The Law of the Harvest

Here's the deal, you cannot achieve the results that other people have achieved without doing the things that they do. I'm really tired of hearing people say things like:

"well that just doesn't work for me"

 "I'm a unique situation"

"I can't do that because of [x]"

If you would like to exempt yourself from all that is hard in life then you must also exempt yourself from the rewards and success that come from what is hard.

It's sad, I know, but it turns out despite what some politicians may feel, the world does not and never has, owed you a living of any kind, let alone a successful one. The government, even if it wants to, cannot change natural law.

For example let's take the law of gravity, we can "defy" gravity in several ways these days: space shuttles, airplanes, hot air balloons, etc. But all of these work because of an understanding of gravity and not in spite of it. Congress cannot pass a law, or Obama issue an executive order, that can nullify the law of gravity. They could certainly write down and pass a law or issue an order that says such a thing, but it would have no effect and would be akin to the proverbial Emperor's new clothes.

The same is true of the natural law of the harvest:

We can only achieve success because of an understanding of the law and not in spite of it. There is no way around the fact that to reap first we must sow. Consequently we must sow the seeds of the plant we wish to reap.

Life at double speed: How to learn more by listening twice as fast

Learning is something that it seems quite certain we will never complete. For the life long learner there will never be enough time to discover, let alone study, everything that they may want to. This is the reason that I can get depressed walking through libraries if I let myself consider how many books there are that I will never read.

For this reason I have tried to find ways to learn faster, and one of the best ways I have found is to listen to things at double the speed. I try to listen to all spoken recordings at double speed. Podcasts, audiobooks, online courses, TED Talks, YouTube tutorials, all of it gets sped up if it can.

This pace can take some getting used to, but once you have developed the habit of listening this way you find it excruciating to go back to normal playback speed. It will seem so slow to you that it will be a burden to listen to it.

Of course some of this is dependent on the person you are listening to. Some people talk twice as fast as most people anyways and those you may not listen to at double, at least not right away. Other people talk so slow that you may want to speed them up even faster than double speed, but I don't know of a way to do that without going through more work than would be worth it. So a general rule of thumb is to go at double speed.

Here is a quick rundown of how to listen at double speed to the content I mentioned above.

Podcasts
The native podcasts app on iOS 8 makes it easy to listen at double speed. You simply click the speed button in the lower left corner that normally says 1x and change it to 2x. You could also start with 1.5x if it makes you more comfortable starting out, that is what I did.

Podcast hosts vary widely on the speed that the talk so it can take more getting use to with some than it does with others, but I have found that all the podcasts I listen to regularly can be listened to just fine on double speed and after some practice it sounds normal to my ears.

Most 3rd party podcast apps also have a speed up option, some with more granular control than Apple's native app.

Audiobooks
For audiobooks, it depends on which app you are using, but most have the speed up options. For example I listen to books in both Librivox and Overdrive and they both allow you to speed up your listening.

Librivox

Overdrive

Audiobooks are almost always recorded at a slow pace and so they can be sped up with very little trouble. I also find that annoying voices are less troublesome at double speed.

Online Courses
If you take a course online the instructors will likely talk slower than they need to for you at certain times, while other times you may need to go back and listen again to catch a difficult concept. When they are speaking slowly it can be helpful to put them on double speed. The service I have used for online courses, Udemy, does not allow you to speed up videos when you watch in a web browser, but when you use it iOS app you can. So check and see if your service has an app, and chances are you can speed up the videos there.

TED Talks
TED talks are an invaluable resource when it comes to learning and expanding your understanding. Most of them can easily be listened to in half the time. Unfortunately the TED app on iOS does not give you the option of playing either video or audio at double speed, so I don't use it. Instead I suggest using the native podcast app to listen to or watch talks on the various TED podcast channels, or watch them on YouTube as explained below.

YouTube
The ubiquitous video site is one of the great founts of knowledge in the 21st century. Nearly anything you might want to learn can be learned on YouTube, to the point that I once said I was a graduate of the U of YouTube. However this learning can be done much faster if you learn to watch at double speed.

This particular method requires you to do a little prep work because the YouTube app does not currently allow double speed playback.
Go to http://youtube.com/html5 and make sure you are signed into your YouTube/Google account. Then click the check box to use the html5 player. Once you have done that you will find an extra option under the settings gear on YouTube videos that will allow you to change the playback speed. You can do this on your iPad or iPhone as long as you watch videos in safari and are signed into your YouTube account.

And there you have it, a simple way to speed up your learning that you can do today! I hope you find this article helpful, and that you will share it on your social networks. If you use other apps to speed up learning please tell us in the comments below.

Enjoy learning at double speed, and remember, live better.

The dangers of consumption

Once Tuberculosis was one of the most deadly killers in the world, and during that time it was commonly referred to by a different name: Consumption. This was because it would decimate the infected person's body weight while it was destroying their lungs. In essence it would "consume" them.

Now we live in a time when, at least here the U.S. where I live, Tuberculosis is fairly well under control. In some parts of the world it is still deadly. But here in the U.S. we now have a different kind of "consumption" disease, one that attacks the mind instead of the lungs, and which tends to increase rather than decrease the person's body weight. And there is a real danger to how quickly this infection is spreading. 

Let me explain: there are primarily two kinds of actions we can take as human beings, actions of consumption and actions of creation. Whenever we eat, read, watch, or view something we are acting in consumption. Whenever we grow, cook, write, draw, film, edit, speak, design, program, build, invent, or think something we are acting in creation. 

Of all the animals in the world we are the only ones that have moved from consumption to creation. I personally believe this is because we are not animals but children of a divine creator. But, whatever you believe you cannot deny that this is the case, no other species creates on the level of humans.

