I’m back from a week of business travel to Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. I think the Sydney Opera House is one of the most magnificent buildings I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t stop looking at it; it’s so beautiful and well-designed architecturally.
Running for charity
🇺🇸/🇬🇧
Hi everyone, don’t feel obligated to do anything, but every little bit helps.
On September 20th, I’ll be running the Dam tot Dam run with 15 colleagues to help children growing up in insecurity and uncertainty. As a team, we’re trying to raise at least €4,000. With this money, the Forgotten Child Foundation will give these children hope, peace, and a chance to just be children.
Every little bit helps, so will you join us and support me?
Website Update
I updated this website last night and made some final CSS changes to the front page this morning. I’m happy with how things have turned out. As you can see, I decided to design the front page around the topics that matter most to me: Running and Photography.
Apart from updating the design, I also updated the technology behind my site. As a result, everything posted here is automatically shared with the Fediverse. The easiest way to follow updates remains RSS, but if you prefer seeing these updates in your favorite Mastodon client, you can also follow the account @blog@camiel.schoonens.nl.
Now that the design and technology are in place, I will start structuring my content differently to make the overall browsing experience more consistent when browsing different site sections.
[Read more…] about Website UpdateBerlin – Day 3
Yesterday was my final day in Berlin with my son, but as we were traveling back home yesterday evening, I didn’t have the time yet to upload some pictures of what we did yesterday.
On our last morning we strolled along the city again and we visited the huge and beautiful Berlin Dom. We walked up the Dom tower to see Berlin from above (again). This experience was much more worth it than the one from Sunday evening when we went up to the famous TV tower.
In the afternoon went to the Tiergarten park and had lunch at Café am Neuen See. I recommend this place if you happen to be visiting Berlin during good spring or summer weather. It’s a nice and quiet place in a vast and vibrant city.
Berlin – Day 2
Today was yet another fun day in Berlin. My son and I spent the morning shopping in the Charlottenburg area and the afternoon walking through different neighborhoods in the city, including:
- Checkpoint Charlie
- A burger and a beer at Burgemeister
- RAW Berlin
- Topographie des Terrors
Here are a few pictures from the RAW Berlin area.
[Read more…] about Berlin – Day 2Berlin – Day 1
Our first afternoon in Berlin started with a ‘Warm Welcome.’ Apparently, public transport works a little differently here than in the Netherlands. As we forgot to stamp our train tickets, my son and I were fined 60 euros each. There is no exemption; “Rules are rules,” they said.
Anyhow, we took our loss and moved on. We had a great first afternoon in the city; we visited some prominent landmarks and drank along the river.
AI assisted interviewing
AI will not replace you, but people who use AI will.
I captured this quote from one of the speakers at our annual ReThink conference in Zürich last week. While it’s short and simple, I believe it holds a lot of truth. AI assistants will increase productivity massively, and because of this, the people who know best how to use such assistance and agents will have a considerable advantage over others.
I recently had a virtual interview with a candidate who captured my audio and passed my questions on to an agent who helped him answer them better. While I was initially amazed and somewhat opinionated, it also made me think positively about the candidate and how future-ready he was by applying new technology as it became available.
Default Apps – 2024
Vorig jaar heb ik voor het eerst een lijst met mijn Default Apps samengesteld. De lijst is gebaseerd op de categorieën die werden besproken in de Hemispheric Views Podcast. In 2023 waren er bijna 300 luisteraars die hun eigen lijst publiceerden, zo ook ik.
De categorieën waarvan de default app is gewijzigd ten opzicht van vorig jaar heb ik een (🆕) emoji gegeven.
