Eddie's Blog: January 2017

Here is my another new year resolution in 2017 - improve productivity (see my previous 2017 new year resolution here. The source of these ideas are from http://www.businessinsider.com/bad-habits-that-killing-productivity-2016-12.

Get out of the bed when the alarm clock buzzes
Get enough sleep
Do not keep the tablet next to the bed. I keep the smartphone next to the bed as my alarm clock
Do not skip breakfast and drink some hot tea before going to the toilet in the morning
Complete the hardest and most important tasks at the beginning of the day
Do not check email throughout the day, especially in the middle of the night. When wake up in the morning, only check if there is missing call or text message. Do not read the email until later of the day
Do not eat junk food or eat less junk food
Focus on 3 ~ 5 of the most important goals and ignore the rest
Do not sit all day and walk 50,000 steps in a week
Do not multitask
Do not skip the workout
Do not look up the answer of a random question that just popped into your head. Write it down and search later
Do not overplan the schedule, instead plan for 4 ~ 5 hours of read work each day
Do not underplan
Do not accept a meeting unless the person who requested it has put forth a clear agenda and stated exactly how much time they will need
Abandon perfectionism

Here are my short summary of the article “Learning From A Year of Security Breaches” that are applicable to most of work environments.

Centralize logs, including host, application, authentication, and infrastructure, into as few system as possible; make critical logs alertable; but be aware of user privacy in what you log
You might not find the root cause of a beach because of weakness in the environment, systems or people; practicing incident response can indentify these weakness
Attackers will target employee’s home, personal email, or device to breach the corporate security; Educate your employees to improve their security practices and involve the corporate security team even if they have personal security issues
Avoid putting secrets and keys into source code
Protect employees’ credential by integrating Single Sing On or Multi Factor Authentication
Be aware of insider threats
Measure and eliminate the security debt - cutting corners for fast growth

Here is the first day result of following my 2017 new year resolution - improve sleep quality

Went to bed at 10:2x p.m. According to my Fitbit, slept at 10:34 p.m. and woke up at 3:53 a.m., and time asleep 5 hours and 9 minutes with 10 minutes restless. I know I woke up at 2:19 a.m. and 3:24 a.m. to check the time on my Fitbit. Then I am fully awake from a dream at 3:24 a.m.
Did not drink any sola the whole day
Drank half glass of water before going to bed
Did not exercise the whole day, and walked 7,578 steps
Shut down the computer at 10:1x p.m., did not read on the phone and tablet in bed
Kept the phone next to the bed as the alarm clock. When waking up, I checked if there is any phone call or text message (the anwers is no); I did not read any email even there are some on the phone.

Conclusion

Going to bed at 10 p.m. may be too early for me. I may move to 10:30 p.m.
When wake up, check for phone call or text message only. Do not read any email until 6 a.m. or the start of a normal day

Sleep at least 6 hours and 30 minutes each day. I will go to bed at 10 p.m. except Saturday.
Do not drink sola after 4 p.m. or 6 hours before bedtime. I do not drink alcohol and rarely drink coffee.
Drink half glass of water before going to bed
Do not exercise after 7 p.m. or 3 hours before bedtime
Do not read or watch on the smartphone, tablet, or computer after 9 p.m. or 1 hour before bedtime. This one will be difficult.
Do not put the smartphone or tablet next to the bed

Eddie's Blog