Jim Eagar Reading Time: 4 minutesThe Overload Syndrome: Drowning in Saved Information It’s a mistake almost everyone makes when they get their first linking notes app, such as Obsidian, Craft, or NotePlan. When people are first exposed to PKM, or personal knowledge management, they tend to go overboard. They save almost everything they encounter, thinking it might be useful sometime …
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Promise of Task Managers Task managers can be beneficial tools. I used Things for several years. Now, I use Apple Reminders because it integrates with NotePlan, which is my notes app and my daily planning app. Generally, it’s a great practice to get tasks out of your mind and write them down in a …
Reading Time: 2 minutesMonday was a tough day for my wife and I. We brought our fourteen-year-old cat, Gina, to the vet’s office. They gave her a shot to relax, and then after a last few minutes for us to pet her and show our love for her, they gave her a medication that ended her life. She …
Reading Time: 4 minutesHow Personality Profiles Changed My Life Throughout my life, I’ve benefited from taking personality profiles. First, they helped me better understand and accept who I am. When I was growing up, I thought the ideal was to be somebody with a personality I didn’t have. The model held up to me was an extroverted type …
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhy New Year’s Resolutions Fail It will soon be the beginning of a New Year. At the end of the year, it is natural to reflect on the past year and consider the coming year. We often decide to change our lives and make New Year’s resolutions to establish new habits. However, these resolutions almost …
Reading Time: 3 minutesChecklists: A Buffer Against Human Error As a part-time National Park Service ranger at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, I lead public tours of a decommissioned Launch Control Facility. Two missile officers sat in a hardened capsule 31 feet under the ground and controlled 10 Minuteman missiles. As you can imagine, these were highly …
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRecently, David Sparks, aka ‘MacSparky,” invited me to give a presentation on retirement to MacSparky Labs members. Many of us are either retired or getting ready to retire. We don’t think or plan much about what we’re retiring to, just what we’re retiring from. We assume retirement will solve all our problems. I’ve been retired …
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhy Writers Disagree on Using AI for First Drafts Why do some writers use AI to write their first drafts while others refuse to? The difference often lies in how writers perceive their craft and role. If writers view their role as primarily communicating ideas in writing, then having AI write their first drafts is …
Reading Time: 3 minutesOutcomes vs. Processes In life, we often aim for the bullseye, forgetting that mastery lies in how we hold and draw the bow. In many areas of our lives, we focus on the outcome, not the process we use to achieve it. For instance, if we are looking for a job, the emphasis is on …