Category: Member

A couple of weeks ago I talked about a shift in the way I am working on my productivity tools. For those who missed it, the crux was that I no longer felt like my systems were helping me to get things done. I love Things, but some how it had become a database of stress, instead of the normal tool it had been for keeping stress at bay.

I turned to my buddy Shawn Blanc, and asked him explain his digital-analog system to me. After talking to him I bought a large Baron Fig Confidant, a little ruler from them (why not?) and set out to give this system a go. I also decided that I need to go back to a standard wake up time.

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I talk to a lot of people who often say a couple of things to me with regards to their smartphone/computer usage:

1. I probably use it way too much.
2. I really don’t think I am not that bad, so I don’t really need to curb my usage.

Most people say both, roughly in that order. I’m guilty too. It seems that in society today, people with data plans and smartphones recognize that they likely use these devices far too much. But by the same token, the usage they deem to be too much is excused away by saying it is necessary for any number of reasons. Thus, at the end of the day, no one actually thinks they should curb their usage of devices because, well, they have really gotten rid of everything nasty in their own usage.

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I’ve written before about what now seems to be more commonly accepted knowledge: digital devices in classrooms, even if used for notetaking, leads to worse results and more distractions.

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I saw a comment the other day about ’thin devices’, where the author was complaining about the compulsive drive of tech companies to make devices ever thinner. This is not the first time I’ve heard this, and can usually be heard each time an iPhone comes out with an ever thinner new model.

The reason for thinner devices is rather obvious and is two part. The first reason for this drive is that thinner devices seem impossible. Go and look at either a new iPad Pro, or MacBook (Pro or not) and tell me they are not impossibly thin, and that’s even before you consider the amount of things you can do with these devices. If you are reading this on an iPad, stop and take any and all covers off of it and hold the device in your hands — really look at it and feel it — and you will immediately know the truth.

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There’s been a lot going on with tablets in the past few weeks, with a new Microsoft Surface Go coming out, as well as Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S4 Tablet. Let’s take a look at all of this.

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As I mentioned in my post last week, I wanted to follow up with what worked and what didn’t on my road trip, so here’s a smattering of gear related thoughts, both mini-reviews and thoughts on what I should and should not have packed.

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My grandfather on my father’s side would go on drives for seemingly no reason. Often he loaded up my grandmother and would drive around the Olympic peninsula. That’s roughly 5-6 hours of driving. He’d do it in a day, and at least a few times a year. He’d also drive anywhere he could for vacation, flying was a last resort for him.

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It’s been a while since I wrote an iPad Productivity Report, but here we are with a fresh set of characters. Some big things have been going on in iPad world from rumored new device sizes, to software releases and announcements. Let’s dive into it all.

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Down the rabbit hole we go.

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It’s no secret that I love the iPad and think most of the world can easily get by with it as their only computer. However, most of the world doesn’t agree, and none of this is to say it isn’t without its challenges. Having said that, today I am going to look at the sorry state of iPad office apps, and why in the hell anyone would by a Chromebook over an iPad.

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It would be rather hard for anyone who regularly reads tech sites, or looks at the App Store, to not know about “mindfulness” and the general trend of meditation. A year ago, with stress mounting in my life, I took to mindfulness meditation settling on the app Calm to help me with it. Though I was never able to build a daily habit, I regularly meditated 3-4 times a week.

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Members might recall, last year that I took a car camping trip with a group consisting of 3 dads, and 5 kids. I made a video for that, which showed the absurd amount of gear I alone packed. We are coming up on the second year for this trip, and as such I have been going through a bunch of my gear to get it ready to go.

With that in mind, and the summer upon us, it is highly likely that many of you are going to end up getting out of the house and this might necessitate some new gear. That’s what this post is about: the gear we buy for summer fun. I’ll be running through some of my favorite gear, and some thoughts I have on gear I am considering.

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Going down the rabbit hole a bit this week. Talking about what makes good iPad software, what it would take to get me to switch back to Apple Watch, and a note that I checked a bag when traveling. Dunkin’ Donuts talk too.

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A few big thoughts on WWDC announcements, Overall I’m pretty happy.

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Years ago, I switched to a standing desk when I was working in an office full time. When I left that job to work from home, I worked at a sitting desk for a year before getting another standing desk. But sometimes laziness wins out and it had been sometime since I stood at that desk. A few weeks ago I decided to go all in on it and only stand again.

Since it has been [some time](https://brooksreview.net/2014/04/standing-desks-how-to-get-going/) since I wrote about this topic, I figured it was time to follow up on it.

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I’m not quite ready to review this stuff, but I thought I’d share some initial thoughts on each of them. First up the Vortex Core, then a new wallet, a knife, a new Micro.blog app, and lastly a method I am testing for organizing my GR1 better.

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It’s time we talk about Slack and the damage it is doing on the workplace. Then we can talk about keyboards, and iPad file archive security.

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Last week, I talked about how I am moving away from Facebook “owned” properties, and I’ll give an update on that this week. Also I have some follow up on my watch explorations, some thoughts on VPNs, and lastly I want to talk about my experiences using battery backups when I am traveling. Maybe more.

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Allow me to start by saying that this is not a typical “stop using Facebook” post from me, nor is it about any one item of social media — shit it even extends beyond social media to many forms of communication. Anyways, I recently read [this post](http://www.derrickreimer.com/posts/the-war-on-developer-productivity/) from Derrick Reimer, and in the post he has a fantastic term which is new to me “greedy communication”. Here’s how he explains it:

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In browsing around tech-blog-land, I came across this post which I was naturally excited to see, despite the overall condescending nature of the title. I took a read and quickly realized the article was a pile of trash, so we start this week looking at that, before moving on to good tips, Nebo, and backpack sale.

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