If like me you have habits you want to change, I know an app that can help you.
Hack and change your routines with the app Lift →
Lift makes it easier to change your habits and achieve your goals by encourage for change of your daily routines. The app records your habits so you can track your progress, and if you want, to get support from your friends.
Check it out!
–
You should follow me on Twitter.
Today I had a pretty long 1:1 session with my co-founder and CTO, @arnklint. We discussed our plans ahead but also generally how we are feeling. This is something we are pretty bad at. It’s easily happen that both of of us are so focused on our tasks at work so we rarely take any time to aimlessly discuss and reflect on our situation.
It is very useful and rewarding when we take time and talking through not only work but also personal things. It is definitely something we should do more often.
Hampus Jakobsson founder of Brisk.io and TAT has written a good article on the topic:
A process to keep the team and vision together by drinking wine and talking about emotions. Easier than it sounds
“How-do-you-feel dinners”. Clearly worth reading!
Something exciting has started to happen, it shows up more and more products and tools that help us understand our health. There has been significant progress the last years in how we can track and following our health.
The technology has made data collection cheaper and more convenient to follow up data to see what and how we can improve. Questions we today ask the doctors we will tomorrow be able to ask our data.
An example of this is Ari Meisel, watch Ari explain how he cured his Crohn’s disease by following data and self-experimentation.
The technology has not only made it cheaper and more convenient, but it allows us to quantify the biometrics that we didn’t know existed. Want to know your insulin or cortisol levels, or sequencing your DNA, or learn what microbial cells inhabit your body? You can quantify that now.
Where there are trends, there are opportunities. 69% of U.S. adults track at least one health metric; however, 49% of trackers say they keep track of progress “in their heads”.
Hopefully it will change in the long run, it has namely been funding records both in 2012 and 2013 in digital health.
But hopefully it will in the long run change for the better as it both the 2012 and 2013 turned financial records. Digital health funding was up 39% from 2012 and 119% compared to 2011. “In 2014, the digital health industry is set to surpass total medical device venture funding.”
I which is an optimization junkie, both privately and to the profession, think this is really interesting. Self-trackers widens the horizons of personal health and hopefully entrepreneurs and VC funding can help it scale.
There are many times I heard the advice that you, who are new in the startup career, should think big.
And I agree, it is important and maybe it’s what defines a successful startup success. To make real changes in the world. Many people compare thinking big with make lots of money but it’s not the same thing. Regardless, you have to dare to take a risk to win, that’s one thing that’s for sure.
As an entrepreneur, I believe it is crucial to think both big and small.
Thinking big will give you an understanding of how to change the world. Thinking big gives you your mission which drives you through the roller coaster ride you are taken through as a startup. Thinking big ensures that you tackle a big market. The big vision is essentially what your startup can look like when it hits traction and scales out.
However, there is a problem with thinking big. You start a startup with nothing. No users, no code, zero traction and zero scale. Nothing. Changing the world is not made overnight. You have to start in small steps.
This is where it becomes important to think small.
You must take your big picture and break it into smaller parts, to that first step. The first step will be your entrance to your big vision, the big picture.
It is best if you can do this entrance within a small and limited amount of time, that it requires relatively few resources and solves a problem that the market has right now. A so-called minimum viable product (MVP).
Big or small, is that the question?
Amazon seems to have started big from the start, Jeff Bezos (CEO and founder) probably knew where he was going and began with a online bookstore. While Mark Zuckerberg seems to have gone small first. Mark built something small for his university that gained traction. First, somewhat later, he developed the great vision and mapped out the steps for accomplishing it.
It seems like you could go either way, but I think you must be able to think both big and small.
In which order do you start, small first or big first?
The Flinch by Julien Smith
Highlight 1:
“You can’t settle for reaching other people’s limits. You have to reach yours.”
Highlight 2:
“Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
OK book, easy to read but maybe a bit too repetitive.
