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My list of daily goals

November 19, 2020 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A few weeks back I started tracking a list of daily goals. These are separate from any to-do items I might have, and unrelated to anything on my calendar. They’re simply a list of things I’d like to accomplish every day.

As of today, it’s a list of four main goals with five sub-goals in various areas. Here’s what they look like, along with some quick notes on each:

  • Publish blog: Publish a blog post daily, like this one
  • Work out: This can be checked off after both of the sub-tasks are done.
    • Pushups: Do some number of push-ups each day, typically a few dozen.
    • Walk or Run: Walk or run some distance; usually outside, if not on the treadmill.
  • Clarity break: Take time for a clarity break at some point, as I detailed in my post yesterday.
  • Reading: This can be checked off based on the three sub-tasks.
    • Pocket: Read at least one of my saved articles from Pocket.
    • Blinkist: Read at least one book from Blinkist, going through the process I described here.
    • Reading beyond Blinkist: Do some degree of reading beyond Blinkist. I’m usually working on a few books in my Kindle, so at least open it and read a bit.

Growth Without Goals

I’m constantly adjusting my list, and Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s “Growth Without Goals” article was a big help. Patrick’s has a somewhat similar list that looks like this:

  • No complaining
  • 100 push ups
  • Run
  • No sugar
  • Write 500 words
  • Read
  • Don’t eat until noon (intermittent fasting)
  • Floss
  • Spend time in the woods (running or hiking)
  • Family Time
  • Level Up
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There’s plenty more to be added, but it’s already a difficult list to hit every day. While my plan is to finish them all daily, it’s fairly rare that I get to everything.

For more about how I manage this list each day, I’ve included a few sections in my Roam Research course that you may find helpful. Check it out.

Do you have a similar list? If so, leave a comment below and share with us.

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Filed Under: Health, Learning, Productivity

Digging into Android Wear 2.0

February 13, 2017 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutesLast week Google announced Android Wear 2.0, the first major upgrade to their watch software. Google wrote an in-depth blog post that covers all of the new features, and this video shows them off a bit:

Similar to the iPhone vs Android battle, Google released their watch first in 2014 (and Apple followed suit the following year), but then Apple made big improvements and Google is catching back up. Along with the new software, Google and their partners released a variety of new watches, some of which can be seen here:

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You can make good arguments that the Apple Watch is superior, but it’s hard to say that the Google watches aren’t better looking. Since my watch (the Moto 360 v2, seen in this post) is a getting a bit older, I’m considering one of the new watches. However, I’m not quite sold yet. It’s not that they’re bad watches, but I’m just not sure they hit what I need.

Dumb smartwatches

When I purchased the Moto 360, I did it with the full intention of having a “dumb” smartwatch. I wanted something that would show me notifications and let me ask questions, but I had no need for 4G integration or GPS. I have a running watch (and a phone) to handle those. With that in mind, I got the nice-looking Moto 360, but with a sweat-unfriendly leather band. It looks great and works great, and I have other hardware to use when I work out.

The new watches are now cramming more features into them. The new LG Watch Sport has NFC for payments, GPS, 4G and a heart rate sensor. All good things, but not really things I need. The other main watch they just revealed is the LG Watch Style — a simpler watch without some of those extra sensors and features. I’m more attracted to that one, but it’s not really much different than my current watch.

Keep them separate?

I’ve been on the wrong side of history with the “separate” argument a few times. I remember when Google Maps added turn-by-turn support; I thought it was a pretty neat (which it was), but I preferred to keep my phone and my Garmin GPS separate. Now virtually everyone, including me, uses their phone for turn-by-turn navigation in the car.

Perhaps I’ll eventually want a single watch to do everything, but for now I’m a fan of my “dumb” smartwatch. Android Wear 2.0 should be arriving on it in a few weeks, so I’ll still get the new interface and many of the new bells and whistles. This big push from Google will also see a bunch of additional new watches released later this year, so perhaps one of those will catch my eye.

If you had your choice, what would be the watch you’d most like to wear?

