I’ve now written 500 atomic essays as of this point so instead of the usual progress or lack of progress update I sometimes do in these milestones, I’ll just give some practical advice I’ve learned as I’ve done this. It’s not just about writing in general but how I get…

Why Copy — Copying is a shortcut that can be used in many areas of productivity and life. This isn’t about stealing people’s work but about using what others have learned before you. Think of it more as standing on the shoulders of giants and not reinventing the wheel. This is actively encouraged…

How Big is a System — A system is as large and complex as you want it to be. It may be what you need it to be too but need is really defined by you in the first place. A system is simply a collection of rules and what handles those rules. So really a…

Non Designed Systems — Without designing systems you already have them around you. As with any habits you already have them built into your day whether you realise it or not. The idea of good habits versus bad habits is that you likely have bad habits built up without intention. Intentional habits are where…

Scheduling is the Dragon Slayer — Having fun building systems isn’t a bad thing but it can be a trap so with explicit targets and outcomes in mind that are smaller in scope, keep yourself to strict deadlines. Only schedule time to work on systems with explicit time blocks that are less time overall than what…

Simplicity is the Dragon Slayer — There has to be a trade off with how useful a system is and how much time and other resources it’s taking to implement. Taking a step back and re-evaluating what it is you’re trying to achieve should be part of your system building system. A frequent review is critical…

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” James Clear, Atomic Habits. Importance of Systems We all have systems, whether they are intentionally built or not. If they’re not intentionally built then quite often we are working against them or they are providing…

The automation TextExpander handles is text replacement and form filling, it’s more popular on the Mac but that’s one reason to pick this over other text replacement tools in that it’s cross platform. It is a way to increase your typing output without actually having to type. The one I…

I’ve written about learning to touch type and the things you can do you help improve your typing overall. How far you take that is up to you, whether you get customised keyboards and learn potentially faster keyboard layouts you will reach a limit. But there is a way to…