Flow == In the Zone

I tend to lose track of the podcast & audiobooks, when I multitask.

Except when I run.

When I am running, I’m in the moment.

I find myself retaining auditory information much better, while running. I attribute that to being in the flow.

I get in a similar zone when I play Tetris. Would I retain more, while playing Tetris?

I created Tetris Flow: https://tetris.raywu.org/

I built the v1 on React in 2020, during COVID. It wasn’t very good. Claude Code helped me rebuild it in a couple of days.

If you’d like access, send me your Google Account that you plan to login with and I’ll add you to the beta:

t e t r i s [ a t ] r a y w u . o r g

So far I really enjoy it!

TL;DR We are using our custom domains via Gmail interface through SMTP2GO (free) SMTP Server to send emails, and Cloudflare (free) Email Routing to receive emails.

The goal: free custom domains for our emails on the free Gmail client (send and receive).

When we were using Google Domains with Gmail, the two services worked well together. We moved on from Google Domains and I set up our hosting on Cloudflare. Cloudflare is wonderful and natively supports Email Routing. However, it doesn’t provide a Email Server (SMTP).

We could rely on the free Gmail’s SMTP as default, but it doesn’t support DKIM signing, which lowers the chance of deliverability and renders DMARC records useless.

Bottomline: I want to be able to send emails without worrying about it going into spam. I found a good workaround via SMTP2GO.

The problem I wanted to solve are:

1. Cloudflare does not offer Email hosting...

I got around to building v3 of the Airtable GTD tracker / dashboard template to share. Feel free to make a copy and get started!

I run my life on GTD and am a huge advocate for the framework.

For the past several years, I’ve recommended it to many friends. I built my GTD tracker / dashboard on Airtable, and have shared a template with them.

Leveraging Airtable’s feature, I can sync this workspace with my Google Calendar. I’ve configured the setup to receive a daily digest of my tasks via Email. It’s typically in my inbox by 5:30AM Pacific Time, so I get to see what I have due that day.

Seriously. I run my life on this framework!

Not sure how it works? Read more below.

The GTD framework

Here’s a 15 min primer article on GTD: https://hamberg.no/gtd

GTD—or “Getting things done”—is a framework created by David Allen for organizing and tracking your tasks and projects.

• Next...

1. Do not defer decisions; we will never have perfect information so we should make decisions and revisit them once the information has changed. Switching context when deferring decisions is costly
2. Do not make decisions through democracy. At times, decisions require intuition and at other times it requires data. We should talk through decisions and consult others for their expertise, but ultimately one person should own the decision and communicate the outcome to all stakeholders. Don’t diffuse the responsibility. Closing the loop is vital to the success of the decision (and the team)
3. Scenario planning is part of decision making – you can never make a good decision without anticipating an outcome, nor can you make a good decision under duress. Irreversible decisions are more important to scenario plan for. Reversible decisions are almost never high stakes (refer to point 1) and should be...

TL;DR buy a domain on Google Domains and set up email forwarding to your Gmail.

I consolidated my online presence to raywu.org and finally created a short email alias to replace my personal email. I always found giving random / non essential website my personal email a bad idea.

What tipped me over was a data breach (T-mobile). They had too much of my PII. Why should I trust any other online retailer with my personal email or info?

Setting up an email alias is pretty simple. I used email forwarding on Google Domains (to forward emails to my personal account) and SMTP for Gmail to send email as my alias.

The minor trick there is to create an application specific password for my personal account to operate the SMTP.

Steps

1. Use Google Domains to purchase a domain
2. Go to Email > Forwarding to create an email alias and forwards to your main Gmail account
3. Go to...

NYTimes, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter. These are four websites I visit the most. Every time I need a mental break, I tap “n,” “f,” “t,” into the browser URL and with one pinky action I kill some time.

It occurs to me that these handful of websites dominate the namespace of the URL autofill. I was curious to see what my present alphabet of websites look like.

I’m most surprised by “c,” “h,” “p,” “r,” “u,” on my list. I guess I rarely visit websites starting with those letters.

1. angellist.com
2. bankofamerica.com
3. crossculturevc.com
4. drive.google.com
5. eat24.com
6. facebook.com
7. gmail.com
8. heppel.dk
9. inbox.google.com
10. jsonlint.com
11. kayak.com
12. linkedin.com
13. maps.google.com
14. nytimes.com
15. online.citibank.com
16. profile.yahoo.com
17. quicksprout.com
18. rzchen.com
19. seamless.com
20. twitter.com
21. up.jawbone.com
22. venmo.com
23. www.nytimes.com
24. (no x)
25. youtube.com
26. zipcar.com

The purpose of this post

These are notes and excerpts I took directly from the short book, True Love, from Thich Nhat Hanh. I am a novice to meditation, and the practice of mindfulness. This book is a wonderful introduction.

I received this book as a gift from a special person in my life. The timing couldn’t have been better. I wanted to share these notes with my dearest friends—my sangha.

TL;DR & Notes

In order to love, we have to be mindful and present, and communicate that energy to our loved ones. Taking refuge in the sangha is important. The sangha is a practice community in which brothers and sisters in the Dharma practice the cultivation of mindfulness daily: eat, drink, wash dishes, work in gardens, drive—and not just during times of sitting meditation.

The are four aspects of love that we can attain through mindfulness.

There are also four mantras to keep in mind.

Beware...

I dreamed about my dad. It was like a movie reel through time.

I saw him clearly. I saw how he interacted with his friends, his golf buddies. He was generous with the younger guys. He tried to give them advice. He gave a young man some pocket money to go out and enjoy dinner with his friends.

I was sitting there, a kid, observing at the table side. Like I often did when I was little amongst adults.

I saw other people I knew in flashbacks; 20 years younger. I saw my aunt and uncle and myself circa 1990s; grainy imagery.

Through the dream, my father’s features changed. I watched him as he aged and his hair turned silver. Through it all he was his animated self, full of life! Only older, but he was never less authoritative.

This dream began and ended with me picking up his medical records. I spoke to a nurse for a moment before tears came down my chins. A good cry.

I woke up in tears...

He was a passionate giver and a prolific producer. He had one of the strongest work ethics and he always smiled.

Passion

His work was his passion. He wore his belief on his sleeves. He was stubborn and lived by his principles. He could be abrasive, misunderstood, and controversial. People who understood his tenacity loved him; everything he did was out of passion. He made friends and foes alike as an artist. He also wanted to share this passion with everyone; he was a teacher, a researcher, an author, an architect, a public servant.

Generosity

He made friends through all walks of life. He organized get-togethers for his classmates, trips to Japan for his associates, and years of lectures for his students. He stopped and talked to homeless and disabled people, and got to study behaviors and designed public bathrooms for people with disability. He gave away new toilet designs that were...