my website at https://anirudh.fi
blog: push-based productivity
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---
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template:
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slug: push
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title: Push-based productivity
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subtitle: Getting told when to get things done
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date: 2025-01-03
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draft: false
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---
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Way back in 2021, I wrote about [my productivity endeavours][prod],
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which were -- in summary -- me writing a list of todos in a notebook.
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I still carry these around to quickly note stuff down or to summarise my
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pursuits of the week every Sunday evening.
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[prod]: /blog/bujo/
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However, I quickly realised a glaring issue with this system: it needed
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*me* to constantly check the notebook to learn of things to be done. For
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me, this failed constantly:
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* I didn't check it often enough and missed time-critical tasks
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* I checked it but I *forgot* because I was distracted
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As an example, every so often during the day -- I'd note down a task to
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say, "buy oat milk". Easy enough, I can do that on my way home from
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work. There's a supermarket at my nearest metro station so popping by
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there before walking home should be a trivial task.
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Hardly so. I either never checked my todo list on the metro ride home,
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or embarrassingly, I'd check and then proceed to immediately forget. The
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sheer annoyance when I'd realize my lapse upon getting home and taking
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out my notebook...
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This is a problem inherent to any "pull-based" system -- one where the
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user/client/whatever must "pull" (or poll!) for information at
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intervals. Especially given that said information has an arbitrary TTL
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in my head, and the poll interval is not fixed, there are several of
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these blind spots where tasks get missed.
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And so, my new push-based system -- one that I've been using to great effect
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for the better part of last year -- came about. At its core, it's
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incredibly simple: my phone's Reminders app. I use Apple Reminders but
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really, this works with any similar app.
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Nothing revolutionary, I know. I'm just rather proud of how easy it was
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to get setup and see positive results. I have mine setup against my
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[self-hosted][sh] Radicale server. Separate lists to organize tasks and
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a homescreen widget to quickly check off completed ones.
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[sh]: /uses#homelab-k3s-cluster
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<div class="row">
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<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/reminders.jpg" style="width: 240px;" alt="reminders">
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<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/hss.jpg" style="width: 240px;" alt="home screen widget">
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</div>
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For quick input, I've been in love with [Remind Me
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Faster](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/remind-me-faster/id985555908). I'm
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now able to rapidly create tasks, assign it a time[^1] and optionally, a
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location. The latter, I find, is the killer feature. Being reminded of a
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task *when* you're arriving/leaving (RMF lets you choose this) a
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location is very powerful.
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[^1]: Apple Calendar in iOS 18 onward now shows your reminders alongside
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other events. Very handy for scheduling.
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<div class="row">
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<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/IMG_2561.PNG" style="width: 240px;" alt="remind me faster">
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<img src="https://cdn.icyphox.sh/IMG_2563.jpg" style="width: 240px;" alt="setting time and location">
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</div>
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I now get reminded to "buy oat milk" when I'm arriving at the metro
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station's shopping center.[^2] And to post this once I get home.
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[^2]: _kauppakeskus_ in Finnish.
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