Losing and regaining momentum
Taking steps to get back on track
Hey everyone!
Hope you’ve a had a great week.
This week, I reflected on why I’ve lost some momentum and how I’m going to build it back up again (below).
I’ve not shared much else this week (and explain why in the reflection).
As usual, best things I found on the internet are at the bottom.
Until next time :)
Chris
✋Losing momentum
This last month, I’ve not really made much new content. I decided to stop making videos when I finished my Machine Learning for Healthcare course. The videos were taking a long time to record and edit and it had stopped being fun.
Also, I’ve been questioning whether videos are the best medium for me to share my thoughts, and also the value of making videos for YouTube more broadly.
I decided, instead, to focus my efforts on (i) learning new skills (data science and programming), (ii) working on various projects and (iii) writing up my learnings from both. Right now, this feels more aligned with what I enjoy and want to be doing.
However, I noticed that my progress in these new areas of focus has been slow. I put this down to a change of focus, and a loss of momentum.
With my previous stretch of regularly producing content (regular blogs and 1 video per week for almost a year), I always knew what I needed to do next, and therefore what task to work on at any moment.
Now that things have changed, my next task is less defined and so, when a free moment pops up, I’ve been messing about trying to figure out what to do next.
Another factor is that, with a young baby, the free slots I have for working are more restricted than otherwise. I’ve also found time can slip away when I’m always at home in the same place, with the COVID restrictions.
🏃♂️Building momentum
Today I sat down and thought of concrete steps to build up my momentum on these new tasks:
Create a single list of courses to do, blogs to write and projects to work on
Prioritise ideas within each list
Schedule each one for a specific time slot this week (when I know I will be baby-free 👼)
It feels great to have now done that and I feel hopeful that I’ll build up my momentum again from now. It always seems to come back to simple things, done consistently.
Hopefully, this time next week I’ll share some new cool stuff I’ve made or written. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
🤩 My favourite things from the week:
Should knowledge be free?: Sci-Hub is an illegal tool that gets around academic paywalls and is used my millions around the world. I enjoyed this video exploring its ethics and potential alternative payment models, including an interview with the Sci-Hub creator Alexandra Elbakyan.
The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur: I enjoyed this conversation with Prof Tony Young on the Big Picture Medicine podcast. He shared his ideas for helping the NHS lead in innovation, and some of his general life philosophies.
“How to Write Yourself an iPhone 12” by Daniel Bourke, where he makes the case for writing a lot and sharing it on the internet as a means of additional income.
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About Me
Hi! I’m Chris Lovejoy, a Junior Doctor and Data Scientist based in London.
I’m on a mission to improve healthcare through technology (particularly AI / machine learning), but along the way I want to share learnings that are relevant no matter your career choice or background.
In this weekly newsletter, I share my top thoughts and learnings from each week, as well as links to the best things on the internet that I come across.