Push-ups

Can you do a push-up? Whether it’s from the knees or strict I’m sure you can. Go on, try one now.
That was pretty easy right?

Do you think you could do one more tomorrow when you wake up?

Earlier this year I was reading “Tools of Titans”, from Tim Ferriss and I was inspired by one of the examples he shared. No matter what I had going on, I could absolutely commit to doing 1 push-up a day.

So I did. For the past 5 months I’ve made sure to do at least 1 pushup every day. While it’s a very small thing that will not help me reach my long term interests for fitness, it is a step in the right direction.

Journaling

For years I tried journaling. I’d enthusiastically start writing one day and pour my thoughts onto the page; digital and analog. Sometimes I’d write a few sentences, and other times I could fill out a few paragraphs. However, the story was always the same. After a day, or two, or even a few weeks, I’d end up quitting.

At the start of this year I decided I would journal every single day. The trick this time was to only do one line of journaling every day, and then force myself to stop. Over 7 months later my journal the habit has become clearly established. I now have a log throughout the year sharing major things I did, and often how I felt on a given day.

Note: I did cheat on this one a bit and sometimes would come back to fill in 2-3 days, but ultimately I’ve kept it going so I call this one a win.

Bible

For a long time I’ve wanted to be more intentional about my personal devotional time. I wanted more consistency. So I made a commitment that I’d read 5 minutes from the Bible every day. Sometimes I would actually read and other times I’d listen to a narration of the Bible. The result has been that I haven’t missed a day in almost 10 months.

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What are some things you’ve been wanting to do? If you have tried to start a habit, only to break it a few days later, then you might want to give this a try.

What is something you want to start doing? Running, lifting weights, push-ups, journaling, reading, drawing, flossing?

Decide now what you really want and make the tiniest step toward that goal. Put it in writing and make sure you can see the words everyday.

Some tricks that have helped me are repeat reminders in a task manager, changing the wallpaper on my phone, or writing it up and sticking it on the wall right by my desk.

Push-ups, 1 line journaling, and 5 minutes of reading my Bible have now become habit for me. I don’t feel that my day is complete unless I can check them off.

Now I’m thinking about what my fourth habit could be. Running 1 mile a day?

These two apps, Relax Melodies and Noisli, perfectly illustrate why a simpler, more focused, solution will often win out over one that tries to do everything.

For the past few years I’ve used Relax Melodies, the main function I use is the white noise sound. At one point I even considered making my own app that just has white noise and nothing else.

Relax Melodies is an example of an app that drives me nuts. First off there are ads, unless I opt in for a subscription. A description on a noise maker app? This is madness. I don’t want to pay $10/month for a glorified fan. And what else does that subscription give me? A bunch of fancy new noises?

Still, I held onto this app because it had a sound that I thought would be hard to replicate.

Then along came Noisli. It’s $1.99 to buy. This app is beautiful and simple. No ads, no upsells. When I open it all I see are a few simple icons that I can tap to start the noise. That’s it.

Lately I’ve grown accustomed to switching to the brown noise setting. It’s less sharp and feels a bit more relaxing.

Last year I made the decision to switch to the iPhone 7 Plus. This phone is huge. To say it can be used one handed is a bit of an exaggeration.

All of my phones prior were smaller and easier to carry around. 

Below are my pros/cons of owning a bigger screen size and what will influence my future buying decisions. Please note that these reasons are based on how I use the phone. I realize that for other people the list will be different.

Pros

• Watching video – It's easier to watch video and get a bit more immersed in what you're viewing. This is especially the case since I always watch video (unless it's portrait shot) in landscape. 
• Taking photos – This is the biggest benefit for me. I LOVE portrait mode. It's the number one reason I decided to go with the bigger phone. 
• Texting – This one is almost a tossup again. For texting I have to use two hands, and because I do my texts are much faster. However there are situations where I'd prefer to be able to use one hand (running for instance) but can't do that easily. It really just depends on how you use the phone. Since texting IS really nice with two hands I'll call it a benefit.

