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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman š
Oliver recommends having 3 main tasks you can currently work on. When one task is complete, you can determine which task from your backlog to insert into the empty slot. You can also drop a task from the three if necessary.
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Discarded: The Future Is Analog by David Sax šI just couldnāt get into this book. Itās all about the pandemic with an āI told you soā attitude.
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How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey
I finished reading: How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey š
This book discusses different ideas for managing stress, cultivating a mindset for productivity, and several techniques to help improve overall well-being.
My book notes can be found here.
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A book review of Antinet Zettelkasten by Scott P. Scheper
Finished reading: Antinet Zettelkasten by Scott P. Scheper, š a book about how to create an analog Zettelkasten (slip box) that acts as a ācommunication partnerā for thinking and creating.
After seeing a couple of videos from Scott and keeping up with his website, I expected this book to be a deep and dull venture into the analog Zettelkasten, including tons of history and facts. Not that his other content is this way, but the build-up to the book made me think this. However, I thought it flowed nicely and was pretty easy to read. Perhaps this is because Iām already familiar with the material, so I didnāt get stuck at any point. Also, the book appears much longer than it is. Each chapter has several pages of footnotes, and I recommend exploring them, but they take up a lot of space.
Scott explores the analog Zettelkasten, made famous by Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist, philosopher of social scient, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Luhmann used a note card system that enabled him to publish dozens of books and hundreds of scholarly articles over his lifetime. The Antinet is Scottās version of this system, nearly identical to the original.
The four principles of the Antinet are Analog, Numeric-Alpha, Tree, and Index. The Net in Antinet stands for network. I wonāt try to go into the details in this post; there are plenty of other articles that do this well (or get the book).
While Scott has an article on his website explaining how to get started with an Antinet, the book goes into much more detail. Youāll learn how to create the cards, bib notes, index, and other system components. It does take a while to get to the step-by-step instructions, but itās probably important to understand the concepts first.
Scott spends a reasonable amount of time discussing how this analog system can become your ācommunication partner.ā This idea is pulled from Luhmannās essay āCommunicating with Slip Boxes.ā If you want to go deeper into Luhmannās work, you can visit the Niklas Luhmann Archive.
Scott mentions (several times) How to Take Smart Notes by Sƶnke Ahrens and how, although Sƶnke introduced the Zettelkasten system to modern day, he also gets much of it wrong, especially by trying to make it work in digital tools.
Who should create an Antinet? This system is not for those who need to capture technical notes, meeting notes, etc. This is a thinking tool, and you would use it to gather your thoughts during research. The system is best suited for specific projects where you need to do a lot of research, gather your thoughts, and then create an output (academic paper, article, book, etc.).
You want to use an analog Zettelkasten because it forces you to slow down and think. Not only do you have to take the time to write notes by hand on index cards, but you also have to think about where to put the card. This is intentional, forcing you to think and connect ideas by flipping through your cards. As you do this, you engrain these thoughts into memory.
Am I going to create my Antinet? Maybe someday, but I donāt need it now. As I mentioned earlier, it is best to have a big project or do a lot of research. Iāll be honest. When I first read How to Take Smart Notes by Sƶnke Ahrens, I tried to create a digital Zettelkasten. I spent about a year of my life trying different tools and approaches. I later realized I was pursuing the system for the wrong reasons. I was trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Not only that, I was trying to replicate it in Digital tools, which misses the point.
Overall, this was a good book. I would recommend you check out Scottās website and videos first. If these are interesting, then the book is for you. I enjoyed it more than I expected, but I admit, I geek out on this stuff.
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Currently reading: Antinet Zettelkasten by Scott P. Scheper š
If you are interested in analog note-taking, this is the book to readāthe book details the analog Zettelkasten system and how and why it works.
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Finished reading: King: Fairy Tale by Stephen King š. A character-driven and realistic adventure into another world where many of our fairy tales began.
