Rootz's Blog

[This post was inspired by CGP Grey and Myke on Cortex 44 Existential Time Tracking and Thomas Frank’s “How to Wake Up Early and Make it a Habit - College Info Geek” ] There are very few apps that can completely change your life. But Toggl, Momenum, Alarmy and Todoist are four that can. I know because they’ve changed mine. I’ve gone from a person who wanted to be productive to someone who actually is. And I feel productive, which is in some ways more valuable than being productive. Feeling productive gives me confidence and the clearness of mind to be in control of my life. So, here they are, the four apps that can change your life. . . [ image source ] Alarmy (iOS/Android, free and paid versions) - Let’s start with Alarmy because that’s how I start my day. Alarmy is the sort of alarm clock that will make you get out of bed. The way I use it, I have it ask me to take a picture of a preset object to shut it off. This way, I have to get out of bed, and

[ image source ] Can I say it was. . . interesting? No, that’s not descriptive or accurate enough in any way. So what was it? Strange, yes. One of those books that should be  tasted, but not devoured . It’s like, as I was reading it, I loved it but not enough to sit for hours and loose myself inside of it. I was always conscious of the time I spent reading it, time that was always worth-it, but, still, time that was palpable. I felt it. I felt it pass me by as I felt it run through the pages of this book. Every now-and-then, I found myself pulled out of the story by the poetry and the random weird truths that popped up. “We [humans] made machines, the way spiders made silk,” is one line that stopped my reading eyes. Another, perhaps my favorite, “Color returned to the world, cone time replaced rod time.” I’d stare for a second, write down the words, contemplate their beauty and then move on. The story felt weirdly choppy near the end, but not so bad that I couldn't finis

[ image source ] (For some background on this idea and a very interesting listen, check out Brady Haran and CGP Grey’s "Hello Internet" podcast, episode 3 .) The idea is simple: We humans are awful at multitasking. We can only do something effectively and efficiently if we focus on that one thing. The way I’ve come to see my life, at any one time I am putting my focus into one of five different areas of my life. I’ve named these areas interacting, working, learning, expressing and maintaining . Notice how they all end in “ing”. They are about action. They are about the things that fill my life with meaning and fulfillment and health. I believe we each have these areas in our lives, and I think we should all try to understand them better. Here’s how they work: Each of these areas is a “lightbulb”. These lightbulbs are only “on” if we’re putting energy into them. The things we do in each bulb’s specific area is what powers it. Over the course of our lives all th