Ingredients

• 4 c chicken stock or water
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 c polenta (corn meal)
• 1/2 c ricotta cheese
• 2 oz shredded parmagiana cheese
• 3 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Bring chicken stock to a low boil in a medium sauce pan.
2. When boiling, whisk in the polenta, pouring it into the stock a little at a time and whisking well — do this slowly to avoid lumps. Note: it will thicken quickly…do not be alarmed.
3. Once the polenta is all stirred into the chicken stock, turn down to low (pretty much as low as your burner will go), and cover. Whisk vigorously every 10 mins.
4. After 20 mins, whisk in the milk. Continue to cook on low, stirring every 10 mins for another 20 mins.
5. At this point, grab a spoon and taste the polenta. Depending on how coarsely ground your cornmeal is, it could be done now, or you might need to keep cooking it. If it’s grainy, keep cooking. It should be soft and creamy.
6. Stir in the ricotta cheese, then, once that’s well blended, stir in the parmagiana cheese. After that’s all incorporated, stir in the butter.
7. That’s it. Fantastic as a bed for braised meat, sliced steak, mushroom ragu, etc etc etc. Keeps well, and solidifies (like jello!) when cool so it can be sliced and fried or grilled. Yum!

Before Readability

After Readability

Note: Readability runs fine on Minefield if you use Nightly Tester Tools to force-install. There’s also a bookmarklet version if you don’t want to install an add-on.

I really have no idea whether this can be properly called “zdir” since I’ve been unable to locate an actual recipe (or any other information) about it. Either way, it’s crazy tasty with a good solid spicy punch. If you don’t care for spicy food, skip the harissa and chilis. If you do like spicy food, you have to try this.

• 2-3 dried red chilis (I used 2 Sanaam chilis)
• 1 oz olive oil
• 3-4 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tsp harissa (this is a lot, I might halve this next time…it’s potent stuff)
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp ground caraway
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tin diced tomatoes + juice (28fl oz)
• 1/4 c water
• 1 tbsp preserved lemon, chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, chopped
• 1 tbsp olives, chopped
• 1 tbsp sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp dried mint (or to taste)

1. Soak chilis in a bit of water for 15-20 mins. Chop finely.
2. Pour olive oil into a pot and heat over med-low, when warm add garlic + let steep for 5 mins or so. Don’t saute the garlic…just let it warm through and flavour the oil.
3. Turn up the heat a bit and add tomato paste, harissa, and a bit of the tomato juice. Whisk together well and simmer for a few mins.
4. Add chilis, caraway, and coriander to the paste. Simmer another few mins.
5. Pour in diced tomatoes with their juices and the extra 1/4 cup of water. Add chopped sundried tomatoes, and mix well. Simmer over low/med-low for 20 mins or so. Add more water if needed.
6. Optionally, if you have an immersion stick blender, use that now to chop up the tomatoes a bit. If you prefer a chunkier soup, or if you don’t have an immersion blender, just skip this part.
7. Quickly rinse the chopped preserved lemon, capers, and olives (just to get rid of the excess vinegars/etc). Stir these into the soup. Let sit on low to heat through for another 10-15 mins.
8. Remove from heat, stir in dried mint, serve.

One of the most important parts of my week is my one-on-one (1:1) meeting with Dan, my manager. These meetings generally only last around half an hour, and it’s time extraordinarily well spent. In that half hour we catch up, discuss projects and status, review priorities, troubleshoot blockers, checkpoint against our quarterly goals, and use the time to give each other feedback. It might sound like a pretty dense 30 minutes, and that’s because it is. Our 1:1 meeting is a tightly packed conversation that establishes and reinforces my direction, priorities, and motivation. As a remotie*, I would be lost without it.

The actual meeting is only part of the story, however — while the meeting only lasts for half an hour, I do some prep work the day before. This prep work mostly involves reviewing my projects and goals, writing out what I want to talk about, and sending those notes to Dan so he can review them before we meet. I find this process extremely useful.

Over the months I’ve established a more-or-less standard format for my 1:1 prep notes that includes five fairly straightforward sections:

• Accomplishments & status
• Blocked/Waiting on
• To do over the next week
• Areas to develop
• Quarterly goal tracking

Accomplishments & status: This is where I do a quick rundown of my current projects, with one or two sentences covering what I’ve managed to get done in the last week and what the current status looks like.

