Tangible Life
YLW (July 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. July was a month of being without a goal of doing without
So July was a month spending time with my family and doing fun summer activities. I realized that some of my previous month exercises are still habits, while others felt like they weren’t as solid (I drank soda 2-3 times, just because I wanted the taste with certian foods). I didn’t shame myself afterwards, I just remembered that July was a more relaxed month in this overall scheme.
August was going to be no hot showers, however, I forgot we were in August and didn’t realize it until after my 2nd hot shower. I’ve decided to make August “no online shopping from my phone” month. It’s a little too convenient to buy something on Amazon someitmes when there’s a shopping cart in your pocket all the time. If I want to buy something, I’ll have to make my way to my computer or tablet, open up a web browser and do it the old fashioned way. This may seem like a silly differentiation, since I’m not saying I won’t buy anything online, but I think just the little bit of friction is what I’m actually going for in the process. We’ll see at the end of August how it went.
I’ll also be going back to more strict following of some of the other habits, not that many slipped in July.
River Ranch
The River Ranch program is laid out in a courtyard plan, which is formed by the main house, the guest wing, and the pool. The outer layer of the courtyard is made of 2’ thick rammed earth walls that appear to emerge from the land and form a protective shell for the interior of the building.
What a beautiful residence from Jobe Corral Architects. The pictures alone are an experience.
YLW (June 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. June was no email newsletters month.
June was a success! I went into Mailbrew weekly and hit the ‘archive all’ button and got a nice little confetti emote each time I cleared the queue. What June has taught me is that I was subscribed to several great newsletters that I can really do without. I also learned that while Mailbrew is an amazing app, it is one I’m going to try to phase out.
The ability to create newsletters from Reddit content (which is a whole other dumpster fire given the API debacle that’s happened over there), RSS feeds, YouTube content, etc. is great, but it also leads me to create more content consumption patterns than what I actually need. I’m moving the 3 newsletters I’d like to keep getting over to Matter. That’s my read-later app of choice, and it integrates with my writing flow. By ceasing use of Mailbrew, I’ll have less places to consume digital content, which seems like a nice step towards additional focus.
July was going to be no hot showers, but I have decided to take July off from the YLW experiment. August will be no hot showers. I’ve maintained not drinking anything other than coffee and water, with two exceptions in June. Still primarily in grayscale mode. Still pooping in the dark. Using July to regroup and maintain the longer-term habits that have been forming feels right.
103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known
A lot of gems in this list, but two of my favorites are:
Don’t wait for the storm to pass; dance in the rain.
and
Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
Kevin posted this list of 103 bits when he turned 70, but then curated a list of 450 in book form. The books is called Excellent Advice for Living and it’s on my to read list.
Christopher Walken Shares the Secrets of Acting Like Christopher Walken
Of all the characters that people love to impersonate, Christopher Walken is in the top 3.
The entire read is great if you’re a Walken fan, but this gives me hope that I’ll have a memoir to read in the future:
Do you ever consider writing a memoir?
I do. I have yellow pads, stacks of them. One of these days I need somebody to help me get it organized. I was thinking of getting a court stenographer and just talking and having them write it down without any punctuation and seeing what would happen. I’ve always resented punctuation.
YLW (May 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. May was no podcasts or audiobooks month.
I’ll keep this one brief. I made it 2 days. Literally 2. May 1st and 2nd were spent listening to 2Pac’s entire catalog during a long commute to Tampa for a 3-day workshop. On the way there on May 3, I opened Castro, dismissed the alert I’d setup via a Shortcuts automation to remind me I wasn’t supposed to be there and proceeded to listen with delight to an episode of Connected.
I’ve listened to countless podcasts since that day during this month. I decided that while this experiment is to teach me to be comfortable with discomfort, giving up podcasts was something my brain just isn’t ready to train myself to do.
June is going to be no email newsletters, which tickle a different part of my brain, but I think I’ll be more successful with that one. Still not drinking anything other than coffee and water. Still in grayscale mode. Still pooping in the dark. Still really enjoying this year of living without and learning more about myself in the process.
Coffee While Traveling
One of the first things I do when I’m in a foreign city is pull up the Maps app and search for local coffee shops. I like to think of it as my “coffee passport” of sorts. There’s a few key criteria that will influence my decision on which places to try during whatever time I’m in that location. If they’re also a roaster, that’s a plus. If they have only one or just a few locations, that’s a plus.
