I went with the family to see Project Hail Mary on Thursday night.

I had read the book a few years ago and even wrote a blog post about it—it was actually the first post on this site.

The movie was perfectly cast and a blast to watch. It was much funnier than I expected, maybe even more so than the book, which lightened the tone of a story that’s actually quite dark when you think about it (end of the world and all).

My family loved it as well; my daughter even said Rocky was "adorable."

I'm looking forward to watching it again.

I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not motivated to write about anything. It's likely because I've been putting so much effort into work, with a recent promotion and landing a huge project with a tight deadline. At the end of the day, I don't even feel like looking at the computer (other than to play games).

Over the past couple of weeks, I've dabbled with Claude Code and Claude Cowork to see what it's all about. I love tinkering with technology, after all.

Claude Cowork is essentially a less technical way to do the same thing Claude Code can do. It can be used to manipulate files in specified folders as well as connect to the many online services you may have. You can then automate tasks, do research, clean up files, create or manage notes, and the list goes on.

As usual, I love playing with this stuff. I like to know how it works. I'm interested in discovering the systems that can be automated by this technology.

Yet, at the end of the day, I have no particular use for it in my personal life. My life is intentionally simple. I don't need automation. I don't need an LLM to create notes or make connections. I don't need it to tell me what I should be working on.

On the other hand, my work life is very complicated, especially recently. I don't want to use Claude or other LLMs for work because of the nature of the content. My organization does have Microsoft Copilot.

I use Microsoft Copilot every day to take meeting notes, find information across the organization, do research on particular problems, and write simple scripts.

Recently, I've been using Copilot to troubleshoot issues, and when I'm done I have it create a Word document that summarizes the issue, the troubleshooting process, and the solution. I then add this document to our project files. Next time I have a similar issue, the solution pops up in my search, and it saves a ton of time. Copilot has replaced search, in a good way.

Despite its usefulness, there is no way these tools could take over my job, or anyone else's job in my company. That would be a disaster. They require specific instructions and guidance to extract the usefulness from them.

Certainly, this will change over time, but I'm optimistic that we will change as well, and will learn and adapt as time goes on.

The past few weeks have been crazy at work. I haven't worked 60-hour weeks in years. I definitely don't handle it as well as I could in my younger days.

I'm hoping that I'm over the hump and things will return to a manageable pace. I'm on a huge project that will last the rest of the year, and we're trying to find our pace.

After dabbling with Ghost for this blog, I decided to stick with Pagecord as my host. I love the simplicity and the ability to post by email. 

I keep wanting to post more. Even small, social media-style posts.

I've been seeing many posts and videos talking about using Claude Code to manage their local Obsidian vaults.

I played around with this and found it potentially very valuable for someone (like me) who enjoys making notes but doesn't enjoy the organization of said notes. Or for processing meeting notes and other work-related data and acting as a project manager assistant that handles all the grunt work I would rather not do myself.

If you consider Claude Code to be a developer's tool, you wouldn't be wrong, but what Claude Code really does is work with local files. That includes markdown files, making it a great tool for note takers who are following the File over App philosophy.

If your initial reaction is something like, “I'll never use AI to write my notes,” then I'll say I agree, but you should look at the other possibilities. You can instruct Claude to never write your notes, only organize them, and provide assistance following your specific instructions.

I'm not a heavy user of Obsidian (yet). Recently, I started using Obsidian for writing my blog posts and then publishing them to Ghost using the Ghosty Posty plugin. So, I thought of a few ways I could potentially use Claude Code to help me out (without doing any of the writing). I'm not going to talk about them yet, but I want to first spend some time with it and see what works for me.

Installing Claude Code

Here's how to get started. I'm not going into detail here because there are so many variables (Mac or Windows, etc.). You can search or use Claude, to give you the exact steps for your scenario.

Here are the high-level steps I took on my Windows PC:

1. Open the Terminal on your machine.
2. Install Claude Code per the official documentation.
3. Authenticate when prompted.
4. While in the terminal, navigate to your Obsidian Vault root folder.
5. Enter claude while in your root folder to get started.

Some alternative options include using the Obsidian MCP or Claudian plugins. I haven't tried these, so I don't know what advantages or disadvantages they may have.

Create a Terminal Profile

You can create a profile in the terminal that automatically loads Claude Code in your Obsidian Vault so it is ready to go every time.

