Enjoying my coworker as I enjoy sunshine

I have very polite coworker who combs through the things I’ve read and saved just before I open my computer. I appreciate the lightweight sycophancy when the AI’s routine comes up empty on a task so it politely recaps a relevant finding from a previous session.

My four Playbooks

I have four analogue notebooks that I have mapped to online playbooks. My first playbook represents a place where I take notes, doodle, and set up checklists. When I have a pen in hand with this brown leather Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter playbook, I’m thinking with my hand. Occasionally, some …

Getting ahead with smart connections

After 20 years with a public profile on LinkedIn, I believe I have figured out a way to minimise noise here. In my case, it means figuring out how to make meaningful connections

Carefully using Fable 5 for the week

Anthropic is teasing me with Fable 5 but I’m only slow dancing with it. That’s because of its Burn Rate. Fable 5 relies on Adaptive Thinking and that feature is permanently turned on.

Making videos programmatically

I’m reviewing AI course notes and including two ways of making videos programmatically. My favourite method uses an open-source pipeline called claude-shorts. It utilizes Claude Code to completely automate the longform-to-shortform translation without relying on an external SaaS subscription.

Powering my Personal Context Network

I track daily activities and attempt to spotlight successes with the word #win. One of my biggest weekly wins is discovering some gem I wrote decades ago and having it resurface through Brian Petro’s Smart Connections plugin for Obsidian.

Remembering hour-long database analyses with students

have mountains of handwritten pages in Moleskines that document lab sessions with students taking higher level IT courses. Prior to 2010, I would carve out an hour for a set of database tasks. Today, each of the 20 minute data analysis tasks I had taught 20 years ago now take less than five minutes

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

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Teaching the ninth cohort of AI for Personal Productivity

Back in November 2023, Dermot Casey asked me what I was covering when he saw me delivering a post-graduate academic module in digital transformation. I told him about my syllabus and that it integrated ChatGPT in the hands-on workshops. We are running a distilled version of this training programme …

Using a framework with AI

Moving beyond simple chat interactions toward a structured framework is the key to mastering AI. I pulled three items from my Fabric Collection that emphasize this perspective.

360 Video Adventures

I’m continuing to think panoramically with my focus on making the post-production process smoother.

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.

Thinking panoramically

One of the most technically difficult items that I am learning to use is my DJI Osmo 360 camera. I realise it’s because I’m trying to think panoramically instead of just thinking in terms of line of sight.

Looking in the mirror through Claude

Learning wha Claude.ai thinks of me.

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 …

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.

Experimenting with TechSmith Fuse from mobiles.

I’ve been using Camtasia for a decade but today is the first day to attempt using TechSmith Fuse to create, upload, and share video content.

Using Claude with Airtable

I’ve used dozens of Bases on Airtable while teaching university students in Ireland. During the past 18 months, my Airtable usage has percolated into discussions with other researchers across Europe. I’m delighted to see how I can cross-check my Airtable through a slash command and …

Exploring my first Taschenbegleiter

I am trying to reduce the footprint I use on public transport so I’ve downsized to an iPad Mini with 190 pages in a notebook and a pen. I want to carry all those items in one hand so my attention turned to Roterfaden.de and their Taschenbegleiter.