Boundaries, the Pomodoro Technique, and Productivity

Warning: I am writing about a topic that I have yet to master, as such these are musings, not dogma.

Some people are more productive than others. I think we can take that as fact.

Sometimes each of us is more productive than other times. I think we can take that as fact too.

Taking these two facts together I think they beg the question: Why?

Why is that one guy a straight A student, on the basketball team, runs his own business after school, and volunteers at the hospital? And all I can manage is to be a B-average student, period?

Why was I am able to do so much last month when I had three projects due, my sister was getting married, and I was helping organize the 5k? And this month I can barely stay on top of my reading homework?

I don't know that everybody faces these questions, but I know I do. I don't really have the answers yet, but I am forming some ideas. These ideas center around the idea of boundaries. Boundaries are those pesky things that have troubled mankind since the beginning. The interplay between structure and freedom has been the quest of philosophers for millennia, and is at the very heart of the American Paradox, of which I have written elsewhere.

But today I don't want to attempt to deal with the large questions, I would rather just think about it on a practical level.

Parkinson's Law:

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Cyril Parkinson

I'm sure most of you are already familiar with this idea. Why will work do this? I actually have no idea, but it must have something to do with us as humans, since work has no volition in and of itself. I might better read, "humans will take as much time to do work as is available for its completion."

What we find then is that really effective people are often good at setting deadlines for themselves, arbitrary of the deadlines that are actually in place regarding the task. Super effective people seem to take it one step further and have the ability to set micro-deadlines and make themselves believe them.

Pomodoro:
One such system of setting micro deadlines is the Pomodoro technique, which I reviewed a watch app for here recently. The system of 25 minutes on task, 5 minutes on break, creates micro-deadlines by which you know you will stop working on the project. It seems to work even better if you alternate tasks every 30 minutes, so you know you will not be getting back to that project for a while.

I find that when I can get myself to apply Pomodoro I feel more productive. Now I am not 100% sure how to measure that empirically, but feeling that way is at least half the battle. It is sometimes just difficult to get myself to actually do the Pomodoro, because my lazy self knows it will have to work once I do.

So here is my challenge to you, go try the Pomodoro technique to set yourself some micro-deadlines, then come back here and report to me how productive you feel. I think it will help you live better.

How to use iCloud Keychain and find your saved passwords

And now we are going to talk once again about a very useful, but often not understood, function of the iPhone and iPad: iCloud Keychain.

What is it?
iCloud Keychain is Apple's built in password generator and manager. If you create a new account on a website you will often see when you get the password step the option for a long and complex auto generated secure password.

This is iCloud Keychain trying to help you out. Instead of using the same password that you have used for everything since 1998, it wants you to use a secure password that nobody could guess because it is randomly generated. The only problem with a password that nobody can guess is that you cannot remember it either, but that is ok because when ever you get the website Safari will just autofill the password for you.

This way you can have a different password for every website without having to try and remember them.

How to use iCloud Tabs in Safari

Many people are not utilizing one of the best productivity features on their iPhones and iPads simply because they either do not know it exists, or they don't know how to do it.

It is iCloud tabs, which lets you automatically open up tabs that had open on another device. And it is actually very simple to do. Lets say you have productivity pad open on your Mac, but you want to read it on you iPad, here is what that would look like.

You have this webpage open on your Mac...

...and now you do on your iPad too

Here is how you do it on an iPhone:

And a Mac:

As long as you are signed into the same iCloud account on all your devices you shouldn't have an problems.

To check on a Mac just go to: Apple menu> System Preferences > iCloud > account details. Also make sure that the Safari box is checked. As in the video below.

This makes it very easy to switch from one device to another without having to remember and type in complicated URLs. The only problem you will run into is with password protected sites, you will have to put in your login info again on the new device.

