Basically any... autopilot behavior for me is going to turn into some insight at some point or another (although it's good to be in the present too! Now I try to think in Spanish which forces me to be present cause it's such a slow process for me still lol, but actually super useful I've found for continuing to flesh out those neural pathways is to just sit and talk to myself outloud in Spanish about whatever I'm doing all day)
Also love writing things on paper. I love using different pens, and write in different styles sometimes (cursive, block, normal, whatever). I just take quick throwaway notes on paper or I'll sometimes sit down and outline things for an hour over a few sheets just to put organization to some large task which I'll translate into something for consumption by others later. Almost always throw these away. Sometimes I work through a notepad, sometimes it's a little notebook, sometimes it's printer paper... getting away from the screen for a bit is lovely.
And I set up a notes section on my computer which I can pop open with a quick <space>X in ViM which has a directory structure giving me spaces for recurring meetings, architecture work, or notes on whatever initiatives I'm trying to push through. I index file names with 01-, 02- etc and if I have a section that branches out I'll just add another index so 01A-, 01B-, etc...
Having everything in ViM with a tmux conf setup that scaffolds out a ton of different spaces I've set up mnemonic keyboard shortcuts to navigate to is really helpful in reducing the overload of having Slack, IDEs, browsers, notepads, music, etc etc etc all open at once (since on a good day I just have Slack, Outlook, iTerm, Firefox and maybe Figma or Music open at most points). I'm also quick to wipe away tabs in the browser...
Next up I'm diving into Figma so I can turn these ideas into beautiful diagrams and even mock interfaces my partners can ingest visually for easier understanding of complex spaces
Finally, and I'm thankful I can afford to do this, but I turn all notification sounds off, Slack'll bounce once from the hidden dock...
It's great, distraction free, tailored to my needs, a fair amount of variety, and some really nice productive times.
Also love writing things on paper. I love using different pens, and write in different styles sometimes (cursive, block, normal, whatever). I just take quick throwaway notes on paper or I'll sometimes sit down and outline things for an hour over a few sheets just to put organization to some large task which I'll translate into something for consumption by others later. Almost always throw these away. Sometimes I work through a notepad, sometimes it's a little notebook, sometimes it's printer paper... getting away from the screen for a bit is lovely.
And I set up a notes section on my computer which I can pop open with a quick <space>X in ViM which has a directory structure giving me spaces for recurring meetings, architecture work, or notes on whatever initiatives I'm trying to push through. I index file names with 01-, 02- etc and if I have a section that branches out I'll just add another index so 01A-, 01B-, etc...
Having everything in ViM with a tmux conf setup that scaffolds out a ton of different spaces I've set up mnemonic keyboard shortcuts to navigate to is really helpful in reducing the overload of having Slack, IDEs, browsers, notepads, music, etc etc etc all open at once (since on a good day I just have Slack, Outlook, iTerm, Firefox and maybe Figma or Music open at most points). I'm also quick to wipe away tabs in the browser...
Next up I'm diving into Figma so I can turn these ideas into beautiful diagrams and even mock interfaces my partners can ingest visually for easier understanding of complex spaces
Finally, and I'm thankful I can afford to do this, but I turn all notification sounds off, Slack'll bounce once from the hidden dock...
It's great, distraction free, tailored to my needs, a fair amount of variety, and some really nice productive times.