Cons

• Reading books – On the one hand I like the bigger 5.5" screen as I can more comfortably read through words on the page. On the other hand a smaller screen is easier to hold one handed. If I really want to read a book for longer periods I can pull up my Kindle Paperwhite, or you know.. read a book. I'm calling this one a con since the portability of the phone (smaller is better) outweighs the extra real estate for reading. 
• Listening to books – Almost all of my "reading" is through Audible. Smaller phone will always win here. 
• Running – Yeah, smaller is always better here. 
• Playing games – This is a very low priority for me, so smaller is still better. 

Lately I've been trying to experiment with ways to become less reliant on my phone. I'd like it to be more of a utility than an always on, always available, always in use device. 

The main reason I stick with a larger iPhone is for the portrait mode. I love it! If the next iPhone has portrait mode on the smaller size then it will be an easy decision.

So here's to looking forward to seeing what comes up next!

Lately I’ve been thinking about how I’m spending my time.

There are periods of time every week where I find myself consuming content. That could be a TV show or movie, a book, Reddit, social media, news, tech blogs, etc.

In all of this I’m merely an open vessel absorbing bits of information. Now granted some of it is good information, and I could argue that other pieces are actually quite valuable. But on the whole a lot of it could be completely ignored, even the good stuff.

I find myself struggling against the impulse to constantly refresh and see what’s new out there, just to get a quick fix, and the desire to build and create things.

Writing articles on this blog is one perfect example of this struggle. I could spend my time reading what others are saying out there about some of the topics I love (simple living, traveling light, focus, essentialism, Apple products, etc) or I could add value to the world by sharing the things that are of interest to me.

I’d like to think that the second option will win out! I’ve caught myself reading opinion pieces on something that interests me and in the same breath realizing it’s exactly what I’ve been thinking.

So my encouragement to you is to look for the value you can add to the world, and not to just be someone who is taking what the world has to offer.

For the past few months I’ve been following the progress of project Gutenberg with WordPress. I’m really excited about how it’s coming together, and how this spells a new future for folks who make content. For years I’ve helped people build websites, and used WordPress for creating content. The current writing area is hardly inspiring. It doesn’t instill a feeling of being immersed with your words. I’ve rarely actually written my content in WordPress. Instead I’ve opted for creating my articles somewhere else and then pasting them in. With Gutenberg I’m looking forward to seeing this change. As the plugin matures (it’s still in Beta) I believe it will offer an opportunity to provide a richer, more immersive experience for users. Looking forward to good times ahead! Note: This was written/published using Gutenberg.

This is a 3 part mini-review of the new iPad Pro 10.5". Read part 1 and part 2.

After spending several days with the 10.5” iPad Pro, I decided to return it for the new 12.9” model. Here’s my reasons: Most of my working time (95%+) is spent at a desk. So for me, portability isn’t an issue.

When I use the iPad Pro it’s primarily for sketching prototypes for web interfaces, notes from meetings, etc. For these situations a larger screen is more important. It’s basically the size of a letter (or A4) piece of paper and means I don’t have to do as much zooming.

I really wanted to love the 10.5” size, and for many people I’m sure it will work well. However, as Rene Ritchie pointed out, if you want a laptop replacement – and yes, I think it’s possible that this could replace a laptop for many people – a larger screen with full sized split views makes sense.

If it’s more important to have portability, then you may want to look at the smaller size. At the end of the day I made the decision, that as a designer, that screen size was more important than anything else.

Often for work I need to travel stateside by plane. I’m constantly trying to whittle down what I’m carrying to see how little I can take. After several tries I’ve gotten it down to the following for a 2-5 day trip:

• Backpack – I searched a long time for one that was small enough to carry my laptop and still had room for a few days worth of clothes, all while offering some protection.
• MacBook Pro 13″
• One quart sized bag of toiletries (case for glasses, contact lense solution, toothbrush, etc)
• 1 pair of underwear for each day
• 1 shirt for each day
• Running shorts for wearing around the hotel room
• Phone
• Wallet
• Various cords
• Down jacket – I roll this up and stuff it in the top
• Small water bottle for refills

I wear jeans on me, and only bring comfortable dress shoes that I can easily walk 3-5 miles in.

I roll all the clothes into packing cubes and iron the shirts when I get to the hotel.

While I can easily bring a backpack and small bag, I’ve found it so much easier to have one small backpack that I can carry anywhere I go. When I get to the hotel I pull out the packing cubes and put them away.