Well I hope that helps. It is a simple tip that can save you a lot of time. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

iPhone and iPad tip: How to add the Smiley Face (Emoji) Keyboard

Have you always wanted to be able to get all those smiley faces and other special characters on your iPhone and iPad? These can help you to express emotions in what are normally plain text situations. Getting them is simple once you know how to do it.

In order to get these characters you will need to install an extra keyboard onto your iPhone or iPad. If you speak a language other than English you are probably already familiar with how to do this, but for English speakers the Emoji keyboard is often the only one they ever add.

1. Go into your settings app.
2. Click "General"
3. Then scroll down to "Keyboard" and tap it
4. Then tap "Keyboards"
5. Then Add New Keyboard
6. You well then see a list of all the international keyboard in alphabetical order (except for English which is on top.
7. Scroll down to "Emoji" and tap it.

You are now done. Now whenever the onscreen keyboard opens up you will see the globe icon in the bottom left. If you click that it will switch to the Emoji keyboard.

Here is a Gif I made that shows you how. You might want to  for later.

Isn't that awesome! Now you can express all that emoji goodness. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. And remember, 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?

How To Stop Game Invitations on Facebook (like Candy Crush)

Are you ever excited when you get on Facebook and see that there are a whole bunch of notifications and you think people must have really liked you last photo, only to find that they are all invites to play Candy Crush? It is super annoying. I am here to help you fix this problem.

Image credit to Ricky Foster

I did not have time to cove this on my post on making Facebook better, but I know that it is a frustration for many (including me).

Of course there are other annoying games besides Candy Crush, Farmville in particular comes to mind when I think of games we love to hate. But Candy Crush seems to be the worst right now.

Now hopefully you followed the advice of my last post and cleared out your stupid friends, that should have helped this problem some, but not all. For some reason, unknown to human psychologists, even seemingly sane individuals will send out these game invites, and you may really want to see their other updates, so you have to stay friends with them.

A Word to the Inviters

First of all, if you are that person sending out those invites I have 2 words for you:

STOP IT!

Why in the world are you sending those out? So you can get some little game perk if 500 of your friends sign up? It is not worth it to lose all your friends, so stop it.

2 Ways to Stop Them

For the rest of you, here are two ways to block them:

1. Option one is when the notification arrives there will be a tiny little "x" in the top right hand corner when you scroll over the notification. Click this and you will have the option of stopping notification from that game.
2. If you missed the little "x" but you know there is a game you do not want to see notifications from ever you can take action to block the game preemptively: 
1. Go to settings (top right hand corner drop down menu)
2. Once in settings go to Blocking on the left hand side.
   

                3. You will see a several option here. The one you want is called "Block Apps." All you have to do is start typing the name of the app you want to block, as you can see me doing with Candy Crush below, just click on the name when it appears and you will block that app. 

Hurray! No more annoying notifications, at least until they come up with a new game.

If you do have a friend who is constantly inviting you to many different games or apps you can block notifications from just that person on this page as well.

Well there you have, I hope this eliminates some anger and frustration for you and helps you to live better! 

What are the most annoying games you get invitations for? Tell us below so we can block them :)

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.

How to take a screenshot on your iPad or iPhone

This tip is very simple, it is a basic iOS skill but I am still often surprised by how many people don't know how to do it. If you already know how to do it please share with others what you use screenshots for on your iOS device.

Here is how to take a screenshot:

I use the iPad mini as an example, but it works the same on all iOS devices. Simply press the home and sleep buttons at the same time. When you hit both buttons you will see the screen flash and hear a shutter noise (if your sound is on) then you will know that the screenshot has been taken.

This trick will capture your entire screen, everything that is on the screen, including the time, battery%, and other status indicators. You can crop it later in the photo app to show only the portion you want. The screen shot is automatically saved to your camera roll in the photo app.

Why would you want to?
There are many reasons you might want to capture what is on your screen at a certain moment.
For example I always use screenshots when I am teaching you how to do something on your iPad or reviewing and app. If you want to explain something to someone it is often easier to show them than to tell them.
You also might use a screenshot to save information from a website or app, particularly if you want to access that information offline.
People also like to use screenshots to show what has happened to their friends on social media, such as victory in a game, or a funny text message.

