Noisy Deadlines

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams

  • I got back from Brazil feeling super tired because of the long trip. The total travel time was 24 hours, with 4 flights, 1 bus ride and lots of time waiting in airports. I started feeling my throat itch 2 days later.
  • So, I was sick the whole week: some type of respiratory virus that was not COVID. The worse is gone, but I'm left with a cough, and I still haven't recovered my full lung capacity. I tried to run today, and I couldn't keep it up for more than 10 minutes. So, I'm still recovering. The doctor gave me a puffer to help with clearing the lungs.
  • I'm also left with some headaches which I think is related to an occasional sinus congestion. It's getting better little by little.
  • I had lots of planning I wanted to do this week, but because I was sick, I let it all on pause. I could take some time to read, in between naps. But I also worked a bit from home once I got a little better mid-week.
  • I finished reading “Barrayar” by Lois McMaster Bujold and it was great! This book is unique because it's a fast-paced science fiction novel about motherhood. All kinds of motherhood: in utero, in vitro, in an artificial womb. It's part of a big series called Vorkosigan Saga, and this series is known as a feminist sci-fi ahead of its time (it started being written in the late 80's).
  • I finished writing about my Dungeons and Dragons character background, her appearance and decided on a name: Astrid Silverhammer (very dwarvish and righteous).

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

Every year I look back at my reading list and think about my reader goals.

The first thing I do is set up my Reading Challenge on The Storygraph:

📚 Reading Challenge 2025: Read 58 books & 21,000 pages.

I then look at my TBR (to-read pile) and note the series and books that caught my attention and that I would still like to read. That doesn’t mean I will follow this whole list; it works as a brainstorming of titles I am still interested in reading. If I ever get to a place where I can’t decide what to read next, I will look at this list to get some ideas.

Series I want to continue reading:

  1. The Stormlight Archives (Brandon Sanderson) (Books #2 to #4)

  2. The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) (Books #12 to #17)

  3. Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold) (Books #2 to #17)

  4. Old Man's War (John Scalzi) (Books #4 to #6)

  5. Wayfarers (Becky Chambers) (Books #3 and #4)

  6. The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (Books #6 to #9)

Books planned for my local Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club:

  1. January: Shards of Honor/Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

  2. February: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

  3. March: Exordia by Seth Dickinson

  4. April: The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

  5. May: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

  6. June: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

  7. July: Drunk On All your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

  8. August: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

  9. September: The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford

  10. October: The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

  11. November: Neuromancer by William Gibson

  12. December: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Some other books on my TBR I want to read (in no particular order):

Fiction:

  1. Secrets of a Summer Night (Wallflowers #1) by Lisa Kleypas

  2. Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel #1) by T. Kingfisher

  3. Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment #2) by Rebecca Ross

  4. The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean

  5. Gobbelino London & a Scourge of Pleasantries (Gobbelino London, PI #1) by Kim M. Watt

  6. The Rakess (Society of Sirens #1) by Scarlett Peckham

  7. The Perils of Pleasure (Pennyroyal Green #1) by Julie Anne Long

  8. The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides #1) by Jennifer Ashley

  9. Ne'er Duke Well (Belvoir's Library #1) by Alexandra Vasti

  10. The Duke Who Knew Too Much (Heart of Enquiry #1) by Grace Callaway

  11. The Earl I Ruined (The Secrets of Charlotte Street #2) by Scarlett Peckham

  12. Baking Bad (Beaufort Scales Mystery #1) by Kim M. Watt

  13. The Narrow Road Between Desires (The Kingkiller Chronicle #0.5) by Patrick Rothfuss

  14. The Heiress Hunt (The Fifth Avenue Rebels #1) by Joanna Shupe

  15. Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane #2) by Elizabeth Hoyt