The symptoms
But even though we are the only creative species on the planet we have come to a point where we value consumption above all else. Let me share a few examples:

Netflix:
The streaming giant has built an empire out of consumption. Now don't get me wrong I like Netflix as much as the next guy, and no corporation or technology can be held responsible for our own personal actions, but I have gotten concerned with the introduction of the auto play feature. What this introduces is the rampant consumption of one T.V. show after another (which yes I know people were doing before anyway).

Here is the concern, this symptom points to an underlying problem that people consume without thought anymore, they are seeking the stimulus above all else, and have to seek more and more of that stimulus. People no longer think about what they are taking in, they don't analyze the work that has been put before them, in essence they don't create anything with what they have consumed. Like little Pacmen they go through life with their mouths wide open, constantly seeking to consume more and more of whatever stimulates.

Movie Theaters:
Go to movies sometime, and stay in the theater until the credits have finished rolling, then look around you. If there happens by some lucky chance to be somebody left you should make friends with that person. Why? Because they value creation. They have stayed around long enough to give a little bit of respect as a consumer to the people who create.

Besides respect there is another good reason to stay through the credit roll, it gives you a chance for contemplation of the film you have just seen. This gives you a chance to make meaning from it, the opportunity to become a creator. The soundtrack of the film and the concept art that often accompanies the credit roll help to facilitate thoughtful remembrance of it. If you came with someone you could even talk with them about what they thought; because guess what, there is nobody else in the theater.

So often our consumption of movies and other entertainment never goes beyond the superficial question of : "did you like that?" we never get to the more important question of why? A question that invites creation. In fact being a thoughtful consumer of media these days can often make people annoyed. They do not want to actually think about anything. They have already moved on to seeking the next stimulus and if you are still contemplating the last one they find that frustrating because it requires something of them, something they are not prepared to deal with.

In addition to movie theaters we could talk about live theaters. I have been to broadway shows that I know people have paid hundreds of dollars to attend only to see people get up a leave before the curtain call, sometimes before the last scene because they think the last scene has happened. Far more than at movie theaters this is a sign of complete and utter disrespect for the creators who have just put so much work into providing you with entertainment. But you don't have time to stay because you need to move on to the next stimulus, probably your smartphone.

We are like a culture of addicts, constantly looking for the next hit, never satisfied by what we have just consumed.

Throw-away culture
Let's turn away from entertainment for a moment to look at physical objects. When was the last time you repaired something or paid to have something repaired? Probably not recently. See repairing is an act of sub-creation, and we don't value that in our society. The only things we repair are those that we still consider major expenses: cars and houses. What do we value? The ability to consume rapidly. If my toaster or my television is broken that endangers my ability to consume so it has to go and be replaced by a new one. A snazzier one that will probably break twice as quickly.

Divorce
I am not going to deal with this in depth, it is just another manifestation of the throwaway culture of rapid consumption we live in. We don't fix things, we throw them away and get new ones, whether that be toasters or spouses. Marriage is act of creation at its very core, it is no wonder then that it cannot survive when viewed merely as an activity of consumption. When the stimulus is gone or ceases to be easy, we move on to the next hit.

You were created for more

The truth of the matter is that you were meant to be a creator. It is creation that actually drives the human mind to joy. It is creation that advances society. It is creation that brings us closer to that divine Creator who created us.

What can be done?
Well, we won't change the whole world with one blog post, but you can change, and you can do it now. If you recognize symptoms of rampant consumption in your own life, then stop being that way and start being a creator.

Analysis
They first step I believe is to stop taking in without putting out. So the next time you go to a movie, or watch a show on Netflix or Youtube, begin with analysis. Go deeper than a superficial "did you like it." Ask why you liked it? Ask what the major theme was? Ask how you feel about the characters moral choices? Ask what the symbols were and what they represented?

If know one will talk to you because this behavior of creation is too radical for them, then do it yourself, you could write it down to make it more real.

Here is the point, stop going to consume things and brining nothing to them. Everyone can at least bring thinking to everything that they do. So don't take anything in without making something of it. If your body did that it would die, your mind is the same way.

Analysis will actually cause you to start seeking higher quality content, because you will know that whatever you consume you are going to be thinking about a good while to follow. This is the same with food, once you start thinking about what you are eating you start eating better.

The Internet
The internet has enabled massive mindless consumption of worthless low quality content on a global scale. But it has enabled every person with access to it to become a creator of something. It has enabled both the acts of creation, and learning how to do them. It has also facilitated conversation and analysis on a large scale.

So decide that the internet will become more than a tool of consumption for you. Decide to do something with what you find there. And not just anything, but something meaningful.

I know this has been a long post, but I think it is important. Please share this post. There is danger here and so I hope this post will inspire at least one person to think, remember, and live better.

Technology Quotes from October 2014 LDS General Conference

Every six months after the LDS Church's General Conference, I compile together all the quotes I can find that talk about technology or social media. As a member of the Church I feel it is important to know what the leaders of the Church are saying about technology. My philosophy is, why have Prophets and Apostles, if you won't listen to them?

This conference in general had the tone of raising a warning voice to the members of the Church, there was much encouragement to do better, and to be better. And that trend was certainly present in the quotes about technology and media. The Church embraces technology and media for the good it can, but the leaders who see afar off also raise a warning voice of the potential pitfalls.

I hope you find this compilation useful, and please let me know in the comments or on twitter if there are any quotes that I missed.

 President Packer: "This great conference is being broadcast in 94 languages by satellite to 102 countries but is also available on the Internet to every nation where the Church is present. We have over 3,000 stakes. Our full-time missionary force exceeds 88,000, and total Church membership has passed 15 million. These numbers serve as evidence that the “stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands” continues to roll forth and will eventually fill “the whole earth” (D&C 65:2)." (The Reason for Our Hope)

 President Uchtdorf: "Suppose you were able to travel back in time and have a conversation with people who lived a thousand or even a hundred years ago. Imagine trying to describe to them some of the modern technologies that you and I take for granted today. For example, what might these people think of us if we told them stories of jumbo jets, microwave ovens, handheld devices that contain vast digital libraries, and videos of our grandchildren that we instantly share with millions of people around the world?

