When Should Kids Get A Smartphone?

I think Cal Newport has done his homework on this topic, and I found his conclusions solid.

Here are three additional recommendations I have for "effective" mobile device use:

  1. Turn off all notifications.  Only add back the critical ones like: Text messages from family members, key home automation alerts, local emergency notifications, etc.
  2. Don't sleep with your device within reach.
  3. When trying to do very focused work, put your phone in airplane mode.

Thoughts & Tips On Digital Reading

Kindle-camping-mount-guard-your-heartPhoto by Frank Holleman on Unsplash

In a recent episode of Cal Newport's The Deep Life Podcast -- Episode 238: The Joys Of The Reading Life -- Cal provided his well-thought-out ideas on how to have a deep reading life and how that intersects with our digital technologies.

I agree with Cal that reading deeply needs concentration and is free from distraction. Physical books are excellent for those that want that experience.

I also agree that reading on the Kindle (or other dedicated eBook readers) can be a deep reading platform. My Kindle Paperwhite is my primary device for all my reading with my eyes. [NOTE: Listening to audiobooks is reading. Don't get me started.]

He is also correct that reading on most people's standard mobile phones or digital tablets like an iPad is not a deep reading platform.

If you do end up reading on a phone or tablet, here are my recommendations.

My phone already has very minimal alerts, but with a quick swipe, I turn on "Do Not Disturb."  And in my Kindle application on the phone, I have changed the background color (Layout > Page Color) from white (default) to green. The other options are: tan, white, or black. I'd choose tan if you don't like the green color.

I find having that green background - uncommon like the tan - tells my mind that I am now in reading mode and not scanning mode (like with a white or black background). This lets me read more deeply when I don't have my Kindle and only my phone. Once I finish reading, I turn off "Do Not Disturb."

Reading on my iPad is more straightforward, as I have 'Do Not Disturb' always on. And I am only reading content on my iPad with colors: comic books, WWII books with maps, Star Wars guides, recipe books, etc. I don't change the background color on my iPad.

Thoughts? Comments? Feedback is always welcome!


My 2023 Daily Morning Personal Devotion Plan

Thought-catalog-505eectW54k-unsplashPhoto by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Back in 2019, I embarked on a daily morning personal devotion and growth plan by reading these two books on my Kindle Paperwhite (no ads):

Since then, I've rotated the faith devotional book yearly, but I have kept re-reading the The Daily Stoic (it is really that good).  The previous faith devotionals were:

In addition to reading these, I have been practicing journaling whatever comes to mind before my readings. Looking back over my journaling, I see some themes: what happened the day before, or what is going to happen soon; prayers; concerns/worries; and insight into how I am feeling or how I am doing professionally and personally.  I also capture some thoughts or ideas that stand out from my readings. I have tried to journal both on paper and digitally. I have currently settled on paper.  I am currently using a Moleskin that was given to me by Manager-Tools.com.

Another practice I have been doing is high-lighting those verses mentioned in the faith devotionals in my Bible (NIV Faithlife Study Bible: Intriguing Insights To Inform Your Faith).  It is becoming very interesting to see what verses get used across different authors, and those that only get one or two mentions.  An additional insight is how much of the Bible hasn't been referenced. It is also especially interesting to me when my "Faith Daily Devotional" is very aligned with the "Stoic Daily Read."

This year I am going to read in the morning:

I am looking forward to Rolf's book as I've been listening to his podcast for years, and he inspired me to take this Europe Trip in 2019.

NOTE: Links to things you can buy go to Amazon Prime.

#human_generated_content


2023 Continuous Year Calendar PDFs For Free Download

Just like last year, I have created some downloadable files of "continuous" calendars for 2023:

I hopefully did the conversion from 2022 to 2023 correctly.  If you find an error then please let me know.

These were inspired by Kairos Cognition very elegant calendar:

Karos


Two Weeks Into Moving To Obsidian As My GTD System

Obsidian-basic-backgroundIntroduction

About two weeks ago I decided to move my personal David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system (aka "External Brain/Trusted System") to Obsidian.md (a "free" personal knowledge management application -- note I previously thought that Obsidian was open-source but it is not).

