From the Track to the Tech Stack
Racing Hartshorne, migrating photos and websites, and rethinking how we start the workday.
It’s been a second since I last sent an update, so here’s a bit about what I’ve been up to. And it’s long past socially acceptable to wish y’all a Happy New Year so I’m not going to do that. But I hope you’ve had a lovely January.
First up, Amy and I ran the Hartshorne Masters Mile in January. Click on through to find out why I asked “What on earth am I doing here?” and about the magic of age-graded performances.
After you’ve checked that out, head on over to read about Amy’s experience at Hartshorne, too!
Second, I’m on the board of the Finger Lakes Running Club and undertook a project to migrate our photo library from Yogile to Google Photos. It was a pretty big project, but I found some great ways to automate what otherwise would be a very laborious task.
And while I’m on the migration theme (what am I, a Canada goose?), I spent much of December and January migrating my personal web site (and Amy’s) to Substack from Eleventy on Netlify. I preserved all of the link structure, so old bookmarks still work, but I feel like Substack’s reading and editing experience is so much better than markdown. I discovered some cool things along the way so will share that in the next dispatch! In the meantime, if you hit my homepage at scottpdawson.com the main page is so much more dynamic and fun now that it’s all in one place. Whew!
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Tackle your tough tasks first. You might like to start your day with easier tasks. After all, who doesn’t love to show a little progress? That said, you might enjoy things more if they become easier over time. If you tackle a tough task first and relegate easier work for later, you might enjoy the process more. Otherwise, you may defer or lower the priority of tough tasks in favor of smaller wins. If you have peak energy shortly after you start work, block off that time and commit to doing the tough tasks first.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. That followed my first book, The Art of Working Remotely, about my experience working from home since 1998. Depending on where you work and which way the wind is blowing, these may be banned books or fan fiction. I hope it’s the latter.
Mail Bag: If you work remotely and have come across an issue that needs solving, a thorn that needs removing, or just an observation you’d like to share, hit reply. I’d love to hear from you.