  16. Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

  17. Derring-Do for Beginners (The Red Company #1) by Victoria Goddard

  18. Hild (Light of the World #1) by Nicola Griffith

  19. Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

  20. His Secret Illuminations (The Warrior's Guild #1) by Scarlett Gale

  21. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

  22. Trial of the Sun Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos #1) by Nisha J. Tuli

  23. The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia #1) by Carissa Broadbent

  24. A Heart of Blood and Ashes (A Gathering of Dragons #1) by Milla Vane

  25. The Thursday Murder Club (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery #1) by Richard Osman

  26. Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros

  27. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

  28. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels #1) by India Holton

  29. The Winter King (Weathermages of Mystral #1) by C.L. Wilson

  30. Starter Villain by John Scalzi

  31. Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo

  32. A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

  33. Divinity 36 (Tinkered Starsong #1) by Gail Carriger

  34. One Dark Window (The Shepherd King #1) by Rachel Gillig

  35. Farthing (Small Change #1) by Jo Walton

  36. Portrait of a Scotsman (A League of Extraordinary Women #3) by Evie Dunmore

  37. Fire Logic (Elemental Logic #1) by Laurie J. Marks

  38. The Cold Between (Central Corps #1) by Elizabeth Bonesteel

  39. Truth or Beard (Winston Brothers #1) by Penny Reid

  40. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

Non-Fiction:

  1. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben R. Rich

  2. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

  3. The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter

  4. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari

  5. Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell

  6. What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna

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Post 67/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge! #100DaysToOffload #100Days #reading #books #readinglist #ReaderGoals

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

💡 Every year I sit down and reflect on the new year with the following topics:

  • IDEAS
  • NEW PERSPECTIVES
  • What would I like to change about myself?
  • What would I like to change about my lifestyle?

I also choose a theme/topic focus for the year. And in 2025 I want to focus on simplicity and having fun. After a year of focusing on my health I feel like I want to enjoy time outdoors and travel a bit.

IDEAS

  • Keep it simple!
  • I want to have a central paper planner to have a nice overview of my year and weeks. This planner will integrate work and personal projects and my calendar.
  • I will also use my paper planner to jot down some gratitude notes every day.
  • I want to remember and reinforce concepts of simplicity and minimalism.
  • I want to increase my time meditating each day.
  • I want to remember to have fun and return to activities that I’ve been avoiding, like playing video games.
  • I want to be able to do forward cross overs on both directions and start backward crossovers in ice skating.
  • Continue running and hiking. Get more muscle mass going to the gym.
  • GTD: stick with what works and keep it simple. Avoid switching apps and overthinking my system. Focus on doing.
  • Start some long-term financial goals (thinking about future retirement years).
  • Travel more. Travel somewhere in Canada (first idea: road trip to the Maritimes).
  • Balance my reading with having fun playing video games.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

  • I miss a bit of a tactile experience to plan my life. I will start using a year paper planner to integrate my life vision/plans.
  • I want to have simple but effective tools. For example: Journaling in Standard Notes instead of having one more app to manage.
  • I want journaling to be even more present in my daily routine.
  • I will focus on having in person experiences.

What would I like to change about myself?

  • I want to be more relaxed and focus more on having fun and feeling good.
  • I will be braver and write more on my blog. I have so many things to say, I have ideas, and I want to put them out there, even if nobody reads it and even if it feels unfinished. I want to become a a regular writer and expose myself more.

What would I like to change about my lifestyle?

  • I currently like my lifestyle. I don’t think I want to change it for this year.
  • I will still be working my full-time job with clear delineation between work and personal schedules.
  • My free time will be for reading, exercising, relaxing, having fun and taking care of myself.

🎮Some Games to Play (that I already own):

  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (PS4)
  • Dorfromantik (Steam)
  • Stardew Valley (Steam)
  • Pillars of Eternity – Definitive Edition (Steam)
  • Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Steam)
  • Citizen Sleeper (Steam)
  • Trine 4 (Steam)

I will write a separate post on my Reader Goals for 2025!

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

I love using The Storygraph to track my reading! I find it easy to log how much I’ve read every day and get awesome graphs and stats about my reading life each month. And at the end of the year, we get a cool yearly wrap-up.

