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4 simple but effective things I learned being on the road

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4 simple but effective things I learned being on the road in no particular order of importance

Never ever check-in a bag
George Clooney said it right in the movie Up in the Air. "Do you know how much time you lose by checking-in? 35 minutes a flight. I travel 270 days a year. That's 157 hours. That makes seven days. You're willing to throw away an entire week on that? "

Listen to the man. Don't do it. There is another reason why you shouldn't check in a bag. This is especially in the winter months. Delays and cancelled flights are bound to happen so make an already irritating process go smoother by not checking anything. Imagine the nightmare if you had checked in your entire luggage only to find out that your flight has been delayed by 3 hours, then gets cancelled and the airport is shutdown and now you are stranded in the middle of nowhere with none of your belongings. You would kill for your suitcase wouldn't you? 

Being a Vegetarian isn't that hard 
This is especially true if you are what I like to refer as a 'vocal vegetarian'. This means not taking NO for an answer. Think of it this way every restaurant has a trained or some-what trained chef, raw materials (such as veggies, spices, starchy things etc), and a stovetop. This basically means they should be able to whip up something for you that is not even on the menu. It has helped me countless times in the praries. Also feel free to modify things on the menu. Sometimes it is worth it to even pay a little bit extra (up to $2) to really modify an item on the menu and not only make it vegetarian but also really healthy. So this applies to all you ancient and whole grain loving folks too!

Always take the window seat
Don't buy into the hype of 'I-can-easily-access-the-washroom' phenomenon and choose the aisle. You probably shouldn't even use the airplane washroom anyways. That place is a dark void one should never enter. 

I always prefer to take the window seat. 
1) Because like majority of the population my head leans right when I try to go to sleep or rest my head 
2) I avoid contact with a lot of people passing by on the plane (which means my arm isn't being hit by their luggage and I avoid their germs on the plane considering I am sitting in a tube fileld with recycled air excessive contact is the last thing I need 
3) I like the view.

Traveling light means traveling without worry
I used to be a pack rat. I was always the center of many jokes because of my affinity to bring big suitcases even for small weekend trips. Being on the road forces me to live out of a small carry on suitcase. You don't need all of your clothes to survive. There is usually a laundry or dry cleaning service close by so relax and pack light and leave the weight at home. Plus this also automatically gives you the right to make fun of people who lug 40 ton suitcases all over the airport and sometimes even inside the plane. 

Apple iPad2: Thoughts and Usage

I realized a couple truths before I decided to buy myself an iPad2. 

1) Apple was never going to have an SD card in their iPads. They want people to use iTunes as a middleware to transfer content so SD card wasn't going to happen. The chances of Apple introducing a cloud approach is more likely to happen but that is a software and service update versus hardware. Also iTunes now allows you to transfer data files because Apps can now call the API to transfer other files from your PC or Mac to your iOS device.

2) USB ports will ever exist on the iPad because that would mean Apple will have to sacrifice their slick and thin form factor of the iPad. Apple will never compromise on design.
3) Flash will also never reside on the iPad. You can definitely take Apple's word for it.
I am definitely happy with my purchase of white 32 gb iPad2. I didn't want the 3G version because my carrier Fido did not have a data sharing option. Plus the new software update will allow ne to set up a nice wireless hotspot from my iPhone4 anywhere in the country. If I do need to access the internet I would probably use my phone instead of taking out my iPad.

What do I think of it?

First impression is that I absolutely love it.
The iPad2 is definitely faster than it's predecessor and it is just fluid. Fluid, that is the way I'd describe the experience. Once you get your fingers on it everything just seems to glide. Set up was a breeze and all I had to do was connect it with my iTunes on my Mac and it was good to go. I don't really care about the retina display because the display on the iPad 2 is simply gorgeous. Apple probably won't include retina display until it is cheaper to do so. Otherwise people may have to pay upwards of a thousand for a single iPad if they were to have retina display now. Do you really want that? If you want the retina display wait a year before you buy this.

