PodSearch

Cortex

44: Existential Time Tracking

 

00:00:00   It's over. Did you enjoy Cortex Miss Grey? I did.

00:00:03   Do you know what? I did too. It was a welcome thing at that time in my life over the last

00:00:08   couple of months. I've been very busy. Yeah, see it's good to have breaks

00:00:12   throughout the year. One time in the year.

00:00:14   You don't need an endless ceaseless grind that pulverises your soul into tiny little shards

00:00:23   that never ends. No, breaks breaks throughout the year. It makes life, it makes life better, Myke.

00:00:31   And you agree. You agree now. No one's forcing you to be here.

00:00:35   I feel like you're forcing me to be here. Am I?

00:00:37   No, I'm happy to be here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But not every week.

00:00:43   I'm in the cottage. Hey!

00:00:45   I'm in mega office. All set up now. All finished?

00:00:49   100% well

00:00:51   It says a hundred percent as it can be, you know, will it ever be a hundred percent? No, it's like that bridge

00:00:57   You know the bridge that people paint forever. I don't know what you're talking about. Really?

00:01:02   I feel like we've had this exact conversation before so I'm not gonna redo it

00:01:06   I have been I have been alerted to the fact recently that

00:01:10   The way did I say the name of my office?

00:01:14   Makes it sound like it's spelt M e GG AR which I enjoy quite a lot the idea of it being mega our office

00:01:21   So that is it. That's the thing. So mega office is fully taking shape. I have a couch my thinking couch

00:01:28   Thinking couch. I have a sit-stand desk, which I have stood at once

00:01:33   But I can do it if I need to oh and I have a drone now

00:01:41   That's a whole thing that I've been playing around with Adina bought me a drone for Christmas

00:01:46   Wow

00:01:48   Merry Christmas Casey Neistat. What are you gonna do with that drone?

00:01:50   I like Casey jr. Thank you very much. Okay Casey jr. Casey jr. Yeah, I

00:01:59   I'm I'm really enjoying the drone. What drone did you get? What drones you get? I got a Parrot Bebop 2 and

00:02:07   We have basically come to the idea that this is my practice drone

00:02:11   You know like the really good drones they're like a thousand pounds or something

00:02:19   This is my drone where I learn how to fly a drone. So this is your entry-level drone

00:02:25   This is my entry-level drone where like it does it. It does it does a pretty good job

00:02:29   And it's also that the controls are easy to use

00:02:33   Mm-hmm, so I'm getting used to it. It's a whole big process, you know flying a drone. I

00:02:38   Don't think it looks easy. I come home. I'm always impressed by people flying the drones

00:02:44   It looks quite hard. I only lost control of it once. Uh-huh

00:02:50   I was kind of making it hurt all around me in a circle

00:02:53   And this I actually put this in my youtube video like a video that I just put up about my tattoo

00:02:58   I put some drone footage at the end of it and the last clip is like the drone flying around me and then like just it

00:03:05   Just carries on now

00:03:07   In real time that was when I lost control of the drone. It was supposed to just keep going around me and

00:03:13   I didn't know where it went. It was behind me and it just went off and nearly hit a tree

00:03:20   But the footage looked really good, right and through the magic of editing you can cut it the frame before it would be obvious

00:03:27   It's something exactly so it looks like you're a pro. It's the frame before it snaps back

00:03:33   We're in like the opposite direction as I try and take control of the thing again

00:03:37   That is a fantastic a fantastic Christmas present and I look forward to seeing more drone footage in your future vlogs

00:03:44   Yeah, somebody somebody said to me in in the YouTube comments. Why why haven't you taken the drone higher?

00:03:50   Mm-hmm, and it's through complete fear of the drone

00:03:54   Like it can go a lot higher than I've taken it, but I'm like some so scared of it

00:03:59   Like it's it's a really weird feeling to have this thing that I'm both excited about and terrified of it's it's it's like owning a lion

00:04:07   It's like you trained it and it's just like a little lion cub but like at some point it's gonna scratch your face off

00:04:13   Yeah, it's a wild creature. Yeah

00:04:16   But that's kind of what makes it so exciting at the same time

00:04:20   I don't have many, I'm not a risk-taking person in that way,

00:04:24   you know, like an adrenaline risk-taker.

00:04:26   But the drone is a weird kind of bridge for that.

00:04:30   But I love it, I love it.

00:04:32   I wish I could have seen my face when I opened it.

00:04:35   It was a surprise.

00:04:36   I was like, "Oh my god, you bought me a drone!"

00:04:38   I think that was what I did.

00:04:40   But I'm enjoying it a lot.

00:04:42   I wish I had more time to go and just fly around parks.

00:04:46   - It's very cool looking, and I feel like this is,

00:04:49   This is another stage down the path of now being like a professional amateur level vlogger.

00:04:57   Prime League.

00:04:58   Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:04:59   Right?

00:05:00   You're no longer just a beginner.

00:05:01   Once you have a drone and you start learning how to make it follow you around one handed

00:05:06   or whatever you're going to do with it, then you're moving up there in the vlogging world.

00:05:11   That's exciting.

00:05:12   It's very exciting.

00:05:13   Will you let me fly your drone?

00:05:14   Yeah, if you want to.

00:05:15   That's a terrible decision.

00:05:18   But yes.

00:05:19   fly it? Yeah I would totally love it. I've never flown a drone. I think it would be

00:05:22   interested to try to fly it. See how high it can go. Yeah so you gotta go. Go high

00:05:26   and go far. Like don't see the drone anymore. That's the goal. That's that's

00:05:30   what I would want. I can't see it and then there's just a button I press and

00:05:34   it comes back right? That's the way it should work. Yeah actually yes. Awesome. See perfect

00:05:38   there's nothing to worry about then. I'll fly it real high for you Myke.

00:05:41   Oh you? Yeah that's what you're good at. Yeah you go for that.

00:05:45   This episode of Quar-Tex is brought to you by our friends at Casper. Casper is a

00:05:51   company focused on helping you sleep. That's why they created the One Perfect

00:05:56   Mattress that it sells directly to you the consumer and finds a way to

00:05:59   eliminate these commission-driven inflated prices that you may have been

00:06:03   used to if you've been to a reseller or showroom in the past. Casper has an

00:06:06   award-winning mattress that they developed in-house. It's obsessively

00:06:10   engineered at a shockingly fair price. Casper's mattress is made of supportive

00:06:14   memory foam and it has just the right sink and just the right mounts. Plus, it's designed

00:06:19   to be breathable so it will regulate your temperature throughout the night. Casper also

00:06:23   now offers an adaptive pillow and soft breathable sheets.

00:06:28   Buying a mattress on the internet could seem like a strange proposition because you haven't

00:06:34   got to sit on it. How do you know if it's going to be right for you? Well it doesn't

00:06:38   matter because buying a Casper mattress is a completely risk free process. They offer

00:06:44   free delivery and free returns to the US and Canada with a 100 night home trial. So you

00:06:50   order it, it comes in this lovely little box, you bring it upstairs, you open it, you cut

00:06:54   the bag open, the mattress breathes itself to life and you get to sleep on it for 100

00:06:59   nights before you decide if it's right for you. If you don't love it they'll pick it

00:07:03   up and re-find you everything but I reckon you're going to love it because Casper mattresses

00:07:07   are awesome. Casper understands the importance of letting you sleep on that mattress before you

00:07:12   commit to it, especially because you're going to spend a third of your life on it. Mattresses

00:07:16   are a long term deal and that's why Casper gives you that 100 night home trial. You can get $50

00:07:22   towards any mattress purchase by going to casper.com/cortex and using the code CORTEX at

00:07:27   checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you so much to Casper for their support of this show and

00:07:31   and relay FM. I've also taken some steps professionally. I've,

00:07:35   I've been doing some more serious things as well over Cortexmas.

00:07:40   One of them is I have started time tracking.

00:07:43   Finally.

00:07:46   Yep. I have started time tracking. Um, the,

00:07:51   the kind of the reason for this, which I'm, uh,

00:07:53   I think we're going to get into a little bit later on,

00:07:55   but the kind of the basic reason is because we are, uh,

00:07:59   Relay FM is looking to get like a part-time assistant for me to help with

00:08:06   some of the work that I do. But before we can kind of go down that road, we

00:08:12   need to understand what tasks this person is going to take. And because

00:08:16   they're gonna be, you know, the kind of the idea is to kind of do contractable

00:08:20   billable hours of this person, I need to work out how long these things actually

00:08:24   do take me to do. There's some of the tasks we're handing over. So I have

00:08:28   started time tracking everything that I do work related just also because I

00:08:33   figure if I'm gonna go down this route maybe it's time to start realizing just

00:08:37   how much time I spend on things. Now I am using a service called Toggl.

00:08:42   T-O-G-G-L. Toggl is I think primarily a web service. They have apps but they're

00:08:52   not great. Like they have an OK iPhone app, nothing for the iPad. I spoke to

00:08:57   their customer service over Twitter and it looks like they have absolutely no plans for

00:09:01   an iPad app either. It's like, "We'll let you know if things change means never gonna happen."

00:09:07   P: Yeah, we've added it to the support queue for feature requests. Like, okay, goodbye.

00:09:12   S: But I have been using a friend of the show Federico Vittucci of MacStories

00:09:18   workflows that he made for the iOS workflow app as a way to do this. And I was talking

00:09:25   to Federico about this and he said "Have you been speaking to Gray?" and I said no

00:09:30   and he said "Oh because you both started asking me about this at exactly the same

00:09:34   time." Yeah so you you mentioned toggle as recommended to you by Federico a couple

00:09:41   episodes ago yeah at around the time I was saying like I'm looking to switch my

00:09:46   time tracking systems because I had outgrown my hobbled together Rube Goldberg

00:09:52   machine that I was using to track my time previously, which was great, but past its

00:09:57   prime. And so, yeah, one of the big things I did over Cortexmas was I had a period of

00:10:04   about ten days where I was really rethinking and reworking a lot of things related to my

00:10:14   business and one of them was involved in setting up time tracking. And I was really, really

00:10:21   Because you recommended this, I tried it out, I found that same article that Federico had written about writing this little workflow to interact with toggle.

00:10:29   Because they have an API.

00:10:30   Yeah, so you can write these little scripts that it sort of talks directly to the web server so you don't have to use the apps that are on your phone.

00:10:37   Which is nice for a bunch of reasons.

00:10:39   And I was playing around with it very seriously for a few days and then essentially I harassed Vitigi about this because I started messaging him like

00:10:48   messaging him like, "Hey, do you think someone could write a script to do these additional

00:10:55   features?"

