nico.ninja A deep dive journey about electronics, computers, radio and so on

My system

09 Aug 2023

A system

It’s been a time since I wanted to talk about my system. It is nothing but the way things work best for me, and maybe for you as well!

I’m a strong believer that systems work amazingly well on persons who want to optimize the outcome of their tasks and time. To make things less overwhelming I’ve split them into sections I found best.

Habits

I have always been a habits person. It’s easy for me to develop and maintain habits over time. The process of developing and sustaining habits over time has been a cornerstone of my personal growth, these are my key points to help improve habit development.

Read books about habits

Read Atomic Habits by James Clear and Rich Habits by Thomas Corley: Even if you’re already a habits person (like me), these books will help you understand and embrace the concept of habits and how to maximize their outcome with less effort. I left some annotations I did during my lecture of Atomic Habits:

  • Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
  • If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
  • The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.
  • The Four Laws of Behavior Change is a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits.
    • Make it obvious.
    • Make it attractive.
    • Make it easy.
    • Make it satisfying.
  • The environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.

There are several other books about habits such as:

Embrace Mondays

Don’t think of them as the end of the weekend. Rephrase that to the start of a new week, full of opportunities. Shifting my mindset to a more positive attitude greatly impacts my outlook on the week ahead, not only on me but also on the people around me.

Keep your mailbox clean

Stay on top of your emails, use labels and filters, and unsubscribe from advertising emails. You’ll get way less notifications in that way. I prefer to use labels for different email boxes or tasks or projects. That way I simplify the further search of emails.

Redirect all your email inboxes into a single one

If you have several email accounts (most of us have!) it is better to centralize the email management into a single account. Gmail can receive and send emails from an external account, you can even label the emails received from an external account so you get your inbox tidy.

Disable unwanted/noisy notifications

They just bother you. Notifications from social networks, chat groups, promotions, and news are there just to help you lose focus. This is just one of the multiple tips you’ll find in The Optimal iPhone Settings and Best Apps for Productivity, Focus, and Health.

Use Apple profiles (Work, Sleep, Do not disturb)

Profiles are highly configurable, you’ll find yourself more focused on work when using the work profile as much of the notifications are snoozed. The sleep profile is my favorite one: Only the persons you add to a whitelist can call you or message you and get you notified about it. Otherwise, your phone would not ring.

Use a calendar, use the reminders app

Humans are bad at retaining information. If you’re already working on an Apple-centered ecosystem, you’ll find reminders quite helpful to rapidly annotate on your Macbook that thing you need to do as pick up a package or pay that damn invoice late today, so your iPhone would chime you at the right moment. You can even configure a notification based on your location, so for example, you get notified about the package you need to pick up when walking near the post office.

Pick a day of the week to do housekeeping

I found this very relaxing to do: Thursday is my chosen day, Thursday is the day that Internet shopping arrives home, Thursday is the day I do the laundry and Thursday is the day I cook by myself, among other things.

It’s also the day I choose to co-work with some of my friends, whether at home or at friends’ places.

Write a lot, and journal

Journal about your life, journal about your projects. Writing is a great way to learn. Throughout my life, I have had several blogs and websites with the sole purpose of writing. I have also written for friends’ blogs and forums in the form of articles and tutorials. I find joy in writing and I’m pretty sure you’ll do as well. Writing is a great way of sharing knowledge and thoughts. Even if you’re not aiming at anyone in particular, give it a try and see how it behaves. You can even have a free blog set up in a few minutes with Jekyll and Github Pages.

Work

Keep your desktop uncluttered

Both physical and virtual desktops should be uncluttered most of the time. I know that it’s hard to do that during work, the virtual desktop may be full of files, screenshots, downloads, and notes, and that’s ok. The thing here is simple: once you ended up working on that task, tidy up the desktop. The same is recommended for your physical desktop. During work, it’s easy to leave it full of glasses, mate, coffee cups, papers, etc. The same approach is given here: once your day is finished, tidy up your desktop. You’ll find yourself in a clear mind state the next day.

Avoid context switching

Most of us have a job (or more?) and various side projects, and it’s really easy to fall into the slippery slope of context-switching. “During the compilation of this binary, I’ll power up the 3D printer so it preheats, and then during the release execution as the upload takes a while I’ll put the printer to print that piece I draw early today during my team retrospective meeting”. Just don’t. A little context-switching may be ok, a lot of context-switching is harmful. You’re not here, and not there. You’re paying attention to neither both of the verticals you’re working on. Focus on one, then do the other.

Lock time windows

Tightly coupled with the above-mentioned point, using locked time windows works great for me, so I spend the correct amount of time on each task. Otherwise, I always end up working late, which shifts my bedtime horribly, so the next day I’m really tired and my gym results are far from ideal. Avoid that, use time blocks for each task.

Do your weekly reset on Sundays

That’s the way it works best for me. Late on Sundays, I organize all tasks I need to do the following week. Important tasks, chores, and low-hanging fruit. Even those things I didn’t have time to solve last week. I also clean up my computer, sort files, read my emails, reboot my laptop and apply the security patches, if any.

