Local first then smart plugins

It’s been two years since I adjusted my laptop’s white space to a look similar to that spawned by IA Writer. More importantly, I’ve kept my focus on writing–both on my keyboard devices and on my phone.

Thinking clearer with visual dashboards

I am trying to visualise my work more precisely by auditing my routines several times a week. The main focal point is a colour-coded productivity doughnut

Hoping Siri gets as smart as my Gemini

I’ve bought six iPhones in my life and expect to buy only four more. It looks like the next two that I buy will come with Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence–but probably only if I buy the iPhone in the States with an American address.

Maxxing out and Pareto

I have slipped into Whoopmaxxing but don’t feel bad about it. That’s because I know I need to be pragmatic, not perfectionist. I try to operate with a grounded understanding of the Pareto Principle, which states that, for many outcomes, roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the …

Affirming the need to break down complex spreadsheets

During the penultimate training session with the Ireland’s Research and Development Group, most of the 40 attendees wanted to extend their understanding of the use of AI to break down complex spreadsheets.

Otter in my thinking hand

I do a lot of thinking while talking to myself and I think that’s good. Today I have my Otter in my hand. I’ve been trying to tame my Otter. It behaves like a polite observer when it’s in my hand or in my shirt pocket.

Leveraging my digital critic

I use several flavours of AI as my pocket crit. Today, Gemini is helping me synthesize a few important points. I’m microblogging them from my Obsidian vault so it’s easier for colleagues to join the discussion.

Planning to meet like-minded at edtech2026 in Dublin.

I am headed to edtech2026 for the annual ITLA.ie conference, hoping to have a few meaningful chats with people who want to trade tips about productive workflows.

Telling stories with colourful dots

I learn from the data visualisations I get from my knowledge graph when it is depicted as colourful nodes.

Enjoying the Smart Connections dance on my phone

As a regular Obsidian user (on my phone, on my iPad Mini, and on my laptop), I enjoy the dancing screens that activate when I open Obsidian on my Samsung handset.

Loving Throwbacks

Throwbacks are my meditation space.

During Coffee with Claude Time

I keep my laptop off at night which means when I boot up in the morning, I’m greeted by Claude wanting to share my coffee.

Smart loop to prevent knowledge loss

Even though it is important to know how to prompt efficiently, it’s critically important to prevent loss of work.

Productivity through my knowledge graph

I teach university researchers how to achieve greater productivity through digitally transformed knowledge management. At the core of this effort sits the notes, lab reports, preliminary research findings, presentations, and peer-reviewed published work. To manage all these high quality nuggets of …

Keeping social parity intact

I have achieved social parity on three online networks. The top photo shows that I have an equal number of followers to following people on Bluesky.

Intertextual Clutter

I am trying to refine clutter intertextually. I would like to restore the LINK REL=“bookmark” as a tag. Wasn’t that supposed to be the sensible way to provide addressable id’ed elements on your page? I want to make it work again.

Stop being creative traffic

I have a Moleskine from 2022 with passwords from ChatGPT 3 in it. I was made several attempts to integrate AI into simple workflows such as adding intelligence to my notes.

Disconnecting from Perplexity

It is time to call QUIT for my Perplexity Pro account. She served me well for more than a year.

Thanking @educatefran for showing me @D2L and H5P

I should write a major testimonial to Frances O’Donnell, an Instructional Designer in County Donegal, who showed me the magic of smart imports with H5P.

Google Claude Airtable Obsidian

During part of a two hour basic introductory session on Friday 17 April in Dublin, I’m sharing how I use Claude.ai with my Google Workspace, with my Airtables, and with Obsidian. I have dozens of prompts as text and as audio snippets that I use every day when allowing Claude to complete tasks …

Talking to researchers about ethical AI

In early 2026, here are the main topics I would address when teaching researchers to effectively leverage artificial intelligence.

Planning a week with a NTS

Starting out the week recording a note to self.

Endearing power of RSS

Like many people I know, I’m easily distracted by places where I can snack on news, simply by scrolling through content. I want to be able to understand more than one side of a story so I’m looking at ways to pull information together by aggregating content. Thankfully, a lot of content …

Getting very reliant on Claude managing Google Workspace

he first part of 2026 has been a time for new connectors–not new connections (as in people) but new connectors between distinct elements of the technology that wires my life.

Researching place for best sleep

I continue searching for a place in the house that provides zero sleep stress and discovered it is in the coldest room of the house.