- 📨 Mail Client: Outlook
- 📮 Mail Server: Office365
- 📝 🆕 Notes: ReMarkable Paper Pro
- ✅ To-Do: Things
- 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera
- 🟦 Photo Management: Adobe Lightroom Classic for editing and Photos for organization
- 📆 Calendar: Fantastical Calendar
- 📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive
- 📖 RSS: Reeder Classic with self-hosted FreshRSS
- 🙍🏻 🆕 Contacts: Apple Contacts on iOS and Outlook on MacOS
- 🌐 🆕 Browser: Safari and Edge for work
- 💬 Chat: Messages and WhatsApp
- 🔖 Bookmarks: Linkding
- 📑 🆕 Read It Later: Reeder Classic with self-hosted FreshRSS
- 📜 Word Processing: Word
- 📈 Spreadsheets: Excel
- 📊 Presentations: PowerPoint
- 🛒 Shopping Lists: Things
- 🍴 Meal Planning: Pen and Paper
- 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Banktivity
- 📰 News: NRC, NOS and Tweakers.net
- 🎵 Music: Apple Music
- 🎤 Podcasts: Pocket Casts
- 🔐 Password Management: 1Password
Extra categorieën die destijds niet in de podcast werden besproken:
- 🔖 Journal: Day One
- 🚀 Launcher: Alfred
- 🗺️ 🆕 Maps: Apple Maps
- 🔐 VPN: ProtonVPN
- 🌦️ Weather: Carrot Weather
Updates:
- 2024/12/23: De lijst van 2023 met Default Apps bijgewerkt met in totaal 5 nieuwe apps dit jaar.
How I stay productive and go through my tasks
I received a text message from a former colleague and friend about how I stay productive and avoid procrastination. This colleague is not the first to notice my strengths in this area and ask for tips, tricks, and book recommendations. So here I go.
First things first, there is no silver bullet to doing things right. Many things that work for me might or might not work for you. Ultimately, you need to design a system that works for you. Staying productive in my work and private life comes down to building habits, being consistent, and optimizing what needs improvement.
[Read more…] about How I stay productive and go through my tasks
How I use iOS focus modes
I’m a fan of iOS focus modes, and I use them every day for different activities.
Recently, some people around me noticed this setup on my phone and started asking questions about it. Instead of explaining it offline only, I thought it would be better to write a post about it, too, so that it can be shared with others.
I’m curious to know if you use focus modes, too, and if so, what you do differently from me.
Focus modes that I use
My current setup includes different focus modes for the following activities. I will explain each of them below.
- Personal
- Work
- Do Not Disturb
- Fitness
- Sleep
- Travel
Personal and Work Focus
The most used focus modes are Personal and Work, both of which are time-activated. These modes help me focus on work during work hours and keep work out of sight during times when I shouldn’t think about it.
Personal Focus
- From Monday to Friday 18:30 – 08:00
- From Sat till Sun 00:00 – 23:59
Work Focus
- From Monday to Friday 08:00 – 18:30
The power of focus modes lies in the fact that you can assign custom home screens and focus filters to each of them. I do both when I activate these modes.
By activating specific screens on my iPhone and Apple Watch while in Personal Focus mode, I’m able to get work apps and work notifications out of my immediate sight when not working. The other way around, I’m able to do the same while working. During workdays and work hours, I see no personal apps, email, or personal browser tabs while using my phone. During ‘personal’ hours, it’s the other way around.
Next to these two profiles, I have two different phone numbers registered with my phone: one business number and one private number. By consistently sharing the right number with the right people, I’m able to filter incoming calls from phone numbers that are not in my contacts.
I’m quite happy with this setup (focus mode, different home screens, focus filters, and separate phone numbers) as it enables me to do everything with just one phone without constantly being distracted by apps, notifications, or calls during times when I don’t want to be distracted or reminded by them.
Do Not Disturb
This is a manual-activated focus mode that does what it says it does. It blocks out disturbances and doesn’t allow calls to come through except from the people in my favorite contacts list or from anyone who calls twice within 3 minutes (e.g., an urgent call).
Fitness
Fitness mode is activated when I start an activity on my Apple Watch or when I launch the Nike Run Club app on my phone or watch. When activated, all notifications are blocked, including calls, as I can’t pick them up when exercising anyway.
Sleep
In the Health app, sleep focus mode is activated based on my sleep schedule. The schedule is different on weekdays and weekends. All notifications and calls are blocked, except for calls from people in my favorite contacts list. Sleep mode also activates a different home screen, one that has dark wallpaper on a very small group of apps. The intent of this home screen is to make using the phone during off-hours not attractive at all.
Travel
Travel mode is location-activated, and I added new locations to this focus mode while traveling. This is usually a train station or airport that I expect to visit more often. The primary purpose of travel mode is to activate different home screens on my iPhone and a different watch face. The screens and watch face bring the essential widgets and apps upfront while traveling. These include the latest flight details from Flighty.app and details from my calendar so that I don’t forget about the other things that I need to do while traveling.