A century ago, you were an old-timer. You made stuff in your workshop.
It took a while to set up a new job. You had to figure out which tools you need. Maybe sharpen your plane, oil your strop. Clear the bench, sweep. Check that you have enough birch, go to the store, pick up some more two-by-four and a bag of nails. Lay it all out. Have a look at it. Is the plan good? Do we know what we’re making?
And now you can start.
Later, the new table finished, this all needs to be tidied away. Ready for the next job. You look over your shoulder as you lock the workshop. Neat. Calm.
You can’t wait to work again tomorrow.
Is this how you feel?
Computers allow us to do any number of things ‘at once’. Of course you can only ever do one thing at a time, but it’s nice to pretend.
When was the last time you prepared the next piece of work? Closed all of your old windows. Opened up a new view on your files and found the place you needed to be. Opened the note you’ll be using in a new, clean window. Focused your task manager on the task at hand.
Your computer is your workshop. If you want to work well, you need to slow down. You need to think more, and do less.
What you do will be better, and you will enjoy it more.
Tip: use your task manager
Here’s what I’ve started doing. I use Things but any task manager will work.
Create a new window. In Things, File > New Things Window or Ctrl+Cmd+N. Move it up in to the corner, and make it small. Think of it like a tiny dashboard.
Highlight the single thing you’re working on now. Here, I’m using a tag 🫵🏼 focus on the task, then viewing that tag in this window by typing focus.
That’s it. Remember to be doing what this window says. Don’t do anything else until you’ve finished, and cleaned up, and prepared the next job. Simple.
I’m figuring this out as part of the next JDU course: Task & Project Management using the Johnny.Decimal system. Sign up to the mailing list for updates.
Somewhat related to computer foo: When I stumbled upon the Ion window manager around 2000, I got instantly hooked to “tiling window managers” and still use them today (currently i3 and sway). No matter what program I start it is instantly fullscreen unless I want it otherwise. This has reduced distraction immensely for me.
However “modern” user interface are built increasingly in a way that collides with this approach. So don’t wonder if you find me yelling at the clouds somewhere just like grandpa Simpson.
I’ve been thinking that 2026 might be the year of me “customizing” my “workshop”. JD has given me a tidy workshop, but now it almost feels too “clean” and not “mine” if that makes sense^1.
Next year I have put up a to-do list to investigate:
Sprinkling my handwriting all over my computer interface using Calligraphr,
Dive into custom Emacs configuration to see if I can work with text in a way natural to me not natural to other software designers (going to heavily rely on new AI tools to help me code it up),
Code up some custom Awk scripts to see if combined with all the above I can have some “tools” that are really my own that use my own file-formatting conventions to perform logic on my notes/files.
Build an actual Digital Garden, I mean literally using JD.IDs as seeds to turn notes into plants and have a “visual” representation of my notes and garden/work-space to navigate around. This one is more game-y and silly, but it’s my workshop and I want to enjoy the time in it.
None of these are “useful” “contributory” notes to this conversation, haha, but the topic of treating computers as a workshop or a custom workspace is being lost in modern times, and I realized it, too, so I want to bring it back in my life.
^1 - I mean this in the sense that all minimalist, tidy rooms lack a bit of personality.
Being retired I don’t find that I need all of that. I just use Obsidian to record my day and what I see outside or find on the internet. But it would have been helpful when I was working.