I am strangely liking my decision to go with the white iPad2. I am also here to tell you that there is no contrast issue with the white one. All of my content look amazing on the iPad2! One of the surprising thing about the iPad2 is its keyboard. It isn't as bad as most people make it out to be. In fact I wrote this entire post on my iPad2 sitting in my plane (of course I had to use the posterous client to add my picture). Once you use the device it really shows that Apple cares more about usability than specs and it shines.

 Now this is a great segue for me to talk about how I am using the iPad. I have a feeling that this list will be evergreen because ny needs change but I do have a rough idea of how I night use this. I have been heavily using my apps for the following needs.

(Note that most of the Apps I list here are quite influential on my iPad2. Meaning I continuously find opportuities to use them. I don't just download them and allow it to collect dust)

Using the iPad2

1) Reading Text
This includes news, blogs, websites, comics (my most favorite), books (my second favorite), tweets, etc. Reading on the iPad2 is simply amazing. The screen is the perfect size to not hurt your eyes like monitors do and the way content feels on you iPad2 is simply gorgeous. I love it. I am known for reading lots of books and the iPad2 just makes it easier for me to be on track with my reading. It is especially useful for my road warrior life. I was blown away by how beautiful comics look on the iPad2! I am a giant nerd who loves all forms of comics and graphic novels and reading them on the iPad2 is quite enjoyable. You won't believe it until you start using it. Simply breathtaking and elegant. I am also strangely into using my iPad2 to read through magazines and RSS feeds. The big display on the iPad2 really makes for some creative visual implementations of RSS feeds and even twitter feeds! I am a fan. Here are some apps I use to get my content.

I use these for books (they both have the feature to allow you to transfer PDF and Ebook content from your  hard-drive)
One of the best Comicbook Apps out there because it allows me to add my own comics and PDF. I use a version of this on my macbook as well and I can choose to sync.
This app is great for creating your own 'digital' newspaper sourced from various 'sections' you are interested in. Such as social media, technology, politics etc. Really beautiful. Plus it makes it incredibly easy to share content on twitter for example or even to Instapaper.
Fantastic use of the large iPad2 display. I save a lot of professional tips, consulting stuff, travel itineraries, expenses and such on this app. It syncs between my iPad2, iphone4, macbook, windows laptop etc. Taking a picture of your expenses and boarding passes on this large display and saving it immediately is a great feature.
They have done a great job of taking elements from Tweetie (a product they bought) and have brought it to the iPad2.
Facebook doesn't have an official app but this is a great implementation of it. I think even the team at Facebook are pretty impressed with this one. But strangely enough I don't use my iPad2 to check Facebook.

2) Watching Media
I will be lying if I don't mention my primary motivation for wanting an iPad2 was for watching movies and videos on the go; when I am on the plane, waiting for my plane, waiting at the doctor's office, when I am having lunch at my desk etc. You don't need the retina display to make your movies look good. Actually I don't even think the retina display makes a difference. It really has to do with the source video you are watching. Once you set up your Apple smart cover with your slick new iPad2 it acts as a great portable media player and you can sit back and relax your content. An interesting thing I noticed when watching HTML5 web videos on the iPad2 is that it actually plays it on the browser in Safari instead of defaulting to full-screen mode! Instead of opening up their player to play the video. So you can have a video playing while you are reading the article. Simply tap the video to go into full-screen mode. This actually works really well.

VLC Player
Yes I was one of the lucky few to actually have the VLC media player while it was still available. But you can definitely use AV Player HD that is currently available for $2.99 on the App Store to be able to play your non-Apple content.
TED really outdid themselves. A simply great way to browse your favourite TED videos. You can even mark your videos as favourites so it can load faster the next time.
YouTube
Don't need to explain this one.

