Goal Apps: Communication

This aspect is probably the simplest part of goal apps on the iPad, but one of the most difficult parts of goal achievement generally. The ending to President Monson's quote from my last post is this:

"when performance is measured and reported back the rate of improvement accelerates" 

This probably makes sense to you, you are much more likely to exercise if you know you are going to have to tell your friend how much you exercised. This is in fact one of the concepts that every 12 step program in the world is based on, and it has proved very successful for those who do it.

So here is where we are at in using iPads to set goals:

1. Write down goals and details
2. Track progress on goals
3. Report that progress back

In order to do this you will need an accountability partner. There are three qualifications I think you should look for in an accountability partner:

1. Someone you can help with their goals
2. Someone you have great respect for their opinion
3. Someone who loves you enough to be brutally honest

Number 1 is important because this is a partnership, you should both be in it together. You may have another person that you report back to like a mentor or a coach who is not sharing their goals with you. That is a good thing, but you should also have an accountability partner.


The nice thing about keep track of your goals on an iPad (or iPhone/iPod) is that you already have the communication right there. All you need to do is decided how best to communicate it. Some tracking apps of communication built directly into them through the share button (arrow). This is particularly useful if you want to share your progress with the world because it normally links you directly into Facebook and Twitter, for more private sharing it will also give you access to the mail and messages apps.

Essentially any communication app will do that lets you tell your accountability partner what you have accomplished: Here's a list of some useful ones:

Messages: this is just sending an iMessage to your accountability partner letting them know how you are doing. If they aren't using and iDevices you won't be able to use this option but there is a whole slew of other messaging apps (such as Facebook Messenger) that you could use.









Mail or another email app like Gmail or Mailbox can be very helpful in sending detailed information about your goal, this is especially useful if you can access it from the tracking or accomplishing app and send a report directly.








Facetime or Skype: at regular intervals you should have face to face contact with your accountability partner. This gives you both a chance to report to each other. If you can't actually get together a Facetime or Skype call will be helpful.








The important thing is that you regularly report your progress or lack there of. If you are doing goals on an iPad this does not really require anything beyond the stock apps that come with it, unless you want it to.

If you find this post helpful you can or if you think it can help others you can Tweet it to share.

To give you a simple way to remember what happened in this blog I've created what I call a summarygram of it.


Please share your thoughts on communicating your goals in the comments below.

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

Goal Apps: Tracking

President Monson has said "When performance is measured performance improves."

I can say I truly believe that. There is something motivation about a graph or calendar or a journal you know you are going to have to face that encourages you to push harder. We've talked about why the iPad can help us with goals, and about apps for writing down goals, now its time to talk about tracking those goals.

Tracking is extremely important if you are setting good goals because you should have some kind of measurement attached to it, but if you are not tracking it, then you are not really measuring it, and you will have no idea when you have achieved it.

There are two types of apps in this field:

1. generic tracking apps
2. goal specific tracking apps 

First Generic tracking apps, I've been looking for a good one of these for a while now, so I've tried out several. I will highlight three here.


Simple Goals
This app is just what it says, it is a clean and simple goals app. You type in the name of your goal, and then every time you do it or don't do it you mark it down. The app lets you know how many times you have accomplished your goal activity this week and this month, so it gives you a nice time table to work in.
It is a really easy to use app and the full version is now free. This app also has the feature that if you shake your device it will give you an inspirational quote to give you an added push.

Way Of Life
This app is more robust than Simple Goals. You put in your goal and then you tell the app is the item is good or bad for you. This allows you to effectively track goals about breaking bad habits as well as positive goals.
Way of Life also has the feature of graphing your goal progress for you in several different ways which can be really helpful in putting you goal in perspective over a long period of time.
You can also add notes your entries in case there is some particular reason you missed a goal or had to skip it and you want to remember. The app does allow you skip days of a goal, so that if, like me, you have a goal to play the piano three times a week, you won't be penalized for the four days you don't.
One of my favorite feature of this app is that it has an alarm you can set to remind you every day to track your goals. It can send you a notification which you can then just tap or swipe to send you right into the app.
I really like the way this app is set up and works. What I do not like about this app is that they give it to you for free and then when you want to set up more than three apps they want to charge you 5 dollars. I just think companies should be straight up with you if they are giving you a lite model.