00:10:56   I kind of said this to him, and this is when he said, "I'm working on one for Gray."

00:10:59   He's like, "I'm gonna make it a bit easier and then I'll send it to you."

00:11:03   He understands my level.

00:11:05   "I'll put some instructions in and then you can have it."

00:11:08   Excellent.

00:11:09   I feel much better then that his effort was doubly well spent then, because I was harassing

00:11:14   I'm like, what I would like is to be able to control everything in the API that toggle

00:11:20   makes available, right?

00:11:21   Like everything I can write to the server, I want to write to the server.

00:11:25   And so he was very nice and wrote another custom version of it that could do more, because

00:11:30   Web API stuff is a bit beyond my skill level.

00:11:34   I was like looking through it and I'm like, I have no idea what any of this is doing.

00:11:38   Yeah, the Web API stuff gets really complicated and really program-free very fast.

00:11:43   But once he did that, I then took the thing that he gave to me and I modified it really

00:11:50   extensively to work with the way I want my own system to work.

00:11:55   And I have come up with - we can talk about it more in detail later, like I'm still playing

00:12:00   around with it - but just as you have moved from the step of no time tracking at all to

00:12:08   work time tracking, I am experimenting with this season doing time tracking for my whole life.

00:12:16   So what I'm trying to do is actually just have a timer running if I am conscious about like,

00:12:25   I want to have an overview now, not just of my hardcore work, but now that I have a stronger,

00:12:34   better, more flexible in many ways system.

00:12:37   It's like, let me push this to the absolute max, at least for a little while,

00:12:42   and see what that tells me about myself, because

00:12:46   I found that the first time I started doing time tracking,

00:12:49   you learn a lot about yourself that you don't necessarily realize.

00:12:53   Oh boy, do you.

00:12:54   Yeah. And so I'm taking that, I'm taking that like, I've done the first stage of this,

00:12:58   I'm doing the second stage of this, but this is what, this is,

00:13:01   This is what I am dying to hear from you, Myke, because I always push people to do time tracking,

00:13:07   and what I'm always trying to do is I'm mentioning like one key case, right?

00:13:12   I'm always telling you like, "Oh, you need to know the value of your time in terms of dollars," right?

00:13:17   That's always the thing that I'm harping on.

00:13:19   But if you can get someone down that path, now we can have the conversation about like,

00:13:24   "What does your workday really look like, Myke?" [laughs]

00:13:28   So I'll say before before we dig into this and and before I have to go to the corner and cry for a little while

00:13:33   Having only been doing this for a couple of weeks

00:13:37   I've already started to have the thought of should I track everything like I've had that thought i'm like should I

00:13:42   Track the time that i'm reading twitter like so I can see how you've gone down that route

00:13:47   Like I can see the value in knowing

00:13:49   What i'm doing at all times i'm not going to start doing that yet

00:13:53   But I can see that if I continue to keep doing this like I think that I will I can see myself getting to that

00:13:58   Point quite quite easily actually it seems like a logical step. Yeah, I would seriously recommend not doing that at the start

00:14:05   I don't want to do it right now. It's too much

00:14:07   Yeah, exactly

00:14:07   like I would honestly wait something like six months of just tracking your work time before you even think about trying to track everything because

00:14:14   It's it's enough to do just the work time like I'm constantly forgetting time as it is, right?

00:14:19   Like just constantly forget. I have been looking forward to this conversation and dreading it in equal measure

00:14:25   Because one like I think it's like a really good thing for us to get into

00:14:29   But the other is like I know where it's going

00:14:31   I know that you're gonna push me to do the how much is my time worth thing?

00:14:38   And I really don't want to do that. Yeah, like I

00:14:41   Viscerally do not want to start doing those calculations

00:14:46   But here we are so let me tell you what I have learned so far having only done this for about two weeks

00:14:52   Basically I've learned some key things and I don't know how I feel about them

00:14:58   There are times in the week where the sheer amount of my time that is podcast editing is concerning

00:15:04   Mm-hmm the recording time the amount of time that I spend recording is about what I expected

00:15:11   But editing time is way out of whack.

00:15:14   Okay, so what way out of whack as in you're spending way more time editing than you thought that you were done.

00:15:20   Than I thought, yeah.

00:15:21   Okay, that's not too surprising. I mean because the shows are the shows are scheduled, right?

00:15:26   Yeah.

00:15:26   Like this is this is the whole the whole lesson to learn from all of these things is you can't trust your brain for anything.

00:15:31   No.

00:15:32   Your brain's terrible at everything it ever does, right?

00:15:35   Yes.

00:15:35   So I like your brain is an adversary like or it's an incompetent.

00:15:39   It's one of the two all the time like hey brain. How much time do I spend on editing? Uh, 20 minutes?

00:15:44   Like there's no idea whereas where's that you can look at a calendar and see that you have booked in recording slots

00:15:50   Yeah, so I'm not surprised that you have a better sense of that

00:15:53   But yeah, so the editing is taking longer than you think how I'm like, so there are a couple of shows that throw out whack

00:15:59   So like there's this show and there's another show that I edit when I edit very differently

00:16:05   Like I'd listen to the entire thing and spend a lot of time on it

00:16:09   So when when I do those shows it pushes the numbers up

00:16:14   Significantly quickly in the week because I tend to do this at the start of the week

00:16:18   So that like throws it out of whack for like three quarters of the week, right?

00:16:22   Because I'm aware of those I know how long they take me like so that's that the problem that I have is all of my other

00:16:30   shows

00:16:30   Shows that I thought took me 20 minutes to edit are taking me about 45.

00:16:36   Mm-hmm.

00:16:37   And I am not happy about that.

00:16:39   Yeah, and that's what can kill you, right?

00:16:42   Because you have a bunch of shows that probably fall into that category.

00:16:46   Oh, it's like everything.

00:16:47   Yeah.

00:16:48   Right?

00:16:49   Yeah, you're losing half as much time as you thought you actually had.

00:16:51   It takes me two to three times the amount of time that I thought it took.

00:16:54   Mm-hmm.

00:16:55   And this has been a really harsh realization.

00:17:00   Mm-hmm, like I was talking to a dinner about this and I was like and I explained it to her

00:17:04   She's like, yeah, it takes you about 45 minutes. She's like I know this. Mm-hmm

00:17:08   Like I say I'll be back in about 20 minutes

00:17:09   I'm gonna go edit upgrade and she knows I'm gone for 45 right like in my mind. It only takes 20 minutes. Mm-hmm and

00:17:15   I'm very uncomfortable about this

00:17:18   Because I have now opened my idea to the fact that my brain has no idea what it's doing like right

00:17:25   I was convinced that that was how long it took me to edit a show like that

00:17:29   But I'm not just off by a little bit. It's like a factor of two at minimum.

00:17:33   Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:17:34   This is why it is so,

00:17:36   so important to do, because you just cannot trust yourself

00:17:41   to have any sense of how long it really takes you to do things. This is why for anybody listening,

00:17:48   if you work for yourself, if you're working for a company, if you care at all about how you are spending your time,

00:17:57   Just do some time tracking on the things that are like most important to you

00:18:02   And you like you will see it revealed how your time is really being spent like whatever you think you're doing

00:18:08   You're going to discover where you are surprisingly wrong about yourself

00:18:14   So one thing that I was wrong about that

00:18:17   I'm happy with is the amount of time it takes me to prepare

00:18:20   So I spend more time preparing for shows than I thought I did hmm

00:18:24   That's something I'm happy to know. So why is that? Why is that? What do you mean?

00:18:29   So like I spend more time putting our documents together and doing research

00:18:33   Mm-hmm, and that is the type of time that I'm pleased that I put in

00:18:39   Okay

00:18:39   Because I thought that I wasn't spending enough time preparing

00:18:42   Like I spend about as much time as I thought I should be to make a good show, right? Okay. Okay

00:18:48   I see I see what you're saying. All right, that's good

00:18:50   Like I was maybe self-conscious of it. Mm-hmm, but I was wrong to be it kind of felt like if I'm not doing adequate preparation

00:18:56   I'm kind of like a fraud

00:18:58   Mm-hmm, right that like I should be prepared for the shows to make the best show that I can make and

00:19:03   There were times where I was like, I'm not doing enough of this. So it's like I'm kind of just like winging it. Mm-hmm

00:19:10   Mm-hmm, but that's not the case

00:19:11   Like when I look at the actual numbers like I'm spending about as much if not more time than I thought that I should be

00:19:18   So I'm happy about that

00:19:20   Like and the thing is like the edit is the same side of it, right?

00:19:23   which is like making the show better by doing the editing like I agree with that, but it's

00:19:27   It's because I had a real idea in my mind of how long that took me

00:19:33   like I didn't have a time for the preparing because I I tend to do show prep for

00:19:38   Seven days for each show like I'm always doing it

00:19:41   You know as an idea comes to me or as a story comes to me like I'll pick it up as I go

00:19:46   So like I'm not sitting down for like a block of time and doing it

00:19:49   That's how I do the edits. I sit down for a block of time

00:19:53   So I thought it took me this amount of time, but I'm really wrong about that and that is

00:19:58   That's what's concerning to me the preparing stuff. I don't feel like it's a real suck of time

00:20:03   Mm-hmm because it's happening in these little bits and it's also just time really well spent

00:20:10   Like this show exists because you put a bunch of time into the show notes, right?

00:20:15   All of your shows are better if you put time into the show notes ahead of time.

00:20:19   So that's great to find out that, you know,

00:20:23   perhaps you had the feeling like you're doing it less because, of course, in any conversation,

00:20:28   like conversations evolve as they go on and they're never going to follow the show notes entirely.

00:20:33   So there is an element of, even for the most prepared conversation,

00:20:37   I mean, both parties are still sort of winging it throughout that conversation.

00:20:42   But it's the right kind of winging.

00:20:43   It's like informed winging.

00:20:45   Exactly, exactly.

00:20:47   So maybe that's why you were feeling that way a little bit.

00:20:50   But yeah, the editing time, you know, that's something else that's maybe, maybe something

00:20:55   can be done about that, Myke.

00:20:57   I don't know.

00:20:58   What do you think?

00:20:59   Not yet.

00:21:00   Not yet.

00:21:01   Okay.

00:21:02   So I've been thinking about it.

00:21:03   I've been talking about it and it is a clear thing that I could do something about, but

00:21:08   I'm not ready.

00:21:10   I am not ready to let go of what I consider to be an important part of the creation of

00:21:14   the shows that I do.

00:21:16   I feel like many of the shows that I do are as good as they are because of the edit that

00:21:20   I put in.

00:21:21   So, the difference, I think I've explained this, but a show like this, I go back and

00:21:25   listen to the whole thing.

