Habit

Compartmentalising

April 3, 2021 by Jenxi Seow

I have a habit of compartmentalising my routines. This helps me to minimise distractions and focus better.

Browsing

Safari is my primary browser. I have different windows running for different mindset I’m in. There is a window for marketing work, a window for designs and coding, a window for consuming content, and a window for content creation.

By putting what I do in different windows, I get into that mindset when I’m in that particular window.

Notes

As I get older, I find myself having to write down things more or I would forget them. I believe it is partly due to the information overload that we get nowadays, coupled with a less-used memory capacity.

Gone are the days when we had to memorise phone numbers and addresses. If you need any information, it’s all probably in your phone. Or you could just do an internet search.

I make quick notes in Apple Notes . It is the inbox for most information. These then get expanded upon and moved to Basecamp or Bear, depending on whether they are work or personal notes. When I read, I write down my thoughts. In this case, the notes go directly into Bear.

For meetings, I prefer not to touch my phone to avoid distractions and, more importantly, show respect to the people in the meeting. I would take notes in my pocket notebook with my trusty Lamy AL-Star

RSS feeds

I used to read both on my phone and laptop. However, I started the habit of taking notes when I read as part of my mindfulness exercise when reading. I think as I read, so I write down my thoughts as they pop up in my head. These often end up as blog drafts or outlines.

It is very hard to take notes while reading RSS feeds on the phone, so I stopped reading my feeds on the phone. My RSS reader of choice is Reeder.

Books

When I read books, I highlight text and write notes. I’ll share more about why I do that in another article. But this happens more when I read non-fiction books. So I keep my non-fiction reading on the MacBook and read fiction books when I’m on the phone.

I still highlight text on the phone, but I don’t take notes.

Emails

I only check my emails on the laptop. The Mail app on my phone is only for emergencies in case I need to reply or check an urgent message. Other than that, my emails are checked once or twice daily when I’m on the MacBook.

Despite being a firm believer of communicating via emails instead of having meetings, I also limit the time I spend going through emails each day because it can suddenly be a slippery slope down a rabbit hole that eats up a huge chunk of time.

Conclusion

These are some of the ways I help myself to stick to my habits. They minimise distractions and help me to focus. More importantly, they creating a mental state that puts me in the mood for each routine.

Standing work desk

March 2, 2020 by Jenxi Seow

I have a habit of standing while I work so I use a standing work desk.

This habit started from my days as a retail pharmacist. When I was practicing as a pharmacist, I spent a good portion of my working hours standing at the pharmacy counter. We have a tall stool for the pharmacist, but it was usually uncomfortable. Moreover, I disliked having to perch myself on it, only to step off to serve a customer. Sometimes we get a bit too comfortable sitting there too.

I prefer to be on my feet and ready to step out to talk to customers. I didn’t want to be sitting all day at work. Besides, standing helps to burn off some of those calories. Thus, I developed the habit of standing during working hours.

I got a standing desk for RMB 169. The desk area is perfect for my 16″ and 15″ MacBook Pros with space for me to write on a notebook and plug in some external drives. The downside of this desk is that I can’t work with both laptops on the desk. It is tempting to get a larger desk but I can live with swapping the laptops around in exchange for a smaller footprint.

Caught Xiaobao red-pawed snooping on the MacBook Pro I left on the floor. One moment he was munching on kibble, the next he was punching on the keyboard. Alright, I kid. He knows better than to touch my stuff. I also count myself lucky that he’s such an angel and doesn’t touch any wires or cables.

When I sit too much, I get lower back pains. Standing has a lot of benefits. I’m on my feet and I shuffle around when I’m in the flow, or when some upbeat music comes on. Motion helps to keep my mind jogging. I thrive when I work standing.

My standing desks are at the optimal height for me so my arms are at a comfortable angle to work on my laptop. If the desk is too low or too high, my wrist would start to hurt. Think of the carpal tunnel risk!

Since I work barefooted at home, I have an anti-fatigue standing mat to support my foot arches. I was skeptical when I saw this RMB 90 mat on Taobao, but it is given how pampered we are with making the returns here in China, I didn’t really think twice to order it. You can return most products bought off Taobao with no questions asked, and the seller or Taobao itself will bear the cost of return shipping.

The quality of the mat is superb and well worth the money spent. I’m comfortable standing at my desk. It has also become Xiaobao’s preferred place to laze around while I work. It’s also one of the few spots in the house where he would gladly land his diva bum on during winter.

The mat is surprisingly thick. It is soft enough to be comfortable to stand on, yet firm enough to provide ample support. The tapered sides help make it look deceivingly thin. The mat is heavier than I expected. Its material is very sturdy and once you put it on the ground it is hard to move it without lifting it up, so you don’t have to worry about it shifting.