Blocked/Waiting on: This is where I list the projects I’m stuck on and why, or other things that are blocking progress — either waiting on resources, people, feedback, or whatever else. Having this section is absolutely vital — if I’m blocked on something, we can usually talk it through so I get unstuck, or Dan can figure out what he can do to help.

To do over the next week: By writing out a short list of specific things I plan to work on over the next week, Dan and I can make sure that I’m working on the right things and am prioritizing things properly. This doesn’t take a lot of time to go over, and since we checkpoint on this every week there usually aren’t any changes, but sometimes my task list gets rejigged slightly if other things have come up elsewhere in the organization.

Areas to develop: Usually this is a one or two sentence “big picture” sort of thing. Dan and I talk about longer-term career development once every month or two, discussing what I need to do or develop in order to progress, become more effective, and have more impact. In this part of my prep notes I take a few minutes to review how I think I’m doing in relation to what we discussed and jot down what I believe I need to focus on improving the most.

This section gives Dan a chance to do some career development coaching. While we normally deal with this part of the meeting in a matter of minutes, it’s profoundly useful — this is an incredibly quick and easy way for me to get ongoing lightweight feedback from Dan on a regular basis.

Quarterly goal tracking: We establish a set of goals each quarter, and every week Dan and I review progress on the ones I own and am driving. I find this useful because regularly checkpointing against my goals helps me make sure I’m focusing on the right things. By reviewing these weekly, we can also make ongoing course corrections where needed. Life rarely happens exactly according to plan, and priorities and projects can shift. It’s far better to review and adjust things weekly than to do a single review late in the quarter just to realize that things got off track (at which point the panic sets in).

Video chat: Another thing I should mention is that Dan and I have our meetings using Skype video. We used to just use the phone, but Dan talked me into using video chat and it’s really much, much better. As a remotie, being able to get “face time” like this is way more important than I thought — not only is the communication much higher bandwidth, there’s a psychological impact I can’t really explain. I just feel more connected to the rest of the company, which is both surprising and fantastic. If you’re remote, you should really try using video chat for your 1:1 meetings…I can almost guarantee that it’s more useful than you expect.

And that’s about it. Having developed the habit of prepping for my 1:1 meetings this way, it only takes me about 15-20 minutes to write up my notes to send to Dan, and it makes our meetings incredibly focused and useful. If you’re not sure you’re getting the most out of your 1:1s, you might try something like this — a half hour of prep work on your part for a half hour meeting can have a huge impact.

Do you have particularly awesome 1:1 meetings? What makes them awesome? What tips would you give to people who would like their meetings to be more useful?

• remotie: noun, a person who works in a different geographic location than his/her manager.

Dinner this evening, sticking with the “meatless” theme, is a very simple soba noodle salad topped with grilled tofu.

Grilled Tofu

• 2-3 1/2″ slices of extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin (sweet sake)
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• Splash sesame oil

1. Mix soy, mirin, vinegar, and oil in a shallow bowl. Add tofu slices and marinate for 15-30 mins or so. Note: mirin is optional — it adds a notable hint of sweetness which may or may not be wanted. I’ll probably skip it next time.
2. Heat a ridged grill pan over med-high heat until hot enough to instantly sizzle water. Grill tofu 3-4 mins per side (it will smoke and should develop good grill marks). That’s it.

Soba noodle salad

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Splash sesame oil
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 2 oz soba noodles (uncooked)
• 1/3 c frozen edamame (out of pods)
• 1/4 c thinly sliced carrot
• Small handful baby spinach

1. Whisk together olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, and ginger. This is a simple lemon/ginger vinaigrette.
2. Cook soba noodles in boiling water for 4 mins. Before draining, add edamame and let cook for another minute or so, then add carrot slices and baby spinach and let stand for 20-30 seconds. Drain well and rinse with cold water until cool. Drain for 4-5 mins.
3. Put salad in a shallow pasta bowl, top with grilled tofu slices, and pour over vinaigrette.

Very tasty and very filling. This is what I made for one (me) and I couldn’t finish it.