I’m in Washington, D.C. for the first time and have my eye on a shop called Dua DC Coffee. It checks all the boxes and is unique in that it offers several Indonesian coffee beans for sale as well.
Inevitably, there are times I have to settle for whatever I can get. This morning we were running behind after a late night, so I went downstairs to the Starbucks installation in the hotel and got a triple espresso to stop my neck itching.
My recommendation would be that whenever you travel, try to find some local joints for whatever your food or drink passion may be. It let’s you link the memory of that location and visit through both taste and smell. Most of the trips I’ve taken have some coffee shop memory associated with them.
Update: I made it to Dua DC Coffee this morning and it was everything I could hope it would be. I’ll be going again tomorrow morning.
Digital simplicity
Manu’s feelings here are the same as my own:
But now, I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t want to spend my time tracking which platforms are worth being on. I don’t want to spend my time setting up auto-posting from my site to every new website that comes online.
I just don’t care to maintain the complexity. If the platform where I’m posting has a simple checkbox to post it to Twitter when published, I may leave it checked. Otherwise, I have no plans to maintain automation schemes to the plethora of social network platforms that are swirling these days. My time is more valuable than whatever slight increase in readership I may receive.
My hope is that word of mouth and sharing of articles increase my readership organically over time. If it doesn’t… so be it.
YLW (Apr 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. April was pooping in the dark month.
April was the first month where I didn’t fail to comply with my goal even once. Every bowel movement I had in April was sans electronics of any type and was done in the dark, like a gentleman. I can say that the linked article’s findings and mine were the same. Using that time to not become distracted by any virtual shit on my phone let me reconnect with the literal shit I was taking. My sessions were more focused and efficient, and they served as a chance to take inventory of my functions and body.
This habit is one that I’ll stick with for the long term. I can also confirm that I’ve had no beverages other than coffee and water during the month of April, which has been great. I’ve reached the plateau with that habit where it’s no longer a moment of pause or temptation when my father-in-law offers me a soda while having a bar-b-que. I simply say, “No thanks, I don’t drink that anymore,” without a moment’s hesitation.
May is no podcasts or audiobooks month. A bit of shitty timing, given that I have a long commute May 1st–3rd because of an in-person work engagement, but when I thought for a moment about switching the monthly items around so I could listen to podcasts during the trip, I realized that’s exactly the opposite of leaning into discomfort. I’ll use the time to reflect on things in silence, or enjoy some music playlists that I’ve ignored for a long time, given that podcasts have become my primary driving audio companion.
Zen and the Art of Cable Management
I spent some time a few weeks back reworking the laptop and cable management setup under my sit/stand desk. Most of the components are the same, but a new desk mounted (vs. in-tray) power strip with built-in USB-C ports made things so much cleaner. My other favorite “trick” was to side-mount the under-desk 3D printed Thunderbolt dock holder to the cable management tray. I did this by using the metal folding “wing” style wall anchors to secure the mount in 3 places. If you have any questions on how this setup works, reach out.
Under Desk Cable Management
Intentional Phone
These are my current default lock and home screens on my phone. The text is purposely set to a dark gray so that it isn’t very eye catching. I wish I could also change the color of the status bar indicators and camera/flashlight launcher buttons, but that’s not an option in iOS, at this time.
The messages you see in the lock screen widgets are achieved by using the free Any Text from Sindre Sorhus. When tapped, each of the 3 widgets open a different Shortcut. This allows me to pause and consider if I really should be looking at the phone, but still get to quick entry functions from the lock screen so that I can jot something down and then return to life vs. get lost in the tap-tap rathole.
During my workday, I have a scheduled Focus Mode that swaps out a couple of the lock screen widgets with ones that launch directly into Outlook or Teams. That’s there for convenience for the times I step away from my desk, but I’m torn there a bit. I’ll likely eliminate them, as I should treat the moments I step away from the desk as a chance to step away from email and live chats as well (or at least not make them so quick to get to). The other option is to just leave the phone on my desk and get away from it during those moments too.
The home screen uses minimal iconography and a gradient wallpaper that completely hides the dock background. The icons on the left and right are shortcuts that open Messages and Safari, respectively. The one in the middle is a shortcut that presents a menu with options to drive other shortcuts for various contexts. I’ll detail that shortcut more over on tech & coffee soon. I’ve found it to be an elegant way to drive my behavior to a specific action or app , vs. swiping down to search for an app or swiping left to dive into the App Library.