I’ll leave you with a couple of photos to show how Xiaobao has claimed the mat as his.

10 Habits to Constantly Improve Yourself

March 4, 2019 by Jenxi Seow

Become a better person by applying these 10 habits to your life.

The key to making this work is to focus on each habit for a month. Spend one month repeating each routine daily until it becomes a habit. Then move on to picking up the next habit.

Remind yourself to do each habit every day, when you wake up, before each meal, and before you go to bed.

1. Cultivate good habits

Identify bad habits and replace them with good habits.

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”
W.H. Auden

You have the power to change your life by changing the way you think, changing your attitude, changing the actions you take, and most importantly, forming habits that are beneficial to you.

Spend the first month making it a habit to cultivate good habits.

2. Be positive

Be patient. Always think and react positively.

All the bad will become good. The good can also turn bad. If you are enjoying the good, remain humble because the good won’t last. But know that the good will come again.

“Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”
Bruce Lee

Face the good and bad with positivity and love.

3. Peservere

If you persist, you will succeed.

Never stop trying. Never stop doing. Never stop fighting. Keep charging forward. Accept that failure is part of the process. Learning to fail better is progress.

“Defeat is not declared when you fall down, it is declared when you can’t get up.”
Manoj Arora

Where others will give up, keep doing. You will succeed where others fail.

4. Have faith in your personality

We have different ways of thinking, different ways of saying the same thing, different styles of approaching the problem.

Don’t worry that everyone is doing the same thing as you. Let your personality shine. You don’t need to make a big fuss to get the attention. Know that people see you for who you are. Be authentic.

What you do will appeal to different people. Your life experience and knowledge is different from others. These will shape your personality and style. Your personality will resonate with some people, but not all. Don’t try to please everyone.

Be authentic.

Be who you are and the people who resonate with what you do will buy what you do.

5. Live each day as if it were your last

Cherish the moment. Live in the now.

Forget yesterday. Don’t worry about tomorrow.

What matters is what you do right here, right now. Give your best shot in whatever you are doing at this very moment. You won’t have the chance to repeat it again in the same circumstances.

“Whatever you do, give it your best shot.”
Mrs Chiang, my primary school teacher

Do your best in whatever you do so you won’t have regrets. Do what you really want to do so you won’t have regrets.

6. Master your emotions

Stay level-headed. Don’t rush. Don’t be arrogant.

Don’t let your emotions control your actions. Master your emotions and take action rationally.

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
Marcus Aurelius

Accept that the emotions that you feel. Allow yourself to immerse in that feeling. Then move on without clinging onto the emotion, be it positive or negative.

Detach your actions from your emotions.

7. Laugh at the world

Everything will pass, be it good or bad.

Enjoy the good. Accept the bad. Stay happy no matter what happens. The good will go away, so enjoy it while you can. Face the bad, it will pass with time.

The most important thing is to stay happy through it all. Know that good and bad is a cycle. Don’t let yourself be affected by what you can’t control.

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
Bruce Lee

Just as there can’t be light without darkness, we need the bad to learn to truly appreciate the good. Laugh at the bad. Laugh at the good.

8. Make yourself more valuable

Increase your value every day. Measure your worth against yourself. Become better than you were in the previous day.

Push yourself to reach your goals. Aim for the star, so even if you fail, you hit the moon. Keep getting better. Even if you succeed, you can still be better.

“I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
Elon Musk

Don’t compete with others. Compete with yourself. Strive to become better than you were yesterday.

9. Take action now

All is worthless without action. Banish procrastination. Do what must be done. Act now. Fail now. It is better than not taking action at all.

“A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life.”
Charles Darwin

Action overcomes fear and doubt. It moves you forward. Failure teaches you to grow better and stronger. Acting and failing is still progress because you know what doesn’t work and you learn from it. Just do it.

Don’t spend too much time thinking. Act now.

10. Seek guidance

When you improve, you will realise you know less that you thought you did. It is inevitable that you will need to seek advice from someone more knowledgeable.

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
Aristotle

When you know you are not good enough, find someone who has the knowledge and is willing to share. Never stop improving. Find someone better and seek guidance from them.

Likewise, dispense advice to those who seek knowledge from you.

Photography Habits

February 24, 2019 by Jenxi Seow

Photography is a never ending journey of learning and growth. I picked up and dropped many habits along the way.

Once in a while, I get asked about how I shoot, so I’m sharing some of the habits that I find essential and have stuck with me since adopting them. By the way, it is better to ask people how to shoot instead of what camera they’re using. It means you are interested in the art of photography rather than the gear.

