Happy February, friends! February is the worst month of the year, and I don’t even think it’s close. It’s either the coldest month or the second-coldest month of the year. The days are still unbearably short. It’s the fourth month of winter. And it carries with it one of the worst tax deadlines at the end of the month. I really do not like February.

I continue to read through The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and continue to highlight profusely. This week’s readings covered off decision-making and reading, and how important reading is to fight the issues caused by social media. Naval seems to focus heavily on reading for his learning, and he uses social media to hone his writing. I appreciate this use case, even if it perpetuates modern social media thinking.

Books, for Naval, have to teach him something, and they have to teach him something fast. If a book doesn’t capture attention by the end of the first chapter, onto the shelf it goes. This is the second time this type of reading habit has been discussed in the last few weeks. Which is likely to say that it’s a great way to read and learn ideas.

More importantly, it leads me to wonder if readers can learn anything on this blog in a short period of time. Presently, at best the site is a reflection of the things I find interesting or the things I come across during the day. I don’t delve too far into my area of work expertise, simply because there is so much other information online someone could consume to get their fill of financial expertise.

But maybe this is something I should try more often? Perhaps I should lean more into the things I actually know something about, rather than — like I noted above — perpetuate the world of people talking about topics they know nothing about? I don’t know if I could pull off 52 new topics per year in this sort of format. And that’s a ton of money talk for me to get wrong.

Either way, I appreciate the thought experiment. This book continues to be a goldmine of great ideas.

Crouton

I think I had come across Crouton a while back and largely glanced past it. I don't understand why — this is one of the prettiest apps on my iPhone right now. From the app icon through every view in the app, Crouton is a lesson in modern iPhone app design.

More importantly than design, though, are the myriad of ways to add a recipe to the app. You can share a URL from a website and Crouton will auto-populate each field, grab a hero image, and even break part the preparation steps. If you add a recipe from a photo (say of a physical cookbook), Crouton will use AI to grab details from the photo and add in the preparation steps individually. It’s truly impressive.

This may actually be the first recipe and meal planning app my wife sticks with. I’ve shown her a few different apps over the years — mainly Paprika and Mela — and she bounced off those instantly. Crouton has worked well over the last few weeks, and I think it’s largely due to these quick input methods baked into the app. (See what I did there?)

A Few Extremely Minor Impressions of a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Our office is right next door to a Telus store, so our next-door neighbour often has cool phones to try out for a short period of time. I rarely take him up on the offer — I’m pretty entrenched in this Apple ecosystem. But this time I accepted. This time, I took a Galaxy S24 Ultra for a short spin.

I mean short. I’m not even sure if I’m allowed to call it a “spin”.

Here are my two or three very short impressions, though.

• The hardware seems great. The screen is bright and crisp, much like the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The soft curved edges feel great in hand. The camera has all the specifications one could ask for (though I haven’t actually tested the camera) and the front-facing camera is minuscule and out of the way. I’d have no shame pulling out this phone — it’s just as much a piece of jewelry as any iPhone (or, well, any iPhone apart from the iPhone Air).
• Software customization is nice, but finicky. I love the ability to more finely adjust the size of widgets, for instance. I also loved when I found the ability to change volume levels right from the clicky buttons and the “…” menu — this was a truly remarkable find. This said, I have installed four different software updates in my first day or two of minor use. This part has been a terrible experience.
• The included pen is very handy. I think pens/styluses and digital devices are a “to each their own” sort of thing. Some people don’t use an Apple Pencil with the iPad, others only use it. Some would use a stylus with their phone, while others will never touch it. I’m one who would use it if I had one. The ability to highlight text with a pen, markup a screenshot, or more finely select text has been pretty darn handy. I wish Apple made some sort of compatible stylus for the iPhone.

Other than blue bubbles, I believe I could make an Android phone work. Most of my favourite software is web-based these days, ensuring I could keep 99% of my habits if I switched. I’m not sure if I want to make an Android phone work. But I could plug my nose and make it happen.

