Hi all,

In this week's article, we speak about The Little Book of Ikigai by Ken Mogi, a short book that summarizes, with plenty of examples, the pillars of the Japanese-born philosophy.

Ikigai, in short, is your reason to live. It is about achieving a happier, more fulfilled life.

Ikigai re-focuses your attention on what's important, and I think it can offer something to everyone. It's a complex topic, deeply connected to Japanese society, but Ken Mogi does a good job of making it accessible. You will find my thoughts, praises, and criticisms in the article.

On the website front, the Fantasy name generator I'm working on is nearly done. I'm in the process of:

• Writing up an article that details how it works.
• Implementing some additional security mechanisms.

The expected release date remains late April / early May.

Lastly, I have exciting news to share in the next newsletter, which is related to the blog. So stay tuned and look out for an email next Sunday!

📖 Novels

A Wizard's Hunt 🏹

Progress: 22%

The novella remains at 22%, with the second chapter having gone live last week. Go check it out if you haven't already!

🗞️ Blog

Book Review: The Little Book of Ikigai by Ken Mogi

A book review on The Little Book of Ikigai by Ken Mogi.

🎓 What I've Learned This Week

"Pull-based" productivity systems are superior to "push-based".

The push-based system involves people pushing tasks onto you whenever they please.

The pull-based system involves keeping a backlog of tasks and an "actively worked on" column, where you "pull" tasks.

In short, if a task is not in your "actively worked on", you're not concerned with it. You're not:

• Answering emails about it.
• Joining meetings about it.
• Spending time thinking about it.

This may seem extreme, but when you only work on 3 to 4 things at once, you reduce the time and cognitive effort required to switch between things. Your mind is focused, and you end up being more efficient, and less frustrated.

When you receive a request to complete a task, you simply place it in your backlog, which should be kept in order of priority.

All of this can be easily managed with a digital board like Trello or Notion.

You can even share your board with your colleagues so that they can add things to your backlog if they wish, and see what you're working on right now.

In essence, pull-based systems help you regain control over your time, and be more productive overall.

My spin on this involves a "Next up" column and a "Waiting" column (for things that I am waiting on, like a reply from a colleague".

I recommend starting simple, experimenting, and seeing what works for you.