Here, for example, is a screenshot of what a typical Harvard Business Review article looks like in Firefox (Persona: Save the Bees Plz by monorail cat):

Old Crufty

With the Readability add-on installed, all I have to do is hit a quick keyboard shortcut (alt-cmd-R) and the page will reload and be reformatted by Readability. It looks like this:

New Clean

It’s just so, so much better. arc90, you have made a great thing. Thanks :)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, but tasty)
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 med carrots, sliced into 1/2″ rounds
• 2 lg stalks celery, sliced
• 6 small potatoes, quartered
• 1 md zucchini, sliced
• 1 c cabbage, sliced
• 1 19oz tin diced tomatoes, including juice
• 1/2 c water or vegetable stock
• 1 14oz tin white kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 c cooked barley (hulled, not pearled)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over med-high heat. Add onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes and saute for a couple of minutes. Add carrots, celery, and sliced cabbage, and saute for a few more minutes. Toss in potatoes, saute for a little longer.
2. Pour in diced tomatoes and juices, and add water. Heat to just boiling, then turn down to med-low and simmer for 30 mins or so (until everything is cooked through).
3. Add drained and rinsed kidney beans and cooked barley, stir and leave on low for another 10-15 mins to heat everything through.
4. Salt & pepper to taste. Optionally serve with freshly grated parmagiana cheese (it’s yummy).

Here’s a list of what I bought because I’m bored and cranked on cold meds.

Fruit

• Bananas (7)
• Clementines (2 lbs)
• Flat of cubed melons + pineapple (on sale)
• Blueberries, 1 pint

Fresh vegetables

• Baby spinach (1 lb)
• Celery (1 bunch)
• Carrots (organic, 2lb)
• Leeks (3)
• Anise (1)
• Zucchini (3 small)
• Ginger
• Garlic (5)
• Cabbage (1 large)
• Butternut squash (1 med)
• Spaghetti squash (1 med)
• Potatoes (3 lb, small)
• Eggplant (1 large)

Dairy (and whatnot)

• Goat cheese (plain)
• Feta cheese
• Butter (cultured, 2lb)
• Milk (2%)
• Yogurt (1 ltr, plain, 6% mf)
• Tofu (extra-firm, 2 blocks)
• Eggs (2 doz)

Everything else

• Tortillas (whole grain, flax)
• Bread (whole grain, flax)
• Crispy flatbread (honey & flax)
• President’s Choice “Ancient Grains” cereal (2 boxes)
• Sundried tomatoes (3oz, dry)
• White kidney beans (3 tins)
• Red kidney beans (3 tins)
• Black beans (3 tins)
• Chickpeas (3 tins)
• Vegetable stock (Campbell’s organic, 3 tetrapaks)
• Short grain organic brown rice (best rice ever)

Already on hand…

• Basically everything else including onions, sweet potatoes, various rices, barley (hulled & pearl), quinoa, dried beans, a plethora of dried herbs & spices, various oils & vinegars, a somewhat alarming array of hotsauces, a big ol’ chunk of 2 year old cheddar, parmigiana cheese, peanut butter, tahini, olives, dried mushrooms, egg noodles, rice noodles, pasta, tomato soup, etc etc etc.

This is gonna be awesome.

• Soba noodle salad with edamame and tofu
• Chickpea & spinach curry (Channa Masala)
• Double oatmeal cookies with cranberries and walnuts
• Leek + potato soup
• Wild rice and quinoa salad
• Black bean and sweet potato soup
• How to make a yummy vinaigrette
• Basic arrabiata sauce
• Tzatziki sauce
• Blue cheese, walnut, and apple salad
• Sweet potato and chickpea curry
• Spinach-Hummus recipe
• Easy asparagus soup
• Sunday veggie soup
• Pasta with savoy cabbage
• White Bean Soup
• Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce
• Wicked Bean Salad
• Nutty Brown Rice

I’ve decided that I’m going to try an experiment in going without meat for the next two weeks. I say “without meat” rather than “vegetarian” because there are shades of grey in the world of vegetarianism, and I fully intend to cook with animal products such as eggs, milk, cheese, and butter. Just no beef, pork, fish, chicken, shrimp, etc.

The reason for this is simple. We’ve been working on eating less meat on average for the past couple of years, but we still eat more than we should. To eat less, we need to expand our repertoire of recipes for meatless mains. We have the cookbooks, we just need to use them and try more new things.