Anything You Want{.broken_link} by Derek Sivers
Highlight:
“Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy on actually solving real problems for real people.”
Good read! If you’re want to start a business, and you think you need a round of funding, and a team of experts and advisers this book is for you, haha. Clearly a book I recommend.
Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan
This is a good book that does what it says, Charles explains the basic statistical concepts to smart amateur without too much math.
Leo Babauta and Tim Ferris discuss if goals is good or bad for us as individuals.
Leo think that the problem with goals is that it’s the end point, if we pursue a goal, and regardless of what we learned from it, or how much fun we had on the road, we feel that we have failed anyway and move forward.
Tim disagree. He thinks planning is important and that goals gives something to strive for.
They discuss, among other things, that goals is a part of Tim’s routine, why Leo has experimented with releasing goals and how it worked out. They also talk about learning to accept failures as part of the human nature.
Interesting discussion between two inspiring guys.
Tim Ferriss vs. Leo Babauta on Goals from Leo Babauta on Vimeo.
I’ve made an iPhone app. I wanted to learn the basics and experiment with trial & error and understand the principles around app/iOS development. I experimented with Xcode, did some programming in Objective C to reconnect to the interface after events based on the data and user input. Objective C is an object oriented programming language, which I worked with before in PHP and primarily in Ruby.
The app, Red iGone as it was called, was an anti-red-eye app that was available on iPhone, iPad and as a web service. It is no longer available more than as open source.
Quote from a review:
Red iGone could be the perfect example of a online single purpose tool. It not only focuses in a area of expertise, it truly only does one thing. It removes red eyes from any photo you upload. That is it.
When I got involved in the project was the service already there as a web service online and was completely free to use. My friends Sean and Victor wanted to develop the service further and develop a mobile app and asked if I was interested to catch on. There was a relatively high use in the online version so the potential existed that it would be fine. There were not so many competing apps in the Appstore. It was just to get started! This was in March/April 2010.
When I got involved in the project was the service already fully operational as a web service online and was completely free to use. My friends Stefan and Viktor wanted to take Red iGone to next level and develop a mobile app.
There was a relatively high use in the online version and there were also not very many competing apps in the app store so it was promising. It was just to get started! This was in March/April 2010.
Might be worth mentioning that at that time there was no red-eye reduction in iOS4 and Apple’s native camera app.
Red iGone is simply the easiest way to remove red eyes out of photos. In three simple steps and a matter of seconds, you can turn an image ruined by red eyes into a fantastic looking photo. That’s it. We are not trying to solve every single problem on this planet, we just want to remove red eyes from your photos.
Features
The apps for iOS cost $9, while the web version was still free to use.
My responsibility was the interface and I made new views for the different steps and a new icon/logo. There was never a masterpiece design-wise but it was still better than the competition and was good enough to validate the concept and the app idea.
A few months later (we did it part time and on weekends) the first version was done. At the end of April, we launched the iPhone app and later in May we launched our iPad app. With great expectations.
There was no giant traffic or a big number of downloads, but not zero, and it was fun to have made a first version and we got a couple of reviews which was a fun read.
Then something happened that was not really to our advantage. June 21, 2010 (I remember it like yesterday, haha) Apple launches iOS4 with an enhanced camera app, with support for red-eye reduction.
FUGH! was our reaction.
A few months went by and it never became a super hit in the number of downloads. Revenues were about the same as the operating costs of running the apps (the actual work was done in our web app) so on Friday 3 February 2012 we decided to shutdown Red iGone and open source all the work we had done.
It was a really fun time, and instructive, I learned something new I never tried before. I didn’t get rich but I had fun with my friends and I got a basic understanding of how it works to develop a mobile app for iOS.
If anyone is interested is everything we done available on Github here: https://github.com/teamdevify/Red-iGone
A few months ago I started with some new habits.
You can read about them here: Good Habits
The routines
As you can see there’s a quite long list with new routines. When I wrote the post I had managed to make the most of them for 10-20 days, at a time, not simultaneously. It turned out to be too short time to successfully make all of them into daily habits, among other things, which I will return to.