A few quick notes:

• Laptop stand – Ergonomics are important. After years of using a laptop at a desk and bending my neck, I decided to elevate the laptop and buy a keyboard and mouse. It’s made a huge difference! This stand will elevate the laptop up to 11 inches off the desk.
• iPad stand – The main thing I use the iPad for is sketching. After looking around a ton (and reading reviews from Ben Brooks) I decided to grab this stand. It’s perfect. It tilts the screen up a few inches and offers a great angle for using the Apple Pencil.
• iPhone stand – Sometimes I prefer to use my iPhone for video calls. This stand works pretty well to elevate my iPhone off the desk so I can actually look into the screen when I’m on video calls.

I’ve been curious about AirPods since they came out. I finally got my own (Father’s day gift from my wife) and have been using them all day. I love them! My previous favorite headphones were the Jabra Move Wireless (recommended by The Wirecutter).

• The fit – I’ve never had a problem with Apple earbuds. As such these fit just fine. They don’t fall out of my ears and I’ve been walking around all day wearing them.
• Volume – This one annoys me a bit. I love that I can double tap to pause/play, and I am glad I was able to disable Siri (I’ve had a love/hate relationship with her for years), but not being able to change the volume without talking or using my iPhone is annoying. As someone who is constantly changing between audiobooks, podcasts, and quiet/loud music, I need to be able to manage the volume. Even with an audiobook the environment I’m in will dictate how loud or quiet it needs to be. This means I’m usually raising or lowering the volume by  one or two notches every few minutes. Having to talk to Siri or use my phone to do this feels like a waste. I would love to have some way to do be able to touch the AirPods and have the volume go up and down.
• Size – I love how they just get lost in my ears. I barely notice them. This is a huge win.
• Auto pause – Being able to quickly pull one out and have the music stop is great. The Jabra didn’t have this feature and I’ve have to remember to press the pause button or risk having my audiobook go forward a few minutes without me.

In short I’m liking these already and plan to use these exclusively.

Last month I finished reading Cal Newport’s Deep Work.

One of the things I decided to try as a result is a 30 day social media fast. On June 22 that time will be up and I’ll log back into each of my social media accounts.

Here’s a few things I’ve noticed:

• Habit breaking – For most of the past decade I’ve had the habit of regularly checking my social feeds. At first it was Facebook (and for a while Path), then it grew to include Twitter and Instagram. I’ve now gone nearly a month without pulling to refresh. That feels freeing! I’m curious if the habit will come back quickly.
• Awareness – I’m missing out on things that are happening with my friends and family. By default any interesting activities that people are doing will make their way onto a social network. My wife has asked me several times if I knew about something that happened in one of our friend’s lives. There’s been a few small things I just didn’t know about until she told me.
• Facebook is big – Facebook, and everything it owns controls a lot of the internet’s time and attention. It’s been fun to know I could completely disconnect from it and the world would still continue. For a fun experiment checkout this article.

Before this I’d been working to reduce the reach of social media in my life. I unfollowed everyone on Twitter. That effectively made me stop using the service.

Facebook was a little harder, unless I want to delete my account it doesn’t make sense to unfriend everyone I know. Instead I unsubscribed from everyone on my friends list. This meant if I wanted to see an update I’d have to go to each friend’s profile. That quickly limited how much time I was willing to spend.

Overall I’m really happy with the experiment. I’m not sure of my next steps though. The main reason I want to use Instagram and Facebook is to share photos of my kids. Without that I have little reason to use them. I’ve been thinking about switching to some form of a blog and posting more curated photos of our lives. Not sure yet.

This is a 3 part mini-review of the new iPad Pro 10.5″. Read part 1 and part 3.

Another day, still trying to test out the new screen and see if it will work for what I need.

My biggest challenge is that I’m coming down from a larger screen. There’s a huge gap between 12.9″ and 10.5″. Over the past 6 months I’ve grown accustomed to the large real estate for sketching wireframes.

Here’s one example of how I like to use it using Fifty Three’s Paper app. I think I just need to keep playing with it for the next few days and see how it feels. I have a feeling that once I get over the feeling of losing so much space, I can then re-normalize mysel and see what makes the most sense.