For home screen widgets, I have just a few that I use and they’re located in the often forgotten “Today View” that’s a swipe to the right from the main home screen. While home screen widgets are informative and useful, I found that the more of them I added, the more I had an excuse to interact with the phone vs. use it as a tool.
This setup isn’t for everyone. I realize it’s sidelining features like beautiful photographs as my lock screen background, etc. I’m okay with that, since the my goal isn’t to leverage every feature of the phone, but to choose the ones that drive me towards intentional usage of it.
A Brief History of OK
First and foremost, if you haven’t checked out Source Type before, you should. The design of the site is striking.
This article gets presented in typical Source Type grandeur and doesn’t disappoint. There’s this bit:
In a New Yorker review of the 2008 book Thumbspeak, Louis Menand declares “K” as likely the most common (and in my opinion, most controversial) text message. As she puts it, the single letter carries with it a powerful decree, “I have nothing to say, but God forbid that you should think that I am ignoring your message.”
An image from the article describes how I feel when someone sends me “K” as a reply in a chat:
Mike Tyson giving the “K” gesture
YLW (Q1 2023)
Quarterly look at my Year of Living Without. January - March were phone grayscale mode, no sweets and no beverages other than water and black coffee, respectively.
Being a quarter of the way through my first year of living without exercise, I thought it would make sense to evaluate how these first three months have gone and how they’ve informed my plans for the rest of the year.
Two out of the three months have led to a lasting shift in doing without things. That wasn’t the goal of the exercise, but I do find it interesting that some things just feel like changes I’ve become comfortable making for a longer duration. I’m not saying these things will never change, but they’ve become defaults that any deviation from will likely be momentary. I continue to have my iPhone and Apple Watch in grayscale mode. When I need the color I turn it on briefly, until I’m done with the task where it assists me, then I turn it back off. It’s a quick triple-click of the side button away and that’s made it feel easy enough to toggle for everyday use.
I’ve gone back to enjoying sweets when the mood strikes me. I likely overdid it a bit with Easter egg candy, but otherwise I don’t feel like this is anything I’m doing in excess with any regularity after February. So far in April, I’ve only had water and coffee without missing a beat. I did reintroduce milk/cream for the occasional cortadito espresso drink, but I consider that to be in the coffee category at this point.
April is pooping in the dark month, which, so far, I’ve done without failure. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that this will be another one that sticks with me beyond this month. Not only is the process more reflective and focused, it feels like I’m not using it as an excuse to use the phone passively.
Looking ahead, I’m adding a few more “without” items to the list, but haven’t decided which months from July to December they’ll occupy. I’ll make that decision sometime in May and update the original post with the planned schedule. The new items include:
- No complaining (inspired by this article from 2007)
- No online purchases from my phone
- No phone other than for navigation/CarPlay use
The last one sounds more wild than it is really intended to be in practice. I have an Apple Watch w/ cellular connectivity that allows me to take calls from my family and read/respond to texts. I have an iPad that I can use from anywhere when something with a larger screen is needed. I work from home in front of a computer with access to the internet. Given all those factors, the phone feels like it becomes just another passive screen to grab time that could be otherwise more focused on something else (even if that something else is writing on the iPad). I guess what I’m saying is that the intention of that month isn’t to remove screens, it’s to use them more intentionally for purposes that are generating some value, vs. just mindless interaction with the screen that fits in my pocket. I’d originally planned to switch to a “dumb” phone (i.e. a flip phone) for that month, but after some realistic conversation with my wife (and recognizing that all of the other Apple devices being options to replace the capabilities in more intentional ways) I’ve ditched the “dumb” phone for a “no phone” approach.
As always, if you care to engage with me on any of this year-long experiment, get in touch!
Seeing Beauty in Basic To-Do Lists
Carl’s thoughts on to-do lists mirror my own in many ways. This feels especially relevant:
I’ve used quite a few different to-do apps to organise personal and work tasks. Some of them worked well but would have an ugly UI, some would be over-engineered resulting in a compromised UX, and others would find the right balance of form and function, but weren’t particularly well supported or maintained.
