Ever since two of our kids started school at different schools with different schedules, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to still effectively work.

Here’s what I’m trying to follow:

My goal is to have an 8-hour workday. I divide this to four 2-hour blocks.

Daily Planning

In daily planning, I try to be specific with what I want to accomplish on each block. Once that’s clear, I try to do tasks that takes less than 5-minute to do if I have the energy (most of the time I don’t and procrastinate 😛).

Operations Work

The initial 2-hour block mostly involves handling operational tasks for Human Made. During this period, I address change requests, support tickets, and emails. This works well because I’m usually the only person available around this hour. I can respond faster to our APAC customers.

It’s also good for me as it puts my head in to work mode.

Sprint Work / Meetings

In the following 2-hour blocks, the tasks are mixed bag. Sometimes more support work if there’s an active incident happening, sometimes I’m able to focus on sprint work.

Working in the evening enables me to participate in meetings with my team. This timing works well as those in the EMEA region are in their mid-day, and those in the Americas are just starting their day.

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This schedule is not something I can consistently follow. Some days, completing even a single task is a struggle, while on other days, I effortlessly breeze through my to-do list. It’s a give-and-take scenario. When I’m struggling, I spend more time to work to still deliver, and during good periods, I spend more time at home. It’s a recurring cycle.

I think plans isn’t meant to be followed to the dot but rather to provide guidance and structure. Having things pre-decided makes it easy to get back on track when I feel lost.

For more than a decade now, I’ve been using WordPress. Using is a keyword here. I’ve been using it without contributing back. 

WordPress has reached 20 years this year, primarily due to the thousands of volunteers who contribute to its continuous development and maintenance, keeping it alive.

Looking back, it was working on WordPress-based projects that opened a lot of opportunities for me. The projects and jobs I got from it put me in a position where I could provide a comfortable life for my family.

I could say that if it weren’t for WordPress, I would not be where I am at now.

Applied as a speaker for WordCamp Cebu 2023

I had the intention to give back for a long time but I did not know where to start. When I saw that WordCamp Cebu was looking out for speakers, I applied. 

My topic was not even about promoting myself, or any of my work or expertise. It was about how I personally use WordPress and why I think it’s the right choice for a CMS as it guarantees that you own and control what you produce.

As a speaker, I had the chance to meet Drew, the lead organizer of WordCamp Manila, and Dreb, the lead organizer of WordCamp Davao, at the welcome dinner. It was super fun to hang out with them, an experience that becomes increasingly rare as I grow older. It felt like being around with my kind of people.

Attended WordCamp Asia 2023

The following month, WordCamp Asia took place. I connected with more people, and it was surprisingly easy to get along with them. It felt like WordCamps attract a certain kind of people who are open and inclusive by default. 

The after parties were so enjoyable that the people I was with expressed a desire to bring that same fun back to our local community.

We started casually talking on organizing WordCamp Manila. No concrete plans yet, but it planted a seed with everybody about making it happen.

Helped organize WordCamp Manila 2023

After coming back home, I started getting more involved with the local community. I did another talk in a meetup, I volunteered, and I was always present in-person and in our weekly calls.

Last November 11, we finally made WordCamp Manila 2023 happen.

It’s just amazing how one thing always lead to another.

Getting involved made me realize that community work is a key factor in sustaining WordPress’ longevity. With organizing a WordCamp event, even if we inspire just a single person to contribute back, it will help WordPress. And I’m hoping that we did.

What’s next?

I work with very talented people who’s an active contributor to WordPress. I’d like to explore more ways to contribute back, especially to Core and Hosting, which is directly tied to my work at Human Made.

No concrete plans yet, but let’s see what happens.

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I did all this with the pure intention to contribute back, not expecting anything in return. I felt like it’s time for me to give back. However, I still ended up gaining more than I gave – new friends.

WordPress just keeps on giving.

While doing a weekly review earlier today, I realized most of the stuff in my plans are for other people. I don’t have a day where I get to do things I’m naturally drawn to do. I fill all my days with things I have to do — which I actually don’t have an issue with, but leaves me unfulfilled.

Maybe this is also why when I share that I’m planning to try something new, I get a laugh instead of support. I can’t blame them. My want-to-dos only has been increasing. I should explicitly make time for it.

I’ll try this: I won’t plan work stuff on my Saturdays. I added a note in my weekly planner and calendar to remind me to do things for myself.

What do you want to do that you don’t have to do?

It’s important to have a day where you’re not busy. To think, to plan. If you’re always anxious about your have-to-dos, you won’t get any thinking done. You’ll just react to things without a direction. This will leave you astray, unfulfilled, sad.

