Productivity
😐
I’m getting back into GTD. I’m trying to use it as a low-energy activity to stay productive when I’m tired after work. So far I’ve mostly been organizing the uncategorized tasks I’ve accumulated in Nirvana over the years.
Housekeeping
😐
I decided on a cleaning schedule, and now I need a layout for it. I’m loosely using the schedule in Clean My Space by Melissa Maker, adjusted for Elastic Habits. That is, I’ll do more on some days and less on others, depending on circumstances. I’m trying to find a way to display it so I minimize the amount of printing it takes.
Coffee
😑
Barissimo Breakfast Blend: 2/5. It was good when I could get it to taste right, but it was finicky and unreliable. It often had the too-sweet problem I had with Dunkin, though not as severely.
Finances
🙂
My next task is to quantify my financial goals. I’ll see if I can do one per week.
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain made sense to me and pushed me further away from cryptocurrency. It wasn’t exactly a balanced discussion, but if Gerard is missing the point of crypto and blockchain, it at least gives me talking points to research. I do want to look into blockchain and Ethereum sometime just to see how they work.
Investing for a Lifetime takes a deep, mathematical dive into retirement planning. It came at a good time in my reading schedule, since I’m at the point of examining my financial goals and finding strategies to reach them. I may use it as my starting point for studying investing in detail, since he carefully lines up the options and weighs their pros and cons.
How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street takes a deep, amusing dive into the Boglehead three-fund portfolio. I would recommend this one over the similar Larimore book because Roth goes into much more detail. But while Roth tries to keep investing simple, in my experience with these books there’s only so far that can go. There are always caveats and circumstances to consider, and the arguments for the various options get a little involved. It’s hard to sort out while listening. But I was able to pick out some of the factors to compare, which I’ll nail down when I come back and study it. I’m coming to the conclusion that the key to really grasping investing is to make comparison tables and graph a bunch of equations.
With that, I’ve finished the Humble Book Bundle on personal finance and investing by Wiley. All in all an excellent collection. Of course, as a neophyte I can’t properly evaluate them, but I feel they’ve put me in a much better position than I ever have been to understand finance and make financial decisions.
I’m not quite done with financial books. I have the OpenStax economics textbook to finish, a novel, a book on social justice, and some Nassim Taleb to revisit. Then, unless my financial reading list expands even more, I’ll be on to entrepreneurship.
Exercise
🙂
I’m getting used to walking. My goal was to increase my endurance, and now I feel unsatisfied with less than 30 minutes. I’ve rarely ever wanted to challenge myself physically, but I’m starting to see how it could be appealing.
Video
😎
I’ve expanded the walkthrough travel videos I’m watching. First it was deserts, and now I’m taking my virtual trips everywhere. Here are a few you might like:
- Bali, Indonesia
- Kinderdijk, The Netherlands
- Crater Lake National Park, US
- Savoca, Sicily – One of the filming locations for The Godfather.
- Isumi City, Japan – I was looking for places that resembled the sleepy, countryside town in the anime Dagashi Kashi, and this is a good candidate.
- Kawagoe, Japan – Actually I’ve been spending a lot of time in Japan.