I’ve tried so many, and often trend back to pen and paper of some sort. Using iA Writer is a great idea. I’d consider a system similar to what Carl describes the next time I decide to overhaul how I manage tasks.
YLW (Mar 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. March was no beverages other than water and black coffee.
My month of living without beverages other than water and black coffee was mostly a success. I only failed two days of the month. The first was sometime mid-month when my mother-in-law asked me to try something “garlic”, but it was in fact so hot that my mouth was on fire, and I drank a Coke to try and ease the heat. Looking back on it, I should have just attempted to weather the discomfort with water alone.
The second time was just yesterday, the last day of March. I drank soda during a field trip with my daughter because it was “free”, and then had another when I returned home with pizza that my oldest daughter had for a sleepover. I can say with certainty that I only drank the second soda because I’d already failed with the first. In both cases, I should have gone with water, but I was weak.
All the other days, I only drank water or black coffee. I did start using my carbonator more often than I had in recent months to make sparkling water. That’s something I’ve always enjoyed, but I just didn’t take the extra few moments to do it regularly. I invested in a new carbonator mid-month because the plastic SodaStream model I had wasn’t much fun to use. I’d also decided by this point that by making sparkling water more consistently available, this new reduced beverage intake was likely to stick longer than just the month of March. I’m going to start refilling my own carbonator cartridges, as it is way more cost-effective than SodaStream canister swaps. I drink sparkling water almost daily now, and that’s likely to continue.
While I will start bringing some milk or creamer back into the mix with the occasional espresso-based cortadito or cafè con leche, I don’t think I’ll go back to drinking juice regularly. After the couple of sodas I had yesterday (and another today with leftover pizza), I’m pretty resolved to say even those can be cut out. A reduced-beverage diet feels right to me, for a few reasons. I haven’t had juice regularly for years, and the soda does nothing for me health-wise. I’ve been drinking my coffee black for years too, so no major shift there. I think that by just focusing on water, both sparkling and still, and coffee, I get everything I need and what I actually want. This exercise proved it to myself, so it was worthwhile.
I made an update to my scheduled monthly sacrifices. April was originally slated to be “No Apple Watch” month. I realized that by removing the Apple Watch, I’d almost certainly use my phone more often, which is the opposite of where I’d like to be headed habitually. I decided to switch it to “Pooping in the Dark” month. It was inspired by this article and the main point is to eliminate electronic distractions and return to a more natural and minimalist approach to
The Makita Coffee Machine
James Hoffmann’s videos are always good… but this one is one of my favorites of all-time.
YLW (Feb 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. February was no sweets.
February “no sweets” month was mostly a success. I did fail a couple of times, but not so many that I can’t count them on one hand. In short summary, I had a donut twice (couldn’t turn down a loving gesture from my wife, both times), I absentmindedly ordered and consumed an ice cream treat with my oldest daughter during her paleontologist field trip and I ate some ice cream with my family on the last night of the month after returning from some business travel. Those missteps were tiny in comparison to the number of times I would have eaten some cookies, or ice cream or Valentine candy treats that the kids offered, but did not due to the “without” mentality.
A few days into the month, I did recognize that I was a bit annoyed, and then later connected that it was likely because I was still mentally adjusting to doing without sweets. I didn’t cut out things like a small homemade cortadito (a small espresso with some sugar and cream drink). I found myself drinking juice and the occasional soda more frequently. I think recognizing that these things were likely in an effort to replace the definition of “sweets” I was using is valuable. I included in my off limits list things like ice cream, cookies, candies, chocolate and other dessert type items. Ultimately, I was much more present in the way I made decisions of what I was about to consume. I think that was the main goal, in addition to being more comfortable with discomfort. I’m pleased with the end result for February, but am not continuing it into March the way I did with grayscale mode from January.
March is my month of “only water or coffee to drink; coffee must be black, no dairy, no sweeteners.” So far, I haven’t failed yet. I was not a frequent soda or juice drinker before February, but I think March will reset from my increases in February when my body (and mind) were seeking something sweet. I could see March creating a new baseline where I just don’t drink certain things anymore as a general rule (soda being one of them).
Using | Fellow Opus
I’m sure I’ll have more to share in my Year in Coffee 2023 post, but the quick update is that I found myself in need of a new grinder. The grinder that I’d been using for 6+ years started to have some critical failure indications, so rather than waiting until it burst into flames or finding metal shavings in my grounds, I pulled the trigger on a replacement.
