Tag Archive for: Shortcuts

FoodNoms

This is a digital graphic featuring an app icon set against a wavy brown and white abstract background. The app icon is bright orange with the image of a bar chart that transitions into a fork on the right side, symbolizing a focus on food, nutrition, or dining metrics.

Growing up, I was a jock who was secretly a nerd. I played sports year-round and even conned my way into having an independent study gym class my senior year.

That level of physical activity plus a teenage metabolism meant that there would be no consequences for having a three-course cheesecake meal at The Cheesecake Factory with my friends.

Unfortunately, after my athletic career ended and my metabolism changed, my eating habits didn’t, and I gained approximately 50 pounds over the next 15-ish years.

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Dark Noise

This image shows a digital icon which is a stylized representation of a sound wave pattern within a circle, centered on a purple square with rounded corners. The icon is set against a background featuring abstract purple and black shapes with dynamic, flowing lines. The color scheme is predominantly purple with black accents, conveying a sense of modernity and digital technology.

Putting on some headphones is a pretty universal sign to others that you’re working, or at least that you don’t want to be disturbed. But what do you play in said headphones when you’re trying to focus?

If I am doing chores around the house or running errands, I am probably listening to a podcast. If I am working out, probably some combination of 80’s power ballads and shitty pop music. But if I am working, recently I have been listening to noise, not music.

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Zombies, Run

A man in sportswear is crouched down, tying his shoe on a foggy street. Unaware, he is near a zombie and several shadowy figures in the misty background, suggesting a scene from a zombie apocalypse. The setting is eerie with a backdrop of dimly lit trees and a hazy skyline.

You hear stories about people performing heroic feats in life-and-death scenarios: lifting a car off of a child, swimming for miles to get back to shore from a shipwreck, etc. Like most middle-aged guys, some part of my brain assumes that I would be able to do the same. A lifetime of living vicariously through action movies and video games leads me to believe that my body is just waiting to be unleashed for its superhero moment, like a Manchurian Candidate of fitness.

But, historically, I have not had many of those experiences in my life, so there is no need for an alter ego, yet. Even if I did, building a heart-healthy lifestyle around life-or-death adventures does not seem sustainable. Unless you fake it.

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Automate Your Meeting Prep

Meetings are a massive part of knowledge work. So much so that being good at meetings can change the trajectory of your career. Worst case, it saves you time and reduces the number of meetings you need to attend. Best case, your preparedness and follow-through brings you higher quality opportunities and career growth. The only cost is the time you need to spend to prepare.

I made a video about a shortcut I use to automate my meeting preparation, reducing my time investment to seconds while also improving the quality of my work. Let me show you what I did.

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Better Workouts With Shortcuts

Last year when I wanted to build healthy habits, I relied heavily on automations to do that. This video is about how I automated working out!

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