Lumen Trails 
I mentioned Lumen Trails in my last post as well. This app can do a lot of things. One of the things it can do is track your goals. It is the most robust app I am mentioning today, as such it also has the highest learning curve.
You can set up a category in the app to do whatever you want. For goals you can have it be simple and track yes or no answers, or you can enter a number amount, which can be a simple number or an amount of time, or money. It even has a stop watch feature so you can record the amount of time spent on you goal right from the app (that would be for like an exercise goal or something).
Like Way of Life, Lumen Trails also lets you keep notes for individual entries and also allows you to see a graph of your progress.
By far the versatile goal app I have used it scales to your needs. My favorite part is that you can pick little icons for each category or goal you have.
Last I checked(the day I wrote this) the full version of Lumen Trails was 99cents, but it does seem that the price goes up and down. I've seen it as high as $9.99 and recently at $2.99 as well. I happened to get it the day it was free :) There is also a free Lite version which I definitely recommend checking out before you invest in the full one.

There are lots and lots of other apps that work similarly in the app store. Unfortunately this is not an app  space dominated by quality free apps so most of them involve some money.

Well that's it for today folks. I know tracking your goals will make you far, far more likely to achieve them. Let me know what apps you are using and goals you are tracking, use the comments below or just Tweet to @halduauthor.

If you like this post or Tweet it to help others find it, especially your friends who need to remember, to live better.

Goal Apps: Writing Them Down

Now that we have talked about how the iPad can help with goals I want to get into specific apps that can be used to do that. I'll deal with simply writing goals down and then in latter posts I'll talk about the three categories I discussed last time (communication, tracking, achieving) that we used before.

Writing Down your goals: This is the most important step in the goal process, nothing else happens in a consistent way if this does not happen. For an app to do this for you there are only two things needed:

1. You can enter text (either typed or hand written)
2. You will see it often

The second is obviously the hard one in this set. There is no shortage of apps that you can enter text into, but actually seeing that text so it is useful is something else. In order for that to happen you either need:

• some kind of an alarm system in the app
• or you need to have a built in habit to check your goals (like a daily/weekly review).

The good news is that you do not have to get any new apps to do this if you do not want to, your iPad or other iOS device already comes with the notes app, and the clock app

You can use the notes app to write down your goals, either in a single note or a separate one for each note depending on you level of organization and detail. Then use the clock app to set a recurring alarm to remind you to review your goals every so often. Because you can not stick a note made on your iPad to the fridge you have to have some way of remembering that you are working on goals.

There are literally thousands of apps that you could use to keep track of your goals, I am going to highlight three more because I have used them, not because they are necessarily better than others.

Sticky Notes

This is an app I have used for a long time, its a good solid way to make sticky notes on your iOS device. You can select different colors of notes and other options such as size. One of the nice things here is that you arrange all your sticky notes on a cork board and then you can save it as a photo to the camera roll, if you then set that photo as your lock screen it is the tech equivalent of the paper on the fridge.

There is the option to upgrade for .99 cents, and then you can give note specific alarms. So you could also use that as your reminder.

Evernote

This is the app I personally using for my goal setting write now, the flexibility of Evernote allows me to do pretty much whatever I want. I am to keep my goals accessible across all my devices. I am able to make a chart of the four areas of life (Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Sociemotional) and keep current goals in each of them. I also like the ability to put check boxes next to goals for when I have finished them. I gave a full review of Evernote here.

Lumen Trails

Lumen Trails is an app I will talk more about in the tracking section because that is what I am currently using it as. But it also has the capability for full notes synced across devices. It is an extremely robust app with a bit of a learning curve. As far as just notes go it is fairly simple though and can function like Evernote, you can set up a notebook for your goals and determine whether you want all your notes in one note or in separate notes. It uses iCloud to sync across all your devices

I only recommend using Lumen Trails for writing down your goals if you are also going to use it for tracking or accomplishing goals or some other function. This is because the price for the full version is 9.99, I was fortunate and got it on a free day. 

You might know of other apps you like for writing goals down, if so tweet them to Tweet to @halduauthor

Now you may be wondering why this writing goals down is different than tracking, after all you will have to write down the goal wherever you are tracking it as well. I do not do them in the same place for several reasons:

1. I want to put them in the box, as mentioned earlier
2. I like to write down more information and have them all together (you may have heard of the S.M.A.R.T. goals concept) its hard to have this much information in a tracking program.
3. I like to have future goals also written down in the same place so I can add them to my current goals when I am ready.

