Sharpening the Axe

I’m back in Singapore, and have been enjoying 2 weeks of my self-imposed “retreat” at home. After spending much of my life wanting to leave home and explore the world I’ve come to understand the importance of family, and how much it means to me. It has been a good break for me to reconnect with my parents, brother (who is in the army), and sister.

It has also been a good time to “sharpen the axe”. I’ve spent time to set up (and test) my personal productivity system (Toodledo and Google Calendar), my knowledge management systems (Google Reader, Twitter and Evernote). I’ve also set up and configured my Macbook, iPhone and iPad- to work with the systems. I’ve also been able to go through my finances, plan for the future. Hopefully, investing time in this “personal infrastructure” will enable me to handle more work in the future.

The iPad has been a new addition to my life, after saving up for most of the year. One of the things it does is encourage you to read books, something I had not done for a long time (I usually just surf around the web). I’ve been reading “Making Ideas Happen“, a book which targets people who have many ideas but hardly ever execute any of them (i.e. me). It’s a really good book, and I’d highly recommend it if you fit the description above.

Work starts next week, and I’m thankful I had some “down time” to reflect and recharge myself. Can’t wait to get back to the grind again- here we go