Some might believe us. Most would ridicule, oppose, or perhaps even seek to silence or harm us. Some might attempt to apply logic, reason, and facts as they know them to show that we are misguided, foolish, or even dangerous. They might condemn us for attempting to mislead others.

But of course, these people would be completely mistaken. They might be well-meaning and sincere. They might feel absolutely positive of their opinion. But they simply would not be able to see clearly because they had not yet received the more complete light of truth." (Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth)

 Elder Andersen: "We might remind the sincere inquirer that Internet information does not have a “truth” filter. Some information, no matter how convincing, is simply not true." (Joseph Smith)

 Elder Perry: "That old enemy of all mankind has found as many devices as he can think of to scatter tares far and wide. He has found ways to have them penetrate even the sanctity of our own homes. The wicked and worldly ways have become so widespread there seems to be no real way of weeding them out. They come by wire and through the air into the very devices we have developed to educate and entertain us. The wheat and the tares have grown close together. A steward managing the field must, with all his or her power, nourish that which is good and make it so strong and beautiful the tares will have no appeal either to the eye or the ear. How blessed are we as members of the Lord’s Church to have the precious gospel of our Lord and Savior as a foundation on which we can build our lives." (Finding Lasting Peace and Building Eternal Families)

 Elder Cook: "I recently met a fine teenage young man. His goals were to go on a mission, obtain an education, marry in the temple, and have a faithful happy family. I was very pleased with his goals. But during further conversation, it became evident that his conduct and the choices he was making were not consistent with his goals. I felt he genuinely wanted to go on a mission and was avoiding serious transgressions that would prohibit a mission, but his day-to-day conduct was not preparing him for the physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual challenges he would face.7 He had not learned to work hard. He was not serious about school or seminary. He attended church, but he had not read the Book of Mormon. He was spending a large amount of time on video games and social media. He seemed to think that showing up for his mission would be sufficient. Young men, please recommit to worthy conduct and serious preparation to be emissaries of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My concern is not only about the big tipping-point decisions but also the middle ground—the workaday world and seemingly ordinary decisions where we spend most of our time. In these areas, we need to emphasize moderation, balance, and especially wisdom. It is important to rise above rationalizations and make the best choices.

A wonderful example of the need for moderation, balance, and wisdom is the use of the Internet. It can be used to do missionary outreach, to assist with priesthood responsibilities, to find precious ancestors for sacred temple ordinances, and much more. The potential for good is enormous. We also know that it can transmit much that is evil, including pornography, digital cruelty,8 and anonymous yakking. It can also perpetuate foolishness. As Brother Randall L. Ridd poignantly taught at the last general conference, speaking of the Internet, “You can get caught up in endless loops of triviality that waste your time and degrade your potential.”

Distractions and opposition to righteousness are not just on the Internet; they are everywhere. They affect not just the youth but all of us. We live in a world that is literally in commotion. We are surrounded by obsessive portrayals of “fun and games” and immoral and dysfunctional lives. These are presented as normal conduct in much of the media.

Elder David A. Bednar recently cautioned members to be authentic in the use of social media. A prominent thought leader, Arthur C. Brooks, has emphasized this point. He observes that when using social media, we tend to broadcast the smiling details of our lives but not the hard times at school or work. We portray an incomplete life—sometimes in a self-aggrandizing or fake way. We share this life, and then we consume the “almost exclusively … fake lives of [our] social media ‘friends.’” Brooks asserts, “How could it not make you feel worse to spend part of your time pretending to be happier than you are, and the other part of your time seeing how much happier others seem to be than you?”

Sometimes it feels like we are drowning in frivolous foolishness, nonsensical noise, and continuous contention. When we turn down the volume and examine the substance, there is very little that will assist us in our eternal quest toward righteous goals. One father wisely responds to his children with their numerous requests to participate in these distractions. He simply asks them, “Will this make you a better person?”" (Choose Wisely)

 Elder Scott: "Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!" (Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority)

 Sister Marriott: "Sisters, you strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ. I have watched your examples, heard your testimonies, and felt of your faith from Brazil to Botswana! You carry a circle of influence with you wherever you go. It is felt by the people around you—from your family to the contacts in your cell phone and from your friends on social media to those seated next to you tonight. I agree with Sister Harriet Uchtdorf, who wrote, “You … are vibrant and enthusiastic beacons in an ever-darkening world as you show, through the way you live your lives, that the gospel is a joyful message." (Sharing Your Light)

 President Uchtdorf: ""We need to accept that the commandments of God aren’t just a long list of good ideas. They aren’t “life hacks” from an Internet blog or motivational quotes from a Pinterest board. They are divine counsel, based on eternal truths, given to bring “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” (Living the Gospel Joyful)

"Do you suppose it matters to our Heavenly Father whether your makeup, clothes, hair, and nails are perfect? Do you think your value to Him changes based on how many followers you have on Instagram or Pinterest? Do you think He wants you to worry or get depressed if some un-friend or un-follow you on Facebook or Twitter? Do you think outward attractiveness, your dress size, or popularity make the slightest difference in your worth to the One who created the universe?" (Living the Gospel Joyful)

Meet the Mormons, Advanced Review

I was recently privileged to attend an advanced screening of the new movie Meet the Mormons. This is the first theatrically released film ever produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (otherwise known as the Mormons). It is a documentary detailing the lives of six ordinary members of the Church. Its purpose is to help the world know what Mormons are really like. I'll give my spoiler free feelings first and then my spoiler thoughts after.

Title: Meet the Mormons
Stars: 4
Type: Documentary

My feeling over all is that the movie is GREAT. So why four stars? Because it was awesome, and 5 stars are hard to come by. You can read my star policy here.

