Month December 2015

The Joy of the Five Minute Journal

Mazur 2 Comments

Tim Ferriss recently had a podcast episode called The Magic of Mindfulness: Complain Less, Appreciate More, and Live a Better Life which I really enjoyed. One of his recommendations in the podcast was to use something called a 5 Minute Journal each day to improve your well-being.

I bought one and have been using it for about a week now and want to pass the recommendation on to you all because I’ve found it to be very effective.

Here’s the idea:

Each page of the journal is focused on a single day. At the start of each day, you fill out short responses to three questions:

  • 3 things I am grateful for…
  • 3 things that would make today great…
  • Daily affirmations. I am…

And at the end of the day you take a few minutes to answer two more:

  • 3 amazing things that happened today…
  • How could I have made today better?

Thinking through and writing out the answers to these each day has had a hugely positive impact on me in the short amount of time I’ve been doing it.

Consider that each day you’re asked to write down 3 things that you’re grateful for. Assuming you don’t repeat anything, that’s 21 things you’re grateful for each week, 84 every four weeks. Many of them wind up being small things (mine range from “Having a healthy son” to “Cheese-filled crescent rolls for breakfast”) but I think maybe that’s the point. You likely have a lot of things to be grateful for in your life that you don’t think about often and writing them down makes you recognize them and you wind up happier as a result.

Similarly, at the start of each day you’re asked to think a little bit about things that you can do to make the day great which causes you to be more likely to do those things which makes you happier as a result.

Then at the end of the day you’re asked what you could have improved which over time makes you less likely to do those things which also makes you happier as a result.

Each question is carefully chosen to slowly nudge you towards higher levels of happiness. Pretty clever, right?

For $22.95, it’s a cheap experiment that might just have a huge impact on your life. You can order one from FiveMinuteJournal.com. Check it out.

How I Use TextExpander

Mazur 5 Comments

One of my favorite Mac apps is TextExpander, a toolthat saves you time by enabling you to create shortcuts for things you type frequently.

For example, here are the shortcuts I use on a regular basis:

  • Typing mm@ expands to my email address, matthew.h.mazur@gmail.com.

  • Typing vcc expands to my Visa credit card number.

  • Typing stcc expands to a Stripe test credit card number, 4242424242424242.

  • Typing jscc expands into a JSDoc template:

/**
 * Description
 *
 * @param {Object} var - Description
 * @returns {Boolean} Description
 */
  • Typing wpcc expands into a PHPDoc template:
/**
 * Description
 * 
 * @param int|string $var Description
 * @return bool Description
 */
  • And last but not least, ---> expands into → because using ASCII arrows makes you look like a badass hacker, obviously.

Give it a shot if you’re not already using it. There’s a free trial and you can purchase the full version for $44.95.

If you have any recommendations for other useful productivity tools like TextExpander, I’d love to check them out. Thanks!

My iPhone Homescreen

Mazur 6 Comments

homescreen.png

In order:

  • Messages
  • Clock
  • Workflowy – for taking and referencing notes
  • Camera+ – for taking fancy photos
  • Photos
  • Google Calendar – for managing my calendar
  • HackerNews – I use this one by Dharmesh Patel mainly because it supports collapsing nested comments
  • Pandora – for music
  • Google Maps – for not getting lost
  • iReddit – for wasting time
  • Facebook
  • Instagram – for sharing photos of random things
  • Settings
  • 1Password – for managing passwords
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Feedly – for catching up on blogs that I follow
  • Overcast – for listening to The Tim Ferriss Podcast
  • Orangetheory – for scheduling classes at my gym
  • Product Hunt – for learning about new product launches
  • Coach.me – I’ll probably move this off soon because despite repeated attempts to stick to it, I never do. (It’s a service that lets you build and track daily habits.)
  • Phone
  • GMail
  • Safari
  • Music

If you have any recommendations for better alternatives to any of these please drop me a note.

Lets Team Up to Provide Each Other Critical Feedback

Mazur 1 Comment

I don’t give a lot of critical feedback. There are a number of reasons for this, but none are very good. Giving critical feedback can be awkward for me and for the person I’m giving it to. I don’t want to damage friendships. I don’t want to seem too nitpicky. I’m busy. You didn’t ask for feedback. Maybe we’re not that close. Maybe I assume you have good reasons for doing what you’re doing. Maybe I don’t think you’ll take it well. You probably have similar reasons for not giving me critical feedback.

The thing is that I would love to receive more critical feedback. Most of what I do, the things I write and the things I build, I receive zero feedback for. If I do receive feedback, it’s usually positive. Rarely critical. But this lack of feedback makes it hard for me to improve. It slows my long term growth and limits the quality of my work.

I’d like to try an experiment to remedy this by extending all of you an offer: if you’re interested in receiving more critical feedback, lets team up to provide it to each other.

What would this look like in practice? To be honest I’m not entirely sure. I want you to ask me why a lot. Why am I trying to write daily? Why do I work on what I’m working on? Why did I make such and such decision? Question my assumptions and motivations. Did I consider alternative ways to go about it? If something doesn’t make sense or if you notice something that can be improved, tell me. Don’t worry about sandwiching it between two positive things. Give it to me straight. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings. Don’t worry about it being too small. Am I using oxford commas in my writing and you don’t like oxford commas? Tell me. Don’t worry about giving too much feedback either. Any and all feedback is welcomed at any time. And in return, I’ll do the same for you.

If several of you want to participate, maybe we can form a small group.

This could be a terrible idea. Maybe we’ll wind up hating each other after a few weeks, but I don’t think so. I think it will bring us closer and help us make a lot more progress in our lives and our work than we would have otherwise.

If you’re interested in teaming up, shoot me an email (matthew.h.mazur@gmail.com) and we’ll go from there.

Also, even if you’re not interested in teaming up, I still welcome critical feedback of this nature. It is very much appreciated.