Try it on Saturdays. Go to your office with no agenda. But to think, to do things you feel like doing. Without pressure.

I recently got a new a job as a Cloud Engineer. Part of pre-onboarding was choosing my preferred equipment. The recommended machine for engineering roles was a MacBook Pro 13” 16gb 512gb with an AirPods Pro (or any equivalent). Since Intel-based MacBooks are getting phased-out, I opted for a MacBook Pro 14”.

Here’s where my issue surfaced. Even though I’m not the one paying for it, it still felt excessive. I already have a personal MacBook Air that’s half the cost and also good enough to do my role. My role requires ridiculously low computing power to be productive. When I got it, I wasn’t giddy or super excited as I should be. I felt some kind-of waste on adding another stuff to my life, when I already have something I can use. It literally sat on my desk for a full week before I started using it.

I wondered why:

1. I like getting away with as minimum as I can - I think the optimal position to be in is just right in the middle. Not lacking, but also nothing in excess.
2. Cheaper stuff requires less care and easy to replace - I get more excited with cheap electronics than most expensive ones. I like not having the best. Easily replaceable.
3. Less emotional attachment to material things - If it breaks (which it will inevitably will), then it breaks. No hard feelings. I’ll just buy a new one. A line in Fight Club stuck with me when I start to feel I’m too invested in a particular thing: the things you own end up owning you.

This all made sense. But at the same time, I’m also wondering: Am I just rationalizing? Is it probably because I feel I don’t deserve the best?

I don’t know. I’m still figuring it out.

I maintain and add/fix features to an eight-year-old codebase (web app). I like maintaining and keeping things running. My main challenge here is every time a new feature has to be implemented/fixed, I have a long list to do before I get to the actual work. Regardless on how simple it is.

To get started I need to:

1. Open Visual Studio project
2. Make sure I’m working on the latest version
3. Start RavenDB (local database server)
4. Start RabbitMQ (local message-broker)
5. Start IIS (local web server)
6. Open JIRA ticket for implementation details
7. Finally, start working on the feature

This is only to get started. It doesn’t cover doing the actual work, testing, and deployment. There’s too much friction.

What I tried but didn’t fully resolved my issue

My initial solution was to use a dedicated laptop for web app-related work. This worked for a while but I didn’t like maintaining two laptops. If I forgot to charge the laptop, it shuts off leaving me to do those same thing all over again.

The second thing I tried was to run VM in Azure for development work. It has an image with Visual Studio pre-installed. I was able to ship a few features using this workflow. The lag was noticeable but every time I logged in, I resume where I left off. My issue is the cheapest VM costs around $20 a month (2 vCPU, 2gb ram, non-ssd storage). Build time is also considerably longer because of the specs, which becomes critical for hot fixes.

What I found to be working for me

I discovered cheap tiny PCs in FB Marketplace. Cost is only P10k for a fairly recent Intel i5 9th gen processor (6 cores). It idles at 10 watts (a full pc idles at 100w). I added 2x 16gb DDR4 ram and 1TB SSD. Total cost is only around 20k.

I’m using it as an always-on headless machine that I access through Jump Desktop. Jump Desktop is a remote desktop app that has its own STUN servers. This means I can access the machine anywhere as long as there’s internet.

This solved my main pain point when working on this particular codebase. I’m also back on bringing only a single laptop with me if I go out.

My new process now:

1. Open Jump Desktop
2. Connect to the development machine
3. Since everything is in place already, I only need to start working

This is me accessing the machine remotely from my Mom’s home (the machine is in my office). As soon as I connect, I resume where I left off. Visual Studio is open, local servers are running, build time is fast, and it doesn’t use too much electricity when idle.

For the past few months I’ve been buying tiny PCs in FB Marketplace because I’m planning to create a homelab Kubernetes cluster for learning. I’ve purchased a lot in the marketplace before and everything went through. Most people are trustworthy. But of course, there are exceptions.

What was the scam?

The seller presented himself as company employee. I was told that they have a warehouse and a procedure of payment-first to process orders. This is a red flag in itself. However, when I checked the pick-up location, the company really do have a warehouse and it’s registered under the company name. This addressed my first concern.

The way the messages was structured was it addresses any hesitation that might come up. It looks like they really do have a standard procedure. I went ahead and transfer the amount agreed to.

And then he’s gone.

At first I felt my anger building up. Then shame slowly creeped in. I felt stupid for falling for it. My initial thought was to keep it to myself. Sharing it would only validate my stupidity.

I somewhat knew that if I kept things to myself, the bad experience will just linger at the back of my mind for days. Even if it’s embarrassing, I shared it to Julie and my friends.