00:21:27   For most of my other weekly shows, I don't do that, but what I do is I take notes as

00:21:31   the shows going on and then I go in and fix those points. So like I'm editing whilst we're

00:21:35   recording because I'm noting the things that need to be fixed and then I go in and just

00:21:40   fix it to each one of those points. So what that does is it means that I can get the shows

00:21:44   out especially the topic based shows the weekly kind of news focused shows they can come out

00:21:50   in a timely fashion which is important to me. But I also feel like I can put a lot of

00:21:54   edit time into them because of the way that I do it. But unfortunately it's taking longer

00:21:58   And I thought but I don't want to let it go yet because I feel like I would be kind of losing part of my voice

00:22:04   of the shows

00:22:05   Now there might be you know, I'm starting to think about okay, which shows are most important for that

00:22:11   Which shows Matt at least like I'm trying to start like roll these things around in my brain. Mm-hmm, but like I'm not like

00:22:18   Mentally ready to let go of anything like that. Yeah, it's understandable understandable

00:22:25   You know, it's like how I would never pass the edit of this show to anybody because this is like the most of all of them

00:22:31   Mm-hmm, but like it's like with the other shows

00:22:33   I mean, you know why that is right just because of the type of edit that we do on this show. It needs our

00:22:40   opinion

00:22:42   Yeah, but like all of my shows have that to a degree, but it's not as strong, right?

00:22:47   It's yeah

00:22:48   It's more you're sliding up and down the spectrum of this and cortex is a show which is at the most extreme end

00:22:55   of that. And I only have this opinion about my other shows because I do this one because

00:22:59   it's changed the way that I edit. So like I more now than like two years ago I feel

00:23:05   like my editing is part of the voice and tone of voice and like character of the show than

00:23:13   it was before. I've gotten into your mind Myke. You've destroyed me so if you want to

00:23:18   take over in editing for me that would be awesome. I do not I do not my job is simply

00:23:23   just to keep infecting you with ideas and watch them take root.

00:23:30   So we're going to talk about Year of Less again, but this is part...

00:23:34   When I was originally thinking about what my Year of Less might look like, it might

00:23:38   be handing over some editing work, but now I don't think that's going to be how it is

00:23:42   going to be in 2017.

00:23:45   There is a silver lining to all of this.

00:23:48   I do not work for intense periods of time for as long as I thought I did.

00:23:55   This is the other thing I have universally found that people discover.

00:24:00   If they're serious, if they're doing the time tracking right, you almost always realise

00:24:05   you're way overestimating how much time you're really working.

00:24:10   So I, again, I've maybe done this on one quiet week and one busy week, right?

00:24:16   Yeah, it's still very preliminary.

00:24:18   still very early however I am working out that I maybe work between 20 to 30

00:24:26   hours a week in intense time so this includes like recording shows editing

00:24:32   shows preparing for shows and dealing with sponsors like and maybe having

00:24:37   calls about things it's like that is like solid working time and I'm pleased

00:24:41   with these numbers but what's not trackable or a couple of things really

00:24:46   is thinking about work and also dealing with the little things that pop up. So like someone

00:24:55   might ask me a question, someone might send me a quick email that takes a two second reply,

00:25:01   but these things happen for as long as I am awake. So I may only work for five hours on

00:25:09   on that Wednesday, but I could do a half an hour's work

00:25:13   at nine, an hour's work at 10, one hour's work at 12,

00:25:18   and one hour's work at 6 p.m.

00:25:20   And it is the, what I've realized is that the fact

00:25:26   that this work can happen for as long as I am awake

00:25:30   is what makes it feel like I am always working.

00:25:34   So I don't want to do anything about this, right?

00:25:39   There are ways that I can make this better.

00:25:40   I could not look at my email other than a specific time of the day.

00:25:43   I could not open Slack other than a specific time of the day.

00:25:46   Like I know I can do all of that, but I don't want to do that.

00:25:50   That's not how I want to work. Like I currently,

00:25:53   I like to work the way that I do, which is to always be working. Right.

00:25:58   I will interject here and just say that while for many people,

00:26:03   I would recommend exactly the things that you just mentioned.

00:26:07   I would not recommend them to you.

00:26:09   I still think that your business and your involvement in it

00:26:15   really benefits from you being around and available

00:26:18   to a lot of different people at a lot of different hours.

00:26:22   I really think that your availability

00:26:25   makes a big difference to how well Relay is doing.

00:26:28   So even if you wanted to crank it down,

00:26:31   I think you are in a very difficult position to even do that.

00:26:35   So the thing that it is doing though,

00:26:38   it is making me feel better knowing this.

00:26:42   Good, good, good.

00:26:44   Because I am realizing like,

00:26:46   I feel like I'm really busy all the time,

00:26:50   but it turns out I'm not as busy as I thought I was.

00:26:54   Like I am not working. Like my, my,

00:26:59   The thing I used to say was I'm working for as much as I'm awake.

00:27:02   That's how I felt.

00:27:04   And now I understand where that feeling is coming from and now I'm able to fight it.

00:27:10   Like I'm able to answer back to my brain when it gets in that mode.

00:27:14   I'll be like, "Okay then, smart guy, open toggle and look at your report of the day."

00:27:19   Oh, three hours.

00:27:23   So like, this is not a, "Ha, look at me.

00:27:26   "Like I only work 20 hours a week."

00:27:29   Because if I would have tracked my time

00:27:32   when I worked at the bank,

00:27:34   I would be really keen on seeing what that looked like.

00:27:38   'Cause I think it would probably be less.

00:27:40   Because like, as I said, this is not like,

00:27:43   Myke is chatting with someone, you know.

00:27:45   That's not billable.

00:27:46   I was like, when I'm chatting to somebody at work,

00:27:48   or like I'm going for lunch, or like,

00:27:50   this is like pure time where I'm like,

00:27:53   this is 100% work, I am doing this, I'm doing that.

00:27:57   This is what I genuinely feel like a 40 hour work week

00:28:01   actually is for most people, not everyone, but most people.

00:28:05   People are not in consistent, constant, intense work

00:28:09   from nine to five.

00:28:10   Humans do not work like that.

00:28:12   - No, humans can't work like that.

00:28:14   And I think this is the really clear distinction to draw is,

00:28:20   in my old time tracking system, I was only tracking the really valuable hours.

00:28:27   Like, did I just spend the previous 40 minutes really writing yes or no?

00:28:33   Right, and if the answer was no, I wouldn't track it.

00:28:35   And it's like, nobody does eight hours a day of that kind of work.

00:28:41   Right, where you are really focused, value generating work.

00:28:46   But everybody can be kind of like at work for a really long time and doing a bunch of

00:28:53   Low level stuff that makes you feel like I've been working all day. Yep, right, but like but how much real

00:29:00   Value creation has occurred here. I have a weird job

00:29:04   So my numbers I reckon are higher than most people

00:29:08   Like for example this week

00:29:11   Monday Tuesday, Wednesday have all been over six hours

00:29:14   Mm-hmm, but that is like because the type of stuff that I do is incredibly time intensive

00:29:19   It's like speaking to somebody for two hours and then working on it for what turns out to be an hour

00:29:23   Like those things can add up quite a lot. Mm-hmm. And what I have really noticed is like so last Friday I

00:29:32   Had seven hours of work that I logged. Mm-hmm. I felt like crap last Friday

00:29:38   Right and this week like I've been doing a consistent like six hours a day

00:29:43   But I feel okay because I knew it was busy week.

00:29:48   And it's like this is confirming that feeling and I'm yeah I'm more tired and you know what's

00:29:52   been really strange?

00:29:53   I've noticed that I've been sleeping in more this week than last week.

00:29:56   Like I've been waking up a little bit later.

00:29:58   Like it is really opening my eyes to how I work in a really interesting way.

00:30:05   Yeah if you pay attention to that you'll see that those those overwork times are like you're

00:30:10   gonna pay for it one way or another.

00:30:12   I still love and am envious of your busy week and not busy week because you have a bit of

00:30:18   that averaging out effect occurring there, which I still think is fantastic.

00:30:24   But I'm really glad to hear that you are able to push back against your own brain a little

00:30:30   bit when your brain says like, "Oh, I've been working all day."

00:30:34   It's like, "Okay, but how much really?"

00:30:37   And just the knowledge of that, the ability to push back on that a little bit, I think,

00:30:42   can really help reduce the feelings of busyness and stress and overwhelmingness.

00:30:50   But you are totally right that the main thing that is untrackable by even the best system

00:30:57   is the thinking about work time.

00:30:59   That is a futile thing to try to track and that is something that is outside the system

00:31:05   and kind of around it all the time and that is again one thing when you're like running

00:31:12   your own company or doing your own thing. It's very hard to get away from that, but

00:31:16   just trying to be mindful of it I think is very helpful. Like am I thinking about work

00:31:23   and doing anything about it now or is it just something that's on the back of my mind which

00:31:30   which is causing me stress.

00:31:31   Like even just trying to be aware of that sort of stuff

00:31:35   within the context of a time tracking system

00:31:37   is very helpful.

00:31:38   - So it's been a very strange couple of weeks,

00:31:41   but good I think overall.

00:31:43   Like I've learned some valuable things

00:31:45   and it's already made me kind of rethink

00:31:48   what I thought 2017 was gonna be like for me.

00:31:52   - Wow.

00:31:53   - I know, right?

00:31:54   Because I was moving down a road

00:31:57   and all that's done is just make me take,

00:31:59   I'm taking a sooner junction, right?

00:32:02   Like, the goal is still the same,

00:32:05   but the way that I'm planning on achieving that goal is different.

00:32:09   This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Hover.

00:32:13   When you get a great idea for the name of some project that you want to work on,

00:32:17   a business you want to start, a website you want to run, whatever,

00:32:21   Hover is the place you need to go to register your domain name.

00:32:25   They're simple, they're fast, and you don't have to opt out of page after page of add-ons that you don't want or need.

00:32:33   It's just really simple. You get in, you get your domain name, you're done.

00:32:37   You don't have to click through a hundred pages of things where you're unchecking boxes for stuff that you don't want.

00:32:43   It's just nice and simple.

00:32:45   Most people also don't realize that when you register a domain name, by default, all of your information is made public.

00:32:50   Many other registrars will make you pay to hide that information, but not hover.

00:32:54   They're on your side. They think this is just part of what owning a domain name is,

00:32:58   and so it is included for free.

00:33:00   When someone tells me they want to register a domain name, I tell them to go to Hover.

00:33:05   So if you have that idea rattling around in your head, you have the name for the thing that you want to make,

00:33:11   grab the domain right now.