Always be ready to shoot

My camera is always on standby mode, held in my hand. On the rare instances it isn’t, it is usually hanging off my wrist loop. This means that I’m always ready to shoot once I tap softly on the shutter release to wake the camera.

I started photography using neck straps. I still use them on my DSLRs and SLRs, but that’s simply because the weight of those cameras mean I might injure my wrist if I were to hang them off my wrist. However, when I’m using those cameras, the neck straps are wrapped around my wrist.

The best camera is the one that you have with you.
—Chase Jarvis

Hanging the camera around my neck makes me lazy. I will become comfortable with it hanging there and end up doing other things, so when the time comes my hands are occupied instead of being ready to snap a photo.

I can’t hang my Leica on the wrist strap for too long without my wrist starting to feel sore. The strap digging into my wrist is a great reminder that I have rested enough and should hold the camera in my hand.

The only time when the camera is in my bag is when I need to protect it from the weather, or when I’m commuting and decided to take a break from shooting.

Of course, this means my camera is always with me. There are two things I always bring out when I head out, my camera and my phone.

Shoot first, shoot more

I used to take one picture of each moment I capture, believing that is how the photography masters snap their iconic photos. I learnt later on that they actually shoot a series of each moment and pick the best.

This has resulted in me leaving my Leica in continuous drive mode. I shoot a burst of several photos. Where possible, I move and angle to get the best framing with each shot.

Beware of thinking you should spray and pray. I’ve seen photographers shooting in continuous drive mode and hold down the shutter release until they fill the buffer. This won’t improve the quality of your shots. You just end up with a lot more photos to edit, and most likely ditch.

It is about developing the gut feeling of getting good shots, the instinct to anticipate the decisive moment.

Revisit good spots

Some places are just a treasure mine for good photos. In street photography, these are usually places with great backgrounds, beautiful light, and a steady traffic of people.

When you discover such a spot, remember it and come back regularly. Return to this special place at different times of the day to see how the light looks at each time. This way, you’ll know when is the best time to visit the spot.

Edit later

While some argue that you should select your photos as soon as you can to avoid procrastination, I prefer to wait before editing my photos.

The earliest I look at my photos is two weeks from taking them, though the average length I let my photos sit is about at least a month and a half. Let your photos marinate so you detach yourself from them emotionally.

Let your photos marinate.

Looking at photos too soon stirs up feeling you had when you took the photo. This often clouds your judgement and make you pick photos out of sentimentality.

Simplify processing

Many photographers spend more time processing photos than shooting them. If your photos are good, you just need minimal processing to get the final look you want.

My processing workflow is as simple as it gets. I apply my standard presets, I have one for colour and one for monochrome, and then tweak exposure and crop where necessary. In the rare occasions I would dodge and burn but I try to avoid those.

The simple process frees up my time to shoot and edit. Edit as in selecting the photos. This removes the pressure and headache that comes with doing a lot of post-processing.

Instead of processing your photos, invest the time in editing your photos.

Editing isn’t processing. Editing means selecting the good photos. This is far more important than deciding how much you should tweak contrast, tone or saturation.

I prefer to spend my time editing and sequencing my photos. Post-processing is just a minor step that I prefer to get out of the way as painlessly as possible.

What are your habits?

So there you go, these are my photography habits.

I would love to read about your photography habits. I enjoy looking at how others organise their workflow because I often discover new ways to improve mine.

Getting Things Done

February 1, 2018 by Jenxi Seow

Everyone has their own ways of getting things done. You most probably have come across the term Getting Thing Done (GTD) before. Many people use this time management method to increase their productivity.

GTD setup

There is no perfect GTD setup, only one that suits you the most, and even then you will keep finding new ways to improve your setup. I often share my GTD methods with my friends but this is the first time I’m putting it down in writing.

It is very useful reading GTD setup and workflows used by others and their rationale behind doing so. It is how you get ideas and inspirations to constantly improve your own implementations.

Pocket notebooks

I carry a leather-bound stack of notebooks. These notebooks were made in a limited run by me and Matt to address the lack of a suitable notebook with paper that writes well with our Lamy fountain pens.

Instead of a single notebook, I have several notebooks with a leather cover that I bought off Taobao. It is a smaller version of the popular Midori notebook. I have different notebooks for different goals and projects, and a main notebook that I use to list my daily task list. These notebooks are then held together by rubber bands to form a thick stack of notebooks that fits perfectly within the leather cover.

The modular setup allows me to easily swap out notebooks that are full, or when certain projects are cancelled or have moved down the priority ladder and don’t justify being carried around daily.

