2024-09-04
Writing at work; I need to figure out how to manage tasks effectively; currently, I struggle a lot with managing tasks in a way that things do not get missed, abandoned, or are done in a timely way. I may be barking up the wrong tree, that I want to search for a solution that fixes all of my issues, where really it may well be better instead to search for a solution that is minimal, but flexible in handling the desired cases, sort of a Unix philosophy for task management, I suppose.
I could, and think it is good, to sort not just by date received but also by category, such that I can find the emails which are not sorted out, and going by category, alleviate all similar issues at the same time. That may well work better in terms of email management. It would also stop tasks from sinking to the bottom so much, since I would go through them category by category.
Then, doing so operates a kind of triple scanning. Firstly, I scan through items that are sorted by category, doing all I can. If I take notes of particular chains, it also stops any individual items within these categories being forgotten; thirdly, there is the taskslist proper that can catch things. Or, I wonder if it is best to centralise everything through emails - though that would be emails received to me, not emails I send but do not get a response on, hence the triple scanning approach.
That could work?
Anyways. I'm on the train now, and the work day was decent. Whenever I get home I get asked how work is...
I feel as if I've had too much to do, recently. The word overloaded also has a connotation in programming that say, an operator is overloaded to fulfil multiple purposes. For a person, I suppose it is necessary for them to be overloaded in that sense, however the problem comes when a single person is made to do more than what they could possible do with their time. It is of course better, and will lead to more consistent progress, to focus on fewer things at a time but do well for each of these things, as opposed to doing many things poorly. There is a jack-of-all-trades middle ground, where several, but not overmany, things are done to a sufficient degree. In a way, that is what I am doing with certain tasks such as the RHS and LM2 which do not require excessive effort to be completed, and am also pursuing things that can be done to a greater degree of success if more energy and time is placed into them, namely the guitar and gym, the allotment as well. I am satisfied in these pursuits with a middling success; though of course, I note that I am not really doing as much on guitar as I want to do, and have set myself the goal of practising every other day (15 in a month), which has so far not come to fruition (it being the fourth, and not having practised whatsoever). Yet, I am working from home tomorrow by sheer random grace (my boss said we can) and so have a decent chunk more time to do as I want. I could do an hour or so of guitar in the morn to get back on track, for instance. Gym is to be 10 times in the month I believe I put; I do want to achieve this.
Essentially, what is presently holding back all of these wvs from going onto the website is the lack of an index page, and my refusal to write one manually. Instead, I am going to try (hopefully I find time somewhen soon) to write *dexter*, which shall be used for creating index pages. It works on a substitution system similarly to jezup, and will have a format string specified where the representation can be generated, either as an HTML ul or a table. Within that, there can be text and then will be representations for e.g. dates (2024-09-04), word counts ($$WC$$), etc. within the format string. This essentially fills my needs well, and can be added to quite easily. As such, the process of generating the website will be:
It'll take a little while to write, but it's a lot easier now it's in Odin. One thing I notice about Odin is, because the string management feels so much like a high level language, it's easy to accidentally leak memory (not a big deal for oneshot programs such as mine own, but still) by not calling delete(). In fact, it's difficult to locate in the docs that string a. will leak in this way (it's just assumed that, because you know it's manually managed, they must be freed), and b. that strings are not freed with free() but with delete().
It will eventually come along, the website though. The codebase is a bit messy already, and will get worse, but I'll tidy it up with time. I want a pleasant bit of code to work with, ideally.
Italy's fully booked now. I'm really, really looking forward to it. First holiday abroad, first time in Italy; it seems like a beautiful country.
Also, I booked Eugene Onegin to see at the Royal Opera House with my parents, but also realised they have a "Young ROH" scheme, so I was able to get tickets to La Boheme for a mere £30 for front-of-the-amphitheatre seats. I'll be going on my own, and frankly I know nothing about the opera, but it'll be fun to try it. I'm going to do several of these throughout next year to see if I enjoy the opera or ballet at all; if I don't, I don't, but I want to see at least. Plus, it means I get to eat at The Ivy at Covent Gardens, where the food is lovely (if pricey), so life's not too terrible.
That's all. I'm going to listen to my jazz on the train now for a little, and then I've got gym and guitar when I return home. Never a day's rest. Have a good one.