00:33:13   And to do that, go to hover.com and use the promo code "CORTEX"

00:33:17   to save 10% off your first purchase.

00:33:21   That's hover.com promo code "CORTEX" 10% off for you.

00:33:25   Thank you so much to Hover for their support of this show and all of Relay FM.

00:33:29   We had spoken about Year of Less a lot last year, right?

00:33:33   That was your theme of 2016 was the year of less, comma me.

00:33:36   And as we were approaching the end of the year,

00:33:39   I kind of said that that was my plan for 2017.

00:33:43   Like my plan for 2016 was make a business work.

00:33:47   Like make it really work.

00:33:49   That is your plan. Like just do it.

00:33:51   Get this machine off the ground and just make it go.

00:33:55   So my and also like buy a house like become an adult like but

00:33:59   2017 for me like I want to look at what year of less looks like

00:34:03   mm-hmm and

00:34:05   My I had originally considered that year of less would be

00:34:09   less

00:34:11   content

00:34:13   creation

00:34:14   hmm, so

00:34:15   less shows

00:34:17   less editing

00:34:19   because

00:34:20   Fundamentally, they are the most time intensive things that I do is making the shows. Mm-hmm

00:34:25   but then I was like

00:34:28   But I like that

00:34:30   Right, it's like the reason that I can sit with like six or seven hours of tracked time

00:34:38   Is because it didn't really feel like work like it is my job, but I really love doing it. Mm-hmm

00:34:46   So is that the right stuff to do less of?

00:34:51   I'm not sure.

00:34:53   Like I'm not sure that I would be happy

00:34:55   with the balance after that, right?

00:34:57   Like making less or like turning down.

00:35:00   Like my thought was like, okay,

00:35:02   maybe stop one or two shows that you're doing right now

00:35:04   and stop taking on any new projects.

00:35:07   But I love new projects.

00:35:08   (laughs)

00:35:09   - You do.

00:35:10   - It's my favorite thing.

00:35:11   - You always get very excited

00:35:13   when you have a new podcast in the works.

00:35:15   Or like anything right like the vlog

00:35:17   Mm-hmm. I shouldn't be doing that. No every number

00:35:22   Everything says you should not be doing this

00:35:25   But I love it like it is it is like a hobby now like it is just this little creative thing that I get to do

00:35:33   and

00:35:35   I've kind of come to the realization that that is not what I should be cutting down on I should not be

00:35:40   taken away or

00:35:43   slimming the reason I'm doing this.

00:35:47   Like the primary reason that I wanted this business to exist is so I could support

00:35:53   myself to do these things.

00:35:54   I don't have a business so I can run a business.

00:35:57   Right. Right. Because that's what I would end up doing.

00:36:01   My business would exist so I could enjoy being Mr.

00:36:04   Business person. Right.

00:36:06   And some people do like that.

00:36:07   But that's not what I do.

00:36:08   Yeah, that's that's that's their thing.

00:36:10   But that's not your thing.

00:36:12   You know, it was like, I think I mentioned this on the show a long time ago,

00:36:15   which was like when I would talk to people in my old job and tell them that I was

00:36:18   leaving to start my own thing.

00:36:19   And people used to say to me, I've always dreamed of running my own business.

00:36:22   Right.

00:36:23   Yes.

00:36:23   Yes.

00:36:24   Like that's not a dream.

00:36:25   Right?

00:36:27   Like what is the thing?

00:36:28   And then they'll be like, I don't know.

00:36:29   I just want to have my own business.

00:36:30   Like, I think that's the type of person that like will run a business because they

00:36:35   like the business, which is totally valid, but it's not where I come from.

00:36:40   Like for me, it's like, and I think this is the same for you.

00:36:43   Like I think your goals are slightly different to mine, but it's the business

00:36:47   is a means to the end and the end is like whatever it is.

00:36:51   And for me, it's to just make the stuff that I love.

00:36:55   And I think for you, it's maybe more to like to have control of your life.

00:36:58   Yeah.

00:37:00   And they are like what is caused by the business.

00:37:03   And so maybe what I need to do is remove some of the business.

00:37:08   So that's where you're going to try to cut down on things.

00:37:10   Assistant, not editor.

00:37:13   Ah, OK. All right.

00:37:15   This is good. This is good.

00:37:17   So what we are currently like, the reason I am time tracking

00:37:21   is so we can work out how many hours

00:37:25   could I give away to someone else?

00:37:28   Hmm. Right.

00:37:30   Because we know if we want to if we really want to bring somebody on,

00:37:34   we have to give them a significant amount of time.

00:37:36   so it's worth it for everyone.

00:37:38   So we are looking at hiring somebody

00:37:42   on a part-time contract basis.

00:37:44   I will just take a very slight break right now

00:37:46   to say please do not send me any applications.

00:37:49   This is gonna be a formal process thing.

00:37:54   - Your comment in the Reddit is not an application.

00:37:57   - An email is not an application.

00:38:00   Until there is a, I will talk about it,

00:38:02   I will tell the world when it is there,

00:38:05   we are gonna create a real job posting

00:38:08   that outlines what we need from someone,

00:38:11   what they need, and what they can expect, right?

00:38:13   Like it's gonna be a real thing.

00:38:16   So please, if you are interested,

00:38:19   do not send me anything, because it's not the way, right?

00:38:23   Like we're gonna have a real way.

00:38:25   Now if you've been listening to this show,

00:38:26   you know like we spent a lot of time

00:38:29   talking about grey hiring someone and like the process,

00:38:32   and we don't have that process in place.

00:38:35   There will be one, but we're early in this, right?

00:38:38   Like right now we're like still working out

00:38:40   what will this person do, like that kind of thing.

00:38:42   - Yeah, right now you're even feeling out

00:38:44   what are the areas of responsibility

00:38:47   that this person could even have.

00:38:48   - Yep, we don't even know how many hours it's gonna be.

00:38:50   - Right, yeah, you have no idea.

00:38:51   You need to do more time tracking to find that out.

00:38:53   - Exactly.

00:38:54   But primarily right now, what this person will be doing

00:38:57   is helping me with coordinating

00:38:58   and management of our sponsorship process.

00:39:01   The most businessy part of our business.

00:39:04   It is like talking to people over emails,

00:39:06   arranging and having telephone calls,

00:39:09   booking inventory into our system.

00:39:12   So like when somebody buys a spot

00:39:13   and putting it into spreadsheets and systems that we have.

00:39:16   And then ideally as well,

00:39:18   this person would kind of help with some copywriting.

00:39:20   So helping us put together the bullet points

00:39:22   that we give to our hosts

00:39:23   so they can talk about the companies that are sponsoring.

00:39:26   That is what this person will probably be doing.

00:39:30   And I, in a weird way,

00:39:33   and I think it's a weird way, I enjoy running our business.

00:39:36   But it's not the thing I enjoy the most.

00:39:40   And this is the thing that I could conceivably give

00:39:44   to somebody else to help me with.

00:39:47   If I think of my work as art,

00:39:50   then it's harder for me to give some of that stuff

00:39:52   away to someone.

00:39:53   Like, if somebody filled in for me on Cortex, right,

00:39:58   like that would be great for my graphs, you know?

00:40:01   But that's not gonna happen,

00:40:02   'cause we're in the show, right?

00:40:04   It's me and you.

00:40:05   So I can't give these things, exactly.

00:40:07   And it would never happen.

00:40:09   I could maybe get like an impersonator,

00:40:10   but great, great, great.

00:40:12   - Need a gray impersonator on the show.

00:40:14   - Maybe I should look into that.

00:40:15   Or maybe I could just like try and do your voice.

00:40:18   Or like, you know, just cut together clips

00:40:21   from your YouTube videos and, you know?

00:40:24   - I'm like, yeah, I'm liking the sound of this.

00:40:26   - All right, I'm gonna start getting a lot more stuff

00:40:29   right on this show, I think is what's going on.

00:40:32   So like I'm just thinking that maybe what I can do is like start to pass off a lot of

00:40:38   the things that don't need to need my input.

00:40:43   Spreadsheets do not need me.

00:40:46   Right.

00:40:47   Right?

00:40:48   And so this is kind of where I'm coming from.

00:40:50   So yeah, so year of less I think is gonna happen, but it is significantly different

00:40:57   to what I expected it was gonna be.

00:40:59   This is the whole value of doing the time tracking and thinking about what you're doing

00:41:05   and just being more aware of your work and instead of having in your mind like a big

00:41:12   blob that's just labeled work.

00:41:15   If you're doing time tracking, you're pulling out the different pieces, you are thinking

00:41:20   about them more intentionally, and then this allows you to kind of siphon it off in your

00:41:26   mind into different categories.

00:41:28   And this is exactly how I started.

00:41:31   Like, you know, the one not super valuable category

00:41:36   that I did track, because I just wanted to be aware of it,

00:41:38   was what I've--

00:41:39   I've threw everything else under the category

00:41:43   of administration.

00:41:44   So when I was tracking time, I was like, am I doing email?

00:41:47   OK, this is administration.

00:41:48   Am I doing stuff related to taxes?

00:41:50   This is administration.

00:41:52   Am I fixing a typo on the website?

00:41:54   This is administration.

00:41:55   It's like essentially anything that needs to get done, but is not related to

00:42:00   Revenue production or product production like all of this just is filed under administration

00:42:07   Do you wanna know what one of mine is called? What?

00:42:10   sponsor aftercare

00:42:13   Sponsor aftercare. Yeah, that is like such and such person has an email that they need but like the deal is already done

00:42:21   Now it's just like little bits and bobs.

00:42:24   Right, right. There's aftercare that needs to happen.

00:42:26   Like fixing a URL or like delivering a contract.

00:42:30   Like it's things that are just, they happen afterwards.

00:42:33   They're not, you know, they are not directly revenue generating but they need to occur.

00:42:37   Right, they're things that need to happen.

00:42:39   Mm-hmm.

00:42:39   And it was being aware of...

00:42:43   Not even the sheer amount of hours that I was spending on administration stuff,

00:42:48   but simply becoming aware of, okay, which subcategories in this administration land

00:42:53   can I get someone to help me with?

00:42:57   And that was what started it off for me,

00:43:00   you know, getting an assistant in the first place was, was like you said, does this

00:43:05   spreadsheet that I'm just putting some data into, does it need to be my fingers putting in this data?

