Calendar Hacks

A good friend (and former colleague) Lara Hogan wrote a blog post about Calendar Hacks a couple of months ago on Etsy’s Code as Craft. There are some real hidden jewels, especially if you use Google Calendar. In fact, many of them are probably still applicable in other calendar systems.

A few I am experimenting with include:

Ending 30 minute minutes 5 minutes early and 1 hour meetings 10 minutes early.
Blocking off time to work on projects.
Automatically declining events for events that I don’t want to be interrupted (such as my block time).
Creating office hours and setting up appointment slots.

Fall is arriving

YNAB: Cleaning up downloaded OFX and QFX files with Hazel

With You Need A Budget (YNAB), you can import a QFX or OFX file from your bank to help reconcile your transactions. However if you are like me, you probably now have a bunch of stray QFX or OFX files hanging around in your download folder. After this list reached 50 files recently, it made me wonder…could I use Hazel to automate cleanup of this folder so I don’t have to worry about it myself?

The answer is yes. A simple rule with two conditions are all that’s needed.

This Hazel rule is simply matching whether the extension is a OFX file and whether the date added to my computer is not today. If both match, the file is moved to the trash. I have a similar rule for QFX files. Since I never use the QFX or OFX files after the day I download them, there is incredibly low risk with this rule. And one more bit of my computer life automated.

A fantastic trip and some deep thoughts

Right now I am at an airport bar with my wife, having a cold brew and waiting for my red eye back home. I have been in Seattle for the past five days visiting my brother, who just moved out here a few months ago.

It’s a trip that has been amazingly relaxing and has allowed for a lot of deep reflection and thinking about where I’m headed. Already there has been a lot of changes the past few months and I’m preparing to make some more in the future. It has never been more important to me to have control of my life so I can live it to its fullest.

Time to kick the next phase into gear.