility but essentially like that's

that's what it is yeah and maybe ownership is a better way to say it because there are things that happen to people that aren't their fault and there's nothing you can do about it but sitting there and wishing that it was different is not helpful either. And maybe you can't change everything, but change what you can. Figure out what you can control and try to move the needle in that area. Still, I'm just looking at my Obsidian Sparky OS. I've got an entry in here that says there are two options for blame. One, blame yourself. Two, blame nobody.

And I don't know what led me to write that down one day, but I do find myself coming back to it on occasion, including you can't blame the apps, you can't blame the people. Blame yourself or blame nobody and move on. Boy, that's pretty judgmental honestly when i look at it ah my goodness uh well uh that's fun that's a fun experiment i would recommend anybody listening give some thought to that so there's really two levels to what mike is talking about with the pkm stack it's how do you decide to defend yourself against the information bombardment from the world and decide what you stand for and what matters? And then the second piece of it is technologically or analog, whatever. What's the tool set you use to hold the line?

It's a fun experiment. I actually have a note, too. I call it the Max Bargay technology stack, and I document stuff in there. That's another way I defend myself from toxic productivity is like, I call it the Max Bargay technology stack. And I, I document stuff in there. That's another way I defend myself from toxic productivity is like, I have a system. This is here for a reason. I'm not going to, I'm not going to take this little piece out of the puzzle unless I've got a really good reason to do so. Cause the job of the system is to, you know, to punch little widgets at the bottom. It's not to change the system or manage the system. track, interview, and hire all in one place. So instead of spending hours on multiple job sites searching for candidates with the right skills, you can use Indeed's powerful hiring platform and

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All right, Mike, we haven't covered it in a while, but let's talk about some shiny new objects. And I got one that I've been wanting to talk to the Focus crowd about for a while. It's the Ugg Monk cards. Now, I know that I've talked about to talk to the focus crowd about for a while. It's the Ugmonk cards. Now, I know that I've talked about these before. You're a fan as well. We had Jeff Sheldon on this show, and he sold me.

I use Ugmonk cards in my task system for the final mile. Stuff gets marked off in my task manager and written on a card at the very end, and then I don't go to the task manager for that stuff. It just doesn't need to happen. And in fact, like you and I, before we started recording today, we're talking about a thing that we're going to schedule a call on. I didn't even put it in the task system. I just wrote it down on tomorrow's card. I'm going to schedule that with you. So, so it has served a purpose for me, but Jeff came out with a new product a couple of months ago, which are Ugmonk weekly cards. And they are, I would say about two or three inches tall and about six or seven inches wide. And it's just a, it's a horizontal card with the days of the week and little grids on it,

where you can write down the stuff you're going to do over the week. It's got, you know, Monday through Sunday listed on it logically. And I have a fancy digital calendar that I can open anytime on my screen and look at. But I thought, since I like the tasks on the cards at the end, I thought I'd put the calendar as well. So now every week I get these cards out and I write down on them my commitments for the week. And the darn thing is, it's. Even if I turn my computer off, anytime I look down at this card, I've got a list of things I'm doing over the next week. I really dig it. Yeah. So that's the Ugmonk analog weekly version. I have this, the same one, because I saw yours and I'm like, that looks awesome. I need that. And I have a standard

index card right here that i'm comparing it to and it's basically if you tip it up so it's it's been portrait view it's the same width as a normal index card but it's about the length of one and two-thirds index cards yeah so it is a dot grid and it's got this layout where there's five boxes on the top for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then two not as tall, wider boxes on the bottom for Saturday and Sunday. And the idea behind this is that you kind of map out the big things that are going to happen throughout the week. And I think this is a brilliant idea. This is a brilliant idea this is a phenomenal compliment to the ug monk analog that you and i both have but like the standard uh note cards i've got both of these on my desk currently

yeah and i i did buy them i got the package where it comes with a nice little walnut stand but in my life because i have so many stream decks on my desk, there's not really room for the full stand. So what I've been doing is I keep like the next three weeks tilted up. I've got a way to display them on my desk without the stand. And that seems to be working for me, but I didn't need the stand in hindsight, but I really like these and I actually am using them about two, hindsight, but I really like these and I actually am using them about two, three weeks from now. So like I can flip it down and see next week's card generally what's coming. And again, this doesn't mean I don't use a digital calendar anymore, but it does just give me an idea of what's coming and you know, where do I have time? Like there's a project I'm working on.