Here is my 2024 Wrap-up Summary:

Note: I think there is a bit of a glitch with The Storygraph summary above showing 1.57 hours of audiobooks (I didn’t listen to any audiobooks)

I read 84% fiction versus 16% non-fiction books.

44% of my reading was Romance this year. That's a shift that started happening a couple of years ago and I started exploring different authors and branching out from genre fiction romance getting more into historical romance in 2024.

I focused mostly on lighter reads; I couldn’t stand anything too dark. And I decided not to finish 12 of the books I picked up this year (because they were either too dark, graphically violent, or too slow paced).

The months I read the most were August and September, which coincided with my staycation days this year:

⭐My favorite 5 star reads in 2024:

  • The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  • Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment #1) by Rebecca Ross
  • A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers
  • The Bride (Lairds' Fiancées #1) by Julie Garwood
  • The Rogue of Fifth Avenue (Uptown Girls #1) by Joanna Shupe
  • The Spymaster's Lady (Spymasters #1) by Joanna Bourne

Similar to 2023, romance novels dominated my favourites this year.

My favorite sci-fi was “A Closed and Common Orbit” by Becky Chambers and my favorite fantasy was “The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson.

Other Book Posts to Read:

Some other book posts of people writing about their year in books:

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

So, 2024 is practically over! 🎉

When I sat down a year ago to think about my goals, I wanted 2024 to be the year of rest and taking care of myself.

And I’m happy to look back and realize I achieved these goals.

In 2024 I focused on Health:

  • It was great to get the monoferrin infusion which raised my energy levels, and I felt much better.
  • I continued regular therapy.
  • I saw a naturopath to address my digestion issues and started taking probiotics and supplements for my gut health.
  • I did an endoscopy and adjusted my acid reflux medication, which mitigated some of the symptoms I was having.
  • I adjusted my diet and other medications.
  • I kept my morning routine to the point it became automatic. It doesn’t matter if I’m on vacation or not, I will do my morning routine rigorously.
  • My wellness is more important than anything else.

I’ve also worked on managing stress and workload thanks to these practices:

  • Morning routine with yoga + meditation + journaling
  • Time Blocking at work to manage workload
  • Work Shutdown routine to manage stress
  • Regular exercise

Some other wins or successful outcomes in 2024 🏆

  • We installed a ceiling fan for our living room.
  • Got a new daily bag for myself.
  • Got a new bed mattress for our bedroom.
  • Completed this Course: ADHD, Managing Time and Overcoming Distractions by David Greenwood [Udemy].
  • Completed the 30-Day Yoga Journey 2024 – Yoga with Adrienne.
  • Completed the Down Dog May Yoga Challenge 2024.
  • Enrolled in 3 Races for 2024 (10K Races completed).
  • Filled in Tax Return Fiscal Year 2023/2024.
  • Fixed my ALL time reading log spreadsheet with stats for each year.
  • Found a pair of figure ice skates that fits me well.
  • I did some experimentation with Rocketbooks, and discovered I enjoy paper sometimes.
  • I read 58 books in 2024.
  • I went to Scintillation, Montreal, Kingston, a Halloween party, Hiking, ran 3 – 10K races, joined a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
  • I traveled to Brazil for the end of year Holidays! 🎊

📺 Movies/Shows I watched:

1. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) Netflix

2. Knights (2015) Curiosity Stream – documentary

3. Story of Europe (2017) Curiosity Stream – documentary

4. The Grand Tour: Sand Job (S05 E03) – Amazon Prime

5. Raccoons: Survival Warriors (2022) – Curiosity Stream

6. Fallout S1 (2024) – Amazon Prime

7. Renfield (2023) – Amazon Prime

8. Oppenheimer (2023) – Amazon Prime

9. The Ascent of Woman (2015) – Curiosity Stream

10. The Grand Tour: One for the Road (S06 E01)

11. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) – on the plane

12. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) – on the plane

13. Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom (2023) – on the plane

14. Barbie (2024) – on the plane

🎮 Video Games I started or played:

  1. Banished

  2. Dorfromantik

  3. Stardew Valley

  4. Islanders

  5. Pillars of Eternity

  6. Trine 4

Conclusion

So, I’ve achieved the focus of taking care of my health. All the health-related changes were life changing to me. And in the last quarter I started to have more mindspace to think about having fun and relaxing more.

