Tag: productivity

  • Siri-controlled DND 🎧 for my office room

    Siri-controlled DND 🎧 for my office room

    Pausing notifications on your phone is great. The iPhone’s Do Not Disturb (DND) feature is also great. Would it not be awesome if we had a DND for our room/office? Well, that was when I had an idea for a mini project.

    My nephews and I went to a local electronics store and bought some gadgets. I just bought the ESP32-C3, which has two USB-C ports.

    These were the steps I did in order. Of course, ChatGPT helped me every step of the way.

    1. I ensured the ESP32 was working by running a blinking sketch, which I created using Arduino IDE.
    2. I then created an on-off switch using the BOOT button on the ESP32. This would turn the LED to switch between Green and Red alternatively each time you press the BOOT button the the microcontroller.
    3. Then I connected the ESP32 to Blynk.
    4. Once it was connected to Blynk with the token, etc. I used three links:
      • One would turn the Green light on when a GET request is sent to it.
      • The other would turn the Red light on when a request was sent to it.
      • The third one would give the current status of the light.
    5. Then I did some configurations using Siri Shortcuts. They were:
      • Office Green: which would essentially visit the above link I spoke about followed by turning off Do Not Disturb on the iPhone/Apple Watch.
      • Office Red: which would essentially visit the second link above, followed by turning on Do Not Disturb on the iPhone/Apple Watch.
      • Office Switch: this would get the current status of the light. If the currentStatus was 1, it would run Office Green, otherwise it would run Office Red.

    The end result was something like this:

    In case you have any inspiring ideas for such projects, feel free to build on it and share to the world!

    If you find this post inspiring, I have done my job. If you asked yourself why not just close the door instead of this contraption? Well, then you have done your job of critical thinking.

    Cheers!

  • Falling in love with boredom

    Falling in love with boredom

    I had a phone call yesterday with someone I admire. We were speaking about various matters. Then the discussion came down to my career and how I got to be where I am. We were discussing the significance of a college degree to a successful career in software engineering.

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  • Social media as a means to an end

    Social media as a means to an end

    This blog post is about using social media mindfully, from the perspective of a software developer who has benefited from it. Read on if you feel this will be useful to you.

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  • On Working Remote

    On Working Remote

    I have been working remotely for over a year now. I am completing one year at rtCamp soon and before that, I was doing some consulting remotely. During this period, I thought about how I could make remote-work work, and this meant I read some articles and books from people much smarter than I am.

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  • Evernote or Keep – or both?

    One of the first productivity apps I used on a smartphone was Evernote. Needless to say it blew my mind away – the simplicity, ease of use and the sophistication too.

    Evernote or Keep

    Then came along a product by Google called Keep. I tried this and never looked back – except when I needed to check for older notes on Evernote.

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