Spotify Playlists
I’ve been meaning to find a good way to share my music. Every month, I make a new playlist. I’ve been doing this since May of 2019, collecting the songs I’m listening to into one playlist and just leaving that on repeat for the month. Turns out, if I do that, by the end of the month I’m ready for another one. Some are incredibly short, some are long, some have repeats, and all range across my music tastes, so be warned that they may give you whiplash.
So, without further ado, here’s every monthly playlist for the past two years.
P.S. If you’d rather just follow me on Spotify, here’s my user profile.
2021
2020
2019
24 May 2021
music
playlists
Learning SwiftUI - Day 46 of 100
Hey. It’s been a while. 14 full days, actually. But I’m back, at least for today. I make no promises for my future self.
Today was the final day for the Drawing project, in which I did some review and then the challenges. The review quiz got me a few times; I blame the two-week gap. The challenges were a bit difficult, as I needed to review some knowledge and do some searching to figure out how to do what I wanted, and to do it simply.
It was hard to get into this project and it was hard to stay in it. I think it’s because I still don’t see myself using drawing logic very often. Tomorrow is a new day, though, and I fully expect to get something out of these projects, even if I can’t see it yet.
24 May 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
Learning SwiftUI - Day 45 of 100
Getting into these drawing lessons has been so hard. But I made it through this one to get to the fun “challenge”. The Spirograph! I enjoyed the physical version of this so much as a kid. Wonder if they are still for sale… 🤔
Anyway it was fun to play with the Spirograph but wasn’t much of a challenge, as Paul did all of the math. 
Interestingly, the Spirograph shape had the same bug as the Flower shape did yesterday! Previewer didn’t want to build, but Simulator was fine. Very odd. I would try to find the solution, but I can’t be bothered at the moment.
Anyway, it’s pouring rain and I’m enjoying curling up in comfy clothes. Hope you’re taking care of yourself. 
12 May 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
Learning SwiftUI - Day 44 of 100
I had a weird bug today. The preview didn’t want to run but the Simulator was fine. The previewer was complaining about an int not converting to CGFloat, which I understand, but it didn’t point out where. And then when the simulator and build were fine… well it got even weirder. Something with the Flower shape Paul provided was a little bit funky, I suppose.
I still don’t understand when I’ll use drawing techniques, but some of these have been fun! Anyway. Until next time.
11 May 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
A Severe Sense of Guilt
Every once in a while, I’m reminded of something that makes me feel absurdly guilty; I do not read as widely as I always intend to. Why this makes me feel guilty is a complicated subject, but I think it’s worth a look.
I feel guilty because when I was younger, I was a great reader. I read new books like they would be stolen from me, I scoured the library shelves searching for new worlds and places to lose myself.
I grew, and I still read, but the effort to get into a new book stopped feeling worth it for most things, and I began to become a serial re-reader. My last 20 books or so have been rereads. I’m currently halfway through a new book, but it’s in no way a new author.
Now, I’m looking back on my library and thinking, Man, that’s a lot of dudes. That’s a lot of white dudes. And I feel guilty. Shouldn’t I, a woman who wants to write good fiction, and maybe some nonfiction, have a wider base upon which I sit? Won’t I stand tall on the backs of giants if I have more giants to stand on?
These are just musings with no real conclusion except that maybe, just maybe, I need to put more effort into my reading, and find new worlds again.
10 May 2021
books
diversity
Learning SwiftUI - Day 43 of 100
So, quick note, I obviously hit a wall two weeks ago and couldn’t get back into the zone with learning Swift. I’ve got a new fire lit under me, and I’m trying my best to stay on track, but I reserve the right to take breaks if I need them. Accountability matters, but so does health.
Day 43 was in introduction to project 9, which is all about Drawing. This kind of project is a little hard for me to get into, because I can’t fathom what I’d use it for… yet. I’m sure I’ll need it at one time or another, but I have a block on my imagination right now.
10 May 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
The Fallout of My Burnout: An Exercise
I mentioned previously that I’ve been struggling with motivation, and had a few moments where I just skipped things I planned on doing. Turns out, it might’ve been a sign of burnout (and maybe a little boreout, but I’ll come back to that later). I have been pushing myself pretty hard this year on the personal front, and I seemed to have hit a wall, or at least a speed-bump.
When that happens, well, certain things don’t get done, and I have to adjust for the fallout. I thought I’d walk through what I do when things like this happen (though hopefully not always because of burnout). Here’s a look into the high-level tasks I planned to get done in the month of April.
April, Pre-Review
First step after looking at this section was a quick triage. I categorized each objective into three categories: Done, Push Out, Drop Completely. This is the result of that categorization.
April, Post-Review
Four things done in a burnout month? I’m going to celebrate that win! The four things that need to be pushed out either get shuffled into May & June, or set aside for even later. In this example, typing up my backlog of my current writing project is being pushed out to June, and the trellis is going to be in the next few weeks, as the beans mentioned are poking up their first leaves. The project bag pattern and the desk setup are in no way urgent, so I’ve pushed them out for the foreseeable future. If I feel like it, I may get back to them sooner, but if I don’t, it’s not a big deal. As for my dropped tasks, well, I’m not going to force myself to play catch-up for my mending challenge. That’s just silly; I’d burn myself out further! There is part of me that wants to be a completionist, but that part of me will just have to deal. The watering system has been dropped because it was pointed out to me that if I move house soon (as I hope to), all that work will be for naught. Better to just water the garden when it needs it.
Here’s a look at what I had planned on doing in May & June before the burnout reared its ugly head.
Looking Ahead, Pre-Review
And after.
