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New Year, New Blog Format
For those of you who read my blog regularly, you will have immediately noticed that I have undertaken a fairly significant redesign.
The last iteration of this site was designed to give you access to a broad variety of content with as few clicks as possible. What I realized was that very few of you are actually using the site in the manner that I had intended.
About half of you are coming to me through organic search such as Google or Bing and are looking for something specific. The other almost half of you are generally clicking through from somewhere that a specific blog post is linked directly, such as facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Neither group is actually spending any real time on the site, but rather coming for the specific purpose that you came for and then heading off through the interwebs on your merry way.
Hence, I have redesigned in a way that ensures that only the most recent content will be found by those of you who are visiting directly, while those coming from search engines can still access the archives very quickly and easily.
Please excuse some of the funny formatting that you may come across as I tweak the design.
Read MoreCommit
Two weeks ago I added a new app to my iPhone after reading about it on one of my favourite tech blogs. Commit is a very simple program that allows you to keep track of things that you want to do every day.
You simply complete the phrase: “I will *blank* every day. Remind me at *blank o’clock* just in case I forget.” And then, every day, at whichever time you chose, you get a notification reminder asking you: “Did you *blank* Today?” Over time, the app reminds you how many consecutive days you have completed the daily task and if you miss a day you automatically reset to zero.
Already, I am finding it amazing how difficult it is to do a few simple things every day. Over the past 14 days I have only managed to do one of the eight tasks that I have chosen to remind myself about every day without missing a single day. Even something as simple as “Did you Tweet today?” was missed because I got distracted and it was after midnight by the time I noticed.
It was surprisingly motivating to hit double digits on reminding myself to take a picture every day, and it made me feel surprisingly bad when I neglected to read to my son on one of the days this past week. The app really takes your intentions and makes you pay attention to whether or not something is really happening or not.
A prime example is that one of my eight daily tasks is “Did you eat healthy today”. My score over 14 days is zero. I think that I am trying to eat well and be conscious of my choices, but my actions don’t agree with my intentions. Now I’m left with the tough reality that I’m not doing what I mean to do and I need to pull up my socks and pay attention.
I watched a short (3 minute) TED talk recently: Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 Days that really got me thinking about how this app could really help to put the suggestions of Mr. Cutts into practice. I like the idea of having a new and different challenge each month. I’m trying to decide what my first challenge should be.
Read MoreThe T-Zone Challenge
Over the past few years my wife, Susie, and I have had an ongoing debate about the value of vibration technology to a workout regime. She actually went so far as to buy a schedule of personal training appointments at a studio that featured the Power Plate technology. After a fairly significant investment, I convinced her to stop going because she wasn’t seeing any difference in her results than she had seen simply following her own gym routine.
The debate was reopened recently when we ran into a good friend of ours, Roland, who is now working for T-Zone Whole Body Vibration. He explained how T-Zone actually uses a different sort of technology than Power Plate, in that the machine actually oscillates rather than simply vibrating up and down. This machine’s motion actually mimics a more natural human movement, such as walking, so that your body reacts with a quick series of muscle contractions that it is used to having in the first place.
We heard Roland’s explanation of how the technology works and, of course, Susie was suddenly back on board with vibration technology. I reminded her about how she wasted money on the Power Plate training sessions and I shared the story of her previous experience with Roland. I also, respectfully, described my feelings about vibration technology on the whole.
Roland had a unique suggestion. He happened to have a machine available and suggested a challenge. He would put the T-Zone VT-15 in our living room for 30 days. Susie could use the machine for the full suggested workout and I could simply stand on the machine for 10 minutes per day (He joking suggested that I could stand on it while eating a cheeseburger every day … I’m planning to take that a bit literally for a little fun!). At the end of the 30 days, we would be able to compare a number of measurements that we would take before and after the challenge and prove definitively whether Susie’s faith in the technology was sound, or if my skepticism was rightly placed.
Susie is an avid gym rat who works out regularly. Between spinning, personal training, swimming, and running, she works out at least 4-5 times per week. I am more of a weekend warrior who considers himself to be an athlete based on years of participating in sports.
We decided that this would make a fun project for the blog so we’ve planned for a series of posts and accompanying videos of our experiences. As of today, we have taken our preliminary measurements and gotten a tutorial from Roland about how to use the machine. Susie has defined what her workout routine looks like and I have learned the proper technique for standing on the machine. (i.e. clench your butt cheeks and tilt your hips forward)
Check out the first of our series of videos below, but please forgive our son who has just discovered his voice. Actually, this is a very realistic look into our lives with the baby and dogs making cameos and multiple iPhones and blackberries going off constantly. Kudos to Roland for keeping a straight and professional demeanour despite all of the distractions going on!
Read MoreKlipsch X10i Earbuds
I invested in the Klipsch X10i earbud a little over 6 months ago. I say “invested” because these babies go for over $400 after you include tax.
