Jakub Petrykowski blog

Tiny Habits, a reliable method to create new habits

If you want to learn a reliable method to build new habits into your daily life,  I strongly suggest you enter free Tiny Habits workshop. It is designed and run by B. J. Fogg, a Stanford scientist working on behavior change in both academic and business settings.

Tiny Habits is a 5-day, low effort online course. You define 3 habits you want to practice by following specific (and unusual) instructions. You're done after a week, hopefully with a new understanding and skill in building new habits yourself, for the rest of  your life. Workshop only deals with 3 habits, but of course you will almost immediately start more if the method works for you.

So far more than 7000 (!) people have done the workshop. I just finished, too, and I'm a fan! I have searched for this kind of results for more than 4 years now. Tiny Habits is the first systematic 'technique' for changing behavior that has actually sticked with me. Results are very encouraging.

I won't yet share the details of the method. I think it's best if you sign up for the next available course and read the instructions doc you'll be emailed. It describes the method in its entirety. Enjoy!

PS. Kudos to Andrzej for sharing Tiny Habits with me.

Try a visual editor for text, lists, todos

A few weeks back I wrote another app to collect information, knowledge, ideas etc. Have a look here:

http://petrykowski.net/editor/

From the Help doc:

"The app http://petrykowski.net/editor/ is about having an editor for multiple textual lists visible on a single screen.

The idea is that paper has "geography", while most computer text/todo editors do not. They offer a single flow of text, from top to bottom. I use paper a lot, and I think one of its great features is that human (spatial?) memory makes it so easy to work with multiple pieces of information spread across many pages of text, or many different places on a single big sheet of text.

So here's first attempt to bring in geography to list/text/todo editor. This is a followup to my earlier work on a note taking app, http://mindquant.com/.

The multi-editor app is intended to "expand" our working memory (loosely speaking). I've been using it daily for the past few weeks.

I have about 10-15 editors in my screen, each with a distinct type of items: 

• todo
• errands
• people
• promises made
• projects
• shopping list
• etc.

Data is saved in the browser, it's never sent to any server/backend (in fact you can copy the HTML, CSS and JS files and use it on your own computer if you like). The app probably won't work in Internet Explorer 8 and below (it uses HTML5 local storage mechanism), but should work fine with Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

If you use the app for something, I'd be delighted to learn how you use it.

If you have ideas or the will to improve it, let me know as well. 

Try my prototype of a note taking application

I have a prototype application for you to try out today!

As you probably remember I am a big fan of note taking. I also felt that I lack the right tools for recording my thoughts and organizing my knowledge. So I started working on my own tool.

The idea is to have an efficient, fast, simple tool for taking notes, and for recording and sharing knowledge.

Before you try the app, read this please:

• it works with most recent version of browser on Windows - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari
• it doesn't work with Internet Explorer, and I don't know about Mac or *nix or other operating systems
• all data is stored within your own computer, in your browser. Don't rely on this for very important data for now because there is no backup.

If you like trying out new web apps, give it a shot and let me know what you think - does it work? Do you like it? What do you like about it? What's bad? What's weird? What's broken? All feedback appreciated.

• the prototype for you to try
• short help document - you can add comments/feedback at the end of it. The document explains the idea and keyboard shortcuts.

I am already using this application for my own purposes, and I may use your feedback to improve it further. Also if there is strong interest, I might build a full web version (with backup, working across browsers).

Tools for note taking

Summary: In the last post I explained what I use notes for. Today I give you more detail on what kind of information I put in them and what software I use to keep notes, as well as a text file format I adopted to keep the notes organized.

The kinds of information I keep:

