Greetings everyone,
I am currently writing this newsletter from a leisure club & spa in Markham. Probably one of the best uses of my money ever — coming here 3-4x per year to decompress after a season of work might become a mainstay in my self-care toolkit.
Enjoy today’s newsletter.
A poet must be a professor of the five senses and must open doors among them.
—Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
✏️ 3-Week Sprints
This summer is a big one for me — I am trying to finish up my M.Sc. & start a new role at work, whilst maintaining my relationships and the habits that I’ve built up over the last few years (reading; working out & running; journaling). It’s harder than I thought. When work starts to get super hectic, I find myself constantly uneasy and feeling the urge to work all day, all the time. Which is not sustainable (or healthy). I think the best way to balance this is to aggressively prioritize my work projects in short intervals, and focus on delivering on those priorities through time-blocking & efficient working.
A strategy which I am implementing this month is sprints. It comes from scrum culture in the tech industry (I think), and is essentially goal setting and focused work in interval periods, usually between 2-6 weeks. For me, I have chosen a 3-week sprint interval: it’s not based on any evidence, but I feel like its the amount of time I would need to fully tackle a major project from start to finish, if I was able to give that project most of my time. Thus, I hope combining 3-week sprints with time-blocking will help me deliver on the time sensitive projects that I have on my plate this summer. For the next 3 weeks (this week until the 16th), I want to sprint on the following: work, thesis, side hustle.
On the work front, I have a new role to contend with, and a potential solution for a database problem that I would like to solve. I also have some validation work that I would like to complete: as a goal, I’d like at least 1 of the studies to have a first draft complete for review (and eventual submission for publication) by the end of the sprint. On the thesis front, I have a few things: I would like to submit my scoping review for publication, fully wrap my head around the grading of the tests (and grade the tests I have), and run the analysis. This would set me up for a full completion of the study manuscript (and wrap up the M.Sc.) in the next sprint. On the side hustle front, I would like to finish the two YouTube scripts that I have in the pipeline, and begin research on a 4th video. It’s a gig I really like, but because I have been so busy I haven’t had time to really push through on those. So this is the sprint where that happens.
I think this model of working will really help me tackle things more efficiently and hopefully lead to me feeling less overwhelmed about my life.
festinare nocet, nocet et cunctatio saepe; tempore quaeque suo qui facit, ille sapit — it is bad to hurry, and delay is often as bad; the wise person is the one who does everything in its proper time. (Ovid)
💡 Food for Thought
Most people will never reach their ‘number’…because it is always rising (hedonic adaptation) — enjoy your life and the fruits of your labour now, in whatever way you can. Plan for the future, but relish the present.
🔗 Sunday Best
Visual Vocabulary
From the Financial Times — a guide on how to visually illustrate your data, whatever type of data it is.
Academic Phrasebank
From the University of Manchester
The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ). Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing (see the menu on the left). The resource should be particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work.
The Ultimate Guide to YouTube
By Ali Abdaal
In this guide I want to show you exactly how to start your own YouTube channel, based on my years of trial and error, and from coaching thousands of Part-Time YouTuber Academy students through the process. Here’s how I’ve structured the three stages of your YouTube journey:
Get Going – The most important part: how to actually get started on YouTube.
Get Good – How to improve your video quality, and grow an audience.
Get Smart – How to develop a strong YouTube niche, and make money from your channel.
Spend your 20s saying YES and the rest of your life saying NO.
—Sahil Bloom (1991-)
Honestly guys — never been to a spa before but this is serious business. So relaxing and good recovery too (did a 13k run earlier today).
See you next week!
AT