The movie was fast paced because they have to cover 6 lives in just over an hour of movie time. The stories that the tell are diverse, and all of them are amazing. I do not think you will feel board at any time during this film if you love to learn about great people. Learning from great people is something I encourage here at ProductivityPad.

The film is very diverse in its setting. I think a clear purpose was to help get rid of the stereotype that all Mormons live in Utah. Two of the six individuals live outside the U.S., and of the four who do live in U.S. only one is lives in Utah. Out of the six only two are ethnically white.

The movie is not heavy on the doctrine of the Church, which is good because the purpose of this film is not so much to show what we as Mormons believe, but more about who we are as people.

As a piece of cinematography I was impressed with the film, particularly considering the small number of people who worked on it. Documenting six different lives in six different locations is a lot of filming.

If you would like to see the film go check out the locations page to see if it is playing near you. And if it isn't you can request it in your city. If they get enough requests from a location they will come to it. And remember that all proceeds from this film go to the Red Cross, the Church receives no commercial benefit from it.

Spoilers: if you don't want to know anything about the stories before seeing the film stop here.

Alright so I will now talk about my least favorite part of the film which happens to be the very beginning. The opening and ending of the film is a girl in New York City. She is not one of the Mormons whose story the film tells, but she serves as the frame of the film over all. I found her to be annoying and I'm glad they did not have her do much narration during the actual stories.

My least favorite part was easy to choose, but my favorite part was a harder choice because so much of the film was good. Each story has a "meet the" title followed a descriptor of the person they highlight. Probably the most touching story for me personally was the Missionary Mom.

4 out of the 6 individuals were not born in the church but converted later in life, and the Missionary Mom is one of those. This means that not only do they talk about her sending her son on a mission but they also talk quite a bit about her own conversion to the gospel. Having been a missionary myself and having worked with people in very similar situations I found this story really struck home for me.

You are set up in the beginning of that story to think that amidst all these other stories you are about to get the tale of some regular Mormons in Utah, sending their son on a mission. But that is just what they want you to think before they delve into her back story as a young single mom on the streets having fled her abusive addict mother. The story of her rescue is an amazing one of missionary work and faith. And it is one of the places you can clearly see the ripple effect of the choices we make.

Well I will stop spoiling the movie for you now. But it was great and I hope you have the chance to go see it. It doesn't matter who you are I think you will be inspired by these stories.

I think seeing the good others do inspires us to remember, to live better.

How to use, and not use, your iPhone or iPad at Church

So, with the recent devotionals from Elder Ballard and Elder Bednar on Technology and my own thoughts on the use of screens, the natural extension is to think about how those screens are being used or should be used at Church. Now these are just my own thoughts on the matter, they aren't doctrine, and they are aimed primarily at members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) since that is the church I am a member of.

I will break this up into two sections: how to use, and how not to use. The second section is the one likely to offend the most people, but the first one will offend some of the more paper centric crowed. I would ask whatever camp you fall into that you not actually get offend but that you take these ideas and see if they can help you live better.

Screen Test: Enhance or Detract

For a while now I have been concerned about screens. I have two main concerns:

1. the amount of time I spend in front of a screen
2. life being filtered through a screen

Now I am clearly not anti technology by any means, I write a technology blog, I work in the social media industry, I am getting my masters degree in instructional technology, and I will be teaching a class this fall on using technology in the classroom. In fact I am starkly opposed to those who talk about technology as thought in cannot produce anything more than superficial stimulus with no meaningful experiences.

But I am concerned because the area is still new and we don't know much about its effects.

I admit that I don't want to live in a Wall-e like world where all interactions take place through a screen. 

I think in the early 2000's we teetered near this fate as more work became computer centric and tied people to desktops and laptops. I believe we were pulled back from this by the mobile revolution that began to take place after the iPhone and then the iPad were released. People are coming to realize that while most jobs now have a computer or internet component to them (for many communication), many do not require you to constantly be in front of a traditional computer because they can be done from anywhere on a mobile device.

I consider this a good thing, because I believe that the less obtrusive technology can be while still bringing enhancements to our lives, the better.

What concerns me now is that this new ecosystem of mobile computing has brought with it its own challenges. The accessibility of the screens when we are out of the house has made us subject to constant drive for more.

More what?

168 hour log: Week 1, Late Nights

Well we have now passed week 1 of my 168 hour log project. I did not get as much filled out I was hoping to.

Originally I was planning to fill the sheet out each night before going to bed. Incidentally that is not what Laura Vanderkam says to do. She says to take the sheet every where with you and to fill it out throughout the day. I may have seen better success if I had followed this advice.

Regardless what I did learn is that late nights and holidays do mess up the regular flow of your week, but that they are valuable in their own way. Because of Independence Day things got thrown off towards the end of the week. But when I have gone back and tried to reconstruct and color code it, I found that almost all of it was family time. Since this category is very important to me it is great to see it get a whole day once in a while.

Another observation I had this week was that life does not always fit into half hour increments. This is something I am thinking about, I could modify the chart to make it be 15 minute segments, but that would end up making it twice as long as it is. I think that might make it unwieldily and hurt its usefulness as an evaluative tool. Let me know your thought on this or anything else having to do with the 168 hour log.

Thanks for reading. Happy Independence Day, and remember, live better.

The 168 Hour Log: Filling Out the Sheet

Yesterday I realized that I am once again at a place in my life where I am either not happy with what I am achieving, or at least I don't feel that I am. It could be possible that I am actually achieving plenty but that I don't know that I am because I have unrealistically set more things for myself to do than are actually achievable (I have been known to do to this before). I just started my graduate program at BYU this past week, so that could have something to do with it...

After talking to my wife about this during our weekly planning and goal meeting we decided I should redo a wonderful productivity tool called the 168 hour log. I first discovered this tool from Laura Vanderkam when she was on Beyond the Todo List.

