Article Preview
Read Time: 3 1/2 Minutes
What You Get Out of It:
- Info about a free mobile app for scheduling that makes you better at everything you do
- A blurb about the principles of data offloading
- A possibly ironic story about a fat guy breaking my cell phone
Human society is a bit weird. Even those amongst us with non-gifted below average brains have incredible intelligence and creative power. But most of the time its used on stupid stuff like remembering where we left our keys and figuring out exactly why we are better than the person who parked kind of crooked and made it harder to back out of our spot.
Studies have shown (here's a dense summary of the major ones) that in between sleeping and eating there is a finite amount of biological brain power, will power, and focus. So we're not only wasting our time by thinking about stupid stuff, we're wasting our massive intelligences.
This is most pronounced when looking at productivity in school and the workplace. Most of our precious brain power is used scheduling, remembering tasks, organizing, and staying focused. The few key decisions and times of creative that make the most difference in success are usually given the same or less priority than all the fluff surrounding them. So the answer is data offloading. Move as much information out of your head to external resources so that you don't have to juggle it when it's time to shine. You can write things down, make lists, organize better, hire a secretary, etc. Thats all complicated and you'll figure out as long as your not worried about what to have for lunch and which auto mechanic you pissed off last time so you don't bring your car there again for an awkward oil change / stare down session. But before all of that, you can just download an app, and it can get you started.
Any.Do
I have been using Any.Do as my to do list android app for about a year. It's simple, has a calming blue interface, and saves your lists to the cloud, so it survives after I drop my phone in the toilet or a fat guy at Fat Burger (is that ironic?) steps on it after I try and ask him to move so I can pick it up. Plus if you add a due date to a task, it syncs it up with your Google Calendar account. (It has a whole lot of other really intuitive add ons with Gmail and text messages that I never use.)
But it just got a whole lot better. It's created an add-on called Any.Do Moment. At the beginning of the day, the app will commandeer your phone and prompt you to plan out your day. Any tasks that haven't been completed pop up and you can decide to schedule them into your day, postpone them till tomorrow or sometime later, or delete them forever. This isn't much, but the beauty is that via animation, minimal choices, and efficient minimalist design, it pushes you through the process in about 12 seconds with incredible precision to the time of day, the details of the task, etc. There's never any scrolling, typing, fiddling, or thinking. Large legible buttons quickly throw you through the process and get you back to your day. It doesn't take longer than the casual phone check you intended to do. And since it's so simple and fast, it doesn't become annoying or obtrusive like other apps that start without your permission.
Here's a Video They Made That Doesn't Quite Do It Justice
Now, you don't have to purposefully avoid the to-do list or let it get so long that it becomes meaningless. It outsources your scheduling and turns you into a manager of your tasks instead of making you your own secretary. It saves time and keeps you accountable. And it's free.
The claim of the product is that it helps you create a habit of planning out your day. Which it doesn't. Fortunately, it does one better.
Purposefully creating a habit requires will power, repetition, neuro-chemical rewards, conscious engineering of the plan, and more. This new feature of the app outsources all of that. Your brain handles nothing besides scheduling decisions. This leaves your brain more blood sugar and cellular energy to focus on approaching each task with more intelligence and better, faster decision making.
Read Time: 3 1/2 Minutes
What You Get Out of It:
- Info about a free mobile app for scheduling that makes you better at everything you do
- A blurb about the principles of data offloading
- A possibly ironic story about a fat guy breaking my cell phone
Human society is a bit weird. Even those amongst us with non-gifted below average brains have incredible intelligence and creative power. But most of the time its used on stupid stuff like remembering where we left our keys and figuring out exactly why we are better than the person who parked kind of crooked and made it harder to back out of our spot.
Studies have shown (here's a dense summary of the major ones) that in between sleeping and eating there is a finite amount of biological brain power, will power, and focus. So we're not only wasting our time by thinking about stupid stuff, we're wasting our massive intelligences.
This is most pronounced when looking at productivity in school and the workplace. Most of our precious brain power is used scheduling, remembering tasks, organizing, and staying focused. The few key decisions and times of creative that make the most difference in success are usually given the same or less priority than all the fluff surrounding them. So the answer is data offloading. Move as much information out of your head to external resources so that you don't have to juggle it when it's time to shine. You can write things down, make lists, organize better, hire a secretary, etc. Thats all complicated and you'll figure out as long as your not worried about what to have for lunch and which auto mechanic you pissed off last time so you don't bring your car there again for an awkward oil change / stare down session. But before all of that, you can just download an app, and it can get you started.
Any.Do
I have been using Any.Do as my to do list android app for about a year. It's simple, has a calming blue interface, and saves your lists to the cloud, so it survives after I drop my phone in the toilet or a fat guy at Fat Burger (is that ironic?) steps on it after I try and ask him to move so I can pick it up. Plus if you add a due date to a task, it syncs it up with your Google Calendar account. (It has a whole lot of other really intuitive add ons with Gmail and text messages that I never use.)
But it just got a whole lot better. It's created an add-on called Any.Do Moment. At the beginning of the day, the app will commandeer your phone and prompt you to plan out your day. Any tasks that haven't been completed pop up and you can decide to schedule them into your day, postpone them till tomorrow or sometime later, or delete them forever. This isn't much, but the beauty is that via animation, minimal choices, and efficient minimalist design, it pushes you through the process in about 12 seconds with incredible precision to the time of day, the details of the task, etc. There's never any scrolling, typing, fiddling, or thinking. Large legible buttons quickly throw you through the process and get you back to your day. It doesn't take longer than the casual phone check you intended to do. And since it's so simple and fast, it doesn't become annoying or obtrusive like other apps that start without your permission.
Here's a Video They Made That Doesn't Quite Do It Justice
Now, you don't have to purposefully avoid the to-do list or let it get so long that it becomes meaningless. It outsources your scheduling and turns you into a manager of your tasks instead of making you your own secretary. It saves time and keeps you accountable. And it's free.
The claim of the product is that it helps you create a habit of planning out your day. Which it doesn't. Fortunately, it does one better.
Purposefully creating a habit requires will power, repetition, neuro-chemical rewards, conscious engineering of the plan, and more. This new feature of the app outsources all of that. Your brain handles nothing besides scheduling decisions. This leaves your brain more blood sugar and cellular energy to focus on approaching each task with more intelligence and better, faster decision making.
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