3) Capturing Text
As mentioned before the keyboard on the iPad2 is pretty easy to use. It would require some level of practice for most people to get comfortable with it. So practice before your discount it. One of the better ways to capture content on the iPad2 is also by using fingers. Because of the large display you can use your finger as a stylus for capturing your content (you can also buy a stylus but you probably won't be happy with it). You can also use the camera to capture notes, take photos of printed paper, and photos of whiteboard discussions. I use the following to capture content.

Great app to capture text using your own handwriting. I use this to create diagrams, outline processes, and design things. Sometimes it is also a good way to make lists (not that I do that). You can have digital notebooks with pages of content and you can easily export the entire notebook as a PDF to email it out.
If you are a designer then this is a must to have App. Even if you want to doodle you can get this is app to create vector drawings simply by using your fingers. Thats right vector drawings!
I currently use this to write as much as I can. I keep a running notebook of posts and ideas for this blog or even tweets. I have a wine notebook on evernote. I have a travel notebook, expenses notebook, exercise/workout notebook etc. The iPad2 just makes it easier to type things up.

I believe these are the three main functions many of you will likely use on the iPad2 so I figured it is a good way to organize this review. By narrowing down to specific functions it is easy to see what items and features are necessary versus what is not necessary (this would also  mean I won't complain like many out there regarding 'certain' features).

I am not into using my iPad2 for photos (some of you might be) but I love my iPhone4 for it with its great little camera and the numerous photo-editing apps that I downloaded. Personally the probability of quickly pulling out my iphone4 to take a picture is more likely than taking out my iPad. It is simply silly. I might use the big display to capture HD video but I haven't thought about how I might tackle that.

There are also some other Apps I use to help piece the puzzle together.

I am also on the lookout for some good text editors because I don't want to shell out $10 for Pages. I am also looking for better clocks, remotes, streamers, cloud based apps, instant messaging options, etc.

Sidebar: Regarding Cases

As a sidebar note I want to tell you how I decided to protect/dress-up my iPad2. Picking a case for the iPad2 meant it had to satify two very important functions for me.
1) It had to act as a stand for me to watch content and type because I don't want to lift the iPad everytime I want to do something.
2) It had to protect the back. Most conventional solutions only protected the front.

I invested about $70 to blend two solutions on the market to come up with my own professional looking protective gear.

I bought a grey polyurethane smart cover ($45) from Apple for my white iPad2 because it looked professional. Apple was real smart here. They made the black covers available only in leather and it costed about $80. So I decided to stick with grey. This helped serve function number one. I also decided to spend $19.99 to buy the first generation iPad sleeve from this company called iCon. The reason why I bought the first generation one was because the first generation iPad was thicker which means the case would be more roomier. This means I can fit my new iPad2 along with my smart case into this little sleeve. It looks really great and also gives it a professional touch.

 
Ipadcase
Feel free to re-tweet, comment or share this if you find it useful or if you think someone else might find this useful.
Cheers.

Wearing Pants and Such

A lot of us saw the movie Inception this past summer. Yes, the plot line is brilliant, the pace of the movie is thrilling, the music score is nothing short of amazing and the ending is the biggest WTF moment we've all had in recent years at a hollywood offering. Like you I noticed all these things in the movie as well but I also noticed something else.

The characters in the movie all had pretty slick suits and business wear. Did you see?

I am at an age in my life where when I look at my closet I see more work/business clothes than my traditinal 'civilian' clothes. Gone are the days when I could see t-shirts, colin-farrel-esque torn jeans with a crappy faded look, shorts and other clothes that comprised of my regular everyday life.

Working in a client facing industry where you are always required to dress in business clothes forces you to understand certain things about business wear and you do tend to pick up a few tricks.

Trust me when I tell you I am the furthest thing from what you might call 'fashion forward' but I did pick up a few tricks.

Many are usually well known but some may not be.