Two weeks gives me a chance to try around 10-15 new recipes. More if I get inspired and energetic, but probably not because I’ve got a cold and “inspired” is just about the last thing I feel right now. I’ll probably start with some sort of vegetarian stew or chili and go from there. If I remember, I’ll take pictures and blog it all.

If there are particular meatless recipes you think I should try, leave a comment!

The premise is fairly simple: You can help make the world a better place by finding and mentoring someone who you feel has amazing potential and help make them as successful as possible (ideally, of course, to be “greater than yourself”).

The greatest, most successful and well-respected leaders that I’ve encountered in my two decades of consulting, advising, writing, and speaking are not just helpful: they’ve come to understand that the true measure of their greatness as leaders is their ability to develop leaders who go on to surpass them — who rise to a level greater than themselves in skill, influence and ability.
– Steve Farber

The article outlines six pieces of advice to help you get started, which are expanded upon (in a roundabout way) in the book. It’s a fantastic premise, but I’d be curious to see how it works in action. The book doesn’t really get into a whole lot more detail — it’s written as a parable which makes for a quick read but glosses over the nitty-gritty. Worth reading, either way.

It turns out that extrinsic incentives — the old “carrots and sticks” system of punishments and rewards — really don’t motivate us very much at all. This isn’t to say that things like money, benefits, promotions, and bonuses aren’t important, but science tells us that after a certain level (i.e. when pay is already fair and equitable), extrinsic motivators aren’t really all that effective.

True motivation is something at once more simple and more complex. Intrinsic incentives — those motivations that come from within and are part of our fundamental character and make up — are the real reason we strive to excel, why we take such satisfaction in producing exceptional work, and are what lie behind our real passions and drives.

Pink postulates that there are three elements to intrinsic motivation: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

The first element, Autonomy, is based on the observation that people are more likely to be engaged in and passionate about something if they are free to be self-directed — allowed not only to choose what they work on, but to find their own solutions, strategies, and approaches to the work involved. Pink puts forth “four Ts” where autonomy and self-direction matter: task, time, technique, and team.

Compare these two situations: In the first, you are asked to work on a project you select, on your own schedule, using methods you choose, and with a team that you recruit. In the second, you are asked to work on something you’re not interested in, on a schedule someone else sets, using methods you have no influence over, and with people you can’t trust, don’t like, and find difficult to work with. Which would you find more motivating? Where would you do your best work? Autonomy is an absolutely fundamental part of motivation.

Mastery, Pink’s second element, is based on his belief that we each have an innate “desire to get better and better at something that matters”. This drive is what lies behind that seemingly magical state known as “flow” — where time falls away when you’re working on a clear task that is just challenging enough without being frustratingly difficult. When our tasks are just slightly beyond our current level of mastery we are inspired to push ourselves to get better and accomplish ever greater things.

The third element, Purpose, provides a grounding context for the other two. “Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do it in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more.” If you believe that what you’re doing has a purpose larger than yourself — say, as an example, ensuring there is choice and innovation on the internet and safeguarding the future of the open web — you’re going to be even more motivated to accomplish amazing things.

The book mentions both Wikipedia and Firefox as examples of what people can accomplish when driven solely by intrinsic motivation. All three elements are present: contributors are autonomous (entirely self-selecting and able to scratch whatever itches they like), highly skilled and driven to continually get better at what they do, and they usually have a pretty fundamental belief in the purpose and importance of the larger project. Working together over several years, the people involved with these projects have accomplished what most sane people would have believed was impossible only a few years ago. Intrinsic motivation is powerful, powerful thing.

If you’re interested in understanding the power of intrinsic incentives (and, to some extent, the dangers of extrinsic incentives) and harnessing those to motivate your team or open source community to even greater feats of awesome, I think Drive is definitely worth reading.

So as pretty much everyone in the world knows, Apple announced the iPad yesterday. Unlike apparently everyone else, I actually don’t have a problem with the name. Legal pad, note pad, hockey pad, bachelor pad, launch pad…etc. etc. etc. Come on.

Anyhoo…while I’m crazily excited about the iPad (and I will be ordering one the second Apple lets me send them money), I don’t think it will be a Kindle killer for me. It could be for a lot of people, but the way I use my Kindle doesn’t really lend itself to immediate replacement by the iPad. It’s too big, for one, and too heavy. And the Kindle’s buttons are ideal — I often read my Kindle lying on my side (on the sofa or in bed) and the buttons are great. The iPad’s swipe-to-turn-the-page thing is just not going to work for that. As others have said, the LCD screen is a double-edged sword…while I desperately wish e-ink were more contrasty, I’m not sure I could spend more time staring at an LCD screen than I already do. I’m on my laptop or iMac 10-14 hours a day as it is — I use books and my Kindle as a way to rest my eyes, and the iPad won’t work for that either.