So, purely looking at things from the perspective of which is better for sketching/wireframing interfaces, I’ve assembled a pros and cons list:

Pros

• Easier to carry around – I actually find myself being ok with transporting this around the house. With the larger iPad I’d rarely move it. It belonged on a desk. This one truly feels portable, like I’d carry it with me wherever I go and be ok with using it away from a desk.

Cons

• Sketching feels more cramped – The larger screen feels like I’m sketching on a full size piece of paper. With the 10.5″ screen I have to zoom in and out more.

This doesn’t account for the question of whether the iPad Pro could/should become my primary machine. I’m still on the fence about whether a 10.5″ screen could do that. I have more confidence that the larger one could.

I’m hoping I’ll have more clarity by next week.

After nearly six months of using the iPad as a sketching machine, I’ve settled on my favorite sketching app.

I’ve tried every single one I could get my hands on, probably close to a dozen of the most popular ones (Everything from Adobe, Linea, anything from Autodesk, anything that shows up in the App Store with the word sketch, and anything I could find from searching for drawing app reviews).

In the end the one that won was the simplest. Paper from FifyThree just works for me. It only has a few drawing tools, and it’s surprising robust for appearing to have so few options. Here’s a few things I like about it:

• Constraint in pen sizes – I’m forced to choose from a thick marker or a thin pen for my lines. And that’s it. I can’t change the opacity or thickness of the pen tool, so I’ve learned to work with it. In fact, I’ve used it so much that I know exactly what’s going to come out of the pen line. At first I thought it’d be too constricting and I tried a bunch of other apps. But at the end of the day the constraints won.
• Simple copy and paste – Thanks to a new update, and signing up as a patron, it now supports copy and paste. Yay!

I also love the watercolor brush, fill tool and scissors.

At the end of the day I’ve grown very fond of the app, and consider it the best for what I do every day, which is sketching and wireframes. Here’s a quick sketchnote I did a few months back.

This is a 3 part mini-review of the new iPad Pro 10.5″. Read part 2 and part 3.

Over the past few weeks I’ve scoured the internet for reviews of the new iPad Pros.

Last week Apple announced a new 10.5″ screen size, along with an updated version of the 12.9″. Over the past few weeks I’ve scoured the internet for reviews. Thanks to a bunch of different opinions (especially Brooks Review), I decided to try out the new 10.5″ size.

I went ahead and sold my 2015 12.9″ iPad Pro model and, with cash in hand headed to the Apple Store to pick up a new one.

Here’s a few things I noticed as I looked over the different iPad models at the store.

• Screen size – At first I was taken back by how small the 10.5″ screen was. I thought I was looking at the iPad minis. I think I mentally imagining a bigger iPad. Yes it’s bigger than the 9.7″ sizes, but I’m coming down from a nearly 13″ screen. I had to try out a handful of apps, including split screen, to see if I could go down to something this small.
• ProMotion – After testing out the Apple Pencil one the Notes app (the sketching part) I quickly decided that the 120hz was worth it. It’s pretty amazing! I’ve been using the older iPad Pro almost daily since January for sketching and could immediately tell this would make a difference. There’s almost no lag. This could make a huge difference for me.

After having second thoughts about the screen size that felt smaller than I was used to, I started to look again at the 12.9″ models. I went back and forth and finally decided I’d try out the 10.5″ for a few weeks and see if it worked for me.

I’m now writing this mini-review on the new iPad. I love both new models, and since the main thing I used the iPad for was sketching, I’ll have to try it out for a few days to get a better sense.

Note: Paper from FiftyThree.com doesn’t yet support the new screen size. The interface seems to be thinking I’m coming from a 12.9″ and is cutting off some of the UI elements. I’ve sent them an email asking if they can get it fixed. Since Paper is the number #1 app that I use it’s imperative that this start working as soon as possible.

Krehin held his ear to the door and listened to the sounds coming from outside. Rain beat against the wood, drowning out anything except for the constant thudding against the tree branches. He bent his head down and let out a sigh. 

“Waiting around won’t make it stop.” 

His grandma smiled and picked up a pot from the stove. 

“Do you think they’ll come by this way?” Krehin asked. 

Jauntin Magduff paused in her work and met her twelve year old grandson’s eyes. 

“Krantins only come around after the sodden rains. You know that.”

Krehin let out a sigh and jammed his finger against the window slot.

“Can’t I open it?” 