1) Shoe/Belt Error No workarounds here gents your shoes HAVE to match your belt. Unless you are wearing jeans. An easy way to get over this issue is to purchase your belt the day you buy your shoes. The popular ones seem to be black or brown. You could try to be sneaky and get a reversible belt with both the colors and make your life a little easier and avoid any potential future embarassment of having someone catch you with the dreaded mis-matched belt and shoes combo.

2) Break vs Taper Before you buy pants or get them tailored you need to understand two very important terms.

-Break: this is done during the hemming of your pants on the bottom. A break determines the distance between the end of your pants and the back heel of your shoe. Break come as short, medium or long. I personally prefer a long break on my pants meaning I like the hem of my pants reaching the bottom of my heel.

- Taper is how 'snug' your pants are to your entire leg. Pants should never be baggy. When you ask your tailor to taper your pants next time you will see him or her take the sides in to create a better fit. It's a good way to make ordinary pants look better as it tends to hug your legs better. Just taper them.

3) Collar Stays / Collar Bones Almost all dress shirts by default come with a plastic elongated triangle piece inserted into the sides of the collar. These are called collar stays or collar bones. They are designer to make re collars stand up straight. Unfortunately for you those plastic things are pretty much useless. Enter the metallic collar stays! By choosing to have a metal collarstay you ensure your collars looks perfect everytime. Just like Ye movie Oceans eleven. These metal stays are cheap and can be bought in most men's clothing stores. They alao enaure you can properly wear a blazer without a tie. I personally find the Wurkin Stiff collar stays due to their high powered magnet. I will never go back to the regular ones.

See how awesome they are here: http://www.wurkinstiffs.com/power-stays.html

4) Shoe Trees and Shoe Horns A great way ruin your shoes is to pack them up in your suitcase in correctly. Using a Shoe tree reduces the impact of suitcase travel for your shoes. A shoe tree acts as a 'wooden heel' that can be inserted into the shoe. This preserves the shape of your shoes and your shoes won't get the 'bent leather lines' your normally see. - A shoe horn is a device you use to ensure you can properly squeeze your heel into your shoe. Simply shoving your feet Ito your shoe and pressing down hard will easily break the back above the heel of your shoe and you can be sure that you will regret it when all the edges of your shoes aren't smooth. It also tears your socks and can pierce your heel.

Observations in an Airport

As a frequent flyer you tend to notice things. Given that you are there in the same sort of place at least twice a week (or more for the special few) there is nothing else to do but observe your surroundings astutely. I don't usually have many gripes about my fellow passengers and even what I am writing now isn't really a vent against all the crappy things happening in an airport. They are things I have been noticing.

Paperless Flying
Even though countless airlines now offer a paperless boarding system it is sad to see that many of the airports have yet to catch up with concept. For example airport personnel still don't have a scanner that can properly read the bar-codes on a boarding pass off my phone. I've even encountered airline staff who simply gave up and printed a paper boarding pass just to scan my information and quickly tossed the paper into the trash. Worse you don't even want to know how painful it is to carry these 'paperless' boarding passes when you are flying into the United States. It has something to do with how anal the security guys can get because they can dab your boarding pass with their extra toxic markers about 20 times. RIP poor boarding pass.

Security Screening
Everybody hates them. For many the odds of going from middle earth to the fires of doom in mordor seem easier. Naturally no amount of status will ever get you out of this process or even make the lines move faster. Unless you are a 'celebrity'. I am guessing here but don't celebrities always get away with everything? Anyways where was I? I walk up to the screening area drop my carry on, and pick up a tray. On the tray the following items are dropped; iPhone4, wallet, headphones, jacket, belt, watch and any other random items in my pocket. See this is the key here. You need to remove all sorts of misc items from your pocket or you are bound to beep. Take for example the time when I was thoroughly searched because I forgot to throw away my shiny wrigley's gum wrapper. I was clean and almost metal free but they stopped me all because of a silly gum wrapper. Once the items are placed in the bin it goes through the strange and mysterious 'scanner' and off you go through the metal detector. Sometimes it is still a mystery as to whether you get stopped for a 'frisking' because youa re either holding onto something metal or if the metal detector somehow functions as a randomizer where it randomly beeps for select passengers. Now it would only be convenient if the airport was like the Cancun International Airport where you are required to press a button and the color of the light informs the agent if they should frisk you or not. Green is go. Red is stay the hell where you are. I've also noticed that the longer you 'linger' around after you go past the metal detector the more likely that the agents will stop and inspect your laptop. So tip here is to pack up your stuff as soon as possible and make a mad dash towards your gate.