00:43:10   No, it doesn't. And so like, just start building things up from there and, you know, it's

00:43:17   It's been nothing but great, and you know I've also had

00:43:20   the same experience that you did where you talked about how

00:43:24   Adina was aware that like oh you think something's going to take 20 minutes, but it actually takes you 45 minutes

00:43:30   I was really aware with a lot of the administration stuff

00:43:33   related to

00:43:35   posting the podcasts I

00:43:37   Realized through time tracking the same kind of thing like I thought this was a 45 minute job

00:43:43   tops, but turns out all of the steps took me a whole afternoon and

00:43:48   I didn't know this, but my wife always did. When I said like, "Oh, I'm just gonna post the show. I'll be right back."

00:43:54   She's like, "He's gone for the whole, like for the next three hours."

00:43:59   You emerged from the cave two days later.

00:44:01   Bleary-eyed.

00:44:04   Yeah, it's like, he thinks he's gonna be right back,

00:44:07   But he never is! Like this takes a long time to flip all of the switches and like do all of the things to make

00:44:12   a thing go live. And so that was one of these cases of like, okay, these steps, does it have to be me doing this?

00:44:18   No, it doesn't have to be me doing this.

00:44:20   Also, the time tracking is showing me like I'm losing a whole afternoon every week to this when I mentally think I'm not losing that time.

00:44:28   It's like, okay, this one is gonna get passed off to somebody else. And for me, the year of last year,

00:44:36   Letting go of a lot of the reigns to that kind of stuff was a big deal.

00:44:42   But the end of it was just great. It was fantastic to do.

00:44:46   So right now my time tracking is quite basic.

00:44:49   So I'm interested to kind of see a little bit how you're doing it.

00:44:54   Because all I'm doing right now is I have got some projects and tags.

00:44:58   And that's all I'm doing. So a project might be show recording, a tag might be cortex.

00:45:03   And that's it. So like I'm just keeping it like super basic because you can add all these like descriptions of the tasks and stuff like that

00:45:09   I'm not really doing any of that right now

00:45:11   I'm trying to make it as simple as I can for myself to just be adding it in

00:45:14   But does that sound like a reasonable system to you?

00:45:18   I mean, here's the thing. It's it's so

00:45:21   personal doing something like this

00:45:25   it entirely comes down to what are you trying to get out of it and

00:45:32   You know when I talk people into this I always suggest like just start with the simplest thing possible

00:45:37   It's like I've decided to go really high level with it

00:45:41   You know yeah, and I think that's that's perfectly fine like event if anybody's starting time tracking against like just track

00:45:48   Your your best high value hours and like leave it at that right. That's totally fine

00:45:53   Because I think what what happens is you either?

00:45:56   discover that this is like a

00:46:00   Basically, there's a feedback loop that happens with some people, right? So some people they'll do time tracking and then they'll stop and

00:46:07   they'll realize like, "Okay, I have some insights. I have some idea about how my time is being spent,

00:46:12   but I don't feel the need to keep doing this all the time."

00:46:14   But for some people it ends up becoming a positive feedback loop where you feel, "Okay, I've started this.

00:46:21   I'm getting value out of this." And then it can make more sense to try to

00:46:25   more fine-grain down

00:46:29   what is actually occurring.

00:46:31   And so,

00:46:33   obviously I'm in that second camp and now, you know, it's been a long time since I've been time tracking.

00:46:38   I've been spending a lot of time with toggle and this is why I was harassing

00:46:43   Federico to give me every option because I'm going to use them all

00:46:47   to do this what I would say as fine-grain as I think is reasonable,

00:46:53   but probably most people would think is an unreasonable amount of detail.

00:46:58   But the high-level picture for me is I want to be able to see

00:47:03   how much time just in total do I spend on Cortex, right? How much time do I spend on Hello Internet?

00:47:09   How much time do I spend on the YouTube videos?

00:47:12   And I do have breakdowns in there. Like it's going to be interesting to me to see

00:47:18   like how much time is spent editing versus recording or how much time is spent

00:47:23   writing versus working with the animator. Those things are interesting

00:47:27   But ultimately it really is that high level stuff is where most of the value can come out of.

00:47:35   So I think as long as you have a reasonable high level breakdown that makes sense to you about what you want to be keeping track of and what is important to you, I think that's fine.

00:47:47   fine. But you know, you can get really crazy with this. I'm just thinking that this is slightly

00:47:53   crazy, but I set up a little system with toggle using Zapier, the other if this then that service.

00:48:00   I set up a timer that starts automatically when I should be awake. And the timer is called

00:48:08   sleeping in.

00:48:09   Oh, right.

00:48:11   So what? That's amazing.

00:48:13   So at the minute my alarm goes off,

00:48:16   a timer starts, which is called sleeping in.

00:48:19   I like that.

00:48:20   And I'll tell you, that is really effective

00:48:22   to getting you out of bed, because, you know, you're sort of like half awake.

00:48:27   And when you're self-employed, there's a bit of like,

00:48:29   does it matter if I get up now or five minutes from now?

00:48:33   No, it doesn't.

00:48:34   It's like, but now it does because someone's watching.

00:48:38   Exactly, I have a black colored top level category in my system called sleeping in

00:48:45   and I want to see that bar be as small as possible and

00:48:48   So that's that's that's an example of like one of these things that like maybe a little bit far

00:48:54   But I like I actually want to know like how much time do I end up spending

00:48:59   Sleeping past when I think I should be up and then this also acts as like a little motivator

00:49:05   And so it's like, you know, as long as it's like a few minutes, that's fine

00:49:08   But I just want to see and knowing that it's there is really helpful

00:49:12   Yeah, I'm close to like setting up the Zapier stuff to just do some automatic things

00:49:17   like I just I don't really need to be pressing buttons to track when I

00:49:21   Record shows because I know how long I'm doing that for

00:49:24   And so this would just be that like Zapier is like another web service

00:49:28   It's like if there's if this than that

00:49:30   It's a little bit more advanced with some of the stuff that it can do and it's a paid service as well, right?

00:49:35   I think this there is a paid component. Yeah, it's free to a certain level and paid after that

00:49:40   So there would be things that I could do that could watch my Google Calendar and it is automatically log time based on an entry

00:49:47   Mm-hmm, and I find that kind of thing really interesting

00:49:50   This is if I was gonna set like another theme of my year. I'm really interested in making

00:49:57   My computers and my technology work for me. Mmm

00:50:01   So one of them is and I'm gonna spend some time talking about switching my to-do system at some point

00:50:08   Soon on this show as I'm looking at moving to todoist

00:50:12   Mm-hmm, because it also has a web API

00:50:15   So you can get all of these systems talking to each other. Yeah, and that is becoming an

00:50:22   increasingly

00:50:25   Interesting idea or proposition to me. Mm-hmm

00:50:28   I am putting input into these systems and all it does is just sit there. Mm-hmm

00:50:34   Mm-hmm, there is no reason why these things can't be taking the input and turning them into something of use to me

00:50:40   And so that's what I'm starting to look at

00:50:43   Anything with an automation is it is a total win right? Like it just it pays dividends for forever

00:50:49   So I actually, just because I'm curious to see, I do have a top-level project which is called automation

00:50:56   because I do want to see like how much time does it take me to actually

00:51:01   implement these systems, right, and to actually get these things working and to think about like what is what is the payoff in these?

00:51:08   And this is also the case of like, "Oh, okay, we talked about it a bunch on the podcast

00:51:12   I end up feeling like I'm working on this stuff a bunch," but the actual time tracking data

00:51:17   reveals like this is the time you spend on automating

00:51:20   the time tracking thing itself or like I spend a bunch of time reworking my email system to do some stuff automatically. It's like this is a

00:51:28   trivial portion of

00:51:31   the time you spend working and I'm also tracking it in a time when it is going to be

00:51:38   ludicrously lots, right? It's like between the start of December until now I have spent

00:51:46   10 hours and 53 minutes working on various forms of like setting up my systems and

00:51:53   this is this is a time when I'm

00:51:56   redoing my entire time tracking, I redid my entire email, and I'm also

00:52:03   redoing a whole bunch of stuff related to my own task management.

00:52:06   And this is the kind of thing that like this level happens maybe once every two years on average.

00:52:12   And so like it's just it's really interesting just to see in the data. It's like

00:52:16   Like this is a trivial amount of time that will dramatically decrease as we go forward,

00:52:22   but that just keeps paying dividends forever out into the future.

00:52:25   So I'm not even really thinking about doing these types of automation things to save time.

00:52:30   It is to have these systems doing something that I cannot guarantee, which is remembering.

00:52:37   Yes, yes.

00:52:39   It is like computers won't get this stuff wrong.

00:52:43   My brain does.

00:52:45   Exactly.

00:52:46   Exactly.

00:52:47   And so I want these types of like redundant systems to be occurring, things to be triggering,

00:52:52   things to be firing.

00:52:53   And like, I'm really like, you know, there are two people in my life that I'm taking

00:52:57   this inspiration from greatly, which is you and Federico.

00:53:00   And the way that you two work is something of great interest to me, clearly, right?

00:53:07   And I want to be like you both, the way that you work.

00:53:11   You know, I've seen some of the things that Federico is able to do with these automation

00:53:15   systems and they are frankly mind-blowing and I really want to be able to start relying on this

00:53:22   stuff more especially as there is a chance that I am about to start working with another person

00:53:29   closely. You know, I work with quite a few people in my life on a very close basis but the way that

00:53:37   I would potentially be working with an assistant is very different and I feel like that's going

00:53:42   going to start to change the way that I work significantly. So yeah, that's going to be

00:53:47   quite an interesting change. And so I figure whilst I'm going through all of this, how

00:53:53   about I start putting some systems in place to get a virtual cloud assistant as well.

00:54:00   Yeah, having stuff work automatically for you is fantastic. I was playing around with

00:54:08   some of the same things of, you know, the way my, like, essentially the way my flights

00:54:14   end up in my system, it's like, "Oh, okay, I can have this information pulled out and

00:54:18   then just auto-added into the time tracker."

00:54:20   It's like, "Great!

00:54:21   So I don't need to be running a timer or anything that says, like, 'Oh, I'm on a plane right

00:54:24   now.'"

00:54:25   It's like, "Nope!

00:54:26   This just fires off automatically.

00:54:28   I never have to think about it."

00:54:30   And it's just there.

00:54:31   It's just there as part of the data.

00:54:32   And anything that can happen automatically is a big win.

00:54:36   I was actually really annoyed because I was digging around in workflow and I wanted to write a little workflow that could pull out like the exercise and mindfulness data automatically.

00:54:49   But it seems like I can't quite do that. But it's like, "Ah, here's the thing. There's data right there. I just want to automate it and pull it out. Eventually that'll happen, but not right now.

00:54:57   Right now I still need to be flipping switches manually, but anytime you can set something

00:55:02   up automatically and then just never think about it again, I feel like it's such a huge

00:55:06   win.

00:55:07   It really is.

