Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

This week marks four years since I started my solo business. At the time, I had no idea if I could make it work.

Turns out, I could. 😁 If you're debating making the leap to self-employment or recently made the leap, know that I'm rooting for you.

AND it's the 100th issue of Tinkering With Ideas!! Thank you for being here with me.

1) Reflection:

I don't like to think of my life as complicated but... it's complicated. Between working for myself and three school-aged children, I'm constantly juggling everything that needs to get done.

Some of these I've tackled logistically, like a shared family calendar and a weekly digest of school emails. Others I just can't solve, like when the high school theater director emailed out the wrong link to order the show's t-shirt. It just has to stay on my list until I get the correct link.

If your life feels similarly chaotic, I'm sharing a few things to make it a bit easier.

2) Tip

A lot of my life now runs on scheduled tasks, like the one for my weekly school digest. I also have one set up related to an upcoming trip, that checks various travel blogs and official sites and emails me new information.

I'm not at the point of handing over my life to an AI agent, like Meta Muse or OpenAI Dots. I prefer the work to be "contained" and controlled: set up with a specific sequence of steps and a specific outcome. Scheduled tasks let me do that.

3) Product

I'm completely enamored with the Pebble Index 01 ring. It has a button with a tiny microphone. If I push the button, I can record a quick note to myself. The Pebble app then routes it to your phone's built-in reminders, or you can send it to an external app. I'm sending mine to Todoist.

This solves a problem that I've had forever, which is capturing ideas when I'm nowhere near my phone. Like I'll be doing laundry and remember something I need to do for one of my kids. I just record a quick memo on the Pebble Index 01, and it shows up on my list within seconds.

Want more ideas?

→ Check out this free event: Show up consistently, building a visibility practice that actually works. The event is on October 20 at 10:00 am MST. Register here.
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→ I collect ideas from all over, like things I read and podcasts I listen to. Here's how I maintain a personal knowledge management system.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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