As I step into 2025, I’m carrying forward the lessons I’ve learned and the joy I’ve cultivated, ready to build on this foundation of care, resilience, and fun. Here’s to what’s next! 🌟

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  1. The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson, 1124p: This book starts a little slow with lots of world building being the first book of a series. Kaladin and Shallan are my favorite characters, their story builds and builds, and I really connected with them. The chapters with Adolin's point of view were my least favorites overall, but his arc ends up being interesting in the end. All the character building is excellent, and it was satisfying to see how some character’s arc merged along the story. Now I know exactly what “Sanderlanche” is, and I enjoyed it! I'm excited to continue the series.

  2. Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold, 253p: I liked it. This was the second time reading this book because I want to get into this series. It is a rich universe with politics, history and conflict. The main character, Cordelia Naismith, is the captain of a survey ship from the peaceful Beta Colony. And there is Lord Aral Vorkosigan who is the leader of a secret military mission from the planet Barrayar. It starts with an attack to Cordelia's base camp that leads here into the hands of Vorkosigan, as a prisoner. There is a subtle tension between the two characters as they must team together to stay alive. The plot brings discussions about honor, xenophobia, war crimes and cultural differences. There is moderate action, lots of politics and some romance. I will read “Barrayar” next.

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Post 63/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  • 🌞 I am still in Brazil at my mom's place in my hometown. It's hot (20°C to 32°C everyday) with occasional rain. It's definitely dryer and it took me a day or so to get used to the heat. The main difference here is that everyplace seems smaller, the streets are narrower, the cars are smaller, there is more people, it feels noisier. I spend most of my time hanging out with my mom, helping her with errands, fixing little things around the house, reading, walking, relaxing.
  • I helped my mom create some Spotify playlists in her account.
  • I helped my mom organize some books, get rid of some old electronics and free up some space in the apartment.
  • I helped my mom solve an issue she was having with the Android Auto in her car. It was an easy fix, but she was struggling with the issue for weeks.
  • 💪 I temporarily enrolled at my mom's gym to get some weight training done. It was the first time that I went to the gym with my mom, so that was fun!
  • My sister arrived last week so I'm catching up with her as well.
  • Me and my partner met a bunch of old friends: from childhood, from elementary school, from high school, from university. It was nice to catch up!
  • I also met my brother-in-law and her wife for a nice coffee with chocolate afternoon. It was a wonderful chat; I needed this time to be with them to catch up. They live in a different city, so they were in town for a couple of days.
  • 🥳 We went to my mother-in-law 80th birthday! It was a small gathering with the typical Brazilian “churrasco” (grilled meat in a barbecue).
  • We had the typical “meat/chicken sfiha” (which is a triangular shaped pastry here, traditionally brought to Brazil by middle eastern immigrants). I am not sure this is the original recipe or if this is a Brazilian adaptation, but it's quite common here.
  • 📖 I finished reading “The Way of Kings” and “Shards of Honor”! I didn't read as much this month, and that's okay. I thought I would read more during the flight to Brazil, but I was super tired.
  • 👟 Me and my partner went for walks around Igapó lake which is the nicest place in my hometown. We had fresh coconut water from a real coconut (something that I never saw in Ottawa).

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  • ✈️ I'm getting ready for the trip to Brazil! I've got my travel checklist ready and started packing. I always travel with a carry-on and a backpack, and I just need to add some toiletries and I'm ready to go!