Have a spare computer

If you work with computers, it’s a must to have a second computer properly set up in order to replace the principal one if something bad happens. Hardware (and software) fails, and human mistakes occur. It’s better to be prepared so that in case something goes wrong with your main computer, you have a backup one.

If you’re struggling with something…

Let it go for a while. Once you struggle a lot, a war inside your brain starts. That war will completely block you to solve that damn task. I’m quite aware of this and what happens to me when I struggle more than I can is that I simply cannot think clearly, I become very sensitive and irritate and my way of communicating with other humans gets worse. If you’re struggling, go for a walk, drink fresh water, remember to breathe, and see the sun. You’ll find yourself in a better shape to tackle that problem.

Finances

Pay your credit cards in full

There’s no reason not to do that. If you spent more than you can afford to pay your debt, ask a friend for a loan, but bear in mind that you’ll need to revise your finances. Credit cards are double-edged swords.

Save money

It’s really important to have savings. Since we cannot predict the future, it’s always better to be prepared for the worst: having instant liquidity is important for harsh times. You can even automate savings by setting up automatic transfers from your checking account to your saving account. That way you don’t need to mind about it.

Invest money

And diversify your investments. Saved money depreciates over time due to inflation, but anyways is required to have liquidity. Teach yourself about investments, and ask friends about them. Remember: Don’t trust, verify: if an investment looks overly promising, there could be something smelling bad behind it.

Hire a bookkeeper

Or teach yourself enough to do the bookkeeping to time and form. This may be an overwhelming situation, and I prefer to hire a bookkeeper. They know how to maximize your money flow, making you spend less on futile things such as taxes.

Take advantage of the credit

But do not overshoot! In countries where the inflation rate is too high, credit cards offer great dominance over paying things upfront. The money you save during each share could be invested, and the investment returns can partially or totally pay those shares over time. Anyways, remember: Credit cards are double-edged swords, use them wisely.

Keep track of your finances

This may be overwhelming at first, but the return on interest is incredibly high: You’ll find you’re spending too much money on food delivery, or buying on the next street market instead of going to a supermarket. If you’re already investing money, or if you have several bank accounts, it’s better to keep track of everything in a single place. You don’t need anything fancy: A simple Excel spreadsheet would suffice.

Wellness

Keep your mind shining

As your muscles, to have a strong mind requires dedication and effort. Train it, feed it, and let it rest. Cultivating a resilient and vibrant mind requires consistent care and attention. Social connections are as important as continuous learning and adequate sleep. If things are not balanced, your mind won’t shine.

Avoid alcohol as much as you can

I have never been such a drinker, but definitely I feel better now that I barely drink alcohol. The instant gratification dissolves at the moment you need to fight that headache that blocks you from training, working, and enjoying a new day.

View the sun in the morning

“Viewing sunlight within the first hours of waking (as soon as you can, even if through cloud cover) increases early-day cortisol release (the ideal time for elevated cortisol) and prepares the body for sleep later that night. A morning spike in cortisol will also positively influence your immune system, metabolism and ability to focus during the day.”

This is a quote from Andrew Huberman, on his podcast The Huberman Lab, which I strongly recommend listening to.

Do day SPAs or saunas periodically

Deliberate hot and cold exposure has great outcomes for the body and mind. Deliberate cold exposure causes a significant release of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline) in the brain and body. Heat will trigger some of the same mechanisms in the brain and body as if you were physically engaged in cardiovascular exercise. These are also quotes from Andrew Huberman’s podcasts:

Exercise your body

Not necessarily a lot, but consistently. I do not exercise a lot, but I do it on a strict agenda. Get in touch with a trainer to make a gym routine that works for you. I personally do weights 3 times a week focusing on three different muscular groups (one each day), and 10 to 20 kilometers of bike riding on the remaining 3 or 4 days of the week to fulfill my cardio needs. I found my cardio fitness (or VO2 max) improved significantly since I started to do more cardio training.

Redo your gym routine periodically

If you stick with your routine for too long, that is to say, the same exercises, same sets, reps, and weight, your body quickly adapts to that. Improve your routine by adding more sets, and/or more weight, and train different muscle groups from time to time. For me, what works best is:

  • If not tired enough, add reps, up to 12.
  • If not tired enough, add sets, up to 5.
  • If not tired enough, add enough weight to go down on reps in a range of 8-10 and keep sets between 3 and 4.
  • Repeat.

Mind about what you eat

I don’t follow any strict diet, and I consider I eat what I really like, but I do it consciously. I try to keep my sugar ingestion as low as possible, reducing the amount of alfajores I eat every week, and I focus on a hydrate/protein-centered diet. My plate is mostly distributed as 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% vegetables. I prefer more protein during the day and more vegetables during the night. I found I sleep better if I avoid carbs/protein at night. What works for me may not work best for you, so I recommend you go to a nutritionist so they can write down a diet for your specific body and needs.