Grandma Jauntin sighed and smiled. 

“It’s fine. You just gotta wipe the floor if any rain comes through.”

Krehin grinned and yanked the door open. He slipped out into the downpour and slammed the heavy wooden door shut behind him. His grandma’s muffled words came through, a little louder than normal. He could pick out the meaning of them. She thought he’d meant to open the small window, not the door itself. And she wasn’t wrong. He seemed to get away with a lot in the previous months. Maybe because of what happened on his last birthday. Memories came flooding back and he squeezed his eyes shut. He shook his head. Such thoughts would do no good, not when he had some exploring to do. Perhaps he’d find some Krantin’s after all. Grandma wouldn’t follow. He was pretty sure of that. 

The pelting he’d thought were rain turned out to be something else. Krehin’s eyes widened and his expression turned into a wide grin as his eyes focused on the objects falling from the sky. He held out his hand and caught one of the small clusters of hail in his hand. They were cool to the touch, refreshing after feeling the dry heat from the fireplace for days on end. 

Krehin walked forward along the wooden pathway, his hand gliding across the rail. His bare feet touched the wet surface of the planks and he stuck out his toes for better grip. He still wasn’t used to living in the trees, even all these months later. His parents preferred a more solid footing, with a nice in-ground house. Grandma Jauntin’s home was far about as far away from the ground as you could get – unless you lived in a sky shroom. Her house sat inside one of the great oak’s of Latendin Forest. Grandma told stories of finding the oak with Grandpa. Together they built a home and welcomed visitors from far and wide. 

There were three ways to get to the ground. He could climb down the rungs, step by step. He could use the system of ropes and weights, or he could go the fast way. He always preferred the fast way. It had a degree of risk, even for a halfling litchim. If he didn’t pay attention he might not stick the landing, a pretty important thing up in the trees, and even more important during the sodden rains. He thought about dinner, for just a moment, then cleared his mind. He closed his eyes and breathed in. He needed to focus. 

His father had been careful to avoid flying, and discouraged him from doing it. His mother had said little on the topic. His grandma, however, felt quite comfortable with the activity and never stopped Krehin from practicing, rain or not. She was more worried about him catching a cold than getting hurt. 

Krehin gripped the wooden rail and swung a leg out past the safety of the platform. His toes felt the rough bark of the great oak and found a spot that didn’t feel too slippery. He looked past their tree toward the clearing, hoping to make out a herd of krantins passing by. Their migration always signaled the end of the rains, his favorite time of year. The hail stopped, and he got a clear view through the trees. Nothing yet. He let out his breath and pulled another leg over the railing. He turned back, both feet facing toward his grandma’s front door, and raised one hand to open his coat. Every kid in Marilvin had two coats: one for confined spaces, designed for warmth; the other for movement, speed, and flight. As part of his plan to escape he’d thrown his ground coat over his air coat, hiding his true intentions. He thought his grandma would let him go if she thought he was just going to walk in the tree tops. She’d want him back in time for dinner. 

A moment later and Krehin was ready, coat strewn beside him on the wooden path. He grinned and took another deep breath. That first moment, the initial drop, always brought a rush of sensations. He lived for those moments, and appreciated his grandma letting him get out and explore, hail storms notwithstanding. 

Krehin closed his eyes and let go of the hand rail. For a moment he hovered between solid footing and free open air. That moment, that tiny speck in time, was perfect. Then gravity took over and he fell backward. His head went first, followed by his body. He liked to hold to the tree as long as possible, his body twisting backward and pivoting his feet against the branches. It reminded him of pushing a toy over and seeing how far it would go until it toppled. Then it was over, his feet left the bark and he dropped into open air. 

Silence. The air around him grew quiet. The last of the clusters of hail hit the leaves and branches. Krehin squeezed his eyes tight to keep them closed and felt warmth against his cheeks. The sun shot through the trees. He hadn’t seen that beautiful ball of fire in forever. Krehin smiled and peaked one eye open, catching a view of the sun’s rays between the great oak’s crown. He was moving fast now, getting closer to the ground. Looking up while falling down was half the fun. He liked to see how long he could go. That was one thing, of course, he didn’t do around grandma. Although she was comfortable with flying, it was mutually agreed that Krehin should keep the crazier stunts to himself.