The timing couldn’t have better, since Fellow just released a new conical burr grinder called the Opus. It is a unique entry in that it does grinds fine enough for espresso all the way up to coarse enough for cold brew. This versatility is exactly what I found myself looking for, since I make drinks in that full range and greatly prefer freshly ground beans for all of them. I also had a 20% coupon code that made the expenditure a little easier to justify as well. While I didn’t want to spend on any coffee gear, the increase in functionality and needing another 6 years of reliability in my setup made the decision clear.
The product page speaks for itself, and there are tons of great video reviews on YouTube that get into the nitty gritty details of the grinder’s pros/cons. I can say it looks great on the countertop next to the Fellow EKG kettle I use. The Fellow design language is one I appreciate for it’s understated, minimalist aesthetic.
Fellow Opus grinder
YLW (Jan 2023)
Monthly follow up from my Year of Living Without. January was grayscale mode on my phone (and Apple Watch).
Grayscale mode on the phone has been an interesting experiment. As many others in various writings and Reddit posts have commented, it does take a bit of time before your brain gets “tricked” into what it is visually processing. Once the light bulb goes off, though, it’s pretty jarring how much those saturated and vivid hues really do pull one into the retina beauty that is your smartphone screen.
Steve Jobs, when demoing the Mac’s Aqua UI for the first time said, “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” That’s a pretty good way to describe how you’ll see the colors on iOS’s screen of icons when you toggle the color back on after not having it for several days. The colors are gorgeously rendered and talented designers have done a great job creating icons that beg to be tapped.
I wrote more about the tech aspects of my experiment over on my tech & coffee blog, including how I toggled the color on for obvious necessities like photo viewing/editing and a turn-based variant of the game Wordle that my wife and I play. These little tech tweaks made it seamless to have color enabled when I needed it, and automatically disabled when I didn’t. It’s one removal of friction that made the experiment “stick” for me.
Speaking of sticking, it is now February and I haven’t turned color mode back on as a default. I turn it back on occasionally, to view a photo or product or do some quick CSS code behavior confirmation. Sometimes, I do it to simply remind myself how jarring it is to see the vibrancy of the default UI as the rest of the world around me does. I realize that grayscale mode as a default isn’t for everyone. I recognize (and have been reminded by those that love me for me) that this self-imposed removal of color is a bit odd. I’m okay with that, since what I find odd, or rather uncomfortable (bordering on disgusting), is the normalization we’ve leaned into as a society that life happens on the other side of a “lickable” piece of glass.
Declutter Challenge (Jan 2023) — Part 2
Here’s the daily log for the second half of January’s declutter challenge. The only space I didn’t hit (that would have really helped hit the daily goal numbers) was the garage. I won’t be tracking on a daily basis, but the effort will continue into February and March. Considering this the “Declutter Quarter”.
- January 15 - I cleared out more read-later app articles and deleted old notes from the Notes app I no longer needed.
- January 16 - Not much in the way of decluttering, but had an amazing breakfast with my dad this day.
- January 17 - Got rid of an old outdoor camera system and threw out 20 old door and window sensors that were prone to fault. Decluttered and secure.
- January 18 - Went through my cords bin in the office closet and eliminated a bunch of micro USB and other port types I don’t have many of around the house.
- January 19 - Today is the day that my wife’s side of the closet collapsed. It wasn’t her fault. The shelves weren’t installed properly, but now they are. This connects to decluttering because she weeded out a portion of her clothes she no longer felt value in keeping.
- January 20 - I’ve fallen off in the last several years when it comes to pruning my text messages. I just let them fall to the bottom of a list I never scroll through. Today I went back and deleted hundreds of old text convos I no longer needed to have in an endless scroll in Messages.
- January 21 - Not much decluttering today.
- January 22 - Threw out several boxes from Christmas decorations that were getting organized into the garage for 11 month storage.
- January 23 - Deleted 100 shortcuts from the Shortcuts app that I no longer use.
- January 24 - Another cord cleanse. Not 24 cords discarded, but what I have left is what I actually need.
- January 25 - Last of the electronic declutter. More cords (yes, I know… WTF) and two old alarm units that I don’t think anyone will buy.
- January 26 - Not much decluttering this day, but did organize so that things have their place in the office closet.