What could I have done next time?

There are multiple ways to catch this con. It’s a little more hassle but for large transaction it’s worth it. Here’s the thing I should have done instead:

• Call the company to verify person employment
• Ask for an I.D. and live photo of the items
• Most sellers offer payment only when the pickup service has arrived — insist on doing this
• Avoid large transactions on Gcash/GrabPay because they specifically exclude swindling (transferred money but unfulfilled order) to their protection coverage

What good did come out of this?

I’m actually getting addicted on finding good deals in the marketplace. Even for things I don’t need. There’s this instant gratification in same-day shipping purchase. It’s getting harder to control myself especially when I’m stressed out and my willpower is spent. Now, I have natural aversion on buying. I don’t visit the marketplace any more haha.

Another thing that was surprising is how I was able to regulate my emotion. In less than an hour I was able to accept and acknowledge the situation. I knew that getting angry or feeling shame wouldn’t make a difference. It will only make my loss bigger (by being emotionally invested in something I don’t have control of). I was able to resume my day as planned.

This was good exercise on how I’d react when real bad things happen. I’d say this lesson is well worth ₱15.9k.

#

Here’s the details for SEO: Golden Dragon Enterprise 09334498092 09687683535

I tried an unstructured life for a few months. No wake up time, no schedule, no commitment on deliverables. I was free to do anything I feel like doing. It seemed like the ideal state to be in, right?

I quickly realized though, this kind of lifestyle isn’t for me.

Day after day pass without anything meaningful happening. I had a list of things I wanted to do when I was super busy, but I have a lot of friction getting started.

My main issue turned out to be not having a structure.

I used to think being free means being able to do anything I want. It’s true. But what isn’t obvious is suddenly you have to decide on a lot things. Deciding on every single thing every day is mentally exhausting. “What am I going to do today? What time am I going to start? How much time should I spend on it?”

Pre-deciding is the key

A full-time job have a built-in structure. I wake up, take a shower, go to office. And in the office I have another set of routine to sit-down, identify what you need to do, do it until end of day.

This works because things are pre-decided for me. I didn’t have to think about it. I just have to follow it. That’s why it’s easier to do things.

I still don’t want the 9-5 lifestyle. It’s too rigid for me. What I end up copying is only pre-deciding on things. I start each week with a weekly planning where I check my calendar with upcoming commitments. I then list things I have to deliver within the week and arbitrarily put them any day depending on when it’s expected.

This significantly reduced the friction on how I start my day. Because it was pre-decided already. I just have to sit down and do it.

Structure sets me free in a way I don’t have to think of what I need to do everyday.

I used to be too critical with grammar and spelling (on myself and other people). I had instances when if I’m not sure I’m absolutely correct, I’d choose to stay silent than say what I wanted to say. Out of fear of being wrong.

Misspelled words here doesn’t mean I’m better than this person. I couldn’t even do anything listed here myself. I don’t have his skill.

I understood that “scoop” meant “scope”, “high silling” meant “high ceiling”. I understood the breakdown of work and it’s cost. Which is exactly what I asked for.

Words are just tools for communication. If another person was able to convey what he wanted to say, then the tool served its purpose. No need to be too critical. That’s what matters, right?

No matter how much I plan, I still go through a phase where I just have zero motivation to do anything at all. I find myself wasting my day away. I know what I’m supposed to do, but I can’t find any energy to do it.

I used to wait it out until I get tired of being unproductive. However, that isn’t always possible. Especially being adult and having people depend on me. I have to find a way to get around whenever I’m in that state.

I have developed a checklist I follow that helps me back on track.

Getting back on track checklist

1. Sort out finances
   • This is one of the easiest tasks because it involves a clear goal: checking bank accounts, credit cards, and cash. Having a clear understanding of my financial standing significantly reduces my anxiety.
2. Brain dump - Write down everything that’s on your mind. You don’t have to act on it, but acknowledging its presence through writing helps you make sense of the thoughts in your mind.
   • Things I need to do, want to do, don’t want to do.
   • Things I’m trying to avoid thinking about.
3. Exercise - Walk, run, push up, pull up.
   • I don’t need to complete a full exercise routine; the primary goal is to elevate my heart rate. In some instances, the body influences the mind. When my heart beats fast from exercise, my mind shifts from low-energy to an excited state, as if my body dictates my emotional state.
4. Eat the right food
   • Eating the right food is crucial because an unbalanced diet affects both mood and cognitive function. The mind and body are closely connected, so if I lack essential nutrients or consume too much junk food, it can lead to feeling off.
5. Disconnect
   • We have become such experts at being always in touch, informed, connected. Now we must relearn how to be silent, disconnected, alone. - Alain de Botton
   • Food for the body is like information for the mind. If I constantly consume anxiety-inducing news, my body can’t help but feel anxious.
   • Pay attention to what I pay attention to.
   • Optimize on output.