Filed Under: Health, Technology

Track your habits with Habitbull

February 9, 2017 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutesI’m the kind of guy that likes to track things. We have many systems at GreenMellen for tracking work and progress, I wear a FitBit to track my steps, I have a GPS watch to track my runs, etc. However, there are a lot of other habits that I could track, so I started looking into those options.

Lifehacker recently had an article that showcased the best habit tracking apps for iPhone and that inspired me to dig in. While I don’t currently use an iPhone, some of the apps they showed were cross-platform, and others out there are Android-only. I typically always look for cross-platform apps (so I’m free to use whatever phone I want), so that’s where I dug in.

Habitica

I started with Habitica, which used to be known as HabitRPG. They make your habits feel like a video game, with accomplishments and power-ups and things like that to keep you inspired. It’s a neat idea, but comes across feeling a little cheesy. Here’s a screenshot from their site:

Habitbull

I then switched over to HabitBull, which is a clean and simple system for tracking habits. They don’t have web version (yet), but they have nice apps for iOS and Android so it covers my bases there.

For now I’m tracking things such as walking daily on the treadmill, publish a blog post every weekday, reaching inbox zero at some point during the day, and spending some time reading from a book.

The interface is easy to use, and it does the job nicely.

Do you track your daily habits? If so, what do you use?

Filed Under: Health, Productivity

Daily Burn for great workouts

February 7, 2017 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutesI’ve done P90X off and on for a few years, and I run outdoors periodically

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, and walk most evenings for a while on our treadmill. However, I started doing Daily Burn a few weeks ago (since pretty much everyone else at GreenMellen was already doing it) and I’m really enjoying it.

P90X gives a great workout, but it’s the same few DVDs over and over and over. During most of them I can recite their silly jokes word-for-word for the 30 minutes of the workout. Daily Burn is literally a new workout every day. They do them live each day at 9em EST, and then they’re available on-demand for the next 23 hours. I usually do mine around 7:30am, so it’s technically yesterday’s workout.

Do it anywhere

Another thing I like about Daily Burn is the ability to do it anywhere. P90X relied on DVDs, but Daily Burn is streamed from your device. It can be done through their website on virtually any computer, or from their iPhone or Android app. You can watch it right on the screen, or push it to your TV using Chromecast.

The workouts are solid

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I’m finding the workouts to be a good level of challenge for me. They’re not super hard, but they certainly push me most days. Different trainers have different levels of intensity, and my co-workers already know what to expect based on who the trainer is that day.

Starting at 9:30am is weird

I had wondered what happened if you were to start a workout at 9:30am, while they were in the middle of a live one. Could you still stream the old one? Ali did this a few days ago, and it was messy. You were pretty much forced to join in on the live one, but you couldn’t really pause it or rewind or anything. You either need to be all-in right at 9:00, or wait until 10:00 when it’s available on-demand.

If you’re looking for a good new workout, give Daily Burn a try. They have a 30-day trial, and then it’s $14.95/mo. They have a “premium” plan for $26.95/mo, but the basic plan will give you plenty to do.

What do you use to try to stay in shape?

Filed Under: Health

Wilt Chamberlain could have been better — can you?

December 28, 2016 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutesMalcolm Gladwell has produced some great content over the years, and a recent podcast of his had some very eye-opening thoughts.

Malcolm spent most of the podcast with Rick Barry, a basketball player who famously shot his free throws underhanded (“granny style”), as seen here:

Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was a famously horrible free throw shooter until he switched to an underhanded shot. He did that for a while, including during his famous 100-point game, before he went back to shooting it overhand (and missing a ton).

Wilt’s reasoning was that he simply “didn’t want to look like a sissy“. Shaquille O’Neal, another excellent basketball player that was also a very poor free throw shooter, had similar thoughts and said “I’d rather shoot zero than shoot underhanded“. In either case, the amazing careers of both men would have been considerably better if they had shot 80-90% from the foul line instead of closer to 50%.

NFL Draft

There are similar stats from the NFL draft. While teams are typically able to trade the #1 overall pick for 5-6 second round picks, statistically those players work out almost the same and the team that switches to the second round (with more picks) gains a huge advantage.