The concept behind the 168 hour log is that you will use the next week to do something, every hour in it, so let's log what that is so we can analyze it and use it better. So I am going to try this again since I am at a new phase of my life here, and I am going to bring you all along for the ride.

When you lose the routine

You may have noticed that I have not published anything in over 2 weeks, even though I was publishing pretty frequently before that. Well, what happened was my routine got thrown off, and I am a creature of habit. I rely on the habits I have ingrained into my life to make me productive.

This is particularly true in the morning and at night. I have highly structured process for the first 3 hours and the last hour of each day. These automatic routines allow me to accomplish a certain set of tasks everyday, but when they get thrown of by something I become a much less productive individual.

What happened to me was I got sick, the day I last published a post I was fine in the morning but by the time  I got home from my day job I was feeling awful. The trouble with being sick is that you need to get lots of rest, at least I do. Consequently I end up going to bed later and sleeping in longer, which cuts off two of my most important routines.

Now it is important to take care of yourself, the real problem arrises out of the fact that good habits are so easy to break. Once you have a habit in maintenance mode you don't want to get out of it. But sometimes our legs get taken out from under us and then what do we do?

For me it depends largely on triggers. What triggers the habit to occur? See the difference for me, in terms of habits, with a vacation and being sick is that when I am sick I still have all my habit triggers around me. Whereas when I am on vacation I leave them behind and go into a different environment. So when I return from vacation my habits are still triggered correctly. When I get done being sick though, my body has trained itself to ignore the triggers.

At this point it takes work to get back into the habit. It is not going to be as hard as establishing the habit the first time, because the patterns have already been made in your brain, but it will be difficult. So what I am doing is slowly adding one thing back into my morning routine each day. Today it is blogging, so you got this post.

I hope you find these thoughts helpful, and that they help you to remember to live better.

The Todo List Quest: life without a list

Sorry for my absence, I was busily graduating and visiting family over the past weekend and consequently have had a lot to catch up on.



But I have learned something from this time away, and that is that life without a list is no good. The number of todo list apps on my phone currently sits at 15. But none of them have been functioning as my list over the past week. It is very hard to know what to do and when to do it without my lists.

Fortunately at work I have been using todoist and it seems to be working well there. At work we are all google apps and todoist's gmail intergration and chrome extension are great. But personally I haven't yet hit on a solution that I just love. I also want to make sure that my quest is comprehensive for all of you following. The spreadsheet which will allow easy comparison is in the works.

The problem is that I need to have something now because I am constantly finding my self not knowing what to do. I found that some list is better than no list, and that one place is better than fifteen places.

So, temporarily, I have returned IQTELL to my dock and will be using it for now (as of this writing they have not forced payment, but I'm not sure if that is because it hasn't been implemented or if I am still in the "trial" period).

In other news, today the google fiber truck will be coming to out house, so we should be restored to the internet soon after 9 months without it.

That's all for now, but remember, live better.

The ToDo List Quest: Part 1

I have recently embarked on a quest of sorts. It is a quest to find the perfect todo list. When a person like me decides to, or has to, change their entire task management structure it is a bit of a big deal, which is why I am calling it a quest!

What Happened
As most readers probably know I have been happily using the IQTELL platform for some time now, particularly since the added their email integration to the mobile app. I have had my problems with it, which I have discussed on this blog, but overall it was a good system. Particularly it worked well because it was made with David Allen's GTD system in mind.

However the IQTELL team just recently announced their new pricing model, which I am currently unable to afford (my twitter followers will know how I feel about budgeting). This is sad because I really did feel that it was a good system and it may actually be worth the money, I just take an issue with SaaS generally though.

Can't Go Back
My thought upon needing to leave IQTELL was that I wound just return to my previous system with Producteev. However, after redownloading the app I encountered a problem: It No Longer Works Offline! Now this would be a problem for anyone because even in this era there are still times when we have no connection or want to be off the grid but still need to get things done. It is though a particular problem for someone like me that has no internet connection at home. So going back doesn't seem feasible.

The Quest
So I have started a quest to find the right todo list. I am going to be testing apps until I find the right one. You can follow my adventures here on this blog, or in real time on twitter, I will be using the #todolistquest on all tweets involving this topic.
You can let me know which apps you have liked by leaving them in the comments below or by tweeting @halduauthor and using #todolistquest. My next post will be on the criteria that I am looking for.
We will see what happens on this quest and if I can find a way to live better.

App Review: Grid Diary

Name: Grid Diary
Price: 2.99
Stars: 3.5
Type: Journaling








This year I really wanted to bump up my journal writing. 2013 was the first year that I had written in my journal every single day of the year (in 2012 I had missed one day). But even though I had developed the habit of daily writing I did not feel like the quality of my entries was very high. It is often hard for me, at the end of a long day to think of anything meaningful to write down and my journal was more a list of events than anything else.

So I determined at the end of last year that I wanted to start using some kind of journaling app, particularly I wanted one that would sync with Evernote. That is when I discovered grid diary.

The Concept
The idea behind Grid Diary is simple yet elegant. Each day you are presented with a grid of squares that contain questions that serve as writing prompts. There are many questions so that if you don't feel like answering any one of them you can just switch it out for another. You can even put in your own prompt if you so desire.


For me it is nice to have some questions to get my thinking primed since by the end of the day I am often so tired I don't even remember what happened, let alone how it was meaningful to my life.

The diary also asks you for the weather that day and for a emoticon meter on how the day was as a whole. Those are nice little things to know when you go back and read them later. If you use the app moves to track your activity you can import data from that to know how active you were that day. I have never used that feature though so I can't speak to how well it works.


I normally answer 3 to 4 question prompts in the Grid Diary each night. Then once a month I export them to Evernote so that I have another backup of them. You can also export them to Dropbox if you want; it also has iCloud backup for between devices.