1. Open Terminal Settings.
2. Add a new profile.
3. New Empty Profile (or duplicate an existing similar profile).
4. Give it a good name, e.g., Claude Code—Focustivity.
5. Set the Command Line property: cmd.exe /k cd /d C:\{your obsidian vault root folder} && claude
6. Set the starting directory: C:\{your obsidian vault root folder}
7. Save

Now, every time you load that profile, it will be ready to go. You can also set it as the default profile if you don't usually use Terminal for other things.

Instructions and Memory

The next thing you'll want to do is create the CLAUDE.md markdown file in your root directory. This file provides Claude the instructions and memory that tell Claude exactly how you want it to help you in your Obsidian vault.

In the CLAUDE.md file, you'll want to add the purpose of your vault, how your vault is organized, and each of the processes you use to organize your files. I suggest using Claude Code itself to help you write these instructions.

Help me create my CLAUDE.md file for this Obsidian vault. Ask me questions about how I would like to use this vault. Use the existing file structure and metadata as a guide.

Claude should walk you through some questions and finally update your Claude.md file for you. You can view it directly in Obsidian and make any adjustments you want.

As you use Claude Code, if you tell it to fix something or do something new, you can also ask it to update the instructions so it always knows how to handle the situation going forward. This is powerful and allows you to continually expand Claude's capabilities and precisely control how it helps you.

More tricks to using Claude Code with Obsidian

• When you want Claude Code to read a specific file or folder, you can use the @ symbol and start typing the name. You'll be able to pick from a list of results as you type.
• Use the forward slash (/) to open a set of built-in commands.
• If you're not sure how to use Claude Code, just ask Claude Code!
• Teach Claude Code your preferred workflows, not the other way around.
• Use Claude Code to read through your existing notes and extract your writing style.
• Read through the Claude Code documentation, especially the Quick Start, How Claude Code Works, Best Practices, and Common Workflows.

What's next?

I'll continue playing around with Claude Code and will send out a new post with anything I find interesting or useful. If you need any clarification, please let me know!

Below are some apps, services, and hardware that I currently use. The idea became popular through the Hemispheric Views podcast Episode 97 and then further through Robb Knight's App Defaults directory.

This time around, I copied my previous default apps post and updated it, striking through things that have changed. Hopefully, it's still readable. I find it useful to see what changes over time.

AI

I occasionally use Google Gemini on my phone for quick searches or voice actions. I've been leaning more toward using Kagi Assistant, though.

I use Microsoft Copilot for work. It does an outstanding job of pulling together meeting notes, helping me summarize conversations, and finding things across the organization. It sucks at everything else.

On the personal side, I tend to use Kagi Assistant in my browser's sidebar when I want to do something with AI. It usually starts as a quick search in Kagi, and I jump to Assistant when I need more.

I also use GitHub Copilot a bit in Visual Studio Code. Not something I do every day, though.

Blogging

I use Pagecord to host my personal blog and handle my weekly newsletter. I tend to use my email for creating quick posts and the web interface for longer posts.

Browser

I use Microsoft Edge (with about 23 custom profiles) for work and Helium for personal use on my Windows PC. I'm experimenting with some browsers on Android.

Calendar

My family events are in our Apple Family Calendar, work events are hosted in our company Outlook (Exchange) Calendar, and personal events I keep in my Google Calendar. I use the default Samsung Calendar app on my phone to consolidate them. My Outlook for work also pulls in my personal calendar, so I can see everything overlaid. I'm trying out Hey Calendar on my phone to see how it works out.

Email

I have a couple of custom domains that I use for some emails. These are hosted through Migadu (because it's dirt cheap), which then forwards to Hey. Hey is then configured so I can receive and respond to emails from addresses in these custom domains. I tend to use a custom domain for accounts and services and my Hey email address for everything else. I have a custom domain email for my websites but have been using Hey email for everything else.

News

My news consumption is primarily Kagi News. I subscribe to a few categories' RSS feeds, and they show up in my feed. I love that it only updates once per day and is formatted to provide a simple summary, highlights, and sources. I may listen to a podcast here and get a newsletter here and there that covers the latest news in more detail, but overall, I found myself not looking at news (or social media) much. When I do, I still go to Kagi News.