• to-do lists. Examples: errands to run, bills to pay, things to learn about, videos to watch, interesting web links to follow. Sometimes detailed, project-specific to-do list is necessary to move the project forward effectively.
• notes to self like "tell person A about B because he/she might find it interesting"
• active projects & priorities for them (consequence of learning the Getting Things Done method and exploring some other time management techniques)
• observations about my own behavior & emotions (a.k.a. personal diary)
• what my acquaintances said or believe in, based on our conversations
• feedback I received from others
• thoughts on what worked or didn't work in certain life situations (a kind of self-feedback)
• rules of behavior I consider worth adopting (more on these rules in a separate post)
• knowledge extracted from conversations / trainings / books; detailed book notes for some non-fiction books
• things that might be very cool to experience in the future, e.g. volunteer in a poor country, start a local community workshop for kids, fly a plane, or visit that cute girl I met in Beijing last year
• ideas for products, business or society improvement
• questions I would like to know an answer to, some examples: How could we turn every person with a cellphone into a participant of scientific experiment (source of data points) in important fields like medicine, economics, psychology or energy? How much time people waste every day by dealing with ineffective post office and government agencies that have poor procedures, and what realistic changes could be developed to minimize that waste so the whole country becomes more productive? What makes me think that what I consider a waste of time (like watching tv news) is indeed waste of time for other people; evidence?

Tools I use for note taking, with emphasis on GMail and Google Docs due to their accessibility from any place in the world and apparent reliability: 

• Gmail: I sent short emails to myself with notes and links; the ones I want to keep & process later are then labeled appropriately (e.g. 'blog' if it's a candidate for a blog post). 
• Google Docs: I keep one main document where I add all new notes regardless of their kind; I also have a couple satellite documents, each focused on one kind of information or specific one topic. 
• mobile phone: AK Notepad is a good Android app. It is fast, simple, reliable and free. It has a useful "Share this note" feature which allows for very quick emailing (useful since Gmail is my main online storage area for text aside from Google Docs)
• occasionally, a simple text editor on a laptop if I don't have an internet connection
• ietherpad.com is an interesting tool, offspring of EtherPad. It was intended as a realtime online collaborative text editor, but I use it on my own. The reason is that it records the text as it is being typed, character after character, and allows the user to "replay" how it was being typed in form of animation. Very fun and revealing of my own writing process.
• paper notebooks of various sizes to take notes when in town, in a training, or on the bus. Typing on touchscreen mobile keyboards sucks. Voice input on Android has too low quality to be practical.

You may wonder why I use standard text editor instead of specialized software. I tried lots of different note-taking and to-do list software like Evernote, Remember the Milk, GMail Tasks or products built by 37 Signals. I find them all inadequate. They are too tedious and too slow to use for the high volume of notes I maintain. Since I no longer distinguish between short "to-do" items and all the other kinds of notes, most of the features of these software tools are useless. In contrast, a simple text editor is flexible and efficient. It can keep a to do list, priority list, and tags (labels) for the items if necessary. Keeping a hierarchy is possible with nested bulleted lists. Headings make creating visual groupings easy. Text can be formatted as needed; copying and pasting always works; rapid editing of multiple items requires minimum keystroke overhead.

Text document by itself is not great for organizing the notes though. I am experimenting to work around that. If a document I keep becomes large, it is hard to keep track of what is a to do item, what needs to be tackled soon, what is just an idea etc. just by looking at the screen. In order to contain that chaos of a file consisting thousands of lines of text, I adopted a simple tagging system. Most entries in a document are single line items, so I add tags (labels) at the beginning of each line:

todo, money: some bank errand to run
productivity: some rule how to be more effective at knowledge work
feedback: John said I should take things less seriously

A colleague of mine, Mathieu, wrote a script (thanks!) that extends Emacs text editor such that I can filter the document by any tag within a few seconds. When I do this, all non-matching lines disappear. I can then keep adding or editing the lines I want to focus on, which rarely extend beyond one screen. Very useful tool. 

I am now working on extending that concept of editor with filters and tags such that the items are persistent (more like a database) and shareable, but still can be worked on as a text file for efficiency. The goal is to build a good knowledge collection and sharing tool. If you are a software developer who values tools like delicious.com and you would be willing to help me develop such an online tool, I will be delighted to show you what I got so far. Let me know.

I review the todo-style notes daily, and the other ones every few weeks. I remove the ones which are no longer relevant, but the main document only grows over time. When a lot of material on a certain topic accumulates, I usually create a separate file just for that topic, and invest much more focused effort into that area.

To summarize, the mindset I adopted is that in order to learn effectively and keep my commitments to people I need to keep good notes somewhere. Writing things down while they are in my working memory is the best way I know not to forget the best ideas, and promises I made. Having them in one place is practical, as suggested by David Allen in Getting Things Done method. Most notes turn out to be useless later on, but the cost of taking them is so low compared to the value I derive from them that it's a no brainer.

