Author: Ben Brooks

During the week of Thanksgiving 2020 I upended my task management life and moved away from Things (which I have been using for a while) and moved all in with Reminders.app. At the time, I had been finding more and more friction in my life with any app I chose that is not a system level app (this is same reason I prefer Notes) and so I moved to Reminders for a very simple, and silly reason:

Telling Siri “Remind me about THIS on DATE.”

That string is so powerful. I can, by triggering Siri, have my Reminder link to an email or a web page I want to be reminded of at some future date, or future date and time. This means I can stop storing stuff in my mail inbox and place it where I need it: Reminders.

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For quite some time, I have advocated either waterstones, or the Spyderco Sharpmaker for sharpening your knives. It was the exact setup I used, and it was only recently that I realized there was something much better which is still cost effective out there. This is that story…

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Note: this bag was provided at no cost for review by Tom Bihn.

I first wrote about this bag here, in a preview and I have continued to test and play with the bag since then. The Shadow Guide 23 is a really good bag, and one which I think will excel for both the light travelers, weekend adventurers, and office going crowds. It is a strong contender for being one of the most versatile bags you can own.

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I am listing this stuff in this post because I don’t have the qualifications to actually review this stuff, and the breadth to know how it compares to others in the same category, but dang do I love these things. So here goes:

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In the past, I worked from home for almost 5 years, then back to the office I went — and like everyone else I found myself back home with little other choice to be had. Since I never planned to work from home again, I needed to rediscover a whole bunch of stuff to make my setup function well and to set up a comfortable and productive space. Even with a head start on knowing what I might need/want, I still needed to get it all together again and in place.

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Note: this item was provided at no cost for review.

Wndsn XPD has been making these neat Quadrant Telemeters for a while now. To be honest, they are one of those items I have been aware of, but confused by. What are they for?

So when Wndsn asked if I would like to try one out, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on one. I, you see, am not someone trained in astrology, astronomy, navigation, or really math. So, as a pretty basic guy who is interested in cool stuff, this little card both baffles me and intrigues me.

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I picked up this tiny sling from Topo Designs while it was on sale for a mere $30. At 2.5L this is about as small as you can reasonably go, while still holding everything you generally want to carry. But, while simple, I didn’t expect it to be as odd as it is.

Overall, I’d pass on this one, but allow me to explain why.

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When Code of Bell came out, their first bag was a large cross the back sling. It looked cool, the strap setup and bad ass pictures. I don’t know any bag nerd who looked at the pictures and felt like it would be a bad bag. And yet, I loathe cross the back bags like that. One strap is not better that two, it is worse in almost every way.

But, given my obsession with finding a good sling to use as my purse, I knew I needed to get a Code of Bell bag, specifically the small Sling Pack called X-Pod. It is essentially the larger bag, shrunk down to a much more manageable size. I have had this bag for a while now, and since it is topping the price scales compared to the other slings I have reviewed thus far, I took more time putting this together.

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Surprisingly, over a dozen people, from readers to coworkers, have asked me about the Pacific Northwest since I moved away. Specifically, along the lines of “I really want to visit/move there, can you give me some tips”. I used to keep a page for members on all my recommendations, but it is long gone. So I thought I would memorialize all my thoughts on the Pacific Northwest, with a bias towards the Seattle region, before I forget it all.

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What does it take to be your most productive? The right book? That one philosophy? Is it a state of mine, and is that state of focus or is it flow. Perhaps it’s the right headphones, playlist, or morning routine. Yes, the right pen, or notebook. It’s all about software, find the right one and bam you are a millionaire cashing checks while sipping down margaritas on your private yacht.

If you follow productivity schemes as long as I have, and you try enough of them — you find that every underlying way to do more work, to do that work fast, or to generally be more productive/creative/orwhathaveyou is simply boiled down to system building. The idea that all which is missing in our lives is a system by which we shove everything into and magic shall happen at the other end.

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Benchmade has been on a roll with the Bugout lineup, and something which has become ever popular the last couple of years is the Benchmade Osborne family of knives. People seem to love them, but I’ve always steered clear as they are higher priced (start at $200) and they have a rather large blade for an everyday carry knife, coming in at 3.4” long. The combination of both, making it a losing proposition for me.

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