Timelog 13 Oct 2021

— 2 min read

Messsage to self:

  • Face up to my painful tasks. Get clear on what is primary and what is secondary. Formatting, exploring the full extent of your tools, hobbies, replying to Slack messages - these are all secondary to the real value creation of deep focussed work. I already know what to do, so just do it.

Trident for the day:

  1. Consolidate feedback for data science roadmap: Crux is to shape it into something the team can credibly execute on , is ecologically aligned with the engineering and product roadmap, and generates maximum imp act on the business.
  2. Plan out engineering management roadmap
  3. Review technical assessments of mobile engineers

4 Pillars of Great Planning:

  1. Measurable
  2. Specific
  3. Accountability
  4. Deadlines

Or we can go with the good ol’ SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Assignable

Realistic

Timebound

Same thing.

8:22am - woke up, very refreshed, but a bit bloated

9:10am - read CNA; ate a light breakfast of pizza and mooncake

9:50am - did 5x5 stronglifts and skipping  while listening to Hatching Twitter

11:08am - meditated for 1 hour after  showering

11:50am - started morning ritual, wrote 2 short blog posts

1:42pm - finished call with Prateek, followed up to solve his problem.  Drafted out product org chart change management

1:52pm - go through morning pages

3:47pm - read a tweet about Ed Thorpe’s past magazine contributions

5:16pm - wrote feedback for Data Science roadmap over 2 pomodori

5:55pm - did walking meditation on verandah. Stepped on a naked nail, patched it with silver tape

7:23pm - read about market-neutral strategies

7:45pm - watched Quantopian lecture on basic Stats Arb

10:00pm - finished dinner

12:13am - finished reading engineering strategy resources, did up rough roadmap for engineering management

Reflection

When faced with a big ambiguous task, first do a brain dump, the specifics might guide me to the general. Also clarify the objective. Then do some research to get a feel for more specifics, and canvass a diversity of opinions. Finally scope down the work, and commit just to a rough first draft.