Essentially screenshots are the fastest way to capture and save anything that happens on an iPad or iPhone. Use the comments to share how you use screenshots, and remember, live better.

How to Use Dvorak Keyboard Layout in iOS

Update 10/6/14: Yesterday the Fleksy keyboard app released an update that contained a Dvorak layout that can be used system wide. Over the last month there have also been a few other attempts to do this, none of which have been very successful yet.

Note: This post was written before the release of iOS 8. In iOS 8 Apple allows developers to create 3rd party keyboards that work system wide. Because of this it is likely that someone will soon create a keyboard with a Dvorak layout. If you find one please let me know.

The simple answer:
The simple answer is that you can't, but there is more. There is no option to turn the iPad or iPhone touch screen keyboard to the Dvorak layout. If there was it would be under Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard > Dvorak. Unfortunately there is no option to choos Dvorak in that list. It skips straight from Dutch to Estonian. Of course it could be under English (Dvorak) since it is an English layout, but no, it is not there either (English keyboards are at the top of the list). There are three options for English layouts besides the default American (UK, Austraila, and Canada) all of which are QWERTY layouts. So don't ask me why they need three of them that are exactly the same, and they can't have one Dvorak.

A different spot:
But, then we find out that is not actually where it should be at all, because if instead of clicking on "Add New Keyboard" we click on "English" we find the keyboard layout menu. This is really where the Dvorak option should be since it is an English keyboard layout. You see two menus, Software keyboard layout and hardware keyboard layout. Under software you can see that you have three options, none of which are Dvorak.

Finally after much searching we find that Dvorak is listed under hardware keyboard layout amidst a strange and non-alphabetical list. Turning on this option will make any hardware keyboards connected to the iPad Dvorak layout, regardless of what the letters on the keyboard actually say.

Your only option:
So there you have it the only option to use the Dvorak layout is to use and external keyboard. This is what I do when I am typing a lot, like for this blog post for example. But when I don't have a keyboard with me I am stuck just using QWERTY.

What is ridiculous about the whole thing is that there is no reason that Apple could not have made it an option to have Dvorak be the on screen keyboard. Clearly iOS knows the layout because it can have the hardware option. It would not have hurt anything to make it an option. I mean there are 9 Chinese options so I don't think it would have hurt them to put in another English one.

For now use an external keyboard if you do a lot of typing, and hope that iOS 8 brings an on screen Dvorak. And remember, live better.

How to easily find anything on your iPad using Spotlight Search

Spotlight is one of the most under utilized features of iOS. Many people do not even realize it exists, and those that do often forget about it or don't understand how powerful it is. The truth is that it can save you lot of time you would otherwise waste looking for stuff on you device.

• First make sure it is on for everything that you want to be able to search for. Go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search.
• A check mark (red box) means that it can be searched for. I leave mine on for everything.
• You can use the sorting bars (orange box) on the right to choose which order the categories will display in. Just hold on the bars and drag up or down.

• Next you will need to go to the home screen to access spotlight. Prior to iOS 7 you got to the search screen by swiping to the left most home screen. In iOS 7 that changed to swiping down from near the top of the screen. 
• Once the search bar and keyboard appear simply type the name of whatever it is you are looking for. In this case I wanted to find the BYU app so I simply typed "BY" into the search bar and it appeared.

• You then click on whatever result you desire and you are done :)

Note that because using a single finger to scroll up on the iPad will cause spotlight to close, you must you two fingers to scroll through the results list, for some reason this is not the case on the iPhone.

This feature can save you lots of time looking for an app you only use once in a while, or finding the contact you are trying to call, or the song you want to play, or that txt message you can't remember exactly what it said. There are a lot of situations in which this kind of instant search capability can prove very useful.

