Essays
Plus Minus Next Journaling in Roam Research: An Easy Method for Weekly Review
One of the best habits I picked up recently is doing a weekly review. I'd feel lost and agitated whenever I miss doing it. Instead, doing one primes me for the next week and allows me to learn from my mistakes and successes in the previous week. Everyone knows that
Developing a daily publishing habit
How does Seth Godin write a blog post every day? That's a question I've been trying to answer for quite some time now. I'm well aware that publishing daily is a good habit for newbie writers. William Zinsser had something to say about this in his book On Writing Well:
Writing an Integrity Report
2021 hasn't exactly been the year I had hoped for. Going into 2021, I was hoping for better learning opportunities. I was hoping to go into the wards and learn clinical medicine. I was hoping to improve my fitness. I was hoping to write as many words as I possibly
Going through the motions
How can we build good habits like exercising? Ever since lockdown began in Malaysia, I've often been jogging as they're the only allowed form of exercise around here. I prefer doing my exercises indoors, or at the gym, so home workouts are a big no. Before this, I've been exercising
20 Ideas That Changed My Life
Here are 20 ideas that changed my life. My hope is that these ideas will help you think better and live happier, more productive lives. 1. Via Negativa Instead of adding things to solve your problems, remove negative things. What you don't do determines what you can do. For example,
Building a Habit Tracker in Roam Research
If you want your habits to stick, you need to track them. James Clear mentions habit tracking as one way to stick with your habits in his book, Atomic Habits. Making progress is satisfying, and visual measures—like moving paper clips or hairpins or marbles—provide clear evidence of your
My Zettelkasten Journey: Understanding the Differences between Fleeting Notes, Literature Notes, Reference Notes, and Permanent Notes
One of the ideas I've always wanted to implement is the Zettelkasten or Smart Notes note-taking method. I was introduced to this idea in the book How To Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens, and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how I can implement it for
How I use Roam Research to get my most important tasks done
Anthony Trollope is a ridiculously productive writer. After he released his first novel, he published 47 novels, 18 works of non-fiction, 12 short stories, two plays, and various articles and letters. His secret? Writing in 15-minute intervals for three hours per day “It had at this time become my custom,
To-Don’t List: An easy method to improve your productivity
One of the best ways to improve our performance is to subtract, not add. Electronic manufacturers in Japan did this in the 1970s to improve their products. In an article titled "Better All the Time", James Surowiecki writes: "Japanese firms emphasized what came to be known as 'lean production,'
Slothtivity: the Secret to Happiness with Sloth-paced Productivity
Our brain is wired to conserve energy whenever possible. In that sense, everyone is lazy. This is called the Law of Least Effort, which states that people will naturally gravitate towards the option that requires the least amount of work when facing two possibilities. We are motivated to be lazy.
