• [A] My current time management technique

    kelvinA03/29/2023 at 12:50 0 comments

    For the past 7+ days, I've been using the interval timer with the above program. The time it takes to actually do a task is 6 times longer than estimations, but conveniently it's rather accurate when taken into account. Thus, each red block can be thought of as 1 "mental-time" minute. So if something took 48 minutes to do, I'd think that was outrageous. However, if I say to myself that it took 8 minutes, I'd think "Yes. Of course. That's to be expected."

    The yellow blocks are for transitions. The first of these blocks can be used as a warmup (because that's what its for) but it can also be a timer to start the next set of blocks after having a break. For me, it seems that I can only get my break down to 30 minutes if I've prepared in advanced, and lunch breaks usually are 60 - 90 minutes.

    The purple blocks are for brain-off time. You may have heard the phrase "the mind is a muscle"? This is the rest period for such muscle. Things I've done in this time:

    • The main thing to do is sleep
      • Whilst doing so, imagne that you've actually been sleeping the entire time and all the work has been done "real-time" mentally.
      • The goal is to finish the entire set and think that you've just been asleep for [loop amount] number of minutes, but the stuff you needed has been done by your clone / *mental-reality character in that time.
        • *like "virtual reality", but powered by imagination not a GPU.
    • Look at something whilst slowly panning the head for 16K 480fps XDR B-Roll stock footage
      • Or move kind of slowly, as if you're in stock footage merged with the b-roll footage.
      • These ideas relate to this work music playlist that I usually play at 90% speed:
        • Example of b-roll, where the camera slowly pans to the right:
        • Example of person in with the b-roll, where they're slightly nodding their head in slowmo:
    • Get up, stretch, push ups
    • Evaluate progress, think about the next tasks to do or decide if you've spent too many block loops on a task.

    This entire thing is like a micro Poromodo Technique, it's just that I didn't have the stamina nor time awareness for 25 or 50 minute long work sessions before a break. 

    Time is bundled into more managable chunks, as 60 seconds is quite short once getting into the flow. Coincidentally, each loop is 7.5 minutes long, so it means 8 loops = 1 hour. It's kinda similar to the Nether dimension in Minecraft, where 8 blocks in the Overworld = 1 block in the Nether.

    Lastly, this solution abstracts time. You know about in-game currency and the psychology behind it? Similar idea here, further enhanced by my #TrueTent [gd0143] project that aims to make a temporary work area with artificial daylight to have a time-invariant seeming space.

  • Split installer into separate project

    kelvinA04/12/2022 at 15:17 0 comments
  • [T]

    kelvinA04/11/2022 at 00:01 0 comments

    [T] = Thought tag

    Right now, the application is a WPF program. I want to 

    • port this over to F# and MAUI and give it a fresh coat of paint.
    • create some new sound effects 
      • I used the sounds from the game Strata in the initial mockup. 
    • look into creating a custom installer for UI consistency
    • create wireframes for different aspect ratios
      • right now, I coded the initial application to have a fixed window size
    • read on how to make APIs / extensions so that new functionality can be added without requiring a new version of the program
    • create a new logo for the app
    • look into automated testing again
      • I had one and it was nice until it broke. I was learning how to use automated testing for the first time

  • [T] UI and licensing

    kelvinA04/08/2022 at 01:04 0 comments

    The first thing I'm planning to do is design a new interface. This project log mostly applies here.

  • Initial project status

    kelvinA03/01/2022 at 05:25 0 comments

    • Programmed in C#