A tip for bluetooth keyboard users, many keyboards have a search button (for me it is Fn > 4) that will open up the spotlight search, even from an app. Using that keyboard command can save you even more time.

Well that's it for today. I hope this can help you to remember to live better.

How to make a website shortcut on the iPad homescreen

There is a really simple iPad trick that not everyone knows that can save you a lot of time. It is the ability to turn any webpage into an icon on the home screen of your iPhone or iPad. Why would you want to do this? Let's say there is a website you always visit from you iOS device, but it is particularly hard to remember the url. Now you could make a bookmark in Safari and access it that way, but giving the website its own icon on the home screen lets you eliminate the step of opening safari and going to your bookmarks to find it.
Doing this is simple, but not obvious at first.
1. Go to the website in Safari
Let's say you want to make a shortcut to your favorite blog, Productivity Pad. Its a great blog, but the url is annoying. The first thing you have to do is go to the blog in Safari. This is the last time you will have to remember the url. Type productivitypad.blogspot.com in to the Safari search bar.

2. Tap the share button (red arrow)




3. Tap "Ad to Home screen" (orange arrow)





4. You will see this menu where you can change the title if you wish, then click the "Add" button in the right hand corner (yellow arrow).




And that is it, the web page will now appear on your last home screen and you can treat it just like an app. Hold down on it till it wiggles and you can move it to different home screens, into a folder, and even into the dock, you can also delete it if you no longer want it.

There you go. Nothing too difficult, you just have to know what to do. That's all for now. And remember, 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.

iPad tip: How to Use Hand Gestures on an iPad

My first iOS device was an iPod touch 1st generation. It was a great device even though when I got it they were already several models old. I got a good deal on it and I was very happy with it except for one thing: that year iOS 4 came out and 1st gens could not upgrade. Now this was actually a good thing, as anyone who has used a 2nd gen on iOS 4 could tell you, if it made the 2nd gen that slow and clunky what would it have done to a 1st gen?

And while it was a good thing in hindsight it made me sad at the time because I missed out on one key new feature: multitasking by double clicking the home button. Multitasking on an iOS device gives you the ability to quickly switch between multiple apps without returning to the home screen each time. It is great for people who want to be more productive by shaving seconds off their work flow, because seconds add up over time.

This concept of shaving time of your work is also what is behind hand gestures on the iPad. I am often amazed at how many people don't know how to use hand gestures or don't make use of them. Hand gestures in many ways are the touch screen equivelent to keyboard commands on a computer.

Make sure they are turned on
Go to Settings > General > Multitasking Gestures, make sure the switch is turned to green (on). You may want to turn these off for some apps (like running games or drawing apps).
1 Finger swiped down from the top of the screen
Brings down Notification center. This works on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches running at least iOS 5.

1 Finger swiped up from the bottom of the screen
Brings up Control Center. This works on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches running iOS 7.

1 Finger swiped right from the left side of the screen
Will do different things depending on the app. It may take you back one screen (like in iQtell) or it may pull out a menu (like in Google+). This works on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches running iOS 7. Some apps also have features when you pull from the right of the screen (like FaceBook) but that is less common.

1 Finger swiped down on the home screen
Opens up spotlight in iOS 7.

2 Fingers pinched in or spread out
Usually controls zooming in an app. This works on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches.

4 Fingers swiped up from the bottom of the screen
Opens up multitasking (hurray!) on iPads.

4 Fingers swiped left or right from the edge of the screen
Switchs between open apps without using multitasking on iPads.

5 Fingers pinched together
Takes you to the home screen on iPads.

Well those are the ones I know of, if you know of others please let me know :) I hope these help you. And remember, live better.

Preparing for New Year's Resolutions

We are now quickly approaching that time of the year where we will need to set our New Year's resolutions.