I also like that the Kindle is a single-purpose device. Like John, I’m able to read longer and more complex works on my Kindle than on my laptop, with a much better ability to focus. Reading on my laptop, I fall into the trap of responding to IM pings or just flipping over to check a quick email or jot down a note or quickly glance at my Twitterstream, at which point I get lost in the other distractions. The Kindle, on the other hand, is just for reading, a step away from the hurly burly of the internets and all the shenanigans therein. The iPad seems like it will split the difference — other apps will be available, but without background applications there won’t be IM pings and whatnot. I’m not sure what that will turn out to be like in practice.

We will see. I am going to get an iPad, and I am going to try reading some books on it. I’m very much hoping that Apple continues to allow Amazon to have their Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad because at that point they’ll have to compete on the price of content, and less expensive ebooks are something I’m Very Interested In. Once I’ve had a chance to do an actual comparison of both as an eReader device, I’ll post a review.

Honestly, this is all jetpacks and flying cars, anyhow. I like living in the future.

Luckily Rob taught me a trick to open up some space in my Firefox toolbar. Just right-click in the space beside your search bar, select Customize…, then add some “Spacers” where you want some extra space. Here’s a step by step guide, using the Two Little Birds persona:

1. Sad birdies, search bar in the way.

2. Right click beside the search bar and select Customize…

3. Open up the Customize menu…

4. Add some spacers, and remove some buttons to free up space…

5. Ta dah! No more sad birdies.

It’s a “prototype” because you can use this recipe and include whatever combination of vegetables, meat, and carb you like, but the foundation stays the same. Here it is.

Ingredients

• Static
• 1-2 tbsp peanut (or other) oil for frying
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1″ or so of fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tsp (or more) of hot red pepper flakes
• 3 tbsp soy sauce (the regular stuff, lower sodium is better)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp mirin (japanese sweetened sake)

• Variables
• 6-8 oz meat (enough for 2 people, trimmed and thinly sliced)
• 4-6 c sliced/chopped vegetables
• Some sort of rice or noodles, cooked

1. Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin in a small bowl and reserve.

2. Pour oil into a wok or big saute pan and heat to medium-high. Toss in garlic, ginger, and hot pepper flakes and fry for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add meat to the pan and cook through, stirring frequently.

4. Once the meat is just about done, add the vegetables. If you’re using more than one type of vegetable, add them separately and in order of how long they will take to cook. Broccoli will take a minute or so more than spinach, and so forth.

5. When the vegetables are basically done (it won’t take long), pour in the soy/vinegar/mirin mixture and fry for another minute, stirring well. If you have noodles, you can dump those in now as well so they heat through and absorb some of the sauce.

6. You probably don’t want all the sauce in your bowls, so lift the food out of the wok with tongs or a slotted spoon rather than pouring it out. If you didn’t use noodles, serve over rice. And that’s it.

Flavour Combinator
Pick two or three ingredients from cols I + II, and serve with a carb from col III.

This is something the Planet team was discussing prior to the holidays, but we hadn’t picked it up again until prompted by Matt’s post. It turns out that we should be able to rig the existing Planet software to do more or less what Matt suggests, we’re just not currently sure how well the software will deal with a large number of channels.

I figure we may as well start by defining the ideal and work backwards from it if we run into technical limitations. I’ve expanded upon Matt’s proposed category list, and started defining a set of keywords and keyphrases that the Planet software would use to filter posts into each category.

I’ve posted that list on the Mozilla wiki, and would like your feedback and help. What categories are missing? Which could be safely consolidated? What other keywords should we filter on for each? Etc. You can edit that page directly if you like, or leave a comment on this post. Thanks!

