📰 Weekly Round-Up - 2022.32

So... better late than never, right? This is my first round-up newsletter. It shouldn't be too hard to remember, what I did this week. Because I'm using Obsidian for note-taking and planning my days.

💬 In this week's issue:

• Getting motivated again. Started establishing a morning routine again.
• Pick up the blog again. Made the decision, that I want to share more about my startup, personal projects, and what I do to become a better human being.
• Improve productivity. I significantly improved my daily notes in Obsidian this week.
• What I've read this week. I've read a lot of blogs this week - about startups and productivity. I'll tell you about the best finds down below.
• Project Achievements. This week, I worked way less on my projects, than I wanted. But I pushed this blog a lot in the right direction.

🏋️‍♂️ Getting motivated again

On Thursday, I started my day by listening to a Blink from Blinkist, called The Miracle Morning. You have no idea, what that did to me!

Yeah, you know because you've read the summary before... Let's just say, it motivated the hell out of me.

Three years ago, I bought a rowing machine. I used it a couple of times.

Then I stopped.

I started rowing again two years ago, and I was able to maintain a two-month streak. Always before work. To establish a morning routine.

Stopped again.

Now I've listened to Blink, and I'm completely motivated again. I wake up and am I getting my ass on the rower. Because I need to take a shower after the workout.

I'm now on a four-day streak. Four workdays, of course - I'm skipping weekends. Now I "only" need to reduce my love for junk food...

🖊 Pickup the blog again

I picked up my blog on benjaminradan.com again. I always wanted to share my thoughts and experiences about entrepreneurship and how to improve productivity.

To my luck, entrepreneurs need productivity improvements. So I'm able to combine those two topics.

On Thursday (again - what a day!) I decided I want to share the progress of my projects and had to resurrect my dead blog.

So I updated my self-hosted ghost installation (also to get the latest features - was still running on ghost v4) and made a plan in what direction I wanted to go with this blog.

I changed a lot in the payment system, so you're able to use more payment methods besides credit cards.

A Logo was needed as well, so I did that in Canva. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I like the minimal style in combination with the background image in the website header.

👍 Improve productivity

Let me get that out of the way first: I love Obsidian! I love the community, which is contributing to and expanding this software.

Earlier this week, I greatly improved my daily notes template. Getting more out of your note-taking app is always progress. It takes time and there is no template for your personal need.

Everyone uses their apps differently. But you can adapt to other people's ideas and tailor them to your needs.

I usually get ideas when I encounter something that isn't ideal for my workflow.

When I think my daily notes template will be a good inspiration for others, I will write about it.

If you're not using Obsidian yet, you should try it out! It's free as well.

📖 What I've read this week

I've been reading about multiple and different things this week.

• The Zettelkasten. A wonderful article on writingcooperative.com about the Zettelkasten method, which was invented by Niklas Luhmann. The Zettelkasten method made it possible, that Luhmann was able to write more than 70 books and nearly 400 scholarly articles. I think nobody ever released so much in his lifetime.
• The miracle morning. My motivational Blink on blinkist.com. It helps you to understand, why you need a morning routine (or just a routine at all) and how to stick to it. It helped me to pick up my morning workout routine again. And motivated me, to stick to it this time - hopefully.
• The rise of a side startup. More and more employees decide to start their side startup - not just a side hustle. This movement started getting traction when the pandemic kicked in. People noticed that it's not safe to put your apples in one basket only. That a company can, and sometimes needs to, fire you to survive. And then you're left with nothing. So with a side startup, you've got a safety net, when these things happen. Plus, you're able to do whatever you like and fulfill yourself.