Last updated 7th November 2024 from Melbourne, Australia.
This page is inspired by the work and recent email of Derek Sivers, one of the most interesting people and writers currently out there today. He is a big proponent of adding a “Now” page to personal sites so you can see what sort of projects people are up to. So here’s mine, divided into how I think about things.
Healthy
Drop back into healthy weight range
Currently doing personal training once a week and learning more about what sort of diet changes are working well for me.
Am focusing on running – currently hitting 3km @10km/hr. Will try to hit 5km at that pace by end of year to aim for a 10km run in 2025.
Cutting down on afterhours work/ increasing sleep
I used to do a LOT of on calls and afterhours lists (ironically, I’m on call right now and have had very little sleep!). This is affecting me more and more and taking longer for me to recover. I’m in the process of re-jigging my timetable and cutting this down
Establishing sustainable timetable
Being on sabbatical has been great for my sleep schedule and overall balance. There’s a few months left so time to design the “normal” life to be more sustainable.
Wealthy
Saving for Stanford
If all things go to plan, I’ll be moving to California for 3 months later this year. It will be EXPENSIVE since Palo Alto is one of the most affluent areas in the US.
I’m both excited and a bit nervous about it all. On the one hand, how often do you get to do something like this?! On the other, my impostor syndrome is kicking into full gear.
Doing the basics
After a long while, I decided to actually listen to my accountant and have started doing the basics of personal finance management. Lots of paperwork, changing accounts and making my day-to-day stuff automated and streamlined.
Planning a vacation
It’s my wife’s birthday soon and I was going to be taking her to Noumea. However, recently there has been a lot of civil unrest which is unusual for the island but also not so conducive to a relaxed holiday. I have a week to plan something new. Any suggestions?
Wise
Exploring ChatGPT-4o
Saw this as an option in the ChatGPT app and was blown away but just how easy/new and exciting this thing felt. It really does feel like the beginning of something just like the internet did back in the day: no one knew what to do with it, but you could feel that it was going to change everything. Same feeling again and this time, I want to play along closer to the bleeding edge.
Learning Python again
I learnt a little bit a while ago but then the day job of being an anaesthetist meant I didn’t use the skill and it atrophied. Recently, I’ve actually been asked by work to use python to get some things done, so seems like a good time as any to get back into it.
I want to re-learn it because it helped clarify my thinking, but strangely, given ChatGPT has a code interpreter, I’m using that to write code and I just tweak to ACTUALLY do anything.
Learning to delegate
I hired a part time PA recently. A bit much for me really, but I also am TERRIBLE at delegation. I tend to just take a task and do it myself. No big thing ever happens without co-operation so this should force me to get again clarify my thinking and instructions and move towards things that scale.