During my week off I put together a list of what I want to accomplish in 2010. The quick (and incomplete because some are just for me) list:

• Improve focus and execution: This is a purely work-related goal. I am far too easily distracted and thrown off track by things like IRC, Twitter, Facebook, the infinity of web feeds, etc. I need to really work on blocking stuff out, cutting things down, and improving my ability to focus. When I do — when I can hit that state of “flow” — I have a lot more fun and I get a lot more done. I would like to be able to get into that state on demand. Every day.
• Lose another 12 lbs: I’ve lost around 15 lbs since last spring, but I’ve a ways to go to get back to where I want to be.
• Read more: I love reading, but I don’t make enough time for it. I want to do so.
• Write more: I love writing, but again I don’t make enough time for it. I want to do so.
• Let crap bother me less: I tend to get annoyed more easily by things than I’m really happy with, and I sometimes have a problem letting things go. I want to fix that.

There’s some other stuff, but this is the core of it. Five goals, relatively straightforward, but each with its own challenges.

The tricky part is that these goals aren’t like “projects”. They will never be complete in any sense because they’re all ongoing, “from now ’til forever” sorts of things. I can’t just break these down GTD-style into a set of actions, then run down the list checking each off. All of these can only be accomplished by being very deliberate, conscientious, and focused on changing my personal habits over time.

So, what habits do I need to cultivate to achieve these goals? Here’s the current plan.

Improve focus and execution

• Cut down the noise: Close all unnecessary apps and Firefox tabs while I’m working. Minimize IRC and IM sessions (I need to be available for pings, but only for direct pings).
• Go full GTD: The old catch-as-catch-can system I’ve been using doesn’t scale. I need to adopt a (more or less) full GTD system for tracking projects and tasks. I need to assign and stick to real due dates for everything. If it doesn’t have a due date, it often just slides indefinitely.
• Take advantage of available tools: For example, I should use an app that has a “distraction free” mode for all writing.

Lose another 12 lbs

• Eat and cook (even more) sensibly: I’ve been working on this for quite a while, but there are things I can do to get a bigger bang for our caloric buck. Luckily I love food and cooking, so this shouldn’t be that difficult.
• Work out regularly: I’ve been working out semi-regularly since last March, but I have to step up my game. “Regularly” is intended to become “daily” in time.
• Keep a food and exercise diary: Tracking calories and nutrition is the only real way to understand how things are going and where things need work.

Read more and Write more
These are largely a matter of making the time and using it. This time could come from getting up earlier, staying up later, or eliminating/reducing other activities to free up time during the saner parts of the day. Right now, for example, I’ve eliminated all distractions and am simply writing. Blog posts count.

Let crap bother me less
This one’s a bit fuzzier and probably the most difficult of the bunch. Current strategies:

• Meditate every day: It’s good for your head to just sit sometimes.
• Better sleep: Better, more consistent sleep. I suffer from insomnia fairly often and this never helps my brain.
• Step back: If something bothers me I have a strong impulse to react to it immediately, which is never the right thing to do. The idea here is pretty simple — if something bothers me for whatever reason, I need to use that as a trigger to step back and away from it for a few minutes or an hour or a day until I’m able to think about and react to it calmly and reasonably. I’ve been getting better at this over the past few years, but I’m hoping being deliberate about it will reinforce the habit.

I’ve started experimenting with a number of apps to help me with these things — I am a giant nerd, after all, and given that I’m in front of my computer most of the time (and within arm’s reach of my iPhone all of the time), I figured I’d take advantage of the tools at hand. Here are some of the applications I’m trying right now.

Scrivener

Scrivener is a bloody fantastic writing tool that, in addition to its already huge array of really useful features, has a beautiful full-screen distraction free mode. I really cannot say enough good about this app. Drawback: it’s Mac only. It’s also not free, but I’m OK with that, because it’s worth every penny. If you write — particularly if you write complex docs or have a number of different writing projects on the go at once — I strongly recommend you give the 30 day free trial a try.

OmniFocus

OmniFocus comes in two parts — the desktop app and the iPhone app. It is not cheap, and you will spend a total of $100 for both. It took me a long time (and three tries) to really warm up to OmniFocus, but now that I’m juggling 20-odd projects and a dozen “due now” items every day, I have fallen completely in love with it. OmniFocus isn’t super intuitive, however, as it is designed to work specifically with David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system. If you haven’t, you should read the book and use the demo version of OmniFocus for a while before committing to buying the application, particularly at these prices.

The iPhone app does what you would expect it to do, which is provide a full-featured version of the app in iPhone format that syncs with the desktop app. My only quibble is that it seems to take an awfully long time to sync sometimes.

