So starts 2023
Probably not the best time to be writing an update but given the start of 1st session at Uni is only a week away (and I haven't added anything since Nov. last year) I thought it best to give it a go. The summer break was good, Christmas was a whirlwind of activity. The whole family drove up to Gunnedah this year and it ended up being pretty cold and even raining for the first day or two. It quickly heated back up to mid 30s and we were at the pool enjoying the water later in the week.
After a short stint back at work I was then back on holidays and we all headed up to Newcastle for the annual camping trip with the grandparents. Youngest spent the entire week in the campsite this year so that was good and while the weather was not great, everyone had a great time. All the kids are back at school and seem to be settling in well. Everyone got merit awards first week back so I'm hoping they all keep up the momentum into the school term. With the eldest daughter starting year 7 this year I wasn't sure how it would go but she seems to be doing well, I even got asked to help with Maths homework the other day. I'm glad I was actually able to help - its been a while since I've been in year 7!
In other news, I have been using Obsidian to manage my work 'to-do-list' in a Kanban style board. I was using Trello before and while I think Trello has a lot more features, I don't think Obsidian is too bad. I really only use it to keep track of some of the projects and backburner stuff I am working on and to help prioritise those tasks. I don't need a large amount of functionality so I think it works well. I am also trying to keep daily notes so it helps to have Obsidian open all the time while I am at work - I can keep track of tasks if I find myself wondering what I should be tackling next while also allowing me to tag/note things that randomly come up during the day - especially people/conversations and/or any professional reading/videos that I find during the day (also allows me to quickly save stuff for reading/watching later). Being able to tag it all, organise and collect my thoughts is a huge change to how I was operating - I would just keep everything in my head (and sadly would forget a lot of it later!). Personal Knowledge management is not really something I have explored before but it really makes sense when you think about all the random notes you tend to write down during the day.
Lastly to finish off this post, for Christmas I received an awesome present - Lego Optimus Prime. There is something so intensely satisfying building Lego while listening to tunes/watching movies. Similar to jigsaw puzzles - every brick or piece completed leads to that dopamine hit. I was definitely in a blissful place for a few hours.