Thats it for writing down your goals on the iPad or iPhone. If you like this article or Tweet it to share it with others.

Thanks for reading, set some goals, next time we will learn how to track them.
And remember, live better.

How an iPad can help you achieve your goals

Setting goals is one of the most important steps in productivity. No matter what area in your life you want to be productive in you need to set goals to become more productive. However setting goals is not enough, you have to actually do them. That does not require an iPad or specific apps, but they can be helpful. In this blog I will cover how the iPad can help, in my next blog I'll cover some specific apps that can enhance it.

Many people think they are setting goals when they simply think in their head "I would like to read more" or "I want to be better at handling email." That, however, is NOT goal setting.  The old saying goes:

"A goal unwritten is merely a wish"

Just the act of writing or typing a goal will make it more real in you mind and more likely to be accomplished. It at least makes you accountable to yourself. Ideally that goal will be written down somewhere you will see it often. That's where you iPad can come in handy, if you happen to see your iPad often, and I'm guessing you do, it can provide an excellent place for keeping your goals.

At its most basic level the iPad is good for goal setting simply because things can be written in it, this in and of itself will move your goals out of the wish category. But I want to highlight several other reasons the iPad is a productive tool for goals:

• Communication: The iPad is, of course, a connected device. Writing down you goal is one thing, sharing that goal is something else. You may want to share it with just one person, like an accountability partner, or all your friends via facebook, or the whole world via twitter. Sharing your goal is guaranteed to make it more likely to happen, and when you accomplish it or make progress you can share that too, yeah, that feels good.
• Tracking: gone are the days when you had to use excel or numbers to set up your own goal tracking method, the iPad contains apps (which we will get to next time) that will track your progress. Tracking your progress will make you more likely to achieve your goal.
• Accomplishing: lastly the iPad can actually be the means, or part of the means, to accomplishing certain goals. For example, one of my goals is to blog at least 2 times every week, the iPad helps me do this by making my blogging tools available everywhere I go, allowing me to take advantage of little moments that can help me towards my goal.

Tweet to @halduauthor which of the three things you are using to iPad to help with, Communication, Tracking, or Accomplishing.

Of course, the most important thing the iPad can do for you goals is help you to remember to live better. The three items talked about above are really just a means to that end.

In the comments below tell me one goal related action you would like to be able to do with your iPad, we'll see if we can find an app for it. You can also tweet it at me Tweet to @halduauthor

In the next post I will get more into specific apps I use for setting and accomplishing goals.

If you found this post helpful Tweet it, or share it however you like with the buttons below.

And remember, live better.

Book Review: Getting Things Done, by David Allen

Title: Getting Things Done
Author: David Allen
Stars: 4

If you start thinking about productivity at all you will, probably within a matter of a few google searches, blog posts, or podcasts begin to hear the term GTD and the name David Allen getting kicked around. This book and the method of productivity it describes is generally what it being referred to. Despite its importance in the productivity realm, I have been avoiding this book for a while, probably just because of some negative things I first heard about it.

I first started warming up to the whole thing when Erik Fisher had David Allen as a guest on Beyond the Todo List, one of my favorite podcasts. Hearing David talk about it himself really intrigued me. So the book made it onto my list of things to read and finally got a hold placed on it at my library (using the BookMyne app) when Merlin Mann was featured on Mac Power Users, by the time it came in I was anxious to read it.

So here is what I thought I about it: the book is great, the principles are true, the system is good, but its a little outdated. The book has been dated by the advent of the Smartphone and the Tablet, but since David teaches the system to be universally applied that does not really make much of a difference, although it is sometimes humorous. The workflow is still the good even if he neglects to explain some modern tools. Here is just a diagram from the book of the type of workflow it advocates.

I will say I felt a lot pressure reading this book because I realized all the pressure I was subconsciously under, so it definitely does not make you stress free from the get go. But it is probably like a splinter where in order to get rid of the constant dull pain you have to go through a sharp pain for a moment.

I'm not going to explain everything that is involved in the GTD system here, I'll leave that for your own reading. I do plan to implement parts of the system in little chunks over time. It would certainly be better if I could dive in full force right away, but that requires a lot of activation energy and time up front that I don't possess right now. I can however change little things about the way I work, especially since I am just starting a new job. I just need to remember to live better ;) in small ways everyday. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be doing pretty well and be able to make the full implementation.