- January 27 - Deleted tons of files no longer needed from my cloud storage and phone.
- January 28 - Cleared my podcasts queue out. There were many back episodes of shows that I didn’t need to keep around since if I was going to listen to them, I would have by now.
- January 29 - Busy Sunday with the kids, so no decluttering of note.
- January 30 - Sold off a pair of kids shoes that were still in great shape, but that was it.
- January 31 - While I had plans to end the month super strong, I had a busier than expected day at work and didn’t end up throwing away 31 items from the garage. Good thing this game isn’t limited to a single month.
Automating Grayscale Mode
In January, I experimented with using the grayscale color filter as the primary mode on my iPhone. I’ve written about the experience but I wanted to expand on the tech angle of how I made the process much easier with the use of two iOS features; Personal Automations in Shortcuts and the triple-click side button Accessibility shortcut.
Here’s a visual on the setup via the Personal Automation in Shortcuts. The example shows the automation for the photo editing app Darkroom, but you can create it with the same flow for any app. By using toggle in the Set Color Filter action, you avoid having to set a separate explicit “turn on” and “turn off” for the opening vs. closing the app. This is a single automation that covers both events.
Personal Automation UI
Now on to the failsafe method that can be used for any ad-hoc enable and disable of grayscale mode. This is useful for when you’re on a website and need full color or for when the Shortcuts automation doesn’t behave properly for a given application (that does happen, but infrequently).
Here’s the settings for that:
Triple-tap setting UI
In iOS, the Color Filter setting defaults to Grayscale. There are other options, but unless you have changed it in the past, the above items should all set or unset the grayscale mode. If you see a different behavior in what color profile gets toggled, just search Color Filter in Settings and tap into the menu to check that Grayscale is the option selected.
I didn’t realize until writing this post that when you take screenshots or screen capture recordings, the color profile is ignored. That’s handy, since when sending screenshots to other people, it may confuse them if they are in black and white if they aren’t in the know about your choice to use grayscale mode.
While I’d argue it could be a conversation starter, that’s better in person when someone notices that your screen lacks the vibrance that your life may not (if you’re using grayscale mode for the same reasons I am).
Declutter Challenge (Jan 2023) - Part 1
I’m already not one that’s prone to clutter, but with a large household consisting of my wife, 6 kids, an English Mastiff, a cat and me… things build up.
I decided that in addition to my Year Without challenge, I’d use the month of January to also do a declutter challenge. I’m using the method detailed by The Minimalists that can be summarized as succinctly as you eliminate the number of things that matches the numerical day of the month, for an entire month. While gamification is great, I didn’t want to set things aside to sandbag, so if I have more things to get rid of than the day of the month, so be it. Below is a log of the first 15 days:
- January 1 - I cleaned out an entire sock drawer in our master closet dresser. Also go rid of Christmas pajamas that we used for our yearly family photo, but that didn’t fit great after a wash and we knew they wouldn’t get added into normal rotation. Total haul was two 8 gallon trash bags of unneeded stuff.
- January 2 - I’m a firm believer that digital clutter shares much of the same anxiety inducing qualities of physical clutter, albeit not the same trappings of a home overflowing with “stuff”. Today I went through the App Library on my iPhone and deleted 11 apps that I either no longer used, no longer needed, had never used or simply didn’t want to have such frictionless access to via the computer that’s always with me.
- January 3 - Today was my first day back to work after the holidays. Due to a fractured ankle back at the beginning of October, most of my work from my home office had been from my knockoff Eames lounger so that I could keep my foot elevated. Since I’m back to being able to stand for longer periods, I spent portions of today gutting the closet in the office and discarded two trash bags worth of things I no longer need. A few items got listed on Mercari to sell off vs. donate or discard.
- January 4 - Discarded more items from the home office (another small trash bag full). Also cleared out my entire newsletter queue in Mailbrew. Feels light and great to have both physical and digital clutter removed. First day back at the standing desk is tomorrow!
- January 5 - By some purest measurement, I failed the declutter challenge yesterday because I didn’t rid myself of 5 physical nor digital objects that I can remember. I’m okay with that, because what I did rid myself of was the crushing mental weight of not having my home working environment the way I find most productive. Working at the standing desk yesterday was so freeing after the last 3 months of ankle issues. Yesterday was also an amazing evening with my lovely older daughters and wife seeing Hamilton for the first time as a live show. What an amazing day all around.