Taking notes is useful

Summary: I take a lot of notes. They are useful in many ways: they aid thinking, make writing for publishing easier, weaken the load on memory, and allow for unbiased self-reflection on past behavior.

I take a lot of notes. I was taught to take notes at school, but over time it has grown into a very strong habit which I apply to all areas of my life. I can no longer recall a day on which I did not take at least a single note.

Notes are a great extension of memory, a tool for learning. Whenever I hear something interesting, or I have an idea, or I spot something worth learning about (e.g. a person's name, a product or a concept), I am likely to forget that very quickly. So I take a note on my phone or in a notebook, and never worry about forgetting these little things. Next time I review my notes, I may choose to ignore some of them, but information is there. This general approach to collect information in a written form instead of memorizing it is probably my most important takeaway from the Getting Things Done method.

For example, a few months ago I started taking detailed notes from books. Previously it was normal for me to forget most of what I read; I was only able to recall the main thesis of each book. Notes turn out to be a simple way to keep & share the learnings from books. For audiobooks I take notes in a paper notebook. With Kindle, I highlight key passages with the built-in software function. Taking notes when reading paper books is hard. I can't keep a book in my hand and write at the same time; it is impossible on the go. This is one of the reasons I prefer digital books over paperbacks.

Notes are also helpful when I write for others. I have been publishing on a number of topics for several years now, mostly through blogs. Notes are the raw material for writing. They are ideas, observations, questions, sometimes concepts or names to explore further. The more notes I have, the easier it is to pick something and expand it into a good post for my blog. 

Writing in general is a great tool for thinking, and taking notes frequently facilitates my whole discovery process. To a large extent, notes guide my learning. Writing not only allows me to record my thoughts, but it also shapes them. I frequently read and edit my notes; I remove things I no longer agree with, add new material, or rephrase statements that just do not sound right. It does not matter whether given text is intended to be published or it is just for my own consumption; notes always contribute to the thinking process. I highly recommend "Thinking on Paper", a book that aptly explains this aspect of writing.

Another use of notes is treating them as a simple diary. I frequently write about what happened on a given day, how I felt about some issue, or what I thought about some matter, personal or professional. These notes are a great tool for self-reflection. As months pass by, they provide an unbiased view of what I really thought and felt in the past (remember that human memory frequently gives inaccurate recollection of our emotional past). That way I can spot spotting trends in my own behavior and act on the ones I find negative.

I will share more detail on how exactly I keep & work with notes in another post.

Audible on Android

Summary: Audible.com has released a beta app for Android. I tried it on Nexus One - it's great. There are some bugs, but they are fixing them quickly. 

I consume a lot of books. I seem to be reading more and more, especially since I bought a Kindle last year. A few weeks back I got an Audible account and so far listened through "Rework" and "Crush it" (really good & fun books!). I began to love the product. Listening to the book is more convenient than holding an ebook reader during commute with transfers, especially when there aren't places to sit. Having the hands free is useful. 

One drawback is that it's impossible to highlight parts of the book. When there are insights in the book I want to keep, I need to resort to a notebook or mobile phone to take notes.

There's a beta Audible app for Android. Previously I used Audible on my Laptop (even during commute); now all I need is a phone. Great! App's still a bit buggy, but much better than using laptop as music player!

Some details on how to get to the app:

http://androidandme.com/2010/06/news/audible-audiobook-service-releases-beta-android-app/

There is a very active mailing list for beta testers, and there's been a new release fixing some annoying bugs. It's been a long time since I used any mailing lists outside of work, and it's actually quite fun and engaging. 

Amazon Kindle - what I like and dislike about it

Summary: Kindle has changed my reading habits. Here's detailed account of what I like and dislike about it based on more than 6 months of intense usage.

