I think I’m a fairly productive person—I thought it’d be interesting to categorize some of my work-style habits as following the conventional wisdom around productivity or not.

At Ladder, our approach to observability and monitoring has matured a lot over the three years I’ve been part of the team. One distinction that we’ve started to draw is the difference between infrastructure and business monitoring. To explore that distinction and how a company’s monitoring systems might evolve over time, let’s consider the hypothetical company Stairway, a hot new insurtech focusing on longevity insurance.

I’ve competed in track events since 2006, and I thought it’d be fun to look back and see how I’ve progressed since then. All times are FAT unless otherwise noted.

Making decisions can be nerve-wracking! The scariest decisions are those that are impactful and final. Impact is obvious—choosing a career path is a lot more impactful that picking out your clothes for the day and obviously contributes to a decision’s importance. But reversibility matters too—it’s a lot easier to dip your toes in the water than to dive in head-first. I think many people (including me) mistakenly assume that decisions are less reversible than they actually are. For example, switching careers or moving to a new city are both choices that seem final at first glance.

Another month in quarantine. It looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and earlier than I had previously thought! Despite everything, the US has been by far the most effective country at getting shots in arms. Here’s hoping that Fauci’s right when he says that the general public will start getting vaccinated by the end of April! On to the review:

Goal Tracking

• 🟢 Get 1% faster. Training’s been going pretty well—I’ve set a couple PRs in training! I’m running a 100m and 200m time trial next week which should tell me a lot about where I am. The only danger I see on the horizon is injury—I’ve got a mild case of high hamstring tendinopathy what I’ll have to be careful to manage properly.
• 🟢 50% less discretionary spending. Despite big spending for Valentine’s Day (hotel, dinner, gift), I still managed to come in well under the bar I set for myself here. My February discretionary spending was 70% lower than my average monthly spend in 2020 (but significantly higher than January).
• 🔴One hour of solitary free time a day. Once again, I haven’t managed to make time for this during the week. I haven’t even been tracking this goal! In March, I’ll make sure to keep track of whether or not I do this every day in Roam.
• 🟢 Twice-weekly live conversations with friends. 4/4 again in February! It’s been great to catch up with some people I haven’t talked to since before the pandemic.