Matthew Lang

Intrusive snooping by the government or a necessary action?

The legislation in question is called the Investigatory Powers Bill. It’s been cleared by politicians and awaits only the formality of royal assent before it becomes law. The bill will legalize the UK’s global surveillance program, which scoops up communications data from around the world, but it will also introduce new domestic powers, including a government database that stores the web history of every citizen in the country. UK spies will be empowered to hack individuals, internet infrastructure, and even whole towns — if the government deems it necessary.

— The UK Is About To Wield Unprecedented Surveillance Powers - Here's What It Means by The Verge

Bullet journalling has been around for a few years now, but it's only now that I've decided to start a bullet journal of my own. The bullet journal is the idea of Ryder Carroll. He wanted something easy to use and over a period of time, he tweaked what we now know as the bullet journal.

The bullet journal isn't the notebook itself, it's the conventions used in the notebook that make it a bullet journal. There are a number of different pages to a bullet journal:

• Future log - A two-page spread listing what you need to do over the next six months.
• Monthly log - A single page listing the month ahead and what you planned for each day.
• Daily log - A page with tasks and notes listed for each day.
• Collection - A single page comprising of a number of related tasks.
• Index - A number of pages with references to any future logs, monthly logs, collections and any other page you need to remember.

I'm using it in much the same way as the method on the website with the exception of the bullets. I've been using Patrick Rhone's DashPlus system for few years now for my notebooks for capturing and so I'm sticking with that.

I keep a list of recurring tasks that I must do each week and month. Every week I have admin work to do, invoices to review and marketing tasks to get done. I keep these tasks under two pages. The first is weekly and the second is monthly. Any recurring tasks get listed here and then migrated to the month log or daily log when I need too.

It's fairly easy to pick up and that's one of the reasons why I like it so much. Even the simplest task manager apps on the market have a degree of complexity about them. With the bullet journal everything is there to see. Nothing to hide.

The immediate benefit is that you're away from the screen for periods at a time through the day. Modern technology is great and makes us more productive, but there comes a point where even modern technology becomes counterproductive and we end up needing something to reinforce what's important to do next.

For me the big benefit is the need to spend more time reviewing and planning my tasks in the journal rather than simply seeing what my to do list has scheduled in place for me to do that day. Now that I spend more time planning my day and week I'm more aware of what I'm doing and the time I'm spending on each task.

Thanks for the lunch and afternoon in London Patrick!

One down, four to go.

The makers of Telegram have launched a blogging platform called Telegram.

Yes, it could be used by nefarious internet trolls, but I would like to think that it will be used in a more positive way.

I've been carrying a pocket notebook with me everywhere I go for the last few years but it hasn't been until this year that I really started to use it on a daily basis.

The idea is simple. You keep a pocket notebook on you to capture ideas, thoughts and anything else that you'll need to remember at a later date.

No matter what profession you find yourself in, the most essential function of the pocket notebook is to provide a place to capture the ideas that spring to mind throughout the day.

— The Manly Tradition of the Pocket Notebook by The Art of Manliness

You might think it's a little over the top but how many times have you tried to remember something that came to you a few hours before but you couldn't? Unless you already have a place for these then I imagine that for most of you it's quite a lot.

It used to happen to me all the time. I started using email to capture moments like this in Todoist, but that was the wrong place to capture them.

Instead I took the advice of Patrick Rhone and started using a notebook to capture all these little loose ends that come to me through the day.

It's been a decision I haven't regretted and become such an engrained habit in my day that my notebook goes with me everywhere.

At the moment I'm still working through a couple of pocket Moleskine notebooks, but I'll be using the Field Notes notebooks when my first subscription arrives in a few weeks.

I keep my notebook in a Nock Hightower with a few index cards if I need to hand some information out. It also has space for a couple of pens and I also keep my headphones in here as well. Seems as good a place as any and it means all I need to lift if I'm going out is my keys, wallet, phone and Nock. I rarely go anywhere without all four.

A pocket notebook might get you stares and a few questions about it, but for capturing those bits of info you might need to remember later on, it can't be beat.