Let me be honest. There are only two routines that I succeeded to make into habits:
go to bed at a reasonable time and to write daily. The latter is largely thanks to my blog challenge, 100 posts in 100 days. The others I failed. And it’s no wonder, in hindsight it was pretty naive to think that I would manage to get so many new routines into habits simultaneously.
There was simply too much that was changed at once, too many new habits, and some external positive things I didn’t see coming.
In late November last year we won 100 000 SEK for the hottest startup on IDD, “RevRise wins 100 000 SEK for the hottest startup on Internet Discovery Day”. Which meant that my focus was changed, I shifted direction and became more focused on my work. I failed my new habits due to “my normal” was changed too much. And it’s common and not a personal failure. I think it’s important to see it that way.
I failed my habits, and that’s OK as long as I know why. Failure is learning.
So I pressed pause. I don’t do all these routines daily, I can’t, it’s not possible. There is too much that’s adjusted in “my normal”.
I do two, for me new habits right know. I go to bed at a sensible time and write daily. Besides that, I’ve also chosen a month without alcohol this February. That’s enough, it’s perfectly adequate and a challenge for me.
I failed to get all the new routines into habits, but that’s OK, I know why and I’ll learn from it. Failure is a learning tool.
I have another blog where I’ve written quite continuously for more than four years. Yesterday I was looking through the posts and came up with an interesting insight.
Common to most of the post I’ve written in the blog is that they are all about me and my personal development. It is a blog about training so it is natural that there will be many posts about me and my workouts, and they are quite egocentric. But there are a few gems where I write about how I learned to get running as a habit and how I went from running a few kilometers to cross the finish line in a marathon.
If someone asks you the question: what are the most important parts of your life?
Many of us would probably answer: family, friends and career.
That’s true.
There are two parts, two dimensions of our life that are important.
Private: friends, family, partners. Professionally: education, work/career.
But there’s a third dimension. The personal part, personal growth: to feel good and take care of yourself.
And almost every single post I wrote in my training blog is mainly about that, the personal part of my life, my personal growth.
I like to see life from three dimensions: private, professional and personal.
I started for instance my first company with the main reason to control my time and be able to work regardless of location. Easier in theory than in practice, but it doesn’t matter, it has proven to be an important and healthy approach.
Personal development is also about culture. It puts a stamp on a company’s culture. And culture is something that is extremely important in a business. Atleast in my book.
Especially in a startup, or a young company in general, is it easier to control and influence the business culture. At an early stage, personal development is crucial, during that period it is the founder(s) who puts the stamp on the business culture.
Nisarg Patel, a molecular biologist compares the world’s tiniest organism with humans and startups.
Why can’t we treat ourselves like we treat our startups? Shouldn’t we be searching for our own “business models”
It is a healthy way to look at personal growth. What effect does the things I do on others? How can I change my habits for the better?
Questioning yourself.
— I’ve done this every day for several years now, does it means that it’s the right way? Is it possible to improve?
As I often say, optimize. What can you improve in yourself?
Invest in yourself. Questioning your choices, your habits and your everyday life. Look at yourself from the outside. It is useful and instructive.
Read Treat Yourself Like a Startup (Or a microbe, if you prefer) that Nisarg Patel wrote. Very interesting reading.
Are you stressed about what to eat for dinner? Worried about tomorrow’s meeting? Not had time to work out today? Or should you pick up the kids at daycare? 3 minutes to the next train?
There are many things that can stress us.
Too many tasks to do means we are always busy, no time to rest, friends or family. No time for reflection or creativity. Too many tasks makes it difficult to focus on one thing at a time and get something done.
Take a deep breath.
Take it easy.
Subtraction is necessary. You have to prioritize and remove things. Without substraction we become overburdened.
Take a look at today’s todo, what can you subtract right now?
Breathe again.
Breathe makes you calm. Gives you time for reflection.