“I've also come to believe in the complete and utter insignificance of the self, and I think that helps a lot. For example, if you thought you were the most important thing in the Universe, then you would have to bend the entire Universe to your will. If you're the most important thing in the Universe, then how could it not conform to your desires. If it doesn't conform to your desires, something is wrong. However, if you view yourself as a bacteria or an amoeba—or if you view all of your works as writing on water or building castles in the sand, then you have no expectation for how life should "actually" be. Life is just the way it is. When you accept that, you have no cause to be happy or unhappy. Those things almost don't apply.”

— Eric Jorgenson in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

The Second Cup

Zoomundblitz on Instagram

This is such a remarkable still-life photograph. Every detail is fit and finish. Zoomundblitz’s profile is packed with amazing compositions like this.

Inside Looks: A Mark III Preview

I have simply never been able to stick with any iPhone camera app besides the stock camera app. I think it’s because of Live Photos — I simply love the ability to have that Harry Potter-like movement in a photo — but I can’t be sure beyond this. Halide has long been the only other app I have tried or will try. Between the app’s flair and actual functionality, Halide is a camera app for photographers actually wanting to get more than a snapshot out of their phone.

(Note, I would try Leica’s LUX app if it wasn’t so unbearably expensive. And I have a Leica, for Pete’s sake.)

Velocity Is the New Authority. Here’s Why

Ideally, I’d have something to say that’s insightful after this great piece from Om Malik. But all I can think is, “Even if we come to grips with the reality that velocity is more important than truth in modern journalism, it’s not going to bridge the divide between two polar-opposite viewpoints on reality. One side thinks the other’s velocity is more important than the truth, and the other thinks the other side’s velocity is more important than the truth.”

Our Keyboard Design Reveal

This appears to the offspring of an ergonomic split keyboard, like the Moonlander from ZSA and the Magic Keyboard from Apple.

I Built a Studio That Feels Like An Apple Store

Talk about being dedicated to a long-term project. It would have taken some seriously long-term vision to build this studio, especially in the midst of design changes from Cupertino.

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

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I’ve been a time-blocker/time-boxer for a long time. “Wake”, “Fitness”, “Prep” and “Admin and Email” have been the first four time blocks each weekday for the last two-plus years, and “Deep Work” usually ensures I can hammer out the most important task of the day before noon. If nothing else, time blocking has provided me peace of mind in knowing I have some time set aside to do a particular thing each day.

The method in which in that time blocking is completed has changed more than a few times, however. I used Sunsama a few years ago, but ultimately found the daily planning and shutdown rituals to be a bit too much each day. I tried using a combination of Reminders and Fantastical for a bit, but found things just didn’t quite jive as well as I liked. I also tried Notion and Notion Calendar for a bit, though this melded work and home life together a little too closely.

Akiflow has long been a time blocking option — it competed directly with Sunsama multiple years ago when I was deep into Sunsama. Akiflow’s biggest hiccup back then for me was its Google-first feature-set — I wasn’t in the Google ecosystem at the time, so Akiflow was a non-starter.

Fast-forward and I’m in the heart of the Google ecosystem, and I’m eager to try another new method for tracking tasks, deadlines, and projects, all inside a time blocking methodology that I feel I can’t live without. Akiflow has lasted longer than I originally expected it would in my personal tool stack, and it may well stick it out through tax season. But it isn’t without its faults.

Here are three quick anecdotes from my first three weeks with Akiflow.

Time Slots

Akiflow introduced a third type of input that makes a lot of sense for time blockers: time slots. When creating a new item, you have three choices: a task, an event, and a time slot:

• Tasks are check-off items added to your calendar, which default to a 30-minute duration. They can be applied to a project (which I treat as “Areas”) and be locked to a particular calendar (say if you have a “Work” or “Personal” calendar).
• Events have whichever duration you choose and act quite like a regular event created in any calendar app. Projects/Areas can be applied to the event as well.
• Time Slots are effectively events inside which you can hold tasks. Time Slots can have a project applied and can be added to a specific calendar of your choosing. You can then drag and drop tasks from your task inbox inside the time slot.