It was a tough decision because of the price and I was really nervous about buying something that expensive without being able to check it out first.
I would generally assume that anyone that would spend that kind of money on earbuds to be a major audiophile who has a need for acoustic perfection. I do not fit that description at all!
My purchase decision was based mostly on the shape of the earbuds themselves. The Klipsch X10i is the only earbud on the market that comfortably sits inside of my motorcycle helmet.
Now that I have used these buds for a long enough period of time, I don’t know how I ever lived without them! From a sound perspective, they are far and away the best that I have ever heard, leaving both the standard and upgraded buds that are available from Apple in the dust. They also leave my 3 year old Shure buds behind when it comes to depth of bass.
The most impressive thing about these buds is the incredible range of individual instruments that I can now pick out. It’s like listening to music again for the first time with almost my entire collection!
There are other inherent benefits to the shape as well. First, the choice to make the rubber tips oval instead of round makes for a significantly more comfortable fit for long term use and noise elimination. Second, the lay flat design doesn’t just fit a helmet, it allows for relatively comfortable use with the ear buried in a pillow. That means I can lie on my side to watch a movie on my iPhone as I’m falling asleep!
Overall, if you have the means, I highly recommend this product.
Read MoreOrganization
You know how some people just seem to have everything together? They know exactly what they need to do and just go out and do it. That’s not me.
I am not a naturally organized person at all.
What I am good at, generally, is finding systems that help to mitigate my weaknesses. I have been tweaking my systems for organization over the past few years and, with the help of technology, I’m finding greater and greater success in keeping myself organized.
I thought I would take a few moments to share some of the tools that I have had success with, and give you a look at the current tools that I am using.
I’ve tried any number of task manager apps and sites and I found a lot of things that I like. I’ve run the obstacle course of free products and services and, while there are plenty o great individual features, nobody in the free space has quite gotten it right yet.
The one free (or freemium, depending on what you want to use it for) product that I am keeping a close eye one is The Deadline. Long Term, I feel that these guys have the most potential both because of how far they’ve come since launch and how quickly they react to user suggestions and comments.
The Deadline is the best for working with others who are also using their web app, but market penetration is negligible and I’ve personally had a hard time converting users. It also hurts them not to have a dedicated iPhone and iPad app, although I believe they are currently working on it.
The deadline offers a number of sorting and grouping options using hashtags and other like symbols, which allow you to slice and dice your task list in any number of ways. I relied on this tool as my primary organization system for most of this past year.
Another great tool for either daily or occasional use is Toggl. The main function of Toggl is tracking what you spend your time on. I could see this being very powerful for someone who needs to bill by project, however I use Toggl more as a tool to track and tweak where I’m spending my time during the day for the sake of efficiency. For example, if I need to focus on a specific task, I will use Toggl to keep myself focused and avoid unnecessary distractions by having a clear and obvious timer on any distractions.
Another huge benefit to Toggl is using it over a longer period of time. After two weeks of consistently using Toggl, I was able to help make an educated case for reducing the amount of admin work that is required for my job. I was able to demonstrate that admin was taking up an unreasonable amount of my time and the company actually made changes that reduced the amount of admin that was part of my responsibilities.
For my day to day organization today, I am now using an entirely new set of tools. The launch of iOS5 brought along the iPhone native app for reminders. This app is brilliant. The ability to set location-based reminders has entirely changed the way that I use a task list. The second feature in this app is the ability to use dedicated custom lists. Combined with Siri, the iPhone4S built-in digital, voice activated personal assistant, custom lists and location-based reminders are my new go-to combination for simple task management. I can set a quick and easy reminder for a task literally with the push of a single button: “Remind me to grab a bottle of wine when I get home” will prompt me to grab a bottle of wine when I roll into my driveway and I am ready to go for dinner at a friend’s house.
The only weakness that I have found with the native reminders app is an ability to nest tasks and create more complex combinations that group into projects. On advice from a colleague, I invested in a relatively expensive app for iOS called OmniFocus. I haven’t yet purchased the mac version of this software because I don’t see myself using my mac to stay organized, but I have purchased both the iPhone and iPad versions. I’m using the more powerful iPad version to define my organization system and then using the iPhone version to run the course afterwards. OmniFocus is truly awesome. I can define projects and create tasks that run in sequence or in parallel. I can group tasks to be done in the same context, be it at home, at work, at the hardware store, etc. It allows me to not only be organized, but also be efficient in the execution of a plan. I can re-work the plan at any time, on the fly, to account for unexpected situations and it will automatically push every thing around for me.
I also love the direct integration of OmniFocus with my browser, which allows me to clip webpages as tasks and send them to my task list as follow up items. It’s kind of like having an Evernote plugin that directly feeds my task list. Another beautiful feature is the seamless cloud syncing that is either available if you have an existing service, or built-in if you choose to use the servers owned by OmniFocus for free! This service keeps both of my OmniFocus apps in perfect sync without my having to think about it at all.
