Category: A Matter of Time
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Remembering a restaurant
A few years ago, my wife and I visited Tokyo together for the first time in December. We’d arrived inbound from Chiang Mai, with a layover in Busan. It felt like travelling from summer to winter. By the time we had settled into the hotel, it was the early evening, so we searched for a…
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The intermediate hump
When you’re young, you just do stuff. Because you don’t have much experience, you’re a beginner, and you have nothing to lose, it’s hard to overthink. As you gain experience and expertise, it’s easier to shoot down ideas quickly. When you’re in the intermediate hump, you experience being in the groove of shooting down ideas,…
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Ira Glass, and the gap
A few days ago, I published an essay convincing you to be prolific. I was elaborating on the idea that focusing on quantity will lead to better quality, a lesson I learned in 2013. When I was writing that original post, I came across a useful metaphor from Ira Glass, about how people experience a…
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A final goodbye
Today, I visited a friend in palliative care. I was joined by three other friends, and the shared presence made the trip feel lighter. We talked to each other and his family in his hospital room. Our friend’s eyes were closed, and he didn’t respond to our comments. He seemed to be sleeping. He looked…
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Five minutes ahead
The clock in my study runs five minutes ahead. My partner and I set it this way in the hopes of constantly being five minutes early, which is exactly what happened the other day. This happens to be a tradition in both of our families. When I grew up, the clock in my family’s living…
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Learning Chinese again
When my parents decided to immigrate from Hong Kong to Canada, there was a system-level consequence: their future child was going to grow up speaking English, soaking up North American culture, and living a Canadian lifestyle. Saturday morning cartoons were part of this culture and lifestyle, but my parents had other ideas. Instead of letting…
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Shape your projects and tasks
Shorten how long it takes. It’s easier to convince yourself to do a five minute task, than it is to do a thirty minute one. You can outpace procrastination. Shrink it. Small projects and tasks look more approachable than big ones. Simplify it. The more straightforward it is, with fewer steps to follow through the…