I find myself using time slots all the time. In general, my day revolves through multiple two-hour blocks. Inside the “Admin and Email” time slot at the beginning of my day, for instance, I drag and drop any emails or administrative tasks from Notion that I want to get done before my day really starts. In the first “Deep Work” time slot, I drag and drop the big project work I need to get done — whether that be a Notion link directly to an office project inside Notion — or a task with a link to a Craft document where I can build out more tasks and research.

Time slots are a true epiphany moment for me. Akiflow has taught me I was actually using events as time slots rather than the true concept of an event.

If not for time slots, I’d like have put Akiflow aside at this point.

iOS Apps and Quick Capture

Akiflow’s iPhone app is quite excellent. It looks great, uses screen space quite nicely, and allows for quick daily organization throughout the day. I especially like Akiflow’s widgets on iPhone — they are big, bright, and easy to use.

There are some issues here, though.

First is the iPad app — Akiflow’s iPad app is feeble. The app can’t be used when the iPad is in landscape orientation, and the rest of the interface is quite simply a blown-up copy of the iPhone app. One would hope a proper iPad app would be at or near the top of the priority list.

Second is Akiflow’s capturing methods on iPhone. I found the entire process kind of tedious. Tap on the button in the right corner, and you can throw together a naturally parsed sentence to create your task, event, or time slot. The hiccup is in the final “Add” button — instead of hitting the big checkmark on the keyboard to add the task and get back to the main view, you have to hit “Create” in the top-right corner to actually create the task/event/time slot.

This doesn’t seem so bad in writing, but it’s difficult on iPhone and when on the go. Oftentimes you only have one hand to type in a task or quick thought that hit you, and needing to navigate to the top to hit “Create” or to save an edited item simply gets in the way.

Overall, I quite like the way the Akiflow iPhone apps works and operates. The app is very well-designed and flows pretty smoothly on a small iPhone screen. The iPad would be better if it simply didn’t exist, however, and I hope this is in the cards for the near future.

Integration Hiccups

Lastly, integrations. Akiflow touts its integrations pretty heavily on its website and, when they work, they work pretty nicely. For emails, you can either label or star an email to send it instantly to Akiflow. Notion items can be added to Akiflow through properties. And there are a whole slew of other integrations for developers and designers.

All would be well in this department if the integrations worked. I’ve had to reset and reset my Notion integrations multiple times. When it is working, the integration takes forever to sync. I truly don’t need to wait 15 minutes or more for a Notion item to sync over to Akiflow. By that point, it’s faster to simply copy the item’s link in Notion and paste it into the dedicated field in the task/event/time slot in Akiflow.

Second, emails — I cannot for the life of me get my Gmail account to send emails over to Akiflow. I’ve tried the option to star an email and to label an email, but they simply won’t send over. When I emailed for help, I was provided an email that required me to turn the integrations on and off, to delete and reinstall the app, and to restart the app. Once again, this shouldn’t be too big of a deal. But finding 15 minutes during the week to troubleshoot an app that should work is not in my cards.

Summary

It’s a good thing time slots are such a fantastic option for managing a calendar and a productivity system. If not for time slots, I would have paid Akiflow the cash for the short subscription and called it a day. Instead, time slots are Akiflow’s absolute saving grace at this time.

Presently, my productivity system looks largely as follows:

1. Plan my day and brain dump my tasks in handwritten notes in reMarkable.
2. Create those time blocks and time slots in my actual calendar.
3. Drag and drop tasks into time slots throughout the day.
4. Rely on Akiflow to remind me of all tasks, events, and time slots as each day progresses.

Akiflow is a bit complex and costly (though I recommend traveling the off-boarding path if you are looking to save some money), but I can see it sticking it out thanks to its implementation of time slots. Time slots are one of those retrospectively obvious features that just work for me, and I hope to see more of this type of feature in other apps like Fantastical in the future.