00:55:08   One last thing with the time tracking, though, is I think you've been doing it for two weeks

00:55:14   and that's great, but you really can't trust the data until you've been doing it for a

00:55:20   little while.

00:55:21   Sure.

00:55:22   you do always have this... in the beginning there's two things that are happening.

00:55:27   One is you're setting up and getting used to the system in the first place,

00:55:32   which can be quite a mental shift.

00:55:35   Like you were saying as well, you're kind of forgetting about timers sometimes

00:55:40   and you just have to think about it.

00:55:42   You're even thinking about how do you categorize stuff.

00:55:46   And then this can also end up causing a bit of an observer effect

00:55:50   where you can end up feeling like you're kind of performing for the clock because you're much more aware of like,

00:55:56   "I am time tracking now. I should really be doing something."

00:56:00   Like this is like the Hawthorne Effect, like any kind of observance will increase productivity on a temporary basis.

00:56:09   Like there's an observer effect here, it's just that the observer is you.

00:56:12   And so I think it's useful just to be aware that if you can establish this as a habit,

00:56:21   you end up with truer data later on, when this is just something that's just part of what you're

00:56:27   doing every single day. Yeah, like what I'm seeing right now are just like early trends.

00:56:32   Mm-hmm, yeah exactly. But it's not data that I can build upon because I mean I've had like two weeks,

00:56:41   Especially with the way that my calendar flows, the way that I structure it, I need like multiple multiple weeks

00:56:46   to get a really good idea of what of even if like a quiet week, busy week is even a thing.

00:56:52   Right. Yeah, that's an excellent point, right? This might be entirely in your mind.

00:56:56   Right? You're just thinking like, oh my week with Grey, it's so relaxing

00:57:00   there's only one one show to do like it's quiet week, very little work, but it might not be the case.

00:57:06   Yeah, I've renamed it to like Stroll in a Meadow week, you know?

00:57:09   Yeah, yeah, that's right. That sounds about right

00:57:11   But yeah, so that's just a thing to be aware of and and yeah

00:57:16   It's a good point you if you can establish it as a habit

00:57:19   it's it's fantastic and again the thing that I'm attempting to do which I find is

00:57:25   So much harder than I would have guessed at the start is with all my crazy workflows adapted from Federico stuff

00:57:34   In toggle what I love is if you start a new timer it automatically stops the old one

00:57:40   So you don't need to be like stop the old timer start the new one

00:57:43   I've been setting it up so that I can just on my phone like press a bunch of buttons and it will

00:57:48   Automatically start like a very specific new timer and what I want my goal to be is that

00:57:54   For this season essentially like I wake up, and I'm always just starting a new timer right that like throughout the day

00:58:02   there's no point that I ever like stop a timer. I'm always just starting something new until the end of the day, and then I stop it.

00:58:08   But when you're doing very intensive time tracking, and what I am finding absolutely fascinating is

00:58:14   how

00:58:18   intentional it forces you to be about the whole day.

00:58:21   And like the first few days that I was doing this, like I'm having a hard time

00:58:25   logging eight hours of what I'm doing. Like there's there's so much like

00:58:30   Intentional time where you think like what exactly am I doing in this moment? Like what is what is this thing? Like I have found that

00:58:37   absolutely

00:58:39   fascinating to observe like not just not just the work hours, but like all the hours, what are you doing and

00:58:46   being aware of how often your brain kind of

00:58:49   Slips into like I'm not really thinking about what I'm doing mode and and trying to fight that

00:58:55   existential time tracking

00:58:57   It totally is it totally is but I have I have two categories

00:59:02   That I've put in my system which are like unintentional video games and unintentional media consumption

00:59:11   Like here is the thing

00:59:21   That is a like if you pay attention to it. That is like a subjective experience that can happen

00:59:27   And I think it happens to a lot of people where it's like did you mean to watch a bunch of YouTube videos?

00:59:33   Or did it just sort of happen and it's an hour later. I will notice that I have been like

00:59:39   accidentally playing Super Mario run

00:59:42   Mm-hmm this week. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it's like I need to go and do that thing

00:59:47   Just after two games, right exactly, right, but that but that's that's how your brain gets you, right?

00:59:53   That's how your brain tricks you. It's like oh, we're just gonna get one more, you know pink coin

00:59:57   That's all it's gonna be. We just got to finish that one, right? And then like two hours later.

01:00:00   So like, but I think that is a perfect example of a like a category that I'm just being aware of as a thing.

01:00:08   Because I also think it's important to to divide it into

01:00:12   intentional versus unintentional. Like what I don't want to do is be tracking a category like video games.

01:00:20   Because video games are a form of enjoyable recreation for me.

01:00:24   But what I'm trying to see this season with the time tracking is like I want to shift

01:00:28   more of my video game and media consumption time

01:00:33   from the unintentional category to the intentional category.

01:00:38   Like that's that's one of these things that I'm trying to see with like my leisure time,

01:00:42   how am I spending it, and and just how to be more intentional about the things that I'm doing.

01:00:47   You keep saying season?

01:00:50   The great TV show this season of Grey's life. Oh

01:00:54   Yeah, okay

01:01:00   He's been cool out I didn't realize I didn't realize I was doing it

01:01:06   Okay, so

01:01:10   Sometimes I I will realize that I don't like a word and

01:01:14   I'll end up trying to find a better word to describe what it is that I'm thinking about and

01:01:20   And for me, one of these things that has just happened, I will try to fix it in the future,

01:01:24   but I don't know how much I can do it, is I've always thought in terms of quarters,

01:01:28   but I've just never liked that. And so in a bunch of my documents and other things,

01:01:34   essentially anywhere that I had the word like quarter, I've switched this over to think about

01:01:39   seasons. Like seasons make way more sense to me. So it's season as in like fall and summer,

01:01:46   not season as in this season on The Grey Show.

01:01:49   But you don't really mean fall on some other dude, you mean Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

01:01:54   Well, I mean, you know, yes, but not really. You know, because I'm not actually...

01:02:05   The reason I can... Here's the thing. The reason why I kind of didn't like Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 is when

01:02:11   I'm thinking about my own... Basically, like, I have just come out of... Look, you asked me the

01:02:16   question like you're pulling on a little thread it's really fun to watch you scramble well no i'm

01:02:22   not scrambling what i'm trying to do is thinking about like how much do i have to explain to give

01:02:27   you a satisfactory answer no i get i tell you i let me see if i can help you like you don't work

01:02:34   january to march like april it's not like that exactly yeah but it is still cut into four but

01:02:41   But it's not four by three.

01:02:43   - Yeah, that's about right.

01:02:45   And really, I'm also using season because in some ways,

01:02:50   my business intentionally really slows down over the summer.

01:02:56   And so the summer season is almost like not even,

01:02:58   like it's very different from all of the other ones.

01:03:02   And so it almost feels like I actually kind of have

01:03:04   three seasons that I really need to think about work,

01:03:07   which is spring, fall, and winter.

01:03:11   So basically, like, talking about the quarters was just overly precise.

01:03:14   And I was aware, like, it kind of bothered me when I talked about my quarterly reviews.

01:03:19   Because if I look back on, like, documents and little notes to myself that I create,

01:03:24   I realize it's actually, well, I tend to do three of these a year.

01:03:30   And there are times where it feels like, okay, just like now, I just came out of a really big

01:03:35   "I'm doing a huge review" session.

01:03:38   And it's like, and this was very much like, it is winter. I'm thinking about what is coming up.

01:03:42   I tend to do one in April, and then I tend to do another really big one when I come back after the summer in

01:03:49   in the autumn, in like September. And that's why I was just thinking like, these quarters don't mean anything.

01:03:54   I don't like this word. It's not an accurate description for what I'm doing. And I'm always,

01:03:59   I always hate things that are overly precise.

01:04:02   I'm just always aware of that. And so I thought like, I'm gonna stop using this word in

01:04:06   in my own documents and in my own little planning things.

01:04:09   So that's the answer to why I'm using the word season,

01:04:12   is that's sort of mentally how I'm thinking about things

01:04:16   instead of talking about quarters.

01:04:18   Does that answer your question, Myke?

01:04:19   - It does, it does.

01:04:20   - I'm glad that amuses you.

01:04:22   - You don't do quality reviews anymore,

01:04:24   you do season recaps.

01:04:26   - No, it's seasonal reviews.

01:04:28   It's season recaps, there's no show, there's no show.

01:04:31   - Are you sure?

01:04:32   - Although I could be recapping the previous season,

01:04:34   I essentially do that.

01:04:35   - Exactly.

01:04:36   - Okay, maybe that can be part of the process.

01:04:39   (laughs)

01:04:42   - This episode is brought to you by our friends

01:04:45   at FreshBooks.

01:04:46   Now, you may be out there working an independent life.

01:04:50   You may be billing people, you may be invoicing people,

01:04:52   you may be a freelancer.

01:04:53   If you are, you know what it's like

01:04:55   to race against the clock,

01:04:56   to wrap up the projects that you're working on,

01:04:58   to prep for that meeting,

01:04:59   I'll call you have later on in the afternoon,

01:05:01   all whilst trying to tackle that mountain of paperwork

01:05:03   get those invoices sent out. This life can be challenging. This is the life of a freelancer.

01:05:09   But our friends at FreshBooks believe that the rewards of this are worth it, and they build

01:05:13   tools to make all of the challenges easier for us. The working world is different now. With the

01:05:18   growth of the internet, there are opportunities to be self-employed that just never existed before.

01:05:23   Like look at me and Grey, I make podcasts, he makes YouTube videos. These things didn't exist

01:05:27   before. So to meet these needs of this growing internet economy, FreshBooks has been working

01:05:33   tirelessly to create an all new version of their cloud accounting software. The new Freshbooks

01:05:37   has been redesigned from the ground up with that idea in mind. It is custom built to work

01:05:42   exactly the way you do. You'll be able to be more productive and organised whilst also being paid

01:05:47   quickly. The all new Freshbooks is not only really easy to use, it's packed full of powerful

01:05:51   new features. You can create and send a professional looking invoice in less than 30 seconds

01:05:56   that is all built in a new WYSIWYG interface so you'll know exactly how your invoice is going

01:06:00   going to look when it arrives in your client's inbox. You'll be able to set up online payments

01:06:04   in just a couple of clicks and get paid up to 4 days faster than anybody else. And you'll

01:06:08   see when your client has seen your invoice too. No more guessing games, no more chaser

01:06:13   emails.

