I wrote a post about our visit to Code BEAM in Stockholm. It has some thoughts on what makes a good keynote and I think it's heavily influenced by my reading of Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering which I think is an immensely useful read. If you've ever had a bad meeting, felt off at an event or maybe considered trying your hand at doing a better job with those types of things, it's fantastic.

I've started a re-read of the ficiton book Night Circus which is maybe the fictional equivalent. The book makes an immense impression of me and plays havoc with my ambition.

Let's try something! There is a course called learn-elixir.dev, the technical talent behind it is Mika Kalathil who used to be on Elixir Mix and BEAM Radio with me and the gang. He dropped out of it because it wasn't worth the logistics for him which is entirely fair. I like Mika.

Now I haven't taken the course but if you do, and you use the code I have for 10% off it will support my efforts. The code is "underjord", shockingly enough. Now only get into this if the price and offer looks right to you. I'm in no dire straits to gain affiliate dough.

The biggest reason I'm comfortable promoting this course is that someone reading this newsletter actually gave them a glowing review, unprompted by them. They have an unusual setup, I'd suggest checking it out if you are looking to get into Elixir in a focused way.

Let me know if you have thoughts about this.

As per usual my work is supported by companies that sponsor Underjord. I’m currently on leave from marketing their job openings but feel free to check them out if you are either in Sweden or the US. If you company is looking to find Elixir devs, read more here or reach out. Would love to work with more of you out there.

Time

Sometimes I see someone get things done at a pace that frustrates me and makes me feel inadequate. Sometimes people tell me what I get done baffles them and makes them feel inadequate. There's no magic in it. There's not a lot of mystery. It is about where we put our time.

There are the incredibly unfair comparisons. If you have a full-time job and you feel like you should be doing a blog and a newsletter you are asking a lot of yourself. I started my blog and subsequently my newsletter when I became self-employed and I put about 20-25% of my time into it. Not because I had that time to spare but because that's what it would take. And I didn't commit to any full-time client work, typically a steady 70%.

There are people I look at that seem to do more. I know someone who has a full-time job, does consulting gigs, is building two products and writing a book. I doubt they are reading this because they probably don't make the time but if they are, "hey". That can make my sense of self-worth truly go a-twitchin'. But I also know that they work on the American work ethic which typically means very little time for rest, restoration, vacation, time off. They specifically are also working into the evenings.

What would I have to trade off to do what they do?
I would have to start working wednesdays again.
I'd have to go back to work in the evening instead of spending it with my family.
I'd have to sleep less or do less hobbies in the evenings.

I've chosen not have that life for a multitude of reasons. There are many things we are doing similar though. We're both hunting actively for ways to get better leverage for our time. We're both putting work into public and building connections that can help support what we want to do.

Being somewhat serious about your schedule, calendar, plans and priorities is helpful in almost anything you want to do. That can clarify how and where you spend your time which might mean "wasting" less of it on things that aren't serving you. There is no way of creating time. You can sometimes pay someone or collaborate with someone to offload some work but all collaboration has coordination costs.

My efforts with the YouTube channel is not an organic little blip of "I felt like trying something and shot some video and edited in the evenings". I realized right away that I just couldn't make time for learning and executing on that. I got in touch with a video guy I know and like. With him doing all the cutting and helping me get better in front of the camera I've been able to minimize the time needed. When I've been on the schedule I've intended, which has been weekly but is currently up in the air, I have put 4 hours every friday into the recording and typically 2-3 hours into the script.

I have a number of constraints I'm not willing to move very much. My family gets to shift around a bit in priority but they get a fair bit of time, more than if I was a full-time employee somewhere. I have employees, making sure things are working for them is more important than me learning how to edit video. It's a responsibility thing.

The fewer responsibilities or constraints you have on your time the more ways you can wield it and the cheaper of a resource it typically feels. For me it is feeling quite precious.

It isn't about how hard you work. It is about where you put your time. If you want to write. Dedicate the time. I have an incredibly annoying habit of getting deeply interested in a thing that would take a ton of practice, piano for example and thinking I'll be able to fit that in. It never happens. I need more than the enthusiasm because there are very few idle times when I go around bored looking for something to do.

Honestly that last part is a bit of a problem. I'm working on it. Boredom is a great creative catalyst and I need to visit it more often.

But yeah. Time. There's nothing you can do about it. Just apply it to what you want to be a thing in your life.

If you've had any major steps forward in your handling of time, or if this otherwise resonated, let me know at lars@underjord.io or on Twitter where I'm @lawik.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you spending some of your time here.

- Lars Wikman