Things

My previous preferred GTD app was Clear on both iOS and macOS. I have since switched to Things as my GTD app. The main push factor was how I can add notes and checklist to individual tasks. This allows me to add increased granularity to every task.

Clear is still on my iPhone and Mac, but it functions more as a general list app to track lists of items and tasks without the schedule and time sensitivity elements.

I use Things on macOS only. While there is an iOS version, I’m not considering purchasing it as as part of my minimalist app approach. I have stopped spending on apps unless they are critical to my workflow. Now that I spend the bulk of my time on my Mac due to the nature of my work, the importance of an iOS app has diminished.

GTD workflow

My mind is still more active when I write with pen and paper. I list down daily tasks in my notebook. This helps me to map out the tasks I need to cover. It’s fascinating how often I think of a second task while I’m still writing the first.

Next, I key in the tasks into Things. All tasks go into the system via inbox. I would then sort each task based on their schedules. There’s the choice of Today, This Evening, schedule a date, or simply file them to be completed Someday. However, I stay away from the last category. It is better to schedule a task to be completed, if there is no intention to do so, simply delegate it for someone else to finish it. Don’t let them linger and hold back your momentum.

The Most Important Tasks (MITs) for each day goes under the Today section. The recommendation is up to three MITs to ensure maximum productivity. I try to keep it to one or two tasks if possible. These are the key tasks I need to accomplish for the day. All other minor tasks must give priority to the MITs.

Depending on the nature of the tasks, I assign deadlines, tags and break down the task into smaller action plans. The checklist for each action allows me to track the steps needed to complete the task. This gives me a plain view of where I am and the roadmap ahead.

What’s your GTD implementation like?

Habits in 2016

January 27, 2017 by Jenxi Seow

About this time two years ago, I posted about setting new habits in 2016. It is a good time to review the past year in terms of gaining these habits.

In hindsight, I should have written a report card last year, but I’ve had a hectic 2016 so I’ll give myself a pass on that. I’ll touch briefly on 2015 and focus more on 2016, before I look forward to the habits to gain in 2017.

Exercise

I was well into getting fit in 2015. I gained weight. I lost fats and built up muscle mass. I continued my exercise habit into the first two months of 2016. However, work pushed most things off my plates, including blogging, writing, and photography. Regular exercise was the first habit to be dropped.

It was only when work eased up at the end of 2016 that I was able to start devoting more time to getting fit. I have been taking long walks to clear my mind and take more photos. This is a conscious effort to start increasing my steps count per day.

The next step to work towards in 2017 is to regain my routine of doing pushups and pull ups.

Daily journals

Another casualty of me being swamped with work was writing. I managed to continue my daily handwritten journal till March 2016, after which only wrote entries sparsely until October when I started to have time for daily entries again.

Aside from writing, I have also started drawing as a form of journal. Inspired by Boey Cheeming, I draw an entry a day. The doodles are short snippets of the highlights or interesting things I encountered that day. Some days, I draw about my past experiences as a pharmacist.

It will be an ask to maintain writing the handwritten and hand-drawn journals, while posting regularly on the blog, but these are habits I will work hard to gain because they hold great meaning to me.

Reading

One surprising habit that stuck with me was reading. While I was exhausted from work to produce creative output, reading was a salve. On the days I could still stay awake once I was in bed, I consumed a chapter. I completed several good books in 2016.

With more time on hand now, I read a chapter a day.

Forming habits

The best way to push yourself to gain a habit is through making yourself accountable.

I promised myself to finish the notebook I’m using for my 2017 journal entries, the Rhodia softcover notebook. Part of 2015 and 2016 were written in the Moleskine. The Rhodia is so much better than the Moleskine and I want to get a new one for 2018. So, I better be consistent and finish the current one in 2017.

My daily doodles are posted publicly on my blog so I have to be accountable to my friends who read the entries diligently.

I have several books I’m looking forward to on my reading list, and I also plan to post about my reading at the end of the year. These reasons motivate me to maintain my reading habit.

As for exercising, I have no one else to be accountable to except for myself. My health is the most important asset. I need to stay fit to be able to reach my goals. And of course, I need to continue to avoid looking my age.

Looking forward

Another habit I have formed is writing while I read. There are certain articles that resonate with me or that I disagree strongly with. As a result, I’m spurred to share my views and comments as I read.

This has been very useful in helping me finish blog entries, since what I write are often pieces that I want to share. This has made me more optimistic in posting blog entries more regularly.

I look forward to reviewing my progress at the start of the next year. What habits would you like to pick up in the year ahead? Write them down and share them. Make yourself commit to gaining the habit. Let’s push each other to meet our goals.