Do periodic health checks

For me, it’s really important to know I’m healthy, and if not, what actions should I take to be healthy again. I conduct annual complete checks of my body, I go to the dentist every 6 months and I recently started with a dermatologist. Nothing matters more than your health, think of it as the base of a pyramid. If you’re not healthy enough, nothing could be constructed on top of it.

Try to meditate every day

This is something that I’m not completely onboard yet, it takes me so much effort to focus on the meditation that I simply let it go. Headspace is a good shareware app that may help you meditate. Meditation leads to long-term trait changes, including changing your default mood, reducing baseline anxiety/depression, increasing your ability to focus, enhancing relaxation, improving sleep, and increasing your overall happiness level.

Get a therapist

Back in time, I thought I didn’t need a therapist because I felt “good”. Turns out I was wrong. Therapy is not solely reserved for times of distress; it can be beneficial for various aspects of personal development and well-being, even when you’re in a relatively positive state of mind. Writing may help you here. I personally take notes about how I feel, what I did, and what I did not do, so that way I have enough content to share with my therapist and we don’t end up in small talk.

Security

Whether you work in IT or not, you should care about security. Right now we have hundreds of passwords, logins, accounts, social media, etc, etc, etc. And it doesn’t matter if you’re the lord of the passwords: a security breach on a site you logged in to exposes your login credentials open wide.

Use a password manager

Threat your passwords as your underwear:

  • Don’t leave them lying around.
  • Change them regularly.
  • Don’t share them with anyone.

Definitely, that sounds complicated if you mind about the number of passwords you have right now. But there is a solution: A password manager can take care of that list, you just need to set up a master password to protect and encrypt them. I recommend 1Password and Bitwarden if you like to host your things.

Use multiple-factor authentication

In addition to the password manager, I strongly recommend having at least two second-factor authentication methods, one virtual, and one physical.

For the virtual flavor, Authy does the job quite well. For the physical flavor, I like the Yubikey 5C NFC, as it’s USB-C and NFC capable.

There’s an unpopular opinion that says you can have a very weak password while you have 2FA enabled, as the attacker couldn’t gain access to the account without the 2FA code. Unpopular indeed, and while I don’t recommend doing that ever, it’s not that wrong.

Read and learn

Reading wasn’t always my thing, but I definitely embraced the fact that by reading books, blogs, articles, and papers my professional career skyrocketed.

Right now I aim to have a 50/50 reading ratio between technical/my industry content and psychology/wellness. I find psychology books really interesting as they offer me a different point of view on things I am working on in my person.

Reading a variety of material exposes your mind to different viewpoints and ways of thinking that indeed end up in your personal development and holistic growth. It is great to surprise your friends with new knowledge!

Get a Kindle

I know there are a lot of people that will say “I prefer the physical book, I like how they feel, I like how they smell”, peeps, trust me, I’m one of yours. But if you like to read a lot and you’re constantly traveling or moving a Kindle opens endless possibilities to read almost anywhere. The battery lasts at least 30 days, you can take notes, you can buy or download books, has Wi-Fi and even an integrated, experimental web browser. I still own my 11-year-old 1st gen Kindle Paperwhite and it works flawlessly.

Use an RSS reader

I’m very opinionated in this field: I love RSS and I don’t think it’s deprecated at all. My favorite RSS aggregator is Feedly. I have several feeds separated into categories to make my reading easy. I usually block between 15 and 30 minutes each day to read my feed. Once you get the gymnastics of adding sites and blogs to your RSS reader there’s no return back.

Read everyday

As I mentioned before about exercising, you need to read every day, not a lot, but consistently. At least a couple of minutes, one chapter. It’s important to build the habit of the lecture. I prefer to read during the night, I block between 30 minutes and one hour of reading each day before going to bed or in bed. Lately, I’ve been using my Kindle more than physical books, but from time to time I also enjoy the finesse of a good, real paper book.

Follow the right people

I don’t do much social media but I like somehow Twitter (or X), a bit more now that we have a Following filter for the tweets timeline so you can just filter out those annoying Twitter users you don’t want to see. I must say that from time to time I browse the For you tab in search of new content.

I haven’t figured out the Twitter Lists 100% so I’m not using them yet, but I think it may be a good idea to filter content by categories. Right now my Twitter timeline talks about:

I left some examples of users I follow in those categories that I find interesting.

Diversify your knowledge

I’m into several fields, I think that getting into different areas nourishes your brain. Excelling in just one field may feel incredible, but I prefer to cover several areas of interest. Right now I’m into:

  • DevOps / SRE: My main work area.
  • Software development-ish.
  • Cybersecurity.
  • Networking.
  • Telecommunications and satellites.
  • Hardware development, design and implementation.
  • IoT devices.
  • ECU tuning on race cars, as well as race car builds.
  • Home, car and bike maintenance.
  • Knowledgeable in home and factory electricity.

Knowledge across various domains can yield a range of benefits and insights, even, some of the fields I mentioned above are cross-disciplinary, where learning about DevOps is tightly coupled with learning about software development, for example.

Further reading

Most of the inspiration for this post comes from my good friend Manu, who indeed is a systems + habit person. He periodically writes on his blog about productivity, coding, books, and so on:

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