- January 6 - Another day of failed declutter challenge, but not feeling bad about it. Between work in the morning and a trip to celebrate a family birthday out of town, our day was pretty packed. I did manage to clear the anxiety of having not sent any newsletter update in some time. Yesterday was just a heads up on the platform change, but next week the letters start flying again and I’m super excited about all the changes in my process.
- January 7 - Went through my coffee kitchen cabinet and rid myself of tools, mugs and other related goods I no longer need or use. Removed well over seven items. Also deleted over 600 pics from my Apple Photo Library that were one-time use images or screenshots that served no purpose and were just backed up for no reason other than they existed.
- January 8 - While I discarded a few items (a Corkcicle tumbler, a book, etc.) I don’t know if I hit 8 things or not. I’m okay with it since I know progress is progress.
- January 9 - I discarded 10 edible items which I decided I couldn’t in good conscience consume the entire container. Sometimes we check a box, but 9 or more things is 9 or more things.
- January 10 - Donated a couple of ankle injury items (scooter/leg crutch) to a contact. Listing a laptop for sale that’s no longer used. While it isn’t ridding ourselves of items, all the indoor Christmas decorations were put away today, which as the space feeling fresh. Also cleared a ton of articles out of my read-later app that are either no longer relevant to me or were read and never archived.
- January 11 - Discarded the original set of key caps from my Keychron K6. So however many keys that is, it’s more than 11.
- January 12 - I uninstalled a ton of apps on my iPad today. Also did another pass at mechanical keyboard key caps and discarded ones that are part of my current set, but that don’t fit my keyboard layout.
- January 13 - Busy day, don’t believe any items of relevance were discarded.
- January 14 - spent some time deleting a ton of bookmarks that were things I no longer needed in Raindrop. The count was over 100.
- January 15 - I cleared out more read-later app articles and deleted old notes from the Apple Notes app I no longer needed. There’s so much digital cruft that gets left behind simply because it doesn’t occupy more than hard drive or cloud storage “space”.
Year in Coffee 2022
While most parts of my coffee routine remained the same in 2022, it’s nice to take inventory and comment on what’s working and how my gear and process has evolved over the span of a year.
Gear
The only “new gear” I acquired in 2022 was a larger filter basket for my Picopresso (more on that below) and a Hario coffee scale. I’d had a cheap Amazon kitchen scale for a long time that I didn’t enjoy much, and in 2021 I bought a minimal matte black scale on Alibaba that ended up only working for a few months. When it was time to buy a replacement, I decided to go for something that could be a long-term solution, even if it was slightly more expensive upfront. I make multiple cups of coffee each day, so having items that are reliable and enjoyable to use are important to the ritual.
Other gear purchases were not necessarily new, but replacements or backups for items I already had. My Fellow Stagg EKG stopped working, and after some trial and error with a replacement base only, I ended up ordering a full replacement of the matte black model I’ve had for several years. While I am disappointed that the original stopped working, it’s a great product that I’m satisfied with the usage I’ve gotten out of it, considering the fact that I use it 3-5 times daily for years without issue.
The mug that I’ve used at home for many years now has a neat backstory. My wife called into a radio morning show contest 8 or so years ago, and won a Starbucks coffee basket prize. Being that she’s not a coffee drinker, the basket came to me and I’ve been using the limited edition mug ever since. It’s a great shape, size and features a nice mosaic tile print in various grays and browns. It was part of an 8 design collection that Starbucks did as a limited run many years ago. My variant is labeled as the ‘07/08’ edition from that collection.
For my birthday last year, Isa managed to find two more of the exact mug via secondhand online marketplaces. I was surprised gifts of both “backups”, plus a cake and shortbread cookies modeled after the mug design. We’re not big “gifters”, but it was a gesture of love towards not only me, but a ritual she knows is so core to my routine and inner peace. If the original (or OG, as it has been coined) mug ever meets an untimely fate, I have two replacements ready for service. The rule of good backups is upheld… one is none.
Brew Methods
My “daily driver” brew method is still a V60 pour-over. When making more than one cup when we have company, I swap out to the Chemex. I still use the Aeropress occasionally at home, but it’s become my main mode of brewing while traveling. It’s so easy to pack it and a hand grinder for a hotel stay and only need to source hot water to have a consistently great cup when not in the comforts of home.
