If you journal, or experience some neurodivergence, or are easily distracted...
First Light, Last Light is a doable, digital solution.
It's a simple two-part ritual that takes place in a daily note.
Upon the first light from your device...simply type something in your daily note. It can be a word, a sentence, a paragraph. It can pivot mid-sentence into a todo list. All that matters is that your first move at the monitor is an intentional one.
Before the last light leaves your device...at the end of the day, go back to your daily note to reflect and drop a couple reminders into the next day’s daily note. Nothing calms the mind like knowing it’s no longer responsible for holding onto lingering thoughts.
This template is in Ideaverse Pro, but you can make it your own right now. If you try out First Light, Last Light, just make sure to choose your own 2-3 questions for each section (and let me know how it goes).
Why does First Light, Last Light work?
It helps people get it all out of their head and onto the page.
We feel a sense of control and our minds calm down when we put our thoughts somewhere we can see them. Sometimes, this is less about productivity and more about managing our emotions.
It’s one of the reasons so many people prefer their ideaverse to be a blend of personal and professional ideas, because having the habit of catching important thoughts helps us better understand and process things.
As we get ideas out of our head and onto the page, it often leads to creative solutions or meaningful insights. Then we can naturally link out from our daily note to related ideas, concepts, and notes in our PKM system. This is where we refactor notes.
For those who want to go further, another benefit of digital daily notes is the ability to track things as varied as mood, weight, gratitude, and even the dreams we’ve had and the shows we’ve watched.
For those who want to go even further and supercharge their daily note practice with AI assistance, this next section is for you. But before I talk about how, I want to address something...
AI disclaimer and opportunity to opt-out of AI sections
While I'm curious and excited for what's possible with incorporating AI into my knowledge management system, I also understand not everyone is interested in the overlap of PKM and artificial intelligence.
If you don't want to hear about what I'm doing with AI, the course Linking Your AI, or any future AI offerings from LYT, you can choose to mute the AI newsletter sections.
Don't worry, you will still get this newsletter and hear other ways LYT can support better thinking. This just ensures you will hear less about our AI offerings. I can't promise some broader AI news won't be acknowledged—it will—but you won't get my bigger writings and offerings about AI.
I've said it before but it's worth repeating, Linking Your Thinking is for all thinkers. Those AI-curious, and those AI-resistant. We want to respect that in our communication to you too.
Now, without further ado, here is one of those AI sections...
Idea Updates
I'm going on a personal retreat that begins today and goes through the weekend. I get to do a massive amount of reflection in a short amount of time. And every time it's been worth it. I'll be up in the mountains for this one. It's a ritual that I do my best to carve out time for because it's had significant payoffs in my personal and professional life.
Are you able to carve out time for a personal retreat of your own? When was the last formal retreat you've done? You don't have to go to the mountains to do a personal retreat. You can simply carve out half a day of uninterrupted time and dedicated focus.
I'm excited to run our upcoming mini-cohort Writing Original Works. It was just an idea in 2023. It was a seed that we planted. It was originally called "Writing Original Essays," but the scope got broader and the acronym got better. Now it's WOW! I love how ideas can grow slowly and emerge when the time is right. This cohort is only for people in the Knowledge Accelerator (soon to be LYT Year).
It's been nice to be back in NYC. I spent time here from 2013 to 2016. Back then, every week was a struggle. I was definitely hustling. A decade later, and it's very different. I know my purpose, my vocation, and what I need to do during the day. But halfway through the day, I love just leaving the building I am in to start walking. I don't know where I'm going to go, but it's likely that I'll end up in Central Park or the Met Museum—although the other day, I found myself walking under the giant stone pillars of the Queensborough Bridge. Ironically, I feel a bit healthier in this concrete jungle because walking is such a key aspect of getting around, so I'm walking much more than I would in LA or Montana.
Idea Exchange
In another example of notes standing the test of time, archaeologists find a papyrus fragment of Book II of Homer's Iliad inside an Egyptian mummy.
Is introspection a weakness or are tech oligarchs ignoring a superpower? This clip from an interview with Marc Andreessen almost gives me cold sweats with the way he handwaves away introspection and the value of it. Self-awareness and reflection are such key parts of my daily life (and key elements in how my ideaverse supports me) that I can't imagine the shallow life Andreessen speaks about here. It's really gross.
...This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling was a true pioneer in television in the earliest days of it and I'm happy to hear that television critic Alan Sepinwall's next book will be Serling: A Journey into the Twilight Zone with TV's First Visionary.
My first Twilight Zone episode was seeing the guy finally surrounded by all the books in the world, thinking that now he had all the time in the world to read them, only to have his glasses shatter as he stooped down to pick one up. Probably my personal favorite episode is the one with William Shatner imagining a monster on the wing of an airplane, probably because it's got William Shatner in it.
What's your favorite Twilight Zone episode?
Stay connected,
Nick
P.S... Still coming...an Obsidian Web Clipper video.
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