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Clock boards revisions
During March, we prepared revision of electronics board for Puri clock, revisited board for project NX2 (details will come), new board for our Blub clock (details soon) and few prototype boards for our new burn-in/testing device (machine we will use for burn-in and testing of our tubes). looking into list of our orders in Gatema (PCB fab), I found we made 100 individual board designs since 2015, not bad for such a small team. And we use Gatema only for prototypes and small runs – for boards which are visible to customer (Zen, Puri), we use small local manufacturer Printed. They are very flexible and willing to make extra work for us – we want custom matt solder mask, galvanic gold plating (it is more durable and looks better than low cost ENIG), custom countersinking etc.. They also take special attention to not scratch the solder mask surface – purely esthetical thing..
New problem
Significant amount of time this month was spent tracking down causes of the “fog” problem. In March I didn’t find any possible problems in our production which could cause the problem, all the things I tried shows our systems in 100% condition. There is no article/video about this problem yet, but it will be – later. Few more details from next month: https://www.daliborfarny.com/aprilfog/
Getting less distracted and more focused
In March I needed to move my all focus on the fog problem. In relation to this, I disabled notifications for emails and all social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) and Slack. Notifications are definitely helpful in staying connected with customers and our community, but they also create significant pressure and distraction from actual work. If I need to really concentrate, I found I need to have ideally zero things to think about. The best way for me is to go to sleep without checking emails and social media and in the morning start working immediately with clear mind – and start with emails and other interaction around noon. This way I can do some deep work which needs full focus in the morning and then continue with customer support and social media interaction. I was first afraid that I may delay reaction to some urgent emails and that things will break down, but it turned out that nothing is so critical to not wait few hours more. The problem is that when you open emails as first thing in the morning (to scan for urgent things), you fill your mind with all the tasks coming from them and it is very difficult to push them out from the head and do some actual work. I also found that whenever I have few minutes I tend to check my phone for new emails and notifications. I am now trying to make my phone less distractive – making the browser and social apps more difficult to access (to spend less time on them) and generally try to enjoy short moments just doing nothing, especially not filling my head with news and negative things.. Some interesting info on this topic: https://medium.com/s/story/six-years-with-a-distraction-free-iphone-8cf5eb4f97e3