A few problems

I have many, many apps. Grid Diary is one of just a handful that, because of its purpose, I use everyday. To use it everyday I have to like it a lot, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its problems.

One of the glaring issues is that they have not created the app native to the iPad. If you want to run it on the iPad you have use the iPhone app magnified. Fortunately since the introduction of iOS 7 magnified apps have looked and worked leaps and bounds better than they use to. Still, I always journal on my iPad and never on my iPhone so it would be nice and it would look a little better if it was native or universal.

I have not really liked a lot of the changes from the most recent major update. Thankfully after some complaining on the part of the users they did bring back the randomize questions option. Unfortunately they only offer this for all questions. It would be much better if you also had the option to do it for individual questions as well. Sometimes you don't want to get rid of every question on the screen.


Sometimes when exporting to Evernote there will be a few files that don't make the jump for some reason. It would be nice when this happened if it at least told you which files those were.

I would also like to see them put in an option for multiple weather types on a single, living in Utah there can some days be quite the variety of weather and it would be nice to be able to record it.

Well those are just a few things that I hope will get better, overall as I said, it is a great app. I use it daily and have found that it has improved my journaling immensely. If you are looking for a way to be a better journal writer I highly recommend it.

If you have a favorite journal app would you please let us know about it in the comments below. Journaling, and especially thoughtful journaling, is a great help in remembering to live better.

App Review: Ninja Fitness

Name: Ninja Fitness
Price: Free or 99¢
Stars: 4
Type: Workout game

Some people will remember that I reviewed the Gorilla Workout app a while ago and really liked it. Well this app is from the same people over at Heckr. It is a really great app for those who are looking for workouts they can do quickly at home.

The Concept
The idea is to gamify your workout. You are a young ninja in training by an ancient and often comedic sensei, Master Old Beard. You have to buy new workouts and gear with "ninja stars" which you earn by completing workouts. You also get stat points in four different areas of training. You must achieve certain numbers of stats to get new colors of belts.

Four Areas
Where this app really surpasses Gorilla Workout is by having four areas of development which you can choose to work on. These are Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Zen.

These areas must each reach certain levels of skill points before you can advance to the next belt, and certain belts are required to purchase better gear. This encourages you to take a balanced approach to your training instead of focusing on just one area that you are good at or that you enjoy.

The strength and agility workouts cover most of the same exercises that the gorilla workout did, but the endurance and zen areas have new workouts focusing on cardio and stretching. Each workout is timed depending on its difficulty and the ninja star reward for completing it.



Your Ninja
Basically the whole point of the game is to customize your 3D ninja self with weapons and armor. You can choose whether or not you are a boy or a girl when you start as well as giving yourself a ninja name. Then you can choose the hair style, hair color, and facial structure that are most your style.

Problems
While I like the app a lot, and it seems to be very stable, there are a few things I wish would be improved.

The first is that there is no audio playback during workouts, I alway like to listen to music or podcasts while I do cardio, but I can't do that and have the ninja workout run at the same time because if you leave the app the workout will pause. This seems like a major oversight and a gap in market research since many people listen to audio while working out. Audio playback in other apps is totally possible in iOS so I do not know what the excuse for this is.

My second complaint is that while it is fun to level up my ninja, the ninja doesn't actually do anything and the store selection is small for ninja gear. I think there should have at least been some type of mini game that the ninjas could engage in so that their armor, weapons, and stats actually matter. This would give greater motivation to completing balanced workouts.

My last problem with the app is that unlike gorilla workout there is no offline instruction on how to do the exercises. Gorilla had written instructions in the app and video instruction online, but Ninja Fitness has only the online videos and the app freezes if you click on one of these without an internet connection, making it impossible to complete any exercises you are unfamiar with.

Well other than those few problems the app is very good and well put together. It makes it fun to workout (well as fun as a workout can be anyway) so I encourage you to check it out. Their is a limited free version, but I would suggest using this to check it out and not to spend too much time on it because your stats, gear, and ninja stars will not transfer to the full version.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts on this or other workout apps below and also let me know any questions you might have. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

Why Productive People Make Their Beds

Do you make your bed everyday? You probably did when you were a kid and your mom constantly reminded you. Then you went to college and reveling in your new found freedom you decided you were going to leave your bed a mess... or you started waking up at 8:05 for your 8:00 class. That was probably the end of any kind of bed making routine for you.

Messy bed, messy life
When I talk to people who are going through difficult times and want to be achieving more balance in life I ask them if they make their beds everyday. They always say no. Now, it isn't that having a messy bed is the cause of a messy, out of control life. It is actually usually the opposite.

Consider our example above: the kid moves away from college, schedules a heavy class load, takes on a part time job, makes new friends who like to stay out late, joins the scifi club, and has a whole load of new responsibilities, including trying to decided what to do with the rest of his life. Soon he starts waking up late and the first thing to go is making his bed.

He's rushing out the door just to make it to part of his first class, there is no time to make his bed. It does not really matter thought, because well, it doesn't effect anyone else (except maybe his roommate), his mother will never know, and he is  just going to mess it up again later.

Here are three reasons that you will be more productive if you choose not to be like that college student and make your bed everyday.

Keystone habit
Have you ever heard of a keystone habit? Sounds important doesn't it?

A keystone habit is a little habit that is easy to do, but by doing it it allows the person to develop many larger habits easier, often as natural outgrowth of the keystone habit. This is true for both good and bad habits.

Consider our college student friend for a moment. He stops making his bed because he is getting up late. This contributes not only to a poor sleeping schedule but also to a subconscious sense of disorganization and lack of control in his life. Conversely the dedication it would take to wake up a few minutes earlier so that his bed could be made each day would make a huge difference in his ability to make other positive habits.