A large broken off tree branch flew past to his right. Krehin blinked. That was the marker; he was almost to the bottom, time to get moving. He spun around in the air, facing downward. The forest floor appeared below. Small bushes and grass poked up toward him. Krehin stretched out his wings to get some blood flowing into them. He hadn’t had a chance to fly for at least a week, and every good litchim of Marilvin knew that in order to get great big wings you had to practice. Something was wrong. He felt resistance. His wings weren’t working. Krehin’s eyes widened and he looked back behind him, then down to his chest. His mind blanked for a moment, confused. He wasn’t wearing his flying coat. He still had on his ground coat, without the special cuts in the back for flying. Krehin let out a gasp and shot his eyes upward. The air coat was still in the treetop, laying agains the branches where he’d kicked it. He’d switched them around without thinking. 

Krehin cried out as the ground shot upward toward him, he could feel his wings locked inside the fabric of his ground coat, pushing to break through. 

He panicked and ripped against his coat, trying to pull it free. For some reason, completely crazy in the moment, he’d buttoned it up. Sneaking out and hiding his true intentions seemed like a foolish idea. Krehin got one button out, then two, and checked the ground. The tree was big, the largest in the Latendin forest. He would have plenty of time, if he hadn’t waited so long. Another button came off, ripped free instead of twisted. It flew off beside him. Too slow, not enough. Three buttons to go. Krehin ripped hard on both and managed to break free of the coat. He twirled around and flung it off him with his right arm. At the same time he flapped his wings to spread them out. He felt strength come into him, it was starting to work. Not well enough though. Something was still wrong, he looked back and saw a flash of fabric. With every ounce of strength he flapped both his wings and the coat flew free. He looked to the ground again and braced both arms in front of him to break his fall. He didn’t have enough time, he wasn’t flying, he was just falling. He cried out and shut his eyes closed. 

He braced for full impact and expected to slam into the ground, his speed fast enough to break every bone in his body. Then something happened. He felt a sharp blow from the side and all the air in his lungs got knocked out of him. Krehin’s eyes flew open and he saw a swirl of dark brown all around him, mixed with something that looked like a large patch of fur. He shot both arms out and pushed against his surroundings. Everything was confusion, up was down, left was right. He gasped for breath and fought against the darkness. Then nothing, silence. 

Krehin tried to breath and felt air come back into his lungs. He gasped and flailed out his legs to find footing, something to balance him, something to stand on. Then the smell hit him. Where before he’d sensed the fresh scent of rain, mixed with the leaves and burning fireplace, now he smelled death and rotting. He gasped and reached up one hand to plug his nose. Then light returned, he could see. Krehin blinked and looked up, trying to register what his eyes were looking at. It took a moment for his mind to catch up. Before him, not a foot away from his head, was a large, smooth, object. It was perfectly round, with a large black rectangle in the middle. The object moved, and Krehin tripped backward, feeling the same sensation of fur mixed with the smell of rotting flesh. 

The large object came into focus, and pulled away. He now saw two of them. Two humongous eyeballs. Both stared at him. The smell, the fur, the eyes, all of it made sense. Krehin looked around him and took in the whole shape of the thing. He’d hoped to see a Krantin, to be the first one to spot them. They were dangerous, of course. Any wild animal could be dangerous. But they didn’t hunt or eat other animals. They traveled in herds, and ate leaves from the branches of the great oaks. They were best scene from a distance of course, but they wouldn’t go out of their way to swallow a kid. A gigantic ursatic mange on the other hand, that was a whole other situation entirely. 

Krehin stared up into the face of the giant mange and took in a deep breath. What he’d taken to be a large furry object turned out to be a limb from the great beast. Maybe a tail, maybe an arm. He couldn’t tell from where he stood. Its eyes shifted upward and Krehin used the opportunity to look for an escape. He glanced to both sides and saw a small gap between fur and ground, just enough space for a small litchim to squeeze through. In an instant he tucked both wings as tight as possible and dove headfirst toward the gap. At the same time he heard a loud crack. The ursatic mange roared and large patches of brown and gray shifted around him. Krehin didn’t look, didn’t think. He shot forward and scrambled beneath the fur. The ground shook and the beast roared. Krehin saw his chance, a crevice in the roots of the great oak.