Breathe and smile.
This is your life.
Breathe, subtract and take back control of your life.
Thanks to Calm and Leo Babauta.
There’s so much distraction, so much we want to do, some things that have been putting off that would have been done yesterday. So much to catch over the weekend. It’s hard to focus because of all the distractions.
Sound familiar?
Today is such a day for me, I’ve quite a long todo list today; exercising, emails to answer, blogging, working, cleaning and shopping. When you have a lot of todo’s, it’s easy to get stressed which increases the distraction.
Then it’s time to take a break and look over the todo list. What is most important today, what is it that stresses me the most. Just do the most important thing. Find your MIT (Most Important Task) for the day.
Pause, take a step back and do your MIT.
Start by turning off anything that can distract. Close down the browser, turn off the phone. Meditate using Calm in two minutes and give yourself a moment to think.
Then you start with your MIT. Sit down with your task and don’t allow yourself to be distracted. You have the urge to check something. It’s a nice urge – but leave it for now, look at it and smile, don’t act on the urge. Just smile. Now go back to what you chose to do.
Do this a few minutes, try to push the limit and do the task a little longer.
Then you take a break, drink coffee, take a walk in the fresh air. Smile at yourself in the mirror, check the thing you previously got the urge to check, but only a short while. Now go back to your task and continue. With a smile.
That was what I did with this blog post. I will write and publish daily and today was hard but with a step back and a look at today’s todo list, this became today’s MIT and now I’m ready for the rest of the list.
A few months ago I came across an article that made me reflect on how often I drink alcohol. I drink far less now than I did before but realized that I haven’t had a break without alcohol for more than 2 weeks max in 10 years. Since I turned 18-19 I’ve been drinking 2-6 times a month. And the last five years basically every week.
I want to try a life without alcohol.
It is not just the alcohol I’m tired off and want to be without, it is also to challenge myself. I want to see how I react to end up a habit, quit an addiction. I want to see how I deal with situations where I’m used to drinking alcohol. I will refrain alcohol-free beer for the most part too. Non-alcoholic beer may be a complement at times but it makes me not completely quit the habit.
The last two years I’ve been training quite intensively and this has meant that the amount of alcohol decreased but those times I been drinking myself drunk, I have clearly noticed what it does to my body and how I feel. I feel bad the day after and can’t do what I want to do. I don’t want it that way.
There are mainly two reasons why I do this…
How I develop as a person by quitting a habit. I want to discover how I manage to quit a habit that is very firmly rooted in my life. Drinking alcohol is generally something that is associated with being social. I’m used to hang out with friends with a glass of wine or a beer in my hand on evenings and weekends.
How does alcohol affect my body and time. When I look back on the years I’ve been drinking alcohol, there are periods where the amount of alcohol have escalated without I’ve noticed it. My body has gradually got used to handle large amount of alcohol, and it has required more beers for me to feel the drunkenness. And I’ll be completely honest, the drunkenness has been part of the reason I been drinking, at least in periods of my life. I drink rarely that amount of alcohol nowadays, today I drink because it tastes good. But it wasn’t until I decreased my alcohol consumption as I realised how easy it is to gradually increase the amount of alcohol and that is where the big risk is. It’s the beginning of an addiction and most importantly becomes harmful to your health.
It’s interesting how difficult it is to quit an addiction. Alcohol, cigarettes, candy, junk food, etc.Whatever it is, it’s extremely difficult. Anyway, it is what we keep telling each other.
A few years ago I stopped using snus. I had gradually increased my nicotine consumption from to use snus at a party to using snus 10-12 times a day. I did this for several years. Then I tried to quit, unsuccessfully, tried to stop again and this time I succeeded.
One evening, when I came home late and was tired, I discovered that I had forgotten to buy snus. I was quite angry with myself, went crazy rather. And spontaneously I was thinking to turn back to the store and buy snus. But then I realized that no, I don’t want it that way. I don’t want that the snus should control my life. So I decided to quit. And since then I haven’t used snus.
