PTPL 042: Your “Ergonomic” Workspace Might Be Hurting You
PLUS Why growth loops are better than linear goals, and a brand new (to me) iPad notes app to try
This week —
Truly ergonomic work spaces might not look the way you think they should
Why growth loops are better than linear goals
Productivity app walkthroughs on the Paperless Humans YouTube channel
The evolution of my permanent notes
The PTPL Productivity Digest can now be found (for free) on Substack
Productivity Tips and Inspiration
Ergonomic might not mean what you think it does
David Hoang, the person behind the Proof of Concept newsletter, wrote recently about how to make your workspace ergonomic. What does ergonomic mean, anyway? And why are so many chairs (and shoes, for that matter) designed in ways that do not support healthy tissue movement and growth?
What ergonomic doesn’t mean is sitting in furniture designed to reinforce slumps and curves that have have formed since adulthood!
Use your brain. Go watch the feet and back of a child at play, and at rest, and while squatting or sitting on the floor to colour in. Then look at yourself, and get to thinking how you can change your daily movement patterns to encourage those natural, healthy body shapes to return to your frame. Seek advice from a health care professional where needed.
I am so on board with this! That’s why I spend a large proportion of my day working while sitting on the floor, interspersed with walking around, and standing at my (regular sized) desk with my computer on a foldable lap table. A variety of movement throughout the day is crucial; it doesn’t need to be expensive.
If this is a topic that interests you, you’re going to want to follow Katy Bowman.
The Paradox of Goals — Ness Labs
Anne-Laure of Ness Labs has done a nice deep dive into how to view our planned progress as growth loops, rather than goals. The problem with setting a goal, especially a longterm goal, is that it’s binary: you either succeeded, or you didn’t. Growth loops, on the other hand, while often made up of hundreds of binary tasks (you either did them, or you didn’t), are cyclical rather than linear.
When your aim is to consistently make small changes in an attempt to improve something, you will almost always succeed. The circular model of growth is a very powerful one! I highly recommend reading the whole (13 minute) article.
Paperless Humans — YouTube
I followed Paperless Humans for while at the beginning of my paper-less journey, and have only recently rediscovered their channel. The iPad notes app they recommend is Noteful, which is new to me. And I thought I knew all of them! It’s refreshing to be surprised once in a while. I’ll let you know what I think of Noteful next week.
Paperless Humans is a good YouTube channel to explore if you want detailed walk-throughs of Noteful, Reminders, Nebo, Freeform, and others, and it has tips for students aiming to adopt a paperless workflow in their studies.
Adventures in Plain Text (and a little paper)
Slowly turning my notes into something truly useful
This video on creating a simple Zettelkasten has helped me to (finally) set out my notes in a way that makes sense, and is easy to use. What I liked about Artem’s system is the raw simplicity of it. It’s not like the information he offered was new to me, but something about the way he presented it clicked in my brain.
The more I go through my older notes, the faster I’m able to turn them into something timelessly useful, or kick them into the bin without another glance. Those I’m not sure about get put into the Archive folder until I can see more clearly whether they should stay, or go.
I’ve set up my new, flatter Obsidian vault to trigger a simple notes template (based on, but not the same as Artem’s) every time a note is created. My Drafts actions are now in sync with that, making it easy to send notes to my vault with the right metadata when I’m not in Obsidian. I’ll write up my process in detail sometime this month.
I’m now on Substack as well as Medium
It’s taken a while to build up the confidence to do it, but I’ve finally branched out from Medium! Not on my own domain yet, although I have it purchased and tucked away until the time is right.
How is this relevant to you, if you’re a Medium member? Because you can, if you wish, refer people who have no desire to join Medium to my free PTPL Productivity Digest (you’re reading number 42 of that series right now) on Substack.
More specific, extensive articles are behind the Substack paywall (with a generous preview), but not the PTPL digest.
Check out my free plain text productivity goodies on Gumroad.