Paves the way for a morning routine
As a keystone habit, making your bed can lead the way to a whole slew of good habits that can make up a morning routine. Or vice versa, choosing not to make your bed can lead to losing those habits and replacing them with negative ones. In the past I have talked about the importance of being a morning person, and how to become one.
Sometimes the negative examples are the easiest to see. Our college student friend has formed a number of bad habits as he has been off on his own. As he chooses not to make his bed he begins to get up later and later, soon this contributes to other bad habits. He no longer brushes his teeth, he doesn't eat breakfast, he stops biking to school and begins driving, he starts driving too fast and becomes very frustrated with other drivers.

In contrast however by simply working at forming the habit of making his bed the college student can begin the process of developing many other positive habits. Once he has made the decision he must naturally make small change that will allow that decision to take place: he will need to get up a little earlier, in order do that he will need to go to bed a little earlier, therefore he will need to not stay out as late, etc, etc.

Resolves a commitment first thing
Besides the natural outflow from wanting to make your bed such as small time adjustments, there are mental benefits as well to beginning the day be keeping a commitment. See your brain subconsciously keeps track of all the commitments you have made to do things, the more of those that you don't do the more it wears on you. At the same time, the more commitments that you keep the better you feel and the more likely that you are to keep other commitments.

Because most people have been trained to make their beds as a matter of proper behavior and an expectation of their mother, most have a subconscious commitment to doing it. That is one reason that it works so well as a keystone habit, it resolves a commitment almost immediately upon waking up. To start your day with the resolution of a commitment mentally prepares you for the rest of the day.

There may be many aspects of your life that are out of your direct control. That can give a very overwhelming feeling. But you can make your bed every day and resolve that commitment to yourself. Even if you have no bed you can straighten your sleeping area and feel a sense that you have control of at least the first thing that day.

I know you may not like this advice that I have given. But just because you do not like something does not mean that it is not true. In fact it probably means it is true because if it weren't you would just ignore it, but instead it makes you a little upset and you feel a little anger inside. Well, I challenge you to try this for a week and see if what I have said is not true. Accept the challenge in the comments below or by tweeting at me and then report back in seven days (click here to tweet).

I believe you can change, have more control in your life, and be more productive. Just remember, live better.

1 Year of Productivity, My blogiversary!

It has now been one year since I started the productivity pad blog. It has been a great year. Sometimes I have been more consistent than others, and sometime my advice has been better than others as well. There are a few points in it worth highlighting.

Most views
My most successful post of all time in terms of views has been Ctrl F on an iPad, clearly I was not the only person looking for this information because people are searching Google for it every day. Interestingly enough its companion post Control-Z on the iPad has not done as well, there must not be as many people making mistakes as I thought.

Most comments
My post that has received the most comments is Gospel Library 3.0 new features. People had more questions and comments on this app than any other I have reviewed. Glad it was helpful. Version 3.4 was just released last week and I will be reviewing it shortly.

A slogan
Early on in the blog I started ending most of my posts with the slogan "remember, live better" the first time I used it was in my post on setting up email, contacts, and calendar, I then explained the concept more in a post titled after the slogan Remember, Live Better.

A trial
As I explained in my post The Internet the Black Hole of Time, I lost internet at my home back in August through an unfortunate series of events. As you might emagine being a Social Media professional and hobby bloger is a struggle without internet. This particular trial has been responsible for some of my incosistancy in blogging over the last six months, but I have learned a lot from it and I think I when I do get internet again (hopefully in March) I will be more productive with it because of this time.

All in all its been a great year of blogging and I think this next one will be even better, so long as we remember to live better.

Book Review: The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews

Name: The Noticer Returns

Author: Andy Andrews
Stars: 5/5







Now, if you have read my blog in the past you probably know that I am very stingy with my stars. I very rarely give five stars to anything. If I do, it is because I recomended it totally and completely, I think it is among the best in its class, and I believe everyone should read it during their life. Clearly all those things apply to this book, since I have given it 5 stars.

Of course, since I thought very highly of the first Noticer (my review here) you probably are not surprised that I also felt this one was incredible. In this story Andy again encounters Jones, the old man of unknow age and origin with a large share of perspective. The majority of the story revolves around the members of Jones's "parenting class" which is made up of a small group of couples that he has hand picked to join him on the journey.

Jones's primary concern in this book is the lack of standards the world has accepted about raising children. While Jones also teaches a good deal about personal development and buisness, which is similar to the first book, it is the parenting conversations that I think make this a 5 star book. Parenting, and the lack there of, is one of the biggest problems that we currently face. Andy has said elsewhere that "Parenting is the fulcrum society rests upon." I don't know that there could be a truer statement.

One thing I like about Jones is that he doesn't mince words, he tells it like it is. I appreciate that because you don't do anybody any good by not telling them the truth. Jones has the right way of doing this because he loves the people that he talks to. He may say things that bother them, but it's always to make them better in the end.

I don't want to ruin the book for you, but let me just say that the reading is quick and easy, but the thinking is not. I hope you will read this book and leave a comment below to let us all know what you thought. And remember, live better.

You can purchase The Noticer Returns here (affiliate link)

Dvorak, the Metric System, and why we fail to do what's good for us

I grew up at a time when children were taught both handwriting and typing. Needless to say I appreciated one more than the other, but I worked at both of them for years. I had a number of different programs I used to learn to type; some of them were games which required you to type to accomplish certain tasks. They all had two things in common though, they recorded how fast you typed (WPM) and they taught you to type on a keyboard layout known as QWERTY. I am sure you are all familiar with this layout because it is the standard on all American computers and if you were taught typing this is most likely what you were taught to type on. In fact most people have never considered the possibility of any other layout.

But I did, as probably many children do, when they first look at a keyboard and find out the alphabet they have so diligently learned to sing is all mixed up. I don't know who I asked or what I read when I was young about this but I came under the impression that this bizarre layout had been made to enable you to type faster. I remained under this impression until I was reading Mark Hurst's book: Bit Literacy.

