Daynote - Mon 13 Oct

A very relaxing weekend of dogminding River the Dog (see above) including meeting up with two different friends to walk in the sunshine. Back to it this morning though and the nice weather is done, so out a bit earlier in the morning fog and dreich. It was quite mild though, so it was a nice walk. I got a decent amount of reading done over the weekend (clearing the decks of crit partner stuff, newsletter backlogs and most of the book for this week's event).

ON DECK: A reasonable 638 words this morning. I try quite hard not to be too dependent on my nice big monitor and comfy office chair, but I still find when I'm away from home I rarely get quite as much done, even if I have the same amount of time. But I made a bit of progress, so that's good.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I quite enjoy the Cartoon Gravity newsletter/blog by screenwriter Julian Simpson, not least because he's quite a tinkerer when it comes to task and knowledge management systems. I don't switch systems anywhere near as much as him, but I like seeing the ones that he digs up. His latest post introduced me to the Dutch app Griply, which I'm very intrigued by.

Nearly every time I try out some new todo list app I end up drifting back to Things 3, not because I'm completely happy with it, but because I'm very used to it and the keyboard shortcuts are embedded in my fingertips. But the Griply combination of detailed, granular task lists, calendar views, time blocking and the ability to align tasks, goals and daily habits with each other is very, very interesting to me. About the only thing missing for me is Apple Calendar integration, which is apparently 'coming soon'. I'm fiddling about with it on the free trial for the moment. The price is also not crazy high, which makes a nice change.

To be quite honest the major barrier to me giving it a go is going through the laborious task of porting over all my existing tasks and projects, which is always a massive pain in the arse. Every time I think about doing a switch like this I'm about half a breath away from just saying 'sod it' and going back to a notebook and pen. Although then I'd need to note everything down in that as well. Ugh.

LISTENING: I enjoyed this episode of Quick Book Reviews with Shari Lapena and a lovely interview with a bookshop owner (and some readers picking up books).

WATCHING: I recently cancelled Netflix and Disney+ (both had tipped over the midpoint in the 'ever-increasing price/ever-decreasing interest' spectrum for me, despite having had a Netflix account since 2012), but while I still had it available I decided to watch the Argentinian show THE ETERNAUT. It was a good-looking piece of post-apocalyptic SF and it was fascinating to see (in flashback) the Falklands War from the Argentine perspective, but I wasn't sure about the hard twist into full-on SF that it took in the latter three episodes. Well-made stuff though.

READING: I've been reading THE SOCIETY OF UNKNOWABLE OBJECTS (affiliate link) all weekend and it's been great. Really looking forward to chatting to Gareth on Thursday.

LINK: I finally set up a Bookshop.org affiliate storefront, which lets me promote my own books (which you can order from your local independent bookshop) and books I've enjoyed, blurbed or even beta read. So if you fancy picking up a copy of any of the books I recommend, you can visit that link, or click any of the order links marked as affiliate in my posts and pages going forward. Each sale gets me a wee bit of commission and supports a local independent bookshop. Everybody wins!

UP NEXT: One more day with the doggo, then I'll be home and back to the regular routine, then off to Waterstones on Thursday to speak to Gareth. Book your tickets here and I'll see you there!