So I can confirm that it is difficult to quit an addiction but not quitting is harder, and it depends on several things.
For me I think the hardest thing is to resist the temptation in different situations (stress, depression, social etc.). The trust that the addiction helps us deal with different situations. You use the addition to manage real problems. You are sad, stressed, lonely or going through a crisis and use the addition to deal with it.
Leo Babauta has written a good article about quitting something, I Tried to Quit & It’s Too Hard!. He gives many tips on how you quit and strategies on how you can deal with real problems in other ways than with your addiction.
I refrain alcohol for a month to see what it gives me, how hard is it to abstain, how do I manage the situations where I usually drink alcohol. I also choose to abstain alcohol because it destroys valuable time. I don’t want to feel bad a morning/day because I drank too much alcohol the day before. For me it’s a pretty easy choice to try a period without alcohol. You make your choice.
There’s so much to do, especially in a startup. Or in any company. The smaller the company is, the more tasks per person.
We all have some task we like to do, things we know we are good at. Then there are tasks that needs to be done, which we find less fun to do, things we’re not so good at and feel uncomfortable in doing.
“Shitty work” is extremely important, especially in startups and small businesses. And by shitty I mean that you feel uncomfortable with the task. It can be about taking care of the economy, to finish the last thing on that contract or picking up the phone and call that call.
It’s normal to feel that way, because you are uncomfortable with the task. But the task is critical to your business. You have to prioritise and execute.
Are you a designer, you want to show off your professional pride. Each pixel must be in the right place, the logo must be stylish, the typeface must be in harmony with the text. The landing page needs to be polished.
If you are developer, the code need to be well structured, you need to make that Facebook integration and the feature you wrote a month ago needs to be polished a little extra, so the code is clean and stylish.
Are you a product owner, you need to revisit your last wireframe. It must be responsive, you have to get that Instagram feed and this new service people talk about you need to dig deeper in. You have the perfect idea and just need to get it down to a sketch. Life is good.
The above is a trophy for you as a professional person or a reward because you worked on it during the evenings and weekends. And that goes for everyone. Freelancers, entrepreneurs and experts.
All of the above is important, but it is not more important than understanding the customers.
Many users look beyond the codebase, they are not as interested as you that your logo looks good on a Macbook Pro retina display or that you implemented the new way to detect and filter the news. Users tastes, expectations and context is changing and they are not as interested as you to dig down at macro level in your work.
You make fake progress.
Things should work and give the user a value.
What you do is not always the the most important for the customer or the user. It is important for you as a professional person and worker. A difficult balancing you have to learn to handle to be successful and not have to work yourself to death.
Make a todo list every morning and ask yourself why. Why should I add support for Instagram, why should I create a wireframe on a new landing page, why should I go on the Most Promising Startup meetup? A simple and honest question that saved me much time and effort a few times.
Building a successful business and product is all about knowing what to do and what not to do. Then you need to prioritise and do shitty work sometimes.
Got spontaneous the idea to take the bike to the office today. Really nice! Great with variety and to come of the congestion and the stress on the subway. A bit cold though.
I bought a hybrid bike for just over a year ago but hasn’t biked in a couple of months due to laziness/winter.
Reasons why you should start biking
So go out and ride a bike, it’s refreshing and healthy.
37signals, which recently changed their name and focus and is now called Basecamp, is a relatively small company with a great spread. They began as a web agency in 1999 and a few years later began launching their own products. Recent years have one of the founders, Jason Fried, written some books, including the one you see above, Getting Real.
I’ve been inspired by 37signals, or Basecamp as they’re called, and have had this book on the bookshelf for years. It is a few years old and many of today’s web developers would probably agree on what the book says. A great book to start/set a business culture and should be read by anyone who runs a business online.
It can be read online as well! A few favorite parts:
Last year they released a new book, Remote: Office Not Required which I’ve bought but not yet read.