Iād love to see this book made into a movie!
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š Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
I finished reading: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari š
Stolen Focus does not provide a personal step-by-step guide to remove distractions from our lives. Instead, it is about how this āAttention Crisisā impacts society.
Here are some of my notes about the authorās points in this book.
What impact is this Attention Crisis having on our lives?
- Weāre finding it harder to find āFlow,ā during which we become engrossed in an activity without disruptions.
- With all the tiny bits of information continuously flowing into our lives, it becomes less likely that weāll read books.
- Itās harder to think because we donāt allow our minds to wonder as much as we should. Mind wandering is a critical stage in which our brain has insights, makes connections, and plans for the future.
- Technology is becoming better at keeping us distracted. The more we look at their service, the more money the company makes, so they manipulate us to keep us engaged.
What is contributing to this Attention Crisis?
- Weāre bombarded with chemicals that harm our health and, ultimately, our attention.
- Failing to explore ADHD. More people than ever are diagnosed with ADHD, yet weāve prescribed medications rather than solving the causes.
- Our children are not allowed to explore and play like in the past. Theyāre no longer playing in the streets and wandering the neighborhood. Theyāre told precisely what to do in school and what the outcome should be rather than allowing creative learning.
- Weāre not getting enough sleep due to artificial light and consumer capitalism. Weāre spending too much time flipping through Tick-Tock videos rather than going to bed at a decent time and allowing our brains to recover and make connections during sleep.
How do we recover?
- Fewer work hours to allow us more time to rest and recover.
- Allow our children more time to play and explore, especially at school.
- Change our technology to be less disruptive to our lives. Yet, the companies building it do not have an incentive to do so unless regulations are established, which is an entirely different issue.
- Take it upon ourselves to control what we consume, get more sleep and exercise, and spend quality time reading and just being bored. Itās good for us!
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The benefits of mind wandering
Reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari š, the author discusses the āDisruption of Mind Wanderingā in Chapter 5 and how we tend to consider mind wandering negative. Yet, the author explains, itās part of how we learn and create.
āCreativity is not where you create some new thing thatās emerged from your brain.ā āItās a new association between two things already there.ā Mind-wandering allows āmore extended trains of thought to unfold, which allows for more associations to be made.ā - Stolen Focus p96
While this is nothing new, it caught my attention because I daydream. Ever since I was a kid, I would get in trouble for not paying attention. I suppose my excuse now is, āIām creating something!ā.
Mind wandering is a necessary part of how our brains work. For example, as we read, we focus on the words. Our mind tries to make connections to the ideas weāre reading about. We may think of past experiences, related reading, or even contradictions. This is precisely what we should be doing. This part of reading helps us learn and make sense of things.
Of course, we can easily take our minds wandering too far when weāre trying to read but keep thinking about checking Twitter or whatās for dinner. In these cases, weāre getting into distraction territory.
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Currently reading: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari š
Itās when you set aside your distractions, he said, that you begin to see what you were distracting yourself from. - Stolen Focus p27 š¬
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Currently reading: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari š
As a kid, Iāve always struggled with focus and attention, even without digital distractions. Iām a daydreamer. Todayās digital tools have made our lives simpler, yet at a cost. Even as I read the introduction to this book, I noticed I picked up my phone at least twice.
Staying focused becomes more manageable when working on something I enjoyāwriting code, building something, solving a problem. Itās easy to get into focus during those times. We canāt always be in deep focus. What do we do when weāre not?
Iām hoping this book is not only about scare tactics. Iām not expecting some miracle cure, but perhaps a guide through my own thoughts to help figure out what works for me.
I hope I can stay focused enough to read through the nearly 300 pages in this book. :)
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Just received my physical copy of Daily Creative: A Practical Guide for Staying Prolific, Brilliant, and Healthy by Todd Henry š
This book was highly recommended. Iāll try to take my time and read it as intended, one day at a time.