I need about six hours of real focused time and i was looking at it yesterday i'm like oh there's a day that has nothing on it i'm gonna protect that day um so so they're they're kind of nice i like them i've got a a shiny new analog object as well so are you familiar with the hobonichi techo planners? Oh, yeah. I know about them. I've never had one, but I know they're very popular. Yeah, well, I've got one, and I probably mispronounced the name

because, honestly, I have never understood the hype with these. It's a planner that actually comes in several different versions. So the one that I have is the, let's see, it's the planner book. And it's got the entire year, but it's got weekly pages, it's got individual daily pages. And essentially, it's a planner that I'm planning to do all of my time blocking in. There are also complimentary ones like you can get a tall skinny one which is the weeks one

and there's like real small I guess they're a six size you know you can have that as like a field note size notebook that that you've always got with you. You've got the one page per day. You've got the weekly calendar on the left. You've got the monthly calendar. They've even got like a five year version. So I got a notification from Anderson Pens that it's Hobonichi season. They've got them in. You know, you come look at them, but they always sell out really quickly. And I've never understood the hype. So I went and I looked at them. They've got really nice Tomoe River paper. And I like the look of them. I'm going to try this this year. So I picked one up, but deciding which one to get and which combination of one to get is not simple. I tried to ask for some guidance and they're like, well,

it's kind of up to you. There's people that do this, there's people that do that. And there's a bunch of different options that you can get like different covers for the different books. You can easily sink hundreds of dollars into this. I've decided not to do that. I just bought the A5 size all-in-one type type planner but um i am going to give this a shot and i like the idea of using this as the single source of truth and then transferring my daily plans from there to the ug monk note cards and the the weekly cards that are on the desk so it's always in in front of me i guess i'll have to report back on how that actually works. But that's the thought for 2024. So are you going to keep your calendar events in it as well? I don't think I'll keep the calendar events in it.

Maybe I will have the big events that I for sure want to plan around in there. Like if I know I'm going to be doing another cohort of Obsidian University, and it's going to start in mid-January, putting those things on that calendar. But if someone books a coaching call or something, I'm not making sure that it's always up to date. I'm going to use the digital calendar for that. And the New Year calendar is going to be in the same spot. And that's going to be my yearly calendar and the big trips and things like that. But I think it will be helpful to have some of the stuff that

is on that, that focused new year calendar also in this, this book. I don't know exactly how, where the balance is going to be with that, but I do know if I try to keep everything in there, I'm quickly going to give up on it. Yeah, that's the thing. I still need digital tools. I mean, to me, analog becomes, like I said, the last mile. And every time I get one of these, I've done the same thing with various paper planners over the years. I just never stick with it because things are always changing. In fact, some of my calendars, other people have control of and things are changing sometimes without me even realizing it. So writing it down in these books is just probably a futility, exercising futility. But for time blocking,

kind of like, you know, the historical Cal Newport draw line down the center of the page stuff, I could see how this would be a nice like a historical record. down the center of the page stuff, I could see how this would be a nice historical record. Yeah, that's the goal. I think the biggest job I'm hiring this to solve is the time blocking piece. And if it doesn't work, I've still got my fancy notebook with the paper that I custom order. Got a whole bunch of that still punched. And I can do that by hand every single day. But I think at the very least, it'll be nice to have those daily pages and use that for time blocking, if nothing else. And I kind of don't know how many of the other features I'm going to use, but I can tell you that the book itself feels really nice. The paper is really

thin, which I was a little bit concerned about. But as I mentioned previously, I have a new fountain pen i got at the the anderson pens pen party for deep focus subscribers i think i talked about about that in one of those episodes and uh it's got a posting nib so it's a really really fine nib and and it's actually the my favorite nib of any pen that i've ever used so i feel like that's the perfect pen for this as well again we'll see if it sticks but i'm going to give it a shot so they've got three different models the avec day free and standard which one did you get you know oh man uh i guess day free doesn't probably have the dates written

on it day free that would be my guess yeah i i think there's actually more than that um day free a5 size that might be the one that i got uh i know i got the the planner book so this one has i can share a link here but this isn't the exact one that i got um this is the one from the website that i was able to uh to dig up but uh essentially it's got all the different components so it's got the daily pages it's got the the weekly and the monthly stuff and then it's even got a bunch of blank pages at the the back that you can just use to take notes on things. Yeah, it is definitely overwhelming. Like if you're interested in a Hobonichi planner, it's like you need a Sherpa to find which

one you're supposed to use because there's so much, right? Yeah, exactly. And there's a whole bunch of accessories and things that you can get to go with it. Custom rulers and stickers and covers. and it's definitely a rabbit hole um i'm fighting going too far down it till i know that it's gonna work yeah well you got me curious but if i wait this will be a thing if i wait like a couple weeks it'll be too late because they always sell out so maybe uh my um my delay will be to my benefit i don't know yeah that's the the thing i've always avoided this because by the time i've been hearing about this for the last three or four weeks maybe i'll check it out that they were already gone and he had to wait till next year

yeah but was in the right place at the right time this year and and picked one up all right well we are the focus podcast you can find us at relay.fm slash focus. Don't forget about those calendars gangs. The new year calendars are now available. Got a link in the show notes where you can go check it out and order yours today. Thank you to our sponsors, electric ZocDoc and clean my Mac X. And indeed, uh, for the deep focused episode today, I'm going to be talking about my new interest in pencils, of all things. Deep Focus is the extended ad-free version of the show.

We'd love to have you. You can sign up for that over at relay.fm slash focused as well. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.