Hi everyone 👋,
🔥 What I have been doing this week
🕸 My main task this week has been further work on my new website where the main articles will be written and posted.
These things take time and mental energy which is difficult when you are sleep deprived and in a full time job.
📺 I have now drafted the review for second episode of Grand Designs on Channel 4 (UK) with a focus to the detail. I will be publishing my lessons learned shortly, once I have finalised the design of the website and the post format.
Make sure you subscribe to this newsletter (or share it with someone you think might also enjoy it) so you can read the first two reviews when they are released.
📝 Where to begin?
✍️ Quote of the week
I mentioned Ray Dalio in last weeks newsletter for his article he published on LinkedIn. This weeks quote is one from his book Principles.
I have been thinking about where the best place to start a self build property is. There is so much to learn and do that it can seem a bit overwhelming. The first thought was that I would start with the Plan, i.e. what is the structure of the journey. But then I realised that you can’t plan your journey unless you already know your destination. It isn’t possible to plan a house build without first knowing what you want to build.
Every great invention or design is inspired by something else so what better way to gain inspiration than creating a board of beautiful homes that exist today to help define the specification we will write?
A task for you this weekend is to create a board on Pinterest and pin inspirational pictures to your board of property you would love to live in or visit. It has opened my eyes to the possible features available.
Once done send me a link to your board! I’d love to see what inspires you.
📖 Interesting Things I’ve Read
Most of the reading I have been doing this week has been WordPress or Elementor related. If you wanted to create your own Blog website, I’d suggest taking a look at this guide.
🎥 Interesting Things I’ve Watched
Oppenheimer Trailer – I think Christopher Nolan has released some of the best movies over the past 15 years. The depth of the stories means you can watch them repeatedly and new things get revealed each time. Maybe a keener eye only needs to watch them once, but I need around three before I really understand the films. I’m excited to watch his latest film in a couple of months.
Dune: Part Two Trailer – This also looks good. Can’t say I had any interest in reading the books or seeing the original movies, but I watched the first part a couple of months ago when I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I’ll queue this up on my watchlist too.
🔗 Links
Here are links to books and other resources that I may have mentioned above or that I think you might find useful.
Book/Article Snippet
Apps I Use
Readwise – I’ve been paying for Readwise since 2021 and gained access to Readwise Reader Beta in 2022 and find it extremely useful for knowledge retention and research. I pass all my email newsletters through it and whenever I get a spare few minutes I can pick up where I last left off without any friction.
If you sign up using the link you’ll get an extra month free (two in total) so you can really test out the software without it costing you a penny. They don’t advertise widely so it is down to word of mouth like this that gets the tool new users. I find it invaluable.
Monzo – Carefully budgeting my spending is fundamental to being able to save towards the build. Monzo has helped me track and itemise spending for years. I now pay for the Premium account which gives me access to extra features and things like airport lounge access, phone insurance, worldwide travel insurance so it practically pays for itself. If you join using this link we’ll both get £5 (which I’ll use towards the build!).
Socials
I’m now on:
Instagram as @MeasureTwiceBuildOnce!
Pinterest as @MeasureTwiceBuildOnce
Thanks for reading!
Brendan