The year-over-year draft is similar, too — teams will give you more picks “next year” for a single pick this year, which is a horrible move for them. If owners would be willing to trade high picks for lower picks, and trade picks this year for next year, they would quickly have a huge advantage over every other team in the league. But none do it because of the need to win now and to try to get that “one guy” that might change everything.

Dak Prescott, currently leading the Dallas Cowboys to an amazing season, was the 135th pick in the draft last year. New England’s Tom Brady, a four-time Super Bowl winner, was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft. The numbers don’t lie, but owners aren’t willing to change their ways.

Go for it on fourth down

Stats have shown that football teams that routinely go for it on fourth down (rather than punting every time) have a significant advantage and will win an additional 1-2 games per year if they do it consistently. It just feels so risky that coaches are unwilling to do it, even if it really helps.

The threshold model

The problem that contributes to the above situations is known as the threshold model, a theory developed by Mark Ganovetter which explains why people often won’t do something until enough others do it first. Basketball players worry they’ll look silly if everyone else shoots free throws overhand, and football coaches won’t take the risk on fourth down in case they lose a game because of it.

Barefoot running

For me, barefoot running is my “underhanded free throw”. I don’t go totally barefoot, but run in LUNA Sandals and the difference has been shocking. I still don’t run nearly as often as I should, but once my body adapted to the sandals (after 20+ years of running in cushion-filled shoes), it’s very obvious that I can go further and faster without injury if I wear the sandals instead of the gel/air-filled shoes that are so popular.

The logic behind barefoot/sandal running is simple — instead of relying on 1/2″ of foam to cushion your body before the pavement hits your heel and goes up your leg, you are forced to run properly and handle the pounding the way your body intended (gentle landing on your forefoot, flex of the arch, flex of the ankle, flex of the knee).

My wife thinks they look silly, and I agree completely. I just don’t want to fight facts and look “proper” while continuing to injure myself. Rick Barry didn’t care how he looked, and he made the vast majority of his free throws. Conversely, Wilt Chamberlain didn’t want to look like a “sissy” and cost himself at least 3500 points over the course of his career. You’ve gotta pick a side.

Do what works

You should listen to Malcolm’s podcast and take the lesson to heart — follow the numbers and do what works. Here are a few more examples:

Add a second monitor: Depending on where you work, it may look silly to add a second monitor to your desk, but studies show that it can make you 30% more productive. Ignore the sideways glances and be productive.

Use the phone you work best on: You can argue Android vs iPhone all day, but use what works best for you regardless of what others around you are using. A great example is Ali, who happily uses the small iPhone SE because it works best for her, despite some “how can you use a phone that is so tiny?” kind of remarks she might hear.

There are undoubtedly other examples, so share yours in the comments below.

Look silly, but be awesome.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Health, Marketing

Whole 30, day zero

January 3, 2016 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutesMy wife and I are tackling Whole30 starting tomorrow, and it should be interesting. The concept is pretty brilliant, but will be painful.

In short, you need to consume no added sugar of any kind (real or fake), no alcohol, no grains, no legumes and no dairy. Wow! After the 30 days are over, you’re encouraged to slowly reintroduce those items into your diet, one at a time, and see how your body reacts. People that successfully make it 30 days say they feel amazing

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, and it becomes easy to see which foods slow them down.

While caffeine is allowed, my normal intake methods are not. Diet Mountain Dew has plenty of fake sugar, and my morning coffee has sugar and dairy. There are ways to make “approved” creamer, but I’ve never been a huge coffee fan anyhow. So, out with the caffeine!

Daily caffeine intake for 12/24/15–1/2/16

Daily caffeine intake for 12/24/15–1/2/16

The above is my caffeine intake for the past 10 days, finally hitting zero yesterday. The y axis on the chat is caffeine in mg; for a point of reference, a cup of coffee is 90mg and Diet Mountain Dew is 4.5mg/oz (so 54mg in a 12 ounce can). I started on a relatively low day (117) and worked down from there. Certainly had some headaches along the way, but it’s nice to have that out of the way before Whole30 begins.

Here we go…

Filed Under: Health

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