Pros:

• Instant delivery. Using the device, I search for, buy and download a book in about 3 minutes total. I read books almost exclusively in English, so it's great that I no longer need to wait for book delivery from US to Europe.
• Great wireless coverage: US + most West and Central Europe countries (including Poland).
• Great battery life (a week of heavy reading on one charge) 
• Good display - very easy to read
• Light, easy to carry; lighter than most books. With  leather case, it's like a book.
• Design and weight allow me to read books while holding it in one hand. Convenient when on the bus
• can read PDFs (though experience is suboptimal)
• from my point of view, device capacity is infinite. If it happens to run out, I can remove books safely, since collection is stored with my Amazon account anyway.
• Highlighting: I mark passages I find interesting. They are  available as text file on kindle.amazon.com site, or in the device itself. Kindle.amazon.com also has direct link from each highlight to PC/Mac app which opens the book at the place of the highlight - very handy to get context when I want to reread some small portion of the book.
• Boot time under 5 seconds 
• Kindle app for PC and Mac (and iPhone), so I can read books on I computer as well
• Amazon syncs between all reading devices so you start off on PC where you left on another device
• digital books are cheaper than paper books on paper (typical price: ~$11). With the device at around $300, that means I'll break even after 40 books (because paperback is always more expensive, and shipping costs, too), which means somewhere at the end of 2010

Cons:

• not all books are available in Kindle format. Moreover, not all Kindle-formatted books are available outside the US; that sucks hard. The store says that "for copyright reasons" they can't offer them. This is bad, and I already couldn't get a couple of books I was really interested in getting because of this restriction. Going to US doesn't help - my device is tied to Switzerland, apparently. This not complete availability is the main issue I have with Kindle today. (Can be helped by audiobooks, e.g. Audible.com, or sticking to paper when there's no other option.)
• it's unclear whether a given book will ever be avaliable in Kindle format and outside of the US; that makes deciding on buying paperback hard

• turning pages is very slow. it takes about a second to turn a page. this makes browsing the book, or going back "a few pages" to get pack to some paragraph of interest, hard, frustrating, or even impossible.
• many books do not have clickable table of contents, or if they do, it's only to jump between major parts of the book (say, 3-5 parts per book), which is useless. only a handful of books have detailed TOC bookmarked and you can quickly jump a few pages ahead to the next piece of content if you want to skip something.
• it's far too easy to accidentally jump to next part of the book by pressing the joystick button. coming back to "last position I was reading" is impossible - you have to scroll back manually, or search (rather blindly), which takes forever, because the device is so slow. (there should be an option to jump to the last couple places where you were in the book, like the "back" button in browser)
• no backlight or another light source, even as an option; when I find myself walking in a dark street, on the bus with not good enough light etc. I can't keep on reading.
• it's possible to take notes using the built-in keyboard, but it's extremely slow and hard, and comments aren't assigned to piece of content (e.g. wrapped around it) in kindle.amazon.com site, but are standalone pieces of text, so they aren't as useful as highlights)

• no integration with Shelfari.com, even though Amazon owns Shelfari! I have my "library" on Shelfari and I use it to manage what I read and plan what I'm going to read. Kindle should be tightly integrated with Amazon.com social features and Shelfari for the following purposes: shopping (from "plan to read" list), managing reviews and keeping "I read it" list up to date, storing & sharing highlights and notes with friends. Ideally they'd also allow sharing books within my social circle to a degree (as an additional incentive to get into the circle, and perhaps to stimulate sales as well) 
• you can't share books with anyone. They are tied to your account. You could cheat and give someone else your Amazon password, but that doesn't scale - I frequently want to give one book to one friend, another book to another friend, etc. but I wouldn't give all of them access to my Amazon account. A workaround could be a shared account ('shared library'), but I haven't organized it yet, and I don't think it's legal / something Amazon would like me doing.
• charger has US plug, not European one (but you can also charge through USB)
• no password protection of the device (coming in the new version though)
• lock-in perspective. 
• no Android app yet - sometimes I don't have anything on me except a phone. It's supposed to be launched in the summer of 2010, though.
• browser is malfunctioning so I can't use wireless to read rss blogs / news etc. if that's all I have. Maybe that's deliberate and it's rare case anyway since I usually have my phone with me, but with excellent battery life of Kindle it would be great to have this option, especially since its wireless access is universal - it's in all countries I go to!

All in all, it's a great product, it made me read books again, helped me fill up time on flights and commute and made breaks at work interesting again. Most issues will probably be resolved as technology matures (speed of the device; interface issues; Android app; Shelfari integration; password protection coming already; improved notetaking). I'm most concerned about not all books being available and having to rely on paper...