These are the concepts and ideas that have improved my life this year:

POSSE + Personal Knowledge Management + Obsidian = Writing 5x faster

I’ve long realised that I don’t write in a linear fashion. Meaning, my thoughts are chaos monkeys that flit from one topic to another, not following a flow or a timeline.

In the past, I’d wait for the right moment to organize my chaotic thoughts into a proper article. But I always end up staring at a blinking cursor, because these chaos monkeys have disappeared into another dimension. It took me so much longer to write articles this way, and it took a lot of brain power to do so.

A quick segue: The POSSE system is where you funnel all content from external sources into your website so that it becomes the single source of truth. I realised that I’ve been pumping so much of content into social media, and they often get lost or ignored. However, what if I repurpose them instead?

So, this year, I gathered all my thoughts and social media into my Obsidian vault.

And I found that blog posts or articles practically writes itself this way.

All I had to do was just do a light edit, shuffle a few blocks of content around, and wala, a blog post is created. No longer do I have to stare at a blinking cursor, trying hard to remember my ideas or thoughts, because I had exported it to my second brain – my Obsidian vault. This has resulted in much faster output.

I use this method to quickly write reviews for my Chinese and Korean drama blog, Drama Tea. While I have figured out how to do this for Chinese drama reviews, I’ve not quite figured out how to do so for more general articles like the one I write in this blog. But I think the same principles should apply.

I’m just a bit stumped on how to organise it in my Obsidian vault so that I can find it easier next time.

For the love of the Fediverse and Substack

I’ve never been happier and mentally healthier on social media, but I now have this problem again: I’m getting addicted to social media again 😅 This is reflected in the declining number of books I’m reading this year. I used to be able to read up to 100 books a year. This year, I barely reached 15. Gah! It’s not that I’m reading less, but I’m reading a lot more social media content, which includes blog posts. The Fediverse and Substack has enabled me to discover writing on newsletter and personal blogs, and it’s a beautiful place to be, reading the writing of average Joes and Janes rather than the anointed demigods of the publishing world.

Rekinidled my ❤ for #CDramas

I’ve been watching Chinese dramas since the 80s, but I stopped due to lack of access and also what I thought was declining quality in Chinese dramas. However, apps such as iQIYI, Viki and WETV, and ahem, third party sites, have reopened the doors for me, so 2023 was the year that I watched almost exclusively CDramas. It made me realise how much I missed watching and absorbing perspectives similar to mine and to revel in my Chinese roots.

I love Chinese Dramas so much this year that I started a blog and a podcast about it! Can you believe it? Yeah, I can’t either.

Technical writing

A friend, with perfectly good intentions said that I was wasting my writing talent writing user guides. But I feel like I’m now in my sweet spot, career- and creativity- wise. Technical writing gives me the opportunity to be exposed to one of my big loves – software and technology. I was that kid in school who learned BASIC and coded in her free time. It is very nice to blend that side of me with my writerly self. 

Alternate Day Fasting and exercise consistency

Honestly, weight loss has been elusive to me. So much so that I’ve stopped making weight loss resolutions every year. But in 2023 I told myself that I had to lose the pandemic weight that I had gained. And I did, losing 6kg. The secret was consistency.

I started out super small, promising myself that I’ll walk 5000 steps a day. By the end of the year, I was walking 10000.

The intermittent fasting lifestyle has been great for me. Although I’ve not been as consistent with my fasting as with my exercise, I’m slowly understanding what I need to do to get there, so 2024 is all about being consistent with my exercise + fasting patterns. I hope to lose at least 50% of the 10kg I gained since 2018 due to work stress. Sigh.

Digital Gardens rekindled my ❤️ for blogging

I wrote about blogging the digital garden way previously. I used to treat my personal website like a content marketer, every post carefully crafted to attract leads that could improve my career or get freelance opportunities. However, it robbed me of a lot of joy. Now, I treat my personal website as my “digital home hub”. I’m much happier as a result.

Walking pads. Why did I wait so long to get one?

Since I heard about them, I wondered about getting one. I could walk on them while watching TV, for one. I was also having difficulties meeting my 7000 steps goal due to the weather being too hot or rainy. When Lazada had a sale and I spotted an RM350 walking pad, I bought it. But I had very little faith that it would work as it was so cheap. But in the end, it works, and I now complete 10,000 steps effortlessly. 

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash