Streaking

For years and years, I managed my to-do list in a collection of text files. And, as a dyed-in-the-wool nerd, that worked excellently for me. I leaned on my text editor and a series of scripts to slice and dice with ease.

But as my daily schedule changed, my device usage did, too; I found myself away from my laptop, working solely from my iPad and phone, for even whole days at a time. I auditioned a slew of text editor apps, but could never find a way to make things work even a fraction as well as I had before.

So, about five years back, I switched over to Todoist. Its handling of recurring tasks, and its powerful Boolean filters, got me quickly back to where I’d been in my text-file days.

Still, my to-do list tends to be looooong. So, when I decided to make 2020 a year of focus, I knew I needed to bring in reinforcements. Based on a slew of positive reviews, I downloaded Streaks, and set it up with a handful of my most important habits (including counting Pomodoros spent on my big project for the day).

Obviously, four days into the year, it’s a bit early to tell. But, thus far, it seems like it just might be the boost I need to make my 2020 consistent, and consistently good.

January 4, 2020

Animal Style

Here’s an interesting thought experiment I kick around a bunch:

When we look back 100 years, we’re inevitably shocked by some of the moral positions that much of society at the time took for granted. (Cf., regarding women, Blacks, Jews, etc.)

And, at the same time, we’re certain to have just as many blind spots ourselves. So, a hundred years from now, why will people of the future be appalled about us?

Though I have a slew of contenders (our handling of global warming, the ways we blithely give up our privacy for scarce little in return), high on my list is the way that we raise animals industrially for food.

And, at the same time, I also strongly believe the healthiest human diet involves eating animals (or, at least, animal-derived foods, like dairy and eggs).

So, as we push into 2020, I’m trying to figure out how to square that circle. I’m thinking carefully about where and how I’m willing to eat animal products, about how I can do so while still feeling good about the food systems I’m supporting in the process.

It’s definitely still a work in progress, and I suspect whatever I come up with will add some amount of inconvenience and expense to my life. But, as I’d really like to be on the right side of history here, I’m not sure I have much choice.

By the Book

One of the craziest things about fast-changing technology is how quickly we take it for granted. For example, with Apple Maps on my phone, I’ve almost forgotten how much of traveling someplace new previously consisted of getting lost along the way. A couple months back, I went apple picking with Jess, an hour or so upstate. And, en route, I missed a turn-off from one country road to another. Armed with GPS, we rerouted, and still made it to the orchard just five minutes past the initially estimated time. But, without it, we easily could have just never found the place. In fact, even after mobile maps first became a thing, smartphones weren’t GPS enabled for a few more years, and it was still possible to get completely lost if you botched a turn. I vividly remember sitting pulled over on the side of a New Jersey highway one afternoon, scrolling endlessly around a zoomed-in map, trying to figure out where I was, so I could drop a pin and navigate the rest of the way to my destination.

Similarly, when I first moved to NYC, finding a restaurant while out and about in the city was inevitably a crap shoot. Dropped into a random neighborhood, and without Foursquare or The Infatuation (my now go-to restaurant reconnaissance pair), I had no way of figuring out what good options existed nearby.  I’d simply look for places that looked crowded, or whose signage seemed somehow appealing, and hope for the best.

But, at least, when I was back in my apartment, and planning meals in advance, I had one trusty resource: the Zagat restaurant guide.  As a budding foodie, I spent endless time pouring over its pages, and (as this was pre Resy and OpenTable) dialing for reservations.  At one point, I even hit on the idea of cycling through the guide alphabetically, eating at a restaurant whose name began with ‘A’ one week, then with ‘B’ the next.

Still, I had pretty much forgotten about Zagat entirely, until I saw, about a year and a half ago, that the aforementioned The Infatuation had just acquired the Zagat brand.  So when I got an email last spring with an invitation to submit reviews for the new 2020 New York City guide, I couldn’t resist.

By way of thanks for my additions, Zagat just sent along a copy of the finished guide:

And I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I won’t be toting it along with me day-to-day, nor honestly even consulting it regularly as my go-to for restaurant planning,

But I’m nonetheless enjoying picking it up from time to time to thumb my way through. It’s still an excellent resource. And it’s a great reminder of how lucky we are to have a web full of resources, any time we want, right there in the palms of our hands.

January 2, 2020

The Small Picture

The last year – the last decade, really – was a whirlwind. Though I’m proud of a lot that I accomplished, all too often, I had more plates spinning than I could keep up with. Work projects, hobbies, time with family and friends; it all piled into a to-do list well beyond what I could reliably complete each day. I made mistakes. Things I cared about, things that I claimed in the abstract were priorities, in practice regularly fell by the wayside. (Cf., my erratic blogging schedule here.)

So, this year, this decade, I’m doing my best to triage. I’m trying to do less, better. I’m paring down my list, focusing in on those things that really matter to me. And, hopefully, I can then do those at least slightly more consistently in the days and weeks and months ahead.

Wish me luck.