Notes

I jump between various note-taking apps, so I don't have an extensive collection of notes (since they're scattered all over). My favorite robust notes apps have been Obsidian and Reflect. I've hopped between both quite a bit. But today, I tend to use paper for quick notes. Recently, I started carrying around a Plotter personal-size notebook for jotting down notes.

I started using a Supernote Nomad for handwritten notes. My Plotter is where I write ideas, personal tasks, and anything else that comes to mind. For work notes, I use the Plotter A6 refill paper that sits on my desk (without the binder), and anything I want to keep I stick in a cheap A6 6-ring binder that sits on my shelf.

Reading

I often switch between the convenience of Kindle and the physicality of physical books. Currently, I'm mostly reading non-fiction in physical books, and fiction I tend to listen to on Audible.

For RSS, I'm a big fan of Feedbin. I'm still a fan of Feedbin, but I've actually been cutting back on RSS and using the Hey Digest feature for content I want to receive. I currently save articles to read later in Instapaper, though I'm not set on that workflow yet (I haven't been using it long). I used Readwise Reader for a while but found it too much (in terms of functionality and price) for my needs. I started using Raindrop again for bookmarks and also for things I want to read or watch later.

Reminders

I use Samsung Reminders because it is the default on my phone, but primarily because it can be configured to have full-screen, in-your-face notifications, which is what I need. I've been using the default Google Task reminders on my phone since I switched from a Samsung to a Pixel a couple of months ago. I'd love to find an alternative where I can hold the button on my phone to input a reminder. It honestly doesn't get used much.

Search

I'm a fan of Kagi search. 

Social Media

While I have accounts on many platforms, I haven't been using social media. Instead, I'm in favor of posting anything I want to say to the world through my blog and having discussions with people through email. This intentionally limits my interaction with the outside world.

Tasks

For work, most of my tasks are in Azure DevOps. Personally, I don't have very many and have started using my Supernote Plotter to manage these. I consider “reminders” as anything that needs to be done at a certain time and “tasks” as things I'd like to do reasonably soon.

Writing

I've been intentionally trying to write more. Writing helps me think. I write in many places.

I try to stub out ideas in my Plotter notebook.

Blog posts are either created via email (Hey) or directly in the PageCord UI.

Online, I feel like I need a decent grammar-checking tool because I'm a mess. I'm currently using LanguageTool since it doesn't seem to get in the way and provides the basics without overwhelming AI (looking at you, Grammarly).

Other

I've been using Niagara Launcher on my Android phone in place of the default launcher. It's a very minimal UI with many great features.

I favor technology, though something about the feel of paper appeals to me. It’s the feel, the sound, even the smell of paper that keeps me coming back, not the efficiency.

In fact, paper systems don’t work for me. I’ve tried bullet journaling, planners, and other approaches. I love the writing part, but after it’s written, it gets abandoned.

The index card system, where I have an index card on my desk and I write my tasks for the day and check them off when they get done, has been the only analog system that has worked for me.

The idea is to use paper for the first and last mile and the digital system for everything in between.

This year, I embraced my fondness for paper and attempted something novel, though not overly daring (perhaps excessively costly): the Plotter notebook. Why? Well, I'm in favor of having these index card-sized pages in a notebook I can carry around and remove or move around as needed.

The Plotter is a ring-system notebook, which means you can easily add, remove, and move pages and dividers around in the notebook as desired.

I love the idea of having multiple sections in the notebook for different purposes, like tasks, journaling, tracking, and whatever else comes to mind. The ability to change my mind is key.

Knowing me, I like high-quality products. And the Plotter would seem as high-quality as it gets. A lovely leather cover, quality paper, and quite a few paper options.

The plan is to keep it simple. Use it for jotting notes down throughout the day, much like I have prior, but now it's a portable (and lovely smelling, I might add) notebook.

If you're getting ice cream at the grocery store, take a look at the packaging. You'll notice that most say “frozen dairy dessert” and not ice cream.

Apparently, this is because the quality no longer meets FDA requirements for what is considered ice cream, which requires at least 10% dairy milk fat and must weigh at least 4.5 pounds (2.04 kg) per gallon.

Today's “ice cream” often contains skim milk and contains more air as the manufacturers air-whip it to increase the volume. 

They usually add more sugar to make them taste delicious. 

It's remarkable how things gradually change for the worse over time, and we rarely notice.

My daughter made us a dish she saw on TikTok. She made some honey rolls (cinnamon rolls with honey for the dressing), and we used some leftover pulled pork with a bit of BBQ sauce.
It's a pulled pork sandwich with a cinnamon roll for the bun! A brilliant combination.