It may not work out immediately, but with consistent effort day by day, there will come a point where I’ll surprise myself that I’m already doing fairly well.

I have been consistently working out for more than 80 days because of stay-at-home orders. This has been the habit that had the most impact in the quality of my life.

Keystone habit

A keystone habit is a habit that you can “attach” other habits to. It’s one habit that triggers a set of other good habits.

For working out, what happens after I’m done are:

1. I shower - because I stink.
2. I log my body composition (weight, body fat) - to track my progress, makes me a bit more aware with changes in my body.
3. I eat good food, drink a lot of water - to address what the body composition scale suggests to improve.
4. I take my vitamins.

There’s this idea that the better you take care of yourself, the better you’ll handle life. With my body getting used to physical stress, it makes me better prepared to handle unexpected stressors that will inevitably come my way.

Recent personal milestones

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I gave up on the idea of “beating” procrastination. I’ve tried all the to-do apps and all the productivity hacks. I just accepted that it’s part of my nature and I should embrace it.

Not mindlessly embrace it though.

Introducing a competing response

A competing response is a pre-decided alternative action when a specific habit triggers.

Let’s say I’m having a hard time on a specific task. My default action is to take a break and browse reddit/twitter/facebook. My competing response is to spend time with my family instead.

“I love them more than evolution required” is a phrase that I keep feeling whenever I spend time with them.

I’m still procrastinating but I’m spending it on something I enjoy and worth doing.

I have this guilt that I’m doing so well with Coronavirus’ quarantine. The only thing that changed with my routine is I haven’t been able to go to Starbucks to work. It feels unfair and wrong that a lot of people are in a bad place.

I know that, by nature, people tends to help those in need. The problem is there’s a lot of people in need and it’s obvious that I can’t help them all. There’s this choice paralysis on how and who to give assistance to.

The strategy I adopted to workaround this is: fill your cup and let it overflow around you. 

First, I make sure that my family are taken care of. This means that I feel secure that we’ll be able to weather the crisis in the next few weeks despite the uncertainty. 

Then, I give away the excess I have to people around me that I’m aware needs help. Relatives, employees, coworkers, old classmates, kapitbahay, friend of a friend, kapitbahay ng friend, it doesn’t matter who. As soon as I knew about their struggle and I know how to help, I do it. I even reach out and ask about their situation.

Meritocracy doesn’t apply here. There’s no qualification if someone deserves help or not. No one deserves to be hungry.

Walking the talk: My cup is full. I already gave away more than 100% of my pay this month.

The time after Christmas and before New Year is a perfect time to stop and reflect.

There’s a lot of downtime. Almost everybody stops working. There’s minimal pressure to work.

Looking back makes me relive the good stuff. It also makes me think about how could I better handled the bad stuff.

Looking forward gives me clarity where I want to go. If I have that vision in mind, I have a reference to check if I’m still on the right track and reassess if I want to continue the path I’m in.

Questions I ask myself to kick-start my introspection:

• What’s the highest point of my year?
• How about the lowest point?
• What’s the biggest lesson I learned?
• What’s the most significant realization I had?
• What change did I do that had the biggest impact?
• What did I do that I’m most proud of?
• What did I do the I’m most ashamed of?
• What’s the happiest thing that happened?
• How about the saddest thing?
• How about the most unexpected thing?
• Am I still heading to where I want to be?
• What am I aiming to do next year?

I’m starting a personal weekly goal of producing something I can show. The idea is based on Patrick McKenzie’s advice with the same title. Ever since I read it a few years back, it stuck with me. His advice boils down to: Don’t end the week with nothing. Prefer to work on things you can show. Ship it and intentionally seek feedback. A week seems the sweet spot with the way I operate. Shorter time means there will be too much pressure and I’ll just abandon it after a few days. Longer time means the project will be dragging. With a week, I can catch up if I miss a few days on not working on something at all, but with the right amount of urgency.

What should I work on? What qualifies a work that I can show here?