Read MoreJuice Cleanse 2012
When I learned that my wife was planning to do a “juice cleanse” this month, I was excited to jump on board and go along to the ride. I didn’t know much about “cleansing” in general, but I liked the idea of starting fresh for 2012.
We turned to a company that came highly recommended: Total Cleanse, who offered a number of different cleansing options and offered home delivery of their products every 3 days.
They actually have 5 different juices and you can create your own cleanse, but we opted to go with a combination of two of their set packages: Three days of the “Refresh” cleanse and two days of the “Purify” cleanse.
Along with the cleanse, it came recommended that I also participate in Colon Hydrotherapy in order to get a strong start to the process. This was my largest source of anxiety as the ease approached but, in the end found to be both painless and very helpful.
Before starting the process I didn’t ask any questions, but rather relied on the experience of my wife. I assumed that some sort of “cleansing” would occur but really had no idea what that meant or how I would experience the process. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t know up front.
I began with the Colon Hydrotherapy in order to be as empty as possible going in to the cleanse. The folks at D’Avignon Digestive Health Centre use a traditional technique involving gravity fed water. During the process I learned that this type of therapy was actually in use at hospitals in the GTA as recently as the 1940s until laxatives were deemed to be cheaper and easier to administer.
I was informed by the technician that she had noticed a few hard spots in a deeper area of my colon that we would likely not get to in that session. Curiously, the area that she identified had been somewhat tender in recent months. I had just figured I had strained an abdominal muscle.
The next morning our juices were delivered to the house. The “Refresh” cleanse consists of six bottles of juice. Three bottles of the Green Energy, two bottles of the Lemonade, and a bottle of Very Berry for a pick-me-up in the middle of the day. It was quite a sight to see six individual cooler bags full of juice on our front step.
The cooler bags really came in handy. It goes to show that these folks really have thought of everything. We were tempted to taste test all of the juices but the instructions indicated that each bottle should be consumed within 20 minutes of opening.
We expected the first day to be challenging. We expected to feel hungry and cranky. Gladly, we were wrong. With about 1,200 calories per day, the Refresh cleanse is more than enough energy. The juices were all surprisingly tasty. I was expecting the Green Energy to be thick and hard to get down but it was no less viscous than the lemonade. If anything, the Very Berry was the thickest.
Those first few days, Susie had a rough time with the flavour of the Green Energy but, by the end, she had developed a taste for it and even missed it after we were done.
By the end of the third day I was imagining what life would be like living on juices exclusively, as Steve Jobs had done for long periods of time between stints as a vegetarian, fruitarian, an vegan and all I could think about was Walter Issacson’s description of what those around Steve in the 80s thought of his body odour.
For me, day four was a major turning point. Once again, we had awoke to a pile of individual coolers on our front steps. This time, the coolers were full of the combination of juices for the “Purify” part of our cleanse, which meant no more Very Berry … And the introduction of Cashew Milk. I was really looking forward to the Cashew Milk as a new flavour.
This the point in the process where Susie and I veered on very different paths. Her body is quite used to generally healthy eating with occasional cleansing. My system was shocked and unaccustomed to such things. I drank the juices as prescribed on the fourth day, but I also began to experience a true “cleansing” of my gastrointestinal system. It started that afternoon and the “purification” lasted all night long. I was convinced that I had contracted some sort of food borne illness so I had Susie contact the folks at Total Cleanse first thing in the morning of Day 5. They advised that my body’s response was not atypical considering that I had never cleansed before. I was to discontinue with the juices and ensure that I was hydrated until the “purification” was complete.
In retrospect, I’m not sure if what happened to me was really part of the cleanse or if, coincidentally, I simply caught some bug at the same time. Either way, I can most certainly say that I feel much better post cleanse. At no point did I feel low in energy. If anything, I felt energized during the first few days.
People have been asking me about the process and whether or not I thought it was worthwhile. Having complete the process I can honestly say that I would do it again, but not for a while. I can see this becoming part of a routine every two years. I’d like to think that I will be able to know when I need “cleansing” again just by how my body feels. Another question that seems to come up all the time is whether or not I lost any weight. The short answer is yes, I lost 12 lbs in the 4 days that I was on the juice and 4 days afterwards. However, there are a few things to keep in mind with that answer: I always lose weight when I significantly increase the amount that I drink on a daily basis; Much of the weight lost can be directly attributed to the stuff that was removed from my colon during the process. So really, I don’t think that the juice specifically helped me lose much fat or muscle … maybe a couple of pounds, but the process most certainly cleaned out a significant amount.
For anyone considering putting themselves through the same type of cleanse, I have a few recommendations. First, sign up for the three day cleanse and let your body adjust to a new way of eating. Assuming that goes well, you can always add on additional days. Second, have a plan for how you eat going in and coming back out of the cleanse. The folks at Total Cleanse actually offer a raw food diet that I would supplement with on either side when I go through this again.
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