Weekly review: week 30, 2023

Metrics

Health

I'm experimenting with not getting coffee after lunch and seeing if it has any impact on my deep sleep or REM sleep phases.

So far, it's just been a slight uptick in my daily sleep average, but it also feels good, and I'm keen to see how the body adapts to it.

Key metrics:

• Worked out 5 days (same as the week before):
  • 2x strength training sessions (same as the week before).
  • 2x indoor stationary bike (20.2 km total, ⇡231.14% increase).
  • 2x outdoor runs (27.6km, ⇣15.4% decrease).
• Sleep: 5h 10min daily average (⇡3.68% increase).
• Alcohol: I had half a glass of wine last week. Yes, half. (⇣75% decrease).
• Meditation: meditated 4 times this week. 40 minutes total.

Productivity

Fewer hours, but highly productive ones. I spent more time coding and on async communication than on synchronous meetings, and my to-do list has significantly benefitted from that.

Key metrics:

• Total time at the computer: 46 hours, 27 minutes (⇣8 hours 52 minutes from the week before).
• Productivity pulse: 88/100 (same as the week before).
• Productive time: 44h 24min (⇣3h 44min from the week before).

I have spent most of my time this week video conferencing (25% of my time), followed by coding (21%) and async messaging and communication (19%).

Media

If you haven't seen The Crowded Room or The Bear, go and do it asap.

Books:

• Continuing Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett (58% done).
• Continuing Range, by David Epstein (45% done).
• Continuing What I talk about when I talk about running, by Haruki Murakami (22% done).

Series:

• The Crowded Room: season 1, episode 10.
• Hijack: season 1, episode 6.
• Foundation: season 2, episode 3.
• The Bear: season 1, episodes 3 - 8.

Questions

What went well this week?

The word that comes to mind is consistency: more or less working out with the same balance, having a similar productivity pulse... But at the same time, better:

• Fewer hours worked.
• A slight improvement in sleep time.
• Almost no alcohol.

There have been a few incidents and unexpected issues popping up (and a few learnings that I might share in another post), but there's been good progress on what was important and in a way that was deliberate and proactive, and that's what matters most.

What could be improved?

I'm noticing that if I don't meditate straight away first thing in the morning, it's very easy I'm going to drop it until the end of the day (or not do it at all). I could do it first thing in the morning, but at a deeper level, it feels like I'm missing the point if I can't find 10 minutes to do this in the middle of the day. I'm going to be more stubborn with this for a while.

What are the goals for next week?

• Finalize migration to the monorepo of the frontend project we started working on last week.
• Implement the landing page for Carpeta 📁 (if the designs are ready).
• Implement ⌘+K improvements.
• Explore a better integration of the Help Center docs with the apps.

If you have any feedback, thoughts, or questions, feel free to contact me on Twitter.