Looking Ahead, Post-Review
Now you may notice, I stripped May down to the barest basics. Continue my current writing project, continue learning SwiftUI (with less emphasis on number of days completed), work on a project that started in April but wasn’t part of the plan, and a focus on getting some garden structures into place before the growing season really kicks off. That’s it. Hopefully, this will help me recover but not feel stagnant. My FO (finished object) and mending projects may or may not get attention, but either way, it’s not a big deal!
June is less pared down, but I have time to keep reviewing it and figuring out what’s important. One thing to notice is that I moved out a second writing project I planned to work on during my break from the current one (once the first draft is complete). Some very wise people suggested I let myself rest after the year-long effort I’ve put into the first draft–why jump straight in to something else? I also continued to deemphasize the number of days put into learning SwiftUI. Why stress about missing a day when it’s literally my choice? I plan to complete the project, that doesn’t mean I need to be heads-down on it every single day. I’ve left in the FO & mend projects, for now, but I’ll be gauging my energy into the next few weeks and adjusting as I go.
My next steps are applying all of these changes to my OmniFocus projects, making sure I’ve aligned myself across the board. There’s nothing worse than opening up your task manager to see some tasks you know you put off begging for your attention. It can derail your whole day and overwhelm you even though you know they’re not important anymore.
3 May 2021
productivity
burnout
My Hybrid Productivity System
This won’t be too deep of a dive into my system—I don’t have years to explain it—but I wanted to lay out how my current system operates.
Dashboard
That’s right, I have a dashboard. I built it in Notion (and I’ll share it one day), and it’s where everything starts. It has a summary of my yearly theme, some inspirational motifs, my plans for the month, and links to all the relevant area & project pages. There’s more there, but this is the meat of it. Having my theme front and center means I see and think about it every day, having my plans just below it means I interact with that plan more than I used to, and having links to my project pages means I can find what I need to complete my next steps. But those next steps don’t live in Notion. It’s not meant to be a task manager.
Task Management
I put all active projects and their tasks into OmniFocus. This app is exclusive–OmniFocus has a fledgling web-app now, but it’s not intended to be a standalone. to the Apple ecosystem and is considered by some to be overpowered, but I enjoy it’s functionality. I don’t have a lot of deadlines, so I surface things I want to work on more often than not. That brings me to my journal.
I like writing things on paper. I like colorful pens. So, instead of working out of task manager on my computer all day (where distractions abound), I take my daily list into a page in my journal. I write down all of the tasks I want to accomplish, usually do a quick-and-dirty time-blocking exercise, and work from there.
A note on inactive projects: those live in Notion. Brainstorming may happen, some tasks might be written down, but they’re very much not on my mind, so they cannot be in my task manager, or I will get overwhelmed.
Capture
My thoughts, most of them, start on paper. I have a notebook (separate from my journal) sitting just to the side of my computer right now. I have a pen within easy reach. I need to write something down? I toss it into my notebook. Notes get transcribed, shredded, and composted–or just shredded and composted–from there. If I’m away from my desk, quick notes go into Drafts, another Apple ecosystem exclusive. It’s a notes app that opens to a fresh page every time you open it, and has amazing processing tools to help you get that note to the right place. Where are my right places? That depends.
Notes
Links, PDFs, Research Material
These all get dropped into DEVONthink. DEVONthink is a large beast, but essentially it stores a variety of files in databases and has amazing search tools to help you resurface items.
Research Notes, Topical Thoughts
These go into Obsidian. This clicked when I listened to an episode of Cortex, a podcast I rather enjoy. If I’m not moving things into it from Drafts, I open the Obsidian quick switcher, start typing the name of the topic, and either find or create a note with that title, pop my note in, and move on.
Project Ideas, Quotes, Movies to Watch Later, Etc.
These get filed away in Notion for resurfacing later. I have a spot for backlogged ideas, for quotes, for media lists, gift ideas, and any other small bit of information I may need one day. When the Notion API comes out, I’ll need to implement a Draft action for this as well, but for now it’s done manually every so often.
I use a lot of apps to get my work & life in order, so here’s a quick list:
- Scrivener: creative writing–books, poems, creative non-fiction
- iAWriter: formatted writing–blog posts & READMEs
- Fantastical: calendars on iPhone & Mac
- Xcode: Swift lessons
- Visual Studio: .NET development.
- VSCode: any quick scripting
- DayOne: journaling
- TextExpander: expanding quick snippets, e.g.
;@ into my email.
- Timery (and Toggl behind it): time-tracking basic things like writing sessions and exercise
That’s a quick overview; I’m sure I’ll elaborate on bits and pieces some day.
(A quick side note: I’ve been struggling with motivation lately; this is why I’ve been scattershot with the SwiftUI lessons. I think it’s related to the need for a mental health day. Luckily, I took two!)
30 April 2021
productivity
systems
Learning SwiftUI - Day 42 of 100
Happy Answer Day! Okay, silly little Hitchhiker’s Guide reference out of the way, today was the Challenge Day for Moonshot. It went well, but I always find it delightful to see what other people think will be hard. Paul said they challenges would get harder as I moved through them, and yet, #2 took me an hour, and #3 took me maybe ten minutes. That makes me think I did something silly for #2 but I am not going back. My eyes are too crossed.
26 April 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
Learning SwiftUI - Days 40 and 41 of 100
This week has been an exercise in battling myself to follow my schedule and routines. It has not always worked. Thus, yesterday, a day in which I did not even attempt to do day 40. So I’ll do two today because it will make me feel better. I don’t know why this week has been a struggle, but next week will be better (and if it’s not, it’s time to find why).
I worked my way through all of Moonshot. It was overwhelming to say the least, but I got through it. A lot going on there. I think I’ll need to spend extra time on the challenges on Monday. Hope you have a great weekend 
23 April 2021
100-days-of-swiftui
development