I don't have a huge set of reasons for the switch, it just seemed like something I was very interested in doing after testing Obsidian over the last 6 months for writing, note-taking, organizing, etc.

My previous personal system was Nirvana (for everything GTD-related, but Reference), and Google Keep (for Reference). This system was up and running from January 2019 until now.  Before that, I had a customized GTD-system in Google Keep. The full Google Keep system was ~5 years old.  Before that, it was all Microsoft Outlook-based

My work GTD system is Microsoft Outlook based with all my References in Microsoft OneNote or in the Windows filesystem.

Setting Things Up

My first step was to relieve my concern about being able to work across all devices.  So, my first three next-actions were:

  1. Get Obsidian working in Linux on my Chromebook.
  2. Get Obsidian working on my Windows 11 Desktop.
  3. Sync those two systems using Google Drive.

This was pretty straightforward and was probably working seamlessly in less than 10 minutes.

Then I had to figure out how to get things to work on my Android Phone and Apple iPad:

  1. First I tried an Android sync tool called Folder Sync, but the changes were not very dynamic.  I had to force a sync from the application before I'd see any updates in Obsidian.
  2. Then I realized for the Apple iPad, the options for syncing seemed to be limited to two: Apple iCloud or Obsidian Sync (paid service).  With my primary data files on Google Drive, it seemed like Obsidian Sync was the better option.
  3. So I paid for Obsidian Sync (to get both Android & iPad sync going).  I can report that this has worked very well, I've had no issues, and it is very responsive on both my Android phone and my Apple iPad.  Definitely worth the money.

Learning

Now that I could trust that data would be synchronized, and available no matter which device I was using, I just started learning more about what other people have done:

The current setup is pretty minimal after migrating my current Tasks and Projects from Nirvana, and my current active Notes (Project Support, References) in Google Keep.

My-obsidian-structure

Future Projects To Work On

I have used this tool -- keep-it-markdown 0.4.3 -- to migrate all my notes out of Google Keep into .md files to Google Drive. However, I still need to import those into Obsidian.

I also need to migrate a couple of lists in Nirvana -- Later & Someday/Maybe -- to Obsidian.

There is also an effort to figure out if there are other Obsidian plugins, themes, or templates I should be using.

Questions, comments, suggestions, etc. welcome!


Upgraded My Personal Solar Setup

Last Spring 2021, I made a decision to upgrade our beach camping solar power options by picking up this setup from Jackery:

20210529_124624-01-COLLAGE Portable Power Station Explorer 240SolarSaga 100W Portable Solar Panel

And then in June, I had this idea why not use this setup at home day-to-day to power up the following devices (vice using a power plug), and stay off the grid:

So, since June I have not plugged any of these personal devices into a home power plug that was pulling power over the grid.

However, I was starting to notice that the Jackery solar panel was starting to take some sun/weather damage. So I did some research, and upgraded to:

20220117_091910-COLLAGEsm

Renogy Solar PanelSolarEnz Solar Connector

The Renogy panel is significantly more weather resistant and should allow me to re-charge the Jackery with the SolarEnz cord much easier.

This is working great.  I'm very happy.

All product links are to Amazon.


2022 Continuous Year Calendar PDFs For Free Download

Last year I was inspired to share my own version of Kairos Cognition's 2021 Continuous Calendar, and they now have their 2022 version available for sale:

Karios2022 Calendar

Unfortunately, I don't have a good place for such a large calendar in my workspace, so I created my own versions for 2021. 

Here are my personally updated ones for 2022.  First a vertical version (prints 8.5 x 11-inch):

Vertical-2022-calendar

2022 Vertical Continuous Calendar PDF Download

And a smaller horizontal version that I have cut out, and laminated so I can easily place it right on my desk right under my monitor:

Horizontal-2022-calendar

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/am/2022_Horizontal_Continuous_Calendar.pdf

Please let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections.  Thanks!  Happy New Year!