Boarding Times
Honestly I think airlines should just stop printing boarding times. I agree a take-off time printed on your boarding pass is useful but I can't seem to recall a situation where the boarding time was necessary. The airlines will never begin to board people at the time designated. Sometimes you stand there wondering if the plane will ever take off at the right time consdering boarding hasn't commenced at 6:00PM for the 6:30PM flight and the time on my watch shows a clear 6:20PM. Are the boarding times printed based on how long it will take the cleaning crews to clean the airplane? Or is it a complex calculation involving variables such as; the lazy flyer who will always arrive late, plus the time it takes to close the gate and retract the bridge, added to the amount of time it takes for the plane to endlessly taxi around in the runway before it actually takes off?

Shopping?
Who shops at Airports? I see all these stores that tend to sell products that are overpriced and simply unwanted. Plus I have never heard of many of the brands that these stores tend to sell. Are they high end products? Brands you simply can't get outside the airport? I have yet to figure out what inspires countless many travellers to buy overpriced items at these stores. Although the only piece of item that is valuable on the store would be the real Canadian Maple syrup.

These are some things that have been on mind ever since I took the plunge and started the frequent flyer lifestyle (14 months ago). As I am writing this while waiting to board my plane in VancouverI can't help but wonder what surprises await me when I land.

P.S. I wrote this on my iPhone4. So please excuse the spelling errors.

How I use LinkedIn

As good as we all are at using our respective social networks we tend to ignore one of the most important networks out there, LinkedIn!

In case you are not aware LinkedIn is the social network for Business Professionals. You use it to connect with business and networking colleagues. Instead of connecting people via interests it connects people via their companies, job titles and professional pursuits. A few weeks ago I made some tweet about using LinkedIn and that inspired this post. I made a comment about how I feel like I am a better linkedin user than a twitter user so I wanted to take some time to showcase how I use LinkedIn and its features.

To better understand how to use the network let us look at it based on the key features and functionalities provided by linkedin.

Connections

Your connections form the backbone of your linkedin network. I tend to use this space as my digital business card holder. Every-time I receive a business card from a professional I meet at a function or a colleague I know they are immediately added to my connections list. I also make it a habit to send a personalized invite message to connect. Usually reminding them where the two of you met or the common event you both attended can aid in the process. Although linkedin comes in with pre-built messages a personalized message goes a long way.

Profile
Your profile is the on-line palette you present to other professionals. The key here is to develop your own brand on Linkedin and list out those experiences. What are you know for? Are you the project management expert? Are you the creative designer? Are you the person who simply gets things done? Ensure that each and every single experience you list ties in to this brand you create for yourself. These act as a group of specific keywords which will enable your profile to be found by prospective employers or others who want to connect with you based on your skills. The more detailed and keyword-centric your content the better your chances of being found.

Recommendations
One great feature that really sets Linkedin apart is that it allows people to leave you recommendations. The norm here is to ask some key people you worked with in the past to write a small blurb about your work accomplishments. However to go the extra step that can really add value is if you tell them what skill or ability of yours they should focus on. For example if you are looking to convey to people that you are a highly resourceful individual you may want to ask a former co-worker for a recommendation but ask them to specifically focus on your ability to get things done no matter the circumstance

Job Search
A feature that often goes ignored is the job search feature. The search engine limits the searches around your location so you prevent mass 'all locations' postings spam. It takes positions from variety of new job search engines and compiles them for you. It also presents a feature where you can search jobs that are exclusively posted on Linkedin. This allows you to directly send a message to the recruiter and if you had followed everything from the previous points you are primed and ready to showcase your professional image!