  • 📖 Because of the upcoming trip I've not been doing too much reading lately. It's been hard to sit down to read for more than 15 minutes. So, I'm still reading the same books as the week before.

  • ☕ I'm actually looking forward to all the downtime at the airports to do some reading.

  • ✅ I had a small crisis again this week about to-do list apps, and I was tempted to change tools again. In 24 hours, I realized that what I have (Nirvana HQ) still works well for me and that any other additional feature offered by other apps is not enough to beat Nirvana's functionality for me.

  • 📔 I got a paper planner for 2025! I want to have it as a goal/intention setting tool, with focus on wellness. I want to use it to make monthly, weekly, and daily plans. So, it's more strategic, rather than tactical. I will keep my digital calendar and to-do list as my tactic’s tools if that makes sense.

Currently reading

  • The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  • Gentle Rogue (Malory-Anderson Families #1) by Johanna Lindsey

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

One of the things I struggle with is planning short term, especially daily and weekly. During the past 2 years I've used Cal Newport's Time-Block Planner and this daily planner. I've tried time blocking in Outlook (digitally) but I didn't stick to it. I've also tried weekly planning and time blocking with Rocketbooks, which didn't last long because I started to dread the process of wiping off the pages every week.

All those experiences with paper planners brought me to the realization that I still enjoy planning on paper.

I was talking to a colleague the other day about planners, and she introduced me to the world of Happy Planners. Initially I just liked the format and the way it's setup with dividers and the disc bound system. It's very versatile and customizable. It's also not overpriced.

So, I got myself a Happy Planner for 2025!

I'm still thinking the details of how I want to integrate it with my digital GTD system, but the main ideas are:

Digital tools:

  • Calendar and to-do list management remain digital (Outlook and Nirvana)

Paper Planner:

  • Track my daily to-do's => to choose 3 tasks to focus on the day
  • Plan and track my monthly goals
  • Plan and track my weekly goals
  • Track wellness and health => exercise, meditation, gratitude journal

I'm thinking of the Happy Planner as my catch-all high-level view of my plans that will work alongside my calendar and to-do lists.

I want it to be a planning tool to give me an overview of what's coming.

My Happy Planner – Me And My Big Ideas 2025 (Classic size)

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

  • 🏢 The office at work will undergo some needed renovations. There will be a temporary arrangement of some people working (partially) from home, some people grouped together in offices and some people on temporary cubicles. I currently have an office all to myself and I will be moved to a tiny cubicle while the renovations are ongoing. My department is not keen on working from home at all, so we will be 6 estimators working together in small cubicles for a while. The move will happen this week, and I'm not looking forward to it.

  • ☑️ I deleted all previous GTD setups that I had on Todoist and Microsoft To Do. I didn't want to be tempted to keep going back and forth between to-do apps. If I decide to change, it will be a whole lot harder because I will have to start from scratch.

  • ❄️ Cold has arrived around here! It seems we will get negative temperatures all day all week long now. We had a bit of snow yesterday.

  • 💪 I went to gym 4 times this week!

  • ⛸️ I've advanced in ice skating a bit. I can now do the clockwise forward crossovers! I mean, it takes some concentration and it's still a bit awkward but I'm doing it!

  • 💼 This week I will start getting ready for the trip to Brazil in a week or so. I plan to bring only my carry-on and a backpack, like I did last time. Some folks want me to bring maple syrup to them, I'm not sure how I'm gonna do that yet.

  • 🎮 I bought two RPG games that were on sale on Steam this weekend: “Pillars of Eternity – Definitive Edition” and “Pathfinder: Kingmaker”. They were on my wishlist for a while. I started Pillars of Eternity and created a character.

  • 📗I DNF’d a romance book that had lots of buzz: “Butcher & Blackbird” by Brynne Weaver. I knew it was about serial killers, but there is so much gore and vivid descriptions of torture that I couldn't get past Chapter 3.

Currently reading

  • The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  • Gentle Rogue (Malory-Anderson Families #1) by Johanna Lindsey

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Post 59/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

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