In 2021, I purchased a Wacaco Picopresso. While it is accurately advertised as a great portable/travel espresso maker, I use it primarily at home as I don’t have a full-size espresso machine. I really enjoy espresso done well, but the sacrifice of counter space isn’t a trade off I’m ready to make for something larger, even at the “prosumer” machine scale. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes using the Picopresso this past year, and I’ve dialed it in and can consistently make a double shot and something akin to a cortado or cortadito that I enjoy a lot. The key to making great espresso with the Picopresso is the grind size. I’ve found that the no-name conical burr grinder I’ve had for years just doesn’t get fine enough for proper espresso. Rather than invest in something like a Fellow Ode for this gap, I’ve taken the simple approach of having the darker roast beans I buy from a local roaster specifically for espresso at their “espresso fine” setting. The trade-off here is obviously that I’ve ground the entire bag and sacrifice some fresh ground flavor profile and freshness, but it’s the best solution for me right now.
Beans
I suspended my YES PLZ beans subscription in 2021, solely due to cost. I found that there was a local Orlando roaster (Foxtail) with a satellite location on my way to and from gymnastics with the twins. I’m able to get equal freshness of roast, but way more beans for the money with Foxtail. I like several of their single origin varieties, but have to admit that I miss the amazing sourcing and blend that Tonx and Sumi come up with over at YES PLZ. The other advantage is that they have two great dark roast options that I can have ground for espresso as mentioned above. I’ll stick with Foxtail for cost reasons, but do want to have more variety here and there in 2023. I’ll likely buy a few ad hoc bags from YES PLZ to satisfy that itch.
The Last Cup of 2022
As part of this yearly retrospective, I’ll share what my last cup of the year was. I enjoyed a cortadito made with Winter Solstice beans (a dark roast with cinnamon flavor notes that’s a seasonal offering at Foxtail). I don’t have a milk steamer/frother, so I heat up the half-and-half and sugar separately to high temp, stir to a sweet and smooth mixture and then add it to the double shot immediately after pulling with the Picopresso. It was spectacular.
Year of Living Without
After reading Manu’s great post about his newest year without experiment and the original inspiration from Leo Babuta, I’m ready to embark on my own.
I’ll take the month-at-a-time approach and am only thinking through what the first 6 months of 2023 will attempt. As I get closer to the mid-point of the year, I’ll evaluate what I should eliminate for the last half. I’m planning to write about each month as it concludes with a short retrospective on how it felt and if I succeeded.
Here’s my list for January - June:
- January - Phone in grayscale mode only.
- February - No sweets.
- March - Only water or coffee to drink; coffee must be black, no dairy, no sweeteners.
- April -
No Apple Watch.No devices in bathroom. - May - No podcasts or audiobooks.
- June - No email newsletters.
Should be interesting! Email me if you have questions or want to discuss.
So Long Social Media
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no stranger to distancing myself from social media platforms. Over the past few years, I’ve written about my thoughts on social. I’ve archived my Instagram account at 500 posts. I haven’t had a Facebook account for over 10 years. Don’t have LinkedIn. Don’t have TikTok. I stopped using Reddit actively a couple years back as well.
Twitter was my hold out. While my posting had dwindled, and I started pruning my timeline back to just the most recent 30 days of tweets, I had no plans to leave it. Then Mr. Musk came and took a shit in the swimming pool.
In some ways, I’m glad he did. Not because I think it is good for the platform, or the world… but because I think it’s exactly what I needed to draw a solid line between me and any social media platform. I have no desire to check out Mastodon. I’m not looking for an outlet or place to occupy my time in a similar way. I’m just done. The time that I’ll get back, I’ll invest in more writing, reading or non-social media forms of leisure. My attention span will thank me. My brain will thank me.
I’m not deleting the accounts. I don’t like the idea of anyone having my usernames after I’ve had them for so long. I may auto-post when I write something to draw interested folks to my writing. I may not… I haven’t really decided. I just know I won’t be logging in, reading any tweets, or posting my own with my own two hands anymore.
I may find a way to use one of my sites for short posts or quick thoughts, but more than likely I’ll just journal them and see which ones turn into something worth writing about in more than a couple hundred characters.
To those I met on the platform, I am truly grateful for the interesting conversations we’ve had. I hope they have a path to continue via email, text or phone calls.