Well I think that is it for today folks. Don't forget to or Tweet this post so  that others can read it as well. Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite productivity book is.

Have a fantastic day, and remember, live better.

You can purchase Getting Things Done here (affiliate link)

How to make app folders on an iPad

Note: This post was written using iOS 6, the look of some icons might have changed and few features may have been added or moved in iOS 7 but for the most part it is the same.

So I realized that I missed a crucial step in setting up an iPad: Setting up App Folders!

Now I know that for many of you this is basic knowledge, but I am always surprised by the people who don't know how to do this. If you already know how Tweet to @halduauthor what folder categories you use.

For those who don't know, an App Folder is a way of grouping apps together on your homescreens so that similar apps are found in the same place, and there are less home screens to sort through. That is what is going on in the banner of this site, I have grouped some of my productivity apps together.

In the Pre-iOS 4 days this was not an option and it would take forever to scroll through all your apps to find the one you were looking for (especially if you download lots of apps like me). As we all know, more organized means more productive, because you can find what you are looking for when you need it.

Fortunately making folders is simple once you know how to do it. Since I am currently on the hunt for a better more effective way to manage contacts I will demonstrate by setting up a folder for Contacts apps.

• Begin by holding down on an app icon for a few seconds until they all start to wiggle (this is also the way to rearrange apps or delete them. Little "x"s should appear by most of the icons (red arrows) .

• Now drag one app on top of another app. Here I am dragging the new linkedin contacts app onto the Evernote Hello app. A grey box appears around them, that is the folder (orange circle). Tip: this can be a little tricky to do because apps try to jump out of the way of the app you are dragging, just be patient, it may take a couple tries.

• Bingo, you now have two apps in one spot. iOS will automatically name the folder whatever thinks the best name is based on the two apps, in this case "business"(yellow arrow). I normally like to rename the folder by taping on the name field and typing in a new name. In this case I will call the folder "contacts" (green arrow)

• There you have it, you are done making your folder. Drag any apps you want into your folder, make as many folders as you want!

If you find this helpful and want to remember it just   if you want to share it with others Tweet it.

Tip: Did you know you can put a folder in your dock? This can give you easy access to a lot of important apps.

So go ahead and set up a folder, then comment on this post and tell me how it went.
Thanks for reading.

Remember, live better.

Review: Podcast App

Name: Podcasts
Price: Free
Stars: 4
Type: Podcatcher, Online Radio

I love podcasts, I won't go into all the details of why I think podcasts are absolutely incredible here because that deserves a post all its own. This is a review of Apple's Podcast app. If you are already an avid podcast listener let me know your favorite podcast by Tweet to @halduauthor.

A definition: Podcasts are like radio shows on your iPod, only you can listen to them whenever you want and they aren't just about Politics, Problems, and Country Music (not that I don't like those three things) they can be about anything you are interested in, and they also happen to free, which puts them on my good list.

A short history: Podcasts use to be a part of the standard music app on an iOS device, last year apple broke them out into their own app, the one we are currently discussing. This was a good thing because it saved SO much hassle of dealing with the music app for podcasts. Unfortunately it was not Apple's best piece of software, it tended to be buggy and to crash a lot. Good idea, bad implementation. This has caused it to get low, VERY low reviews in the app store.

Where we are now: The podcast app now works very well, it allows you to download or stream your podcasts, it also now allows you to make your own stations, and one of my favorite features is that it helps you to find new podcasts through the top charts section. It still has some bugs, but nothing major. One of the best things is that it will remember your place in the podcast and it will sync across your devices via iCloud.

Tip: There are still a lot of negative reviews in the app store, these are mostly from people who a super podcast listeners and they have been using highly sophisticated podcatching apps for a long time, they want robust functionality, which is fine for them, just don't be turned off by their comments, the podcast app works fine for the average user.

Tip #2: turn of the little red badge icon for the podcast app if you don't listen to everything right away, otherwise it can be pretty annoying.

Well that's it for now. Check out the app, let me know what your favorite podcasts are in the comments below. Also if you enjoyed this review Tweet or share it.

For your enjoyment here's a screenshot of the top of my podcasts list.

Thanks for reading, and remember, live better