In the book Mark explains that QWERTY was designed to slow typists down, not speed them up. Imagine my chagrin at this.  All my life I had been trying to type faster, all the while the instrument I was using was working against me.

WHY!? To keep typists from jamming mechanical typewriters. Now, that seemed like a good and worthy goal to me...and then it occurred to me that I didn't use a typewriter. So, why in the wide world was I typing on the QWERTY layout? The answer is simple:

That is the way everyone has always done it

Can you think of anything more stupid than that?

I can't. We have an entire generation, almost two now, whose productivity has been stifled in one of their most common activities simply because that was the way it had always been done. And the truth is that we do this all the time, I'll point to an example that is probably much more familiar to you:

The Metric System
Now here is something we were all probably taught growing up, but we were never required to use in actual life. The metric system is far superior to the British system of measurement in every way. So, why don't we use it? Because we have to much built up around the British system, all of our infrastructure and our mental processes. We've always done it this way and we are unwilling to change. We will spend plenty of tax payer money teaching children the metric system in school, but we won't spend any of it replacing infrastructure so they can actually use it.

The truth of the matter is that as a society we have decided that we would rather deal with a dull pain constantly than an excruciating pain for a short period of time. We do this even if though it means our children with have to deal with the same chronic pain. These pains have been around so long that society doesn't register them as pains any more, but the costs are still real even when they go unnoticed.

If we really cared about our children, or even ourselves for that matter we would be willing to deal with more intense pain now, in order to eliminate chronic pain. But, we do not, we are lazy and the same school system that teaches us a keyboard layout designed for typewriters, and a metric system we will never be given the chance use, also teaches us to never challenge the status quo.

But it doesn't have to be that way. We may not be able to make society change tomorrow, but we can change individually. We can choose to go through the painful and cleansing process of intentional change toward a desired outcome. We can live better and we can help our children to do the same. We can question and overthrow the status quo. Society is nothing, if not a group of individuals.

So go ahead and do what is good for you, regardless of the way society is built. Society is built for the average person, actually worse, society is built for the lowest common denominator. You don't want to be average, and you certainly don't want to be the lowest common denominator, you want to be extraordinary.

So go ahead, do what's good for you, question the status quo, and remember to live better.

3 Reasons You Should Manage Email from Your iPhone

Email seems to be the culprit for a lot of wasted time these days. There is no activity more useless than staring at inbox full of emails and doing nothing. Yet so many of us spend our time doing just that. Even if we are actually working on the emails it can end up consuming our day.

Now, everybody knows that I am a fan of inbox zero, and one of the things I use to achieve that state is my iPhone. Managing email from an iPhone has some distinct productivity advantages to it, here I want to talk about three of them.

Trash It:
I consider swipe to delete one of the best improvements ever to email. I guarantee that if you manage your email from your iPhone you will start to delete more email, and that alone will make you more productive. A lot of emails never need to be opened, especially since you can see the first line on your iPhone.
Shorten It
If you write shorter emails you will be more productive, if you manage email on your iPhone you will write shorter emails. This is true simply because of the nature of the medium change from a computer to a phone. With out a keyboard we don't want to write long emails, and our brains are already wired to write short and to the point messages while on our phones.
Do It
If you manage email from your iPhone you will actually get it done because you will be able to use the tiny inbetween times when you are not at your desk to do it. When you are waiting for a meeting to start, or you are in line, or your windows 8 computer decided it had to shut itself down right then, you will be able to get your email taken care of during these little times.
There it is, three reasons you should manage your email on your iPhone. And remember, live better.

New Year's Resolutions: Living Better with an iPad

Hello everyone, I am back from the holiday break. I had a great time with family the past couple weeks celebrating the birth of Christ and the New Year. I hope you did as well.

Well, as you might expect given the fact that I write this blog, I took some time on New Year's Eve with my wife to solidify our goals and resolutions for 2014. I think I have told you in the past how much I use to hate making New Year's resolutions. It is one of those things my mom made me do that I dreaded that I am now extremely grateful was instilled in me. Goals are a painful, but a cleansing process.

Naturally many of the goals I have set for this year have iPad or iPhone components to them, I thought I would share some of these with you and I hope you will share yours in the comments below. I set goals in the four major areas of life: Mental, Physical, Spiritual, Social. I use the Evernote app to write down all my goals for the year and the Lumen Trails app to track them.

Mental:

• Typing using Dvorak keyboard layout: for about two years I have been experimenting with using the more efficient keyboard layout known as Dvorak instead of the traditional Qwerty. This year I have finally decided to use it in all of my personal typing. On iOS you cannot with the touch keyboard to Dvorak so this has held me back, for Christmas I got a bluetooth keyboard and case(which I will blog about soon) from my brother. External keyboards can be set to Dvorak so now I am good to go on the iPad mini.
• Reading 52 books: I sometimes read books on my iPad using several different apps. I also use the Goodreads app to track what I am reading and what I want to read.

Physical:

• Losing some weight: like many people this time of year I am involved in a biggest loser competition with my family. For this I will continue using the Gorilla Workout app, the app My Fitness Pal to track myself, and the podcast app while running.

Spiritual:

• Scripture Memorization: I will be using the app LDS Memory: Scripture Mastery to memorize scriptures.
• Reading the New Testament: I will be using the Bible Gateway app to read side by side translations of the New Testament.
• Journal: I finally completed an entire year of journaling without missing a day in 2013 and now I hope to make my journal writing more meaningful using the GridDiary app.

Social:

• I hope to use twitter more this year and I will be using the official Twitter app to do so for now. But I am open to other app suggestions if you have them.

That is not all of my goals this year, but it is most of the ones that involve iOS. Please share your goals and apps for 2014 with me in the comments or on twitter (@halduauthor). I think it is going to be a great year so long as we remember to live better.