Ideally, I want to work on things that utilizes my accumulated capital. Something that demonstrates value I can provide. However I’m sure that it will not always be the case every week. I can work on things that enriches my life in any way. Be it writing a helpful blog I can reference in the future and publishing it. At the very least, I can work on anything I want as long I have a concrete valuable output to show. Just don’t end the week with nothing. This page will act an index what I have to show every week. Week 08: Personal Dashboard Week 09: Julie’s Contract Maker Week 10: Homebridge integration with Broadlink Week 11: THTF Facebook Bot Week 12: ERPNext implementation at CLP Week 13: Week 14:

I figured that Monday is the perfect time to review my week. I have a fresh outlook and high energy because of the weekend break. I always try to follow this one important rule: Don’t end the week with nothing. If I get to accomplish a single important thing every week, I consider it a big win. What are my wins this week? What needs improvement?

Another important part of my reviews is to plan my upcoming week. What do I need to look out for? What do I want to accomplish?

Reviews easily takes 1-2 hours to do. Despite the hours it takes, I see it as worth the time because it helps me realign whatever am I doing now to the big picture I want to be in. It helps me see if I am at the right direction or am I straying away.

Right questions helps me focus on the right things. Currently, the questions I ask myself during reviews are:

• How was your week?
• What are you proud of this week?
• What needs improvement?
• Do not end the week with nothing. What’s the single most important thing you need to accomplish next week?
• What’s upcoming this week? What do I need to look out for?
• What else do you plan to accomplish next week?

Read one book at a time. While reading, highlight and take notes ideas that come up to your mind. At the end of the book meticulously edit your notes to make each idea self-contained for future lookup. Add the self-contained idea to your Anki flash cards. Move on to the next book after you have finished editing your notes and published it. Shelve your book and you can move on to the next.

What should I read next?

1. Area I want to improve on, inline with my stretch goals - check learning path mindmap
2. Something that induce a terrifying longing. Making me drop everything else to pursue it.

So this is my simple observation: When deciding to embrace a self-motivated ambition, choose a definition of success that your aunt in Peoria would understand and find impressive. This is not about succumbing to the status quo, but instead setting yourself up to receive the brutal but useful feedback needed to eventually start producing things too good to be ignored. - Pursue Metrics that Matter, Cal Newport

I’ve been thinking of making my workflow vim-centric again, just because. Then this got me thinking: Getting better at vim will give me nothing. It will not get me closer to any goal I have now. PhpStorm works perfectly fine. It’s heavy, yeah. But so what? My machine can handle it pretty good. Ewan ko ba bakit na attract ako sa idea na of “get better” at vim. It does not provide value. What I mean is, the effort I will put in it does not convert to something of valuable. Pursue metrics that matter. Getting better at vim does not matter. Getting better at coding does. Better yet, getting better at achieving goals that improves my life is the thing that truly matters. Focus on getting better at creating things instead.

I enjoy understanding how other people code.

I’m not the type who bash at other programmers just because our “way” of thinking doesn’t align (most of the time).

Reading other’s people code and doing something about it is like stepping in someone else’s shoes. I asks all the why’s. Why did he do this, why did he do that. I try to think like the person who coded the thing.

Best practices are there for specific scenarios. There are no universal best practice. Early bird does not apply on going on a field of landmines.

The more “way” I know the better I get at choosing what’s the best for the situation.

This is why I’m getting paid by the premium. It’s because of the different “ways” I tried before and the lessons I learned from them and knowing which is the best for this specific situation.

I’ve been reading @iamdevloper tweets. I’m surprised that I can relate to most of the stuff posted there. Just a reminder that what I’m experiencing is not unique to me. Somebody else has already gone through it.

I especially liked tweets that reminds me to question myself if I’m giving attention to the right things. I’m prone spend too much time looking for the best solution to things that may not add much value. In the end, time spent on it is disproportionate to gained value.

Every 100ms of latency costs Amazon 1{5fcd3cbc9de14e1587c4b983f08e4837fa7ae8985dc66bae235a2c5aa0d68677} of profit, every 100ms of latency you save on your shitty web app cos-No one cares.

— I Am Devloper (@iamdevloper) May 27, 2015

“How My Users Cared When I Switched From Grunt to Gulp”Error: 404 (Not found)

— I Am Devloper (@iamdevloper) May 15, 2015

“I’m really glad that this person took the time and paid the money to set up their own personalised short URL system” - no-one ever.

— I Am Devloper (@iamdevloper) May 13, 2015

To conclude, programmers work at night because it doesn’t impose a time limit on when you have to stop working, which gives you a more relaxed approach, your brain doesn’t keep looking for distractions and a bright screen keeps you awake. — Maker’s Time

I code better when I’m relaxed. When there’s too much to think and worry about, I just can’t function properly. Most of my background processing are spent on worrying.

Note to self: have enough time to play around while coding. That way, you enjoy the actual work.