01:06:14   And with FreshBooks' all new notification system, every time you log in you'll get

01:06:18   an update of what's changed with your business and what needs your attention. All of this

01:06:22   is coupled with a beautiful new design which is all focused on letting you know how your

01:06:26   business is doing. FreshBooks is offering a 30 day, unrestricted free trial to listeners

01:06:30   of this show. If you ever send invoices, please try FreshBooks. I've sent I think 900 invoices

01:06:37   of FreshBooks and I have absolutely no desire to look anywhere else. I really love FreshBooks.

01:06:43   Just go to freshbooks.com/cortex to try them out for 30 days and in the how did you hear

01:06:48   about us section enter Cortex so they know that you came to them from this show. Thank

01:06:52   Thank you to FreshBooks for their support of this show and Relay FM.

01:06:56   Is there a 2017 theme for CGB Grey?

01:07:01   You mean year of less was like, you know, that was a thing.

01:07:04   Do you have do you have a 2017 theme?

01:07:07   Is it year of more?

01:07:09   I know why you're asking this, Myke.

01:07:11   Because you want to know ahead of time what your theme for next year is going to be.

01:07:18   We're done.

01:07:19   We're done.

01:07:20   I'm listening everyone.

01:07:22   I do have a theme. This year it's going to be a little bit more vague and it's not going to be a surprise for close listeners to the show.

01:07:35   But I'm saying that this year is going to be the year of new,

01:07:41   which is a thing I had kind of trialed and started thinking about in my previous season review in September,

01:07:49   when I came back after that summer and I mentioned it on the show at some point.

01:07:52   But I've been toying around with this idea for the upcoming year.

01:07:57   And in some ways I don't like it because it doesn't quite strike at the heart of what I'm doing,

01:08:04   what I'm doing, but I can't come up with a better way to

01:08:08   summarize in my own mind, like, what is it that I'm aiming for?

01:08:13   In the same way that the Year of Less was also like a kind of a terrible description of what was actually occurring,

01:08:18   but in my mind seemed like the right label.

01:08:20   So this year is going to be the Year of New. That's the theme.

01:08:26   "New what?"

01:08:27   I don't know, Myke. This has come about because...

01:08:32   Like I was aware that when I was doing the Year of Less, like one of the things I was trying to do is

01:08:37   pull myself out of the business to

01:08:42   try and free up some of my time for possibly other things and

01:08:47   the Year of Less was incredibly successful

01:08:52   and I feel like the Year of Less is now just going to be the life of less.

01:08:55   This is a thing that I feel like I have internalized and is now part of my decision-making process.

01:09:02   Like I'm really aware when I'm thinking about projects,

01:09:04   I think of them all in terms of the year of less and about ability to hand them off or when would they finish

01:09:10   in a way that I just

01:09:12   didn't a year and a half ago before I really started this. So that has been very much internalized.

01:09:18   But

01:09:20   2016 for me,

01:09:22   it was a funny year because it was a really

01:09:27   successful year for me.

01:09:30   But it also felt like even though I was removing myself from the business and gaining back some time,

01:09:38   I didn't feel like I was

01:09:41   amalgamating that additional time into

01:09:44   anything new. Like I wasn't necessarily doing anything with that time. That wasn't just like more

01:09:53   administration work or something else.

01:09:59   And so I'm aware with the Year of New that what I'm trying to do, and what I actually spent a bunch of

01:10:05   my seasonal review planning for and setting up, is

01:10:10   trying to amalgamate a bunch of that time into more useful batches

01:10:16   that give me the opportunity to do other stuff in any form. And so

01:10:24   Some of these, like, I don't have a very clear plan here. It's just like I have a list of

01:10:29   personal projects and some side projects that I have wanted to work on for a long time, but in

01:10:35   2016 essentially made very little progress on because I wasn't really using the additional time gained in

01:10:43   blocks in a useful way.

01:10:46   So that's something that's on my mind. I'm also just aware of

01:10:52   with the year of new, part of what I'm trying to do is

01:10:55   align my working calendar with my wife's working calendar so that when she is not working I can also be

01:11:03   there more and so we can have the possibility of doing something new, like maybe traveling somewhere.

01:11:09   Which usually when she has off, unless it's the summer, I would always find myself just too busy to really go

01:11:17   away somewhere else. So there's a lot of things

01:11:21   for me that are in this label, but it's related to just trying out new things and

01:11:27   some novel experiences

01:11:30   Like this is this is all for me. What I'm thinking of is like the year of new year of new stuff

01:11:36   Does year of new mean year of more?

01:11:40   I think the time tracking will have to show that right because there's I'm just realizing there's like a bias effect when you do things

01:11:47   that are

01:11:49   different than what you normally do, your brain tends to think of these things as taking up more time or like you're being really busy.

01:11:56   And I was just, I'm aware of like wanting to a little bit

01:12:01   break out of

01:12:04   like the

01:12:05   2016 routine that I was in. Like there were just, there were like a lot of

01:12:09   scheduled times and

01:12:12   like one project right after another and so it's just, it's trying to give me more additional

01:12:18   time by rearranging, like when is my free time, when is my work time.

01:12:23   In terms of more, like I don't know if there will be any more public facing projects.

01:12:31   Like I'm not sure if anybody who follows me would feel like, "Oh wow, look at this cornucopia of things that Grey is producing."

01:12:39   Like this one feels much less business related and it's much more personal.

01:12:47   And this is...

01:12:48   That makes sense.

01:12:49   Yeah.

01:12:49   This is why like there's...

01:12:51   You know, there's always trade-offs in life. And this is like it took a lot of

01:12:55   thinking about and planning for and setting this up. So this is one of these cases where it's like, well,

01:13:02   I am going to have to take some

01:13:04   work and energy out of the business and redirect it to the personal if this is going to happen.

01:13:11   So yeah, I would say this is much more of a personal one than it is like a...

01:13:16   It's not like the year of starting a whole bunch of new businesses all of which are going to be public.

01:13:23   Like that is not what the year of new is.

01:13:25   That makes more sense.

01:13:27   Yeah, it's one of these things like it's interesting talking out loud to someone about it because I'm realizing how hard it is

01:13:34   is for me to articulate what in my head seems like a clear path and idea. But it, when the

01:13:44   words come out it is not as sharp as something like the year of less. Where there's a very

01:13:48   clear goal and this is what I am aiming for. But, so the year of new, it's a bit more vague

01:13:54   than last year, but that's what my theme is.

01:13:57   We gotta talk about Evernote.

01:13:59   Why? Why Myke?

01:14:01   whilst Cortexmas is usually a time of relaxation, a time of winding down for

01:14:08   all, Evernote decided to take Cortexmas and go in the exact opposite direction.

01:14:14   They had a very very busy Cortexmas period.

01:14:17   A very successful Cortexmas period, I'm sure.

01:14:19   It depends on your metrics. So in kind of mid-December there was a big brouhaha

01:14:29   with Evernote and privacy.

01:14:33   So they changed their privacy policy

01:14:35   to cater for some new features.

01:14:37   And the idea was that Evernote would start using

01:14:40   the one that is machine learning

01:14:42   as a way to help them create kind of new features

01:14:47   and new technology.

01:14:48   So that they would be kind of using the information

01:14:50   that you put into your notes to make suggestions to you

01:14:53   and to kind of make your experience better.

01:14:55   - Machine learning.

01:14:56   - Machine learning.

01:14:57   - You have to add it to every project.

01:14:58   everything, neural networks.

01:15:01   If you haven't got a neural network, there's no point.

01:15:03   - Take your product, whatever it is,

01:15:05   sprinkle a little AI on it, it'll be much better.

01:15:08   - That's how those investment monies come in.

01:15:11   However, the policy that Evernote revised and created

01:15:15   stated that employees, Evernote employees,

01:15:18   would be periodically checking people's notes

01:15:21   to ensure that the machine was doing the right thing,

01:15:24   that it was categorizing them correctly.

01:15:28   That's bad enough because it was automatically opting everybody in.

01:15:33   But the worst part was it explicitly stated in the privacy policy, "You cannot opt out

01:15:40   of our employees looking at your content."

01:15:45   The internet basically set itself on fire over this.

01:15:49   Which I don't blame people about.

01:15:51   Rightly so.

01:15:52   Again your service is marketed as essentially like a brain like here is your digital brain just put everything you ever want to remember into this thing.

01:16:05   And it is very rare that a privacy policy is so explicit in telling you what it's gonna do.

01:16:12   Usually they're a bit more vague about what's going to happen they're just like no we're doing this.

01:16:20   So, Evernote then went kind of on a tumble, as at first they kind of said, "Don't worry,

01:16:27   everything's anonymized, so they're not going to know who the note belongs to."

01:16:31   This didn't change people's anger, right?

01:16:33   Which I guess is not the point.

01:16:35   It's not the point that they can say, "Oh, this note belongs to Myke."

01:16:39   It's like, these are my things.

01:16:42   You shouldn't be reading them.

01:16:44   And also, whenever a company talks about their data being anonymized, I've seen enough examples

01:16:50   of how trivial it is to de-anonymize the data.

01:16:53   And then, and also it's like,

01:16:55   do you have your own name in your own note?

01:16:57   Right, like, are you anonymizing that?

01:17:00   Like, so did somebody read the note

01:17:03   to make sure it was adequately anonymous

01:17:05   before redacting it?

01:17:07   - 'Cause I could literally have a note in my Evernote

01:17:10   which had your personal information in.

01:17:13   - Right, yeah.

01:17:14   - I could have saved your address, your phone number,

01:17:17   and your name into an Evernote note.

01:17:19   because of their business card app that they had,

01:17:23   which saved notes.

01:17:25   - Right. - Anywho,

01:17:27   eventually, after a few days of just a torrent of feedback,

01:17:32   Evernote backtracked on all of this.

01:17:37   They published a blog post saying that they would stop

01:17:40   this initiative and spoke about how privacy is at the center

01:17:44   of what they do and that they would be further revising

01:17:47   their privacy policy to strengthen this in the future.

01:17:51   They are now going to push ahead

01:17:52   with their machine learning program,

01:17:55   but without employees looking at notes

01:17:58   unless you explicitly opt in.

01:18:00   Now--

01:18:02   - Yeah, I'll be sure to do that.

01:18:03   - I still am not completely confident

01:18:07   and comfortable with this because my expectation

01:18:09   is this opt in will be a little box that pops up

01:18:11   and it's like, "Hey, would you like machine learning?"

01:18:16   And then you go, "Hell yeah, I would!"

01:18:17   But then it's like tick to say you accept the privacy policy.

01:18:21   And that privacy policy is that you can let people look at it.

01:18:27   No company should ever automatically opt in

01:18:30   anybody for anything.

01:18:32   Never, good or bad.

01:18:33   You should always, because any automatic opt-in

01:18:36   feels like there's something bad behind it.