Make an idea list now
As soon as you read to post you should begin to make an idea list of the goals you may want to accomplish next year. If you wait until New Year's Eve or Day when you have sat down to actually commit to those goals then you are going to have a heap of trouble coming up with them. Great ideas seldom come to us when we force them. So have some way of keeping track of ideas as they come to you so that when you do sit down to set goals you will have a list of options in front of you to choose from.
In my series on goals and iPads I have a post dedicated to writing goals down: click here to read it.

How you can become a morning person, Part 3(of3): System for success

Now that we have gone over Part 1 and Part 2 of getting up early we will look at Part 3 which involves the actual act of waking up early.

Third, System for Success

Once you have your belief and your cause it is all a matter of setting yourself up for success. You need to make it easy for yourself to wake up each morning. This means developing a routine that will help you do two things:

• Get out of bed
• Get your brain working

Even with a cause worth completing, getting out of bed is often the hardest mountain you have to climb each morning. Getting out of bed litterally goes against the laws of the universe, at least so far as Issac Newton understood them. Consequently, it often requires being acted upon by an outside source, namely the alarm clock.

You are going to defy this guy!

How you can become a morning person, Part 2(of 3): Cause worth completing

This is the second in a three part series on how you can become a morning person. For review purposes here are the three parts:
1. Belief in the principle
2. Cause worth completing 
3. System for success

Today we will talk about number two, Cause worth Completing

"Two wolves struggle inside me...

Which one wins?

The one I feed"

Native American Folk Tale

Everyday when my alarm goes off I face an internal struggle between my good self and my bad self. The only way to have my good self win is to have something to "feed" it. I need to have a great reason that it can get up and start doing something.

For me, my cause worth completing right now is blogging. I know that when I wake up I will be able to spend my time blogging, accomplishing something that will not get done if I do not wake up. That motivates me.

You have to have a cause, or you will not get out of bed, especially not at first. It will be a fight every moment. Even if you have part one down and you truly believe that being a morning person will be better for you, you still will not do it in the moment unless you have a cause that you care about.

How do you get a cause worth completing? It's something hanging out at the back of your mind or on your someday list that you would really like to get done if only you had the time. It may be something you want to DO, or LEARN, or DEVELOP.

So, right now, this very moment, write down 5 things that you wish you were doing, learning, or developing in life that you are not right now. Now choose one or two of those that you can really commit to. Decide to begin doing that in the morning. Write your answer in the comments below so we can all be inspired by what you are about to do.
Don't forget to check out Part 1 if you haven't yet. Part 3 will be coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better. 

How you can become a morning person, Part 1(of 3): Belief in the principle

Well since I took the liberty to tell you that you can and should be a morning person, then I told you how I did, I thought it was only right if I told you how you can do it too. I'm going to warn you right now though that it is not fun or comfortable, but the results are worth the effort.

"Can you make yourself do something you don't want to doin order to get a result you really want?" Andy Andrews (paraphrased)

That is really so true of why so many people fail to do the things they really want, because they will not force themselves into uncomfortable positions, such as waking up earlier.
Here are the three things that will make all the difference:

1. Belief in the principle
2. Cause worth completing 
3. System for success

We are going to consider all of them because they are all essential for success in this endeavor you are about to begin. In this post we will consider the first.

First, Belief in the principle
In the film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Reepicheep says:

"We have nothing, if not belief"

This is a very true statement, if you do not believe in something that you surely will not make yourself uncomfortable to achieve it. You must believe, in order to achieve, or at least want to believe enough to experiment.
Do you believe that waking up early will help you be more productive?
Probably not, that's why you are not doing it. First you need to believe, I suggest looking to you faith or philosophical tradition if you have one, most contain this principle of early rising. For me this belief is born out of the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 88:124,

"...cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated"

You can likely find similar sentiments in your own tradition.

Belief in a principle we have not yet lived an be aided by seeing its effect in the lives of others. If you begin to study people you admire who achieve great things you will likely find that they wake up early, it is an uncommon trait among the common, but a common trait among the uncommon(click to tweet).