Lose It!

Lose It! is one of those free iPhone apps for which I would pay good money if they asked. It’s simple, easy to use, flexible, and goal oriented in a way that makes me happy.

The premise is simple: You set a weight loss goal, the app calculates (roughly) the number of calories you need per day in order to achieve your goal. I set my goal (lose 12 lbs) at a challenging-but-doable rate of one pound per week, which gives me a target of around 1600 net calories per day.

Once that’s set, all I have to do is log whatever I eat and any exercise I do. Lose It! gives me a running daily total, a running weekly total, and pretty bar charts to show me where I stand. It has some other features — nutritional info, friends (via the Lose It! website), a public humiliation option, etc), but the goal setting and exercise/food diary is the core and all you need to use.

I’ve been using Lose It! for about two weeks and it’s great. I’ve lost 2 lbs, have become very much more aware of what I eat and how exercise lets me eat more (I really like food). I highly recommend this app if you’re watching your weight.

Touch Goal

If you want to develop new habits and/or break old habits, a habit tracker like Touch Goal is a really great way to increase your personal awareness of what you do or don’t do in a day.

I’ve set up Touch Goals to track whether I:

• Eat breakfast in the morning (rather than at noon like I tend to)
• Do cardio exercise
• Do strength training
• Eat fewer than 1700 calories
• Drink four (or more) glasses of water
• Read for an hour or more
• Write for an hour or more
• Avoid snacking after 8pm

With the exception of strength training, these are things I want to do every day (strength training has a target of 4x/wk). When I do one of these things in a day, I add it to Touch Goals, and I can see pretty quickly how I’m progressing. This is another straightforward app that helps simply by making me more mindful of what I do or don’t do over the course of the day.

Ben’s Virtues

This is a mostly-for-fun app. As the story goes, Ben Franklin created this system for cultivating personal virtues whilst on an 80 day ocean voyage. He drew up a chart that lists thirteen virtues he wanted to develop, and put the days of the week across the top. Each week he would focus on a different virtue and make a mark on the chart if he failed in that virtue on a given day. With thirteen virtues, this cycle would repeat four times each year.

Naturally someone has created an iPhone app version of this chart, and I’ve been using it just for fun. The thirteen virtues are all (well, mostly) completely valid and worth cultivating, so why not?

Pzizz

Pzizz is an odd little iPhone app that is supposed to help you sleep. I often have a terrible time getting to sleep, or I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. I’m experimenting with Pzizz to see if it helps. So far nothing conclusive.

Meditate

Meditate is sort of a Pzizz for meditation rather than for sleep. I haven’t used it much yet, so really haven’t got much to say about it. I should probably go put “meditate” on my Touch Goals list.

And there you have it. Goals, habits, and apps to help me get there. Maybe I’ll post an update in a few months to let (all three of) you know how things are progressing.

Bonus screenshots!
Since you made it all the way to the end, here are some pictures…

my iPhone

Ben’s Virtues

Lose It! daily overview

Lose It! weekly overview (oh Thursday…what the hell)

Touch Goal

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 4 oz soba noodles (uncooked)
• 1 c edamame (out of pods)
• 1-2 tbsp peanut oil
• 1/2 package of firm tofu, cubed
• 1/2 c green onions, sliced
• 1/2 c baby carrots, sliced
• 2 tsp white or black sesame seeds

1. Whisk together oils, vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, and ginger. This is really just a basic vinaigrette with soy and ginger. I just dump it all into a mason jar and shake like hell. Taste and adjust as necessary.¹

2. Cook soba noodles until they’re at the texture you want. When done, rinse under cold water to stop them cooking any more.

3. Cook the edamame — I just cook it in boiling water (from frozen) for 2-3 minutes. Rinse under cold water until cool.

4. Put peanut oil into a shallow pan and heat. Dump in the tofu and fry ’til a bit crispy (this part is optional…you don’t have to fry the tofu, but it adds to the texture). Let cool.

5. Divide noodles into two big ol’ bowls, top each with edamame, tofu, green onions, and carrots. Pour 2-3 tbsp of the vinaigrette over each and a tsp of sesame seeds.

Eat!

¹ = I don’t actually remember the precise ratios for the vinaigrette, so this might not be quite right. Feel free to modify to taste.