4th January 2025 - The Sunday Summary

Hey everyone, Happy new year and Welcome back to the Sunday summary!

🕰️ A desktop gadget I’m loving

FCXJTU Digital Chess Clock
This was a gem from the Life Hacks episode of Modern Wisdom.
In short, when I’m at my desk, I always have a pomodoro timer running, a method of time tracking allowing you to stay focussed on task. I would pause it when procrastinating with household tasks, and then resume when back on task.

It’s generally accepted amongst knowledge workers that there’s a limit of around 4 hours to deep work. I.e. 4 hours of solid work on task, so not just 4 hours at your desk. This is also backed up in history with many revered scholars working just 3-4 hours a day; Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf being known adherents to this rule.

So, insert the chess clock. 4 hours a side.
It looks lovely on the desk, holds me accountable and is so nice to just flick the switch. Also added bonus is that it tallies how many times it has been switched, so you can see just how many distractions you had in your work day

✈️ An app that I’m loving

Flight - Get delay alerts faster than the airlines
Another suggestion from that same life hacks episode.
I’ll usually have 2-3 pending flights at any one time. My old method of flagging the flight confirmation email, so I can quickly pull up the details, is therefore a bit dated as I may stumble across previous flights or the wrong flight.

Once you’ve booked your next flight, you chuck the flight numbers in Flighty, so you have one archive (if anyone needs to get the date from you, it’s so much faster than trawling through emails). But the big benefit from Flighty is that it gives gate information faster than the boards at the airport.

You can also keep historical records of all your previous flights, compare mileage, most visited airports, the stats are great!

🎧 On heavy rotation

Family and Loyalty (feat J. Cole) - Gang Starr
I had no idea this album existed (thanks Apple Music). Just like classic Gang Starr. The music video is an added bonus

📄 In the works on YouTube

I have 3 shifts to edit for you. Anticipating 2 of them to be released in January, with the 3rd in February.
I also teased some of the taxi repairs I had in a previous shift video, I’m scripting a video of some of these dramas, and if taxi ownership is still worth it!

This week, I’m filming more London food! As recommend by the legendary cab drivers!

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'd love to know what you're up to or what you might be working on!

Have a great week!

Tom

Forwarded this email?

Join thousands of weekly readers. Great London insights, exclusive content and no spam ever!

Any Amazon links featured that you purchase (or go on to buy another product from Amazon), I get a small affiliate revenue from. It all goes towards supporting my creative efforts, so thank you 😊

Published with beehiiv