WHY I STOPPED USING TO-DO LISTS

Todo

(Image credit: Carissa GoodNCrazy, User Rog2Bark)

Ever since David Allen published his best seller "Getting Things Done" almost everyone out there has taken it to heart and are striving for ways to achieve productivity. Lots of software developers, designers and App makers have taken his mantra and have created countless beautiful implementations using that simple concept. Countless websites are devoted to what is now known among Internet readers as 'productivity p0rn'. They developed Allen's concepts to not only improve everyday productivity but they have positioned themselves as lifestyle hackers

All those resources are fantastic and have helped a lot of people 'fix' their lives but I don't want any of it. Not anymore.

I have stopped using to-do lists; including GTD Apps, and productivity hacks.

In short the simplest reason is this - I have yet to find a concept, process, or even a tool that replaces what my mind does and has been doing quite efficiently. I know I don't have the best memory in the world but I tend to process and complete tasks better when they are in my head. This is also one of the reasons why I never write things down, why I don't carry a big agenda with me or why my screens aren't covered in yellow post-it notes. I literally want to and try to remember everything I need to accomplish to achieve a feeling where I am satisfied with my day's work. At the end of the day productivity is different from 'activity'.

Some possible reasons why I began to do this:

- I tend to thrive in chaos. This accurately describes my personality. Finding elegance and efficiency within chaos has always been something I hold very dear as an individual, friend, geek, and consultant etc. It also tends to reflect in the things I do. What else could possibly be more chaotic than my own mind and its infinite synapses firing away to 'Get Things Done'? I would say I have found all the right motivation to use my head!

- A lot of productivity Apps and methods were simply too cumbersome and obtrusive. I would spend hours just trying to shift my way of processing to meet the functionalities of the tool. Shouldn't it be the inverse? I should be the one giving the instructions and tools should adapt to how I process tasks (maybe it is too much ask?). Think about your own experience. How many of you spend countless hours not only inputting your tasks into an App but also include things like project headings, contexts, tags, reminders, funky sounds and bubble notifications etc? You could have probably spent the time knocking off your to-dos instead of dressing them up. Skip the dressing and attack the main course.

- At the end of the day is my life really that busy where I need to constantly juggle between different tools and different tasks? The art of single-tasking is lost on all of us. Eat when you eat. Drink when you drink. Finish tasks when you have to finish them. I don't know the reason why we tend to add a layer of complexity to something as simple as a to-do list. Make a mental note of what you need to do and finish it. It it is not in your head it probably wasn't that important enough to begin with right?

 

This shift in thinking to abandon all kinds of to-do management systems has made life simpler. I accomplish all the important tasks readily and have managed to do so for a while now. I have successfully in effect minimized the level of useless chatter of unwanted tasks and burdens from my everyday workstream of activities. I haven't and hope to never be tardy with deliverables especially at my job. The real cost of failing to accomplish is too much.

It may not work for you. Maybe you are the type of person who has an App for almost everything you do. Maybe you have been post-its number one fan. Maybe you are the kind of person who carries their little-black-book with them wherever you go. Maybe you are all off the above.

Ask yourself this. Isn't it time you lose the burden? You already have enough weight on your shoulders. Leave your to-dos in your head where it belongs.


P.S. While I don't use any tool or method anymore for to-dos I did come across some really good when I had used back in the day. Perhaps you don't have to completely switch over but maybe you can try TeuxDeux. It was my most favorite tool I used in the past. It is the simplest one out there. http://www.teuxdeux.com