01:18:40   - Yeah, yeah, it does.

01:18:41   Because that's why it's an auto opt-in, right?

01:18:43   It's like, we just want to move right past this

01:18:45   quickly as possible.

01:18:47   Then Evernote released Evernote 8.

01:18:49   Evernote 8 is a full overhaul of the iOS app.

01:18:52   Is it though?

01:18:53   Is it though Myke?

01:18:54   This is what they're saying!

01:18:56   Because here's my review of Evernote 8.

01:19:00   Evernote 8, it's less green.

01:19:03   Yeah it's the Evernote you always knew and now there are colours to make your text.

01:19:08   I mean, I saw that there was a, you know, because you know how like when a company gets acquired now, your response is like, "Oh no."

01:19:18   I saw Evernote 8 in the developer notes in the update on my phone, and they're like, "All new version of Evernote!"

01:19:26   And I was like, "Oh, here we go again." Right? Like, it's another all new update, and updated it, opened it, took a look,

01:19:34   took a look, and I have to say was actually quite relieved that it was not another just like

01:19:41   tremendous radical redesign of the whole thing.

01:19:44   But then I was baffled by this huge like press campaign about how different it is.

01:19:50   It's like this thing seems essentially exactly the same.

01:19:54   You just took out all the green.

01:19:55   Right now there's just a little green buttons.

01:19:58   But if I want to file a note, if I want to categorize anything,

01:20:04   It's just as much of a pain in the ass as it always was.

01:20:07   It's like, okay, well, you're the same app, Evernote.

01:20:10   You know, whatever, that's my review.

01:20:12   - I will say it does feel a little bit quicker.

01:20:15   Like one of my main problems with Evernote

01:20:17   is it took so long to do anything.

01:20:20   Like you'd press on a button and it felt like

01:20:22   it took longer than it should to open the note.

01:20:25   And I've played around with it a little

01:20:27   because like I've completely moved on from Evernote.

01:20:30   Like I use it for nothing now.

01:20:33   And just pressing the plus button to open a new note does feel quicker.

01:20:37   Now there's a really interesting Wired article about all of this and they spend an incredible

01:20:43   amount of time in this article talking about their machine learning.

01:20:47   But it does it in a way that all companies talk about machine learning which drives me

01:20:52   bonkers.

01:20:54   Everything is what machine learning could do for you in the future.

01:21:00   Google will drive me mad at this right now.

01:21:02   presentation they have, they talk about Google Assistant and they show these videos which

01:21:06   are amazing but it doesn't do any of this stuff. It's like this is what Google Assistant

01:21:12   could do in the future.

01:21:14   Right, yeah.

01:21:16   So like this article talks about how like soon you might be able to take a photo of

01:21:20   a whiteboard after a meeting, stick it in Evernote and the app will automatically pull

01:21:23   out action items and add them to your to-do list. That would be amazing.

01:21:27   When it does it, if ever.

01:21:29   But I could say that, just so you know, in the future, machine learning will be applied

01:21:34   to cortex and we'll do all of your thinking for you.

01:21:37   That's how it's gonna happen.

01:21:40   I just love that a big part of their redesign wasn't the redesign.

01:21:47   Like Evernote 8 was gonna be about laying the foundations of machine learning, but like

01:21:51   three weeks before, they burned that bridge with everyone.

01:21:57   And they're saying like, oh, in this like big piece, like it was a big like kind of

01:22:00   like a big editorial piece with Wired.

01:22:03   And they're talking about how like they need access to our data and they promise to be

01:22:07   transparent.

01:22:08   You ruined it.

01:22:09   Like we've spent a lot of time talking about Evernote because I think it is one of the

01:22:13   products that like I would say maybe of all of the apps that we use, a large portion of

01:22:18   our listener base uses just because they've been around for so long.

01:22:22   Yeah, yeah.

01:22:23   Yeah.

01:22:24   Evernote has been around for forever.

01:22:26   like 10 years or something. You know like I remember using Evernote very early on in my bank

01:22:33   career. Like you know it was like a good like 10-12 years ago something like that now. So like

01:22:40   there is a chance that like you've either used it or you're using it but like at this point they are

01:22:46   just they are like the old elephant. Yeah well I mean this the other reason the company is sort of

01:22:52   interesting is this discussion around it being like the first dead unicorn.

01:22:57   You know this idea of like this is a company that a ton of venture money has been poured into that did incredible

01:23:05   expanding and that's had this very long period of seeming like it had no idea what it was doing.

01:23:12   I know as the joke goes busy selling socks right when nobody cared

01:23:16   that they've the company has like

01:23:19   downsized. So I think it's an interesting thing to

01:23:23   especially because like Evernote seems

01:23:26   fundamentally like such a simple thing. I know we've discussed it before but I'm just like baffled

01:23:31   why they have all of these offices and so many employees and all of this this other stuff.

01:23:35   So I think it's it's an interesting company

01:23:38   to discuss. It's obviously like it's a thing that I want to succeed because I'm tied to it.

01:23:43   I have nowhere else to go so it has to.

01:23:45   But it is it's

01:23:48   frustrating and sort of weird to see like the privacy policy thing was obviously very upsetting and it's like okay

01:23:54   I'm glad you backtracked but it's concerning that this was a this was your idea in the first place. Yeah, and

01:24:01   Like brand new Evernote 8 which is exactly the same but with promises of machine learning

01:24:08   It feels like are these the new socks?

01:24:10   like are I have a hard time imagining that like the

01:24:15   the best machine learning people in the world when they think of where they're going to work.

01:24:19   Evernote is the first place on their list of where they might want to work.

01:24:24   Like it's a very... it just feels weird. It feels weird. It feels like you're making a bunch of promises.

01:24:32   And it's like, "What I don't want to see Evernote are promises. Like I want to see this thing like work really well.

01:24:38   I'd like to be able to file notes in a convenient way on my iPad."

01:24:43   It was just still just infuriating.

01:24:47   It's like, again, this is my own particular use of Evernote, but I never open up Evernote and add a note that way.

01:24:53   I'm always using the share sheet and sending something to Evernote and then dealing with it later.

01:24:58   But Evernote is one of the like the very few apps where I feel like I have to go to my Mac to do a

01:25:03   bunch of stuff in any kind of timely fashion because I don't want to tap 10,000 times to sort my notes.

01:25:08   But that was the first thing I checked when I opened that app like, "Oh, can I categorize stuff more easily?"

01:25:13   Nope. I will be curious though to see if in this update it finally does the thing which

01:25:19   supposedly is a feature of the pro service, which is the ability to download all of your notes onto your device and

01:25:28   I've had that toggled like download everything please. I've had that toggled on all of my devices

01:25:34   Never works. Never works. Not ever. Which is a great thing to discover like when you're flying on an airplane

01:25:42   You want to look through a bunch of notes for a project that you're working on. It's like, oh they're not here.

01:25:46   Or, the notebooks that it does download, my absolute favorite thing is, by download it means downloads the text, but no attachments.

01:25:54   Like, oh, okay, great, thanks, thanks.

01:25:57   So, I'll be curious to see if that actually works this time around, but I haven't had the time to test that out.

01:26:02   Let alone give it time to actually download the thousands and thousands of notes that I have.

01:26:07   I feel sorry for you.

01:26:09   I feel sorry for me too, Myke.

01:26:11   like you just stuck now like you've tried everything you just stuck with you stuck with them

01:26:16   yeah Microsoft OneNote people please don't recommend it to me again

01:26:20   if I haven't been able to explain to you yet why it's not useful for me I'm not going to achieve that

01:26:26   just please don't recommend it anymore I'm fully aware it doesn't work for me but thanks

01:26:30   oh I have a recommendation for you

01:26:32   oh what is it Myke?

01:26:34   Microsoft make this app it's called OneNote

01:26:37   oh thank you

01:26:38   it does what you need

01:26:40   I'm sure it does except for the parts that I need you're not using it, right? Yeah

01:26:44   I'm holding it wrong use one note better

01:26:47   Yeah, that's a great solution

01:26:50   So during cortex miss the cortex subreddit were keeping themselves entertained

01:26:57   Whilst the show was was having its seasonal break and

01:27:02   I I there are a couple of things that popped out to me that I really enjoyed. Mm-hmm. One of them is a

01:27:10   a Google doc, which was created by the Reddit user, DoctorOpenMind, where they are going

01:27:17   through the show, and they're up to episode 37, and they're going through and writing

01:27:22   out the things that they have learned from the show. But they're not like completely

01:27:30   as you would expect them to be. So like there are lessons in there, but there are also like

01:27:37   pieces of information about us. Like for example, how to be more productive. Gray feels more

01:27:43   productive if he works while the dishwasher or the laundry machine are working.

01:27:47   It's true. It's true things, but they're like weird things. It's kind of like a,

01:27:53   it's an interesting thing to like look through this document and see like what did this person

01:27:57   pick out. Yeah, no, this is really fun to see. It's like somebody's personal trip through Cortex

01:28:04   and making notes as they go along about various things.

01:28:07   So yeah, I think this is definitely something to just take a little look through.

01:28:12   It's very interesting to see what somebody else gets out of the show.

01:28:16   And it's a lot of work to compile it all together into this big document.

01:28:20   But I definitely was interested to flip through the pages

01:28:24   and see what they were getting out of the various episodes.

01:28:26   And also, there is something which I have wished for for a long time.

01:28:32   And it's finally happened.

01:28:36   Somebody has taken a part of our show and created an animation.

01:28:43   And they picked a great moment which was actually in episode 37 where we're talking about stickers

01:28:49   in iOS 10.

01:28:51   And I have watched this video three times and I find new hilarious things in it every

01:28:57   time.

01:28:58   So I'm going to put it in the show notes.

01:29:00   I really recommend people watch it. The animation style is like super weird in like a great way.

01:29:08   It really reminds me of grade A under A. I could see that. I could see that. Yeah.

01:29:14   Because it's like super bare bones but full of inside jokes and everything is written in comic

01:29:19   sans. Which I love. Yeah it's a fun little animation to look at. It's very Microsoft

01:29:27   paint style looking and the thing that I'm aware of is the person who put it together,

01:29:32   they spent a ton of time on it because as someone who's done animation, like I'm always

01:29:38   just so aware of all of the cuts and all of the changes that have to happen on the screen

01:29:42   and the video is so fast in some places so this is a huge amount of work but I have to

01:29:48   say I really enjoyed it and it was very funny to hear that little segment of you and me

01:29:55   talking about you sending me stickers with like dopey music playing underneath

01:30:00   it the whole time right just it made the thing very entertaining so it looked

01:30:04   like a fun Cortexmas project for someone and listeners should check it out