Alright that is it for part 1, the next 2 parts will be up soon. Please tweet me your thoughts or leave them in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better.

LDS Gospel Library app tips

I heard someone in church recently mention how difficult it was two switch back and forth between the lesson manual and the scriptures in the gospel library app. That is when I realized that everyone might not have the knowledge of how to use the functions of the gospel library app as I do, and I might not know everything that others do,so I figured I would write a post to start a discussion about it.

Opening multiple books at the same time
Remember the old paper days when you had to bring three or four different books to church and have them spread across your lap during the lesson? Fortunately those days are over and it is still easy to have both your scriptures and the lesson manual open at the same time. Simply open up a new window in the app by tapping the window button (red arrow) and then the plus button (orange arrow). Now you have a new window where you can open up the other book. You can easily switch between these windows by tapping the window icon again.





Returning to a recently opened spot using the back arrow
If you don't want to switch back and forth between windows you can easily get back to the last place you were reading by hitting the back arrow button (yellow circle). This works very similar to the back button in a web browser.



Returning to a recently opened spot using the history 
Similar to usin the back arrow you can also get back to any recently opened spot by going to the history. You do this by clicking the clock button on the side (green arrow), you will then see a list of all the document you have recently opened in the app organized by date. You can click on one to return to it.


Using links to easily stay with the lesson
When you are in Sunday School, Priesthood, or Relief Society class you can easily be wherever you need to be reading by using the lesson manual in the app. The lesson will have links to most if not all of the scriptures you will be reading. For example see the Doctrine and Covenants manual below with links (blue arrows). You can then, of course, easily return to the lesson page usin the back arrow as mentioned above.



Sharing a passage
It is easy to share a passage to social media, or via email or the messages app. Simply highlight the passage you wish to share and then hit the share/export button (Purple circle). Then choose the way you want to share it. The nice thing about this is it will automatically take out the footnote letters and create a link back to the LDS.org page with the scripture for you.



So that is just a few tips for the app. I have others that I will probably share another time. If you have any please share them with everyone using the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better.

You should not buy a laptop, unless...

You NEED one! I mean this really seriously, if you are one of those people thinking about buying a new laptop, any laptop, even a MacBook, you need to seriously consider whether you need one or not before you buy. Because if you do not NEED a laptop functionality specifically, you are probably better off with an iPad. Note that I only recommend laptop replacement with an iPad, no other tablet has the amount of apps and thereby functionality to take the place of most laptops.

Here are the four things to consider before you buy:
Your computing needs: What do you need to use a computer for in your daily life?

If the answer is checking email, Facebook, and playing spider solitaire, then really you only need a tablet, or maybe even just a smartphone.

If, however, the answer is that you are heavily involved in photo and video editing and so you use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro daily, than an iPad is certainly not going to cut it for you.

Somewhere between these to extremes lie most of us. You need to determine where you are, I mean actually make a list, before you buy a laptop. If you don't do anything that requires heavy processing power, if you aren't what they call a "power user" then you probably don't need a laptop.

Your access to other computers: Even if you do have jobs or hobbies that involve heavy computing power, are you really going to do that work on a new laptop? Or do you have access to a desktop that it actually makes more sense to do that work on?

• At work: If your job involves heavy computing then chances are you have a desktop at the office that satiates your need. In this case having a laptop is only necessary if you need to do a lot of work on the road. The truth is that a lot of us do need processing power to do our jobs, but we don't need to take our jobs everywhere with us.
• At home: Maybe you are just a hobbyist who likes to write HTML in your spare time, so you really need a computer outside of work to do that. But, do you already have a desktop at home? Do you really need a laptop for your hobby? Would you really even use it very much?
• At school: Most college students (which I have been posting about recently) have access to a lot of school lab computers so they really have consider whether they need their own computer or if a iPad would suffice along with using the labs when a desktop is needed.
• At the library: Since losing Internet at my house I have been going to the public library a lot. This has reminded me how many people still do not have home computers, and they still survive. Maybe there are times once or twice a month when you need to do something on a computer that you cannot do on a iPad, perhaps the library could cover these needs and you won't need to buy a laptop.