I read a post from Olly and found Cooked.wiki, an app that converts any web recipe into a short and useful one. It looks wonderful and has promising features. It’s free unless you want the AI features to auto-organize and do other things.

I’ve been using ReciMe for this purpose and likely won’t switch. It is nice, but occasionally a bit slow when processing recipes.

Dispatch is a game/episodic comedy where you manage a team of dysfunctional misfit heroes. You send them on missions while navigating workplace dynamics.

I loved this game! The pacing, humor, action, and voice acting were excellent.

You can be terrible at this game (and I was) but still finish. You could not touch the keyboard, and everything would time out and progress forward, and you’d still complete the game. However, the decisions, and I think even how well you do, impact the story.

The gameplay was simple but enjoyable. Your job is to decide which “hero” to send on each crisis, like a 911 dispatcher, but for superheroes. Since your character is capable, you get to attempt some hacking along the way.

The best part of the game is the cutscenes. Each episode consists of scenes, your dispatching shift, and closes with more. It’s about 1 hour per episode, and there are 8.

Your decisions significantly change the story’s progression and ending, making it easy to replay. I plan to do that soon.

I keep telling myself to stop reading “self-help” books and pick up more interesting or work-related ones. Yet, I found myself with Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, a book about time management for entrepreneurs. 

Before starting the book, I looked up Dan Martell and found his channel. His videos kept appearing in my feed, which I routinely ignored. I viewed him as another successful entrepreneur know-it-all trying to teach me everything he knows.

The book addressed areas I am struggling with in my career, including delegation and time management, even though I’m not an entrepreneur.

I started reading, regardless of my initial thoughts of the author, and was pleasantly surprised that I got a lot out of the book. Overall, it was engaging, easy to read, and relevant to my circumstances.

The book focuses on Dan’s Buyback Principle:

Don’t hire to grow your business. Hire to buy back your time.

Here are my distilled notes:

• DRIP Matrix: Spend most time in the Production quadrant, then Investments. Quickly clear delegation; transition replacement.
• Delegation: low-value work that someone else can do.
• Replacement: High-value work others can manage after transfer.
• Investment: things that add capacity over time, like training, relationships, health, and investing in systems.
• Production: Work of the highest value that only you can do.
• Your time is worth your pay divided by 2,000 hours. Your buyback rate is your pay divided by 8,000 hours. If you could pay someone less than your buyback rate to do a task, you should. For instance, Tina earns $200,000. Her time is worth $100/hour, and her buyback rate is $25/hour. If someone can do a task well for less than $25/hour, outsource it.
• Audit your time and energy. Batch tasks. Use your calendar. Prioritize significant tasks first, then smaller ones will follow.
• Delegate by recording how to do every task, creating step-by\-step playbooks and checklists. Adjust your expectations. You do the first 10% to set the context, someone else does the 80%, and then you do the last 10%, adding personal touches and polish. Give your team the freedom to resolve issues without your approval.
• Transactional leadership is when you tell someone what to do, check in on them, and provide next steps. Transformational leadership gives them the outcome, measurements, and coaching.

80% done by someone else is 100% freaking awesome.

My Action Items:

• Create a DRIP matrix to delegate and replace my current tasks and responsibilities.
• Update my 2026 calendar with big rocks.
• Use a tool like ManicTime to see what I’m spending time on.
• Create a system to document my tasks for delegation.
• Start using Microsoft Copilot more to triage my inbox, prepare for meetings, take meeting notes, and create follow-up tasks.

Who should read this book?

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, lead projects, manage a team, or feel overwhelmed with work that others could help with.

Enjoying a book often comes down to timing and feeling a real connection.

If I start a book on a topic I’m not ready for, or just because it’s popular, I usually lose interest quickly.

But if I pick a book that relates to what I’m going through right now, I get completely absorbed.

Occasionally it’s even a book I tried to read before. If it matches my interests and situation now, I’m much more likely to finish it (and enjoy it).

I've switched all my newsletters over to my Feedbin address instead of my main email.

There are a few stragglers; as they come in, I'll update them.

Feedbin is such a great RSS reader and is also great for newsletters. You can see the newsletter in the original format, which I love. It's so clean and straightforward—a pleasure to read.

I don't understand why I didn't do this so long ago.