Happy Sunday Friends!

Welcome back to another Sunday Friends! I’m glad you’re here. Here is your Sunday Musings, dedicated to exploring and sharing thoughts and insights on productivity, technology, and life. If you find it useful, please feel free to forward this along to friends!

What Do You Do With Your Time?

I was chatting with a colleague the other day and I was emphasizing how important it was that he focus on taking care of his family during a particularly trying time. We could handle the work stuff. Specifically I said “the idea is to have your family there AFTER we’re retired.”

Even though I was directing my words to him, it felt like a self reminder. So, I revisited this article by Tim Urban - “Your Life in Weeks”, and reminded myself just how little time we actually have. The graphic of “Your life in Weeks” is poignant. Every time I read it, it feels like a miniature existential crisis happens where, by seeing my life in weeks, I reinforce the importance of setting boundaries and finding a balance between work and personal life.

I think "Your Life in Weeks" is a useful tool for us to reflect on our priorities and make intentional decisions about how we spend our time, especially for those of us who value time with family and struggle with the drive to burn the midnight oil at work.

What does that mean for me? I stopped my Sunday all-day work and study sessions I’ve adopted over the past few months and spent the day just being with my wife and twins. It was amazing.

Take a look at the article, let me know what you think.

This Week in Productivity

The Daily Highlight

What is it?

I remember when I was in the Marine Corps, I made my bed (hospital corners and all) along with cleaning my room before doing anything else every morning. If nothing else went well that day, I at least started my day with a task complete. This is a similar idea.

The daily highlight was brought to popularity first by Chris Bailey in his book “The Productivity Project”, then reinvigorated a couple years later by the amazing book “Make Time” by John Zeratsky and Jake Knapp.

The key points are to choose one (or two) key task or objective each day that you want to accomplish. Make those tasks your top priority each day, focus your energy and attention on them solely until you are done. Start your day working on your daily highlight(s) and don’t divert to other tasks. Use a timer (Pomodoro) or other time management tool to stay focused and avoid distractions.

The idea is that overly long to-do lists lead to analysis paralysis and not taking action because we feel overwhelmed. Setting a daily highlight ensures that you are able to get at least one thing accomplished, even if your day goes a shambles.

How I use it

This is one of those part-and-parcel techniques I use along with my prioritization and productivity framework. When planning out my week, or prioritizing the upcoming day, I prioritize. My “must get done before 10am” task is my daily highlight. Doing this ahead of time lets me hit the day running in the morning.

A couple tips when you try it:

Keep the daily highlight(s) manageable and achievable, so you don't get overwhelmed or discouraged (remember, you’re starting with a win).
Set a specific time block for working on your daily highlight(s), and avoid distractions during that time.

Let me know if you try it or if you already use it or some variant. I’d love to hear your take!

Technology In the News

Fake ChatGPT apps are out and spreading malware

Cybercriminals and opportunists are taking advantage of the ChatGPT and LLM craze. They target people searching for it and direct them to malware and phishing sites. Malicious ChatGPT clones have even made it to official app stores.

For example, a bogus Facebook page has been created, links posted on it direct users to a typosquatted domain masquerading as OpenAI’s official ChatGPT site, and directs users to download an executable designed to steal information.

Take care about where you go during this AI craze, use up-to-date security software, follow safe computing best practices, and stay alert to threats and how best to protect against them. Above all, inculcate that awareness and understanding amongst your leadership, peers, and subordinates. Otherwise Dave in accounting is going to completely undermine your security efforts thinking he’s getting a $1000 Amazon gift card.

Quote I’m Musing

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire…

How late it is to begin really to live just when life must end! How stupid to forget our mortality, and put off sensible plans to our fiftieth and sixtieth years, aiming to begin life from a point at which few have arrived!”
- Seneca, "On The Shortness of Life and Death”

Like the Parable of the Mexican Fisherman and the (American) Investment Banker, and the many quotes and vignettes on living like you’re going to die. We often act like we can wait to spend our time with our friends, our spouses, our children. Once we’re retired, on the next vacation, maybe next weekend. But tomorrow isn’t a promise.

In 2009. I had intended to do some training and hanging out with a guy I had come to admire, we’ll call him Steve, once we returned from our current deployment. I snapped a photo of Steve right before we went out on a mission. He looked epic in the stark lights and on top of the HMMWV.

We never actually made it to the mission. The road we were on gave out and we rolled into a canal. The only reason I’m here and he’s not is that the canal was empty. So instead of those of us inside the truck drowning, Steve (in the gunner position) was crushed.

That was it, the plans we made were just… gone. We are all mortal, the future isn’t a given, but that doesn’t mean we just live only for the moment. We can find a middle ground, letting the time that we’re in be enough, having the gratitude and appreciation for the present. Staying firm in our knowledge that we’ll engage the future with the same weapons of reason which today arm us for the present (paraphrase from Meditations).

I would love your feedback!

Which musing is your favorite? What else do you want to see or what should I eliminate? Any other suggestions? Just send a tweet to @erichaupt on Twitter and put #SundayMusings at the end so I can find it. Or, eric@erichaupt.com for long form email.

Have a wonderful week, I’ll see you Sunday.
-e