Your price point: How much money do you have? That is the most crucial question in all of this. If you have a lot of money and nothing to do with it, I guess you can go ahead and buy a laptop, that way you can use spreadsheets to keep track of all your spending and stock options. But if you are really in a tight spot, but really need some kind of computer than you need to consider this carefully. Don't get looped into buying a laptop just because the world seems to say you need one, do what is right for your needs and your budget. I highly suggest considering buying a used iPad, here is a how to guide.

Your timeline: how long are you planning to hang on to this device you want to buy? 1 year, 2 years, 5 years? If you only plan on using it a short while than a cheep netbook might be right for you, but then an iPad mini might also be a good choice. The nice thing about an Apple product versus some of these other computing options is that they tend to keep working longer and hold their value better. For example the original iPad is now four years old, but many people still have them and they work fine, and they can still catch a pretty good price on eBay.

So that's it, consider those four things when deciding whether or not to buy a laptop and you will be good to go. If you have got any questions feel free to drop me a line on twitter or just leave a comment below.


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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

iPad for College Part 3: Useful Apps

Previously I discussed apps that are really essential to have if you are using an iPad at college, especially if you are not also using a laptop. Also in this series I discussed setting up an iPad for college and how to survive without Microsoft Office. Now I would like to talk about some apps that are useful to have which did not fit into the necessary category. 

Prezi -- Some people love it, some people hate it, most people just haven't got a clue how to actually use it. For those who will put in the time to learn to do a Prezi well, it is an excellent piece of free collaboration and presentation software. Unfortunately the iPad version still lacks a lot of features from the online version, but it is good for beginning projects and brainstorming, but you will have to add the details from a browser version later. The iPad version is also great for presenting if you have an iPad to projector adaptor.

Adobe Reader -- If your college experience is anything like mine, you will read more PDFs than you can count. I use to read these all on my laptop in the early days, the iPad or a Kindle provides a much better experience. While the iPad can open up PDFs by default and can also send then to iBooks, I prefer to use adobe reader for its annotation abilities and easy to use interface. 

iMovie -- If you are doing a lot of video production you are going to want something with a much bigger screen than either sized iPad, but if you just want to do some quick work on the fly than you will probably want this app. 

Penultimate -- This is the sketch pad notebook app made by Evernote. It is a fairly simple app, which is on of the really nice things about it. It is great for taking handwritten notes electronically. It has options for blank, lined, or graph paper,so it is useful in many different classes and settings. All you notes get saved in Evernote which does text recognition on your hand writing.

Skitch -- Another Evernote produced app, Skitch is for annotation. It allows you to draw over the top of pictures, screenshots, or PDFs. It makes explaining things really easy. I use it annotate most of the screenshots I share on this blog.

LinkedIn -- Most college students are using Facebook and Twitter, but LinkedIn is another important network that they should begin to build a strong professional presence on. Much of the business world is moving online and LinkedIn serves as your virtual, searchable, online résumé. They have been making a lot of improvements to the app over the past few months, it still is not fully fuctional, but it is getting there.

Wikipedia -- Professors may not all be agreed on Wikipedia yet, but students mostly are. It is probably the best place to gain quick information in terms you can understand, it can give you a summary and explanation of almost anything, often better than your teacher. There are a lot of different apps that can hook you into Wikipedia, choose one that you like, I use wikipanion.

iTunesU -- sometimes you just need a little extra explanation about a subject, or you can't take a course because you don't have time, but you would love to learn the about it. iTunesU has thousands of lectures that can help you, and they are all free! 

Well, this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start. Next in this series I will be talking about accessories and peripherals to use with the iPad in college. 

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.