Welcoming the new year with a new perspective?
1. Is that wearble wearing you out or helping you out?
“In an ideal world, all that information helps us become better people. More fit, healthier, rested, hydrated. And for some people, those stats are the motivational key to a better life. But what happens when the data just sabotages you? For some of us, data just isn’t the magic bullet for optimizing our quantified selves.”
Explore this question via this episode of Note To Self.
2. Get your photos under control
“Google Photos does the hard work of backing up and organizing your photos for you. The Auto-awesome tools polish your photos and turn them into albums, GIFs, collages and more.”
Consider making use of Google Photos to take better care of your photos this year.
3. Up your email game
“Say someone asks you to reach back out in a couple weeks once his schedule has opened up—instead of having this message linger in your mind (and inbox) until then, or just forgetting to follow up, write the message now and schedule it for three weeks out.You can even schedule things to come back to the top of your inbox if someone hasn’t replied to you—making it easier to remember to check in when other people haven’t followed up.”
Use Boomerang for a more efficient gmail experience this year.
4. Get a better handle on your best habits
“Gretchen Rubin, mega-bestselling author of The Happiness Project, says the key to long-term habit change is understanding how we respond to expectations. She names four broad categories of responders: the Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin of habit-changing. Figuring out your cognitive house might be the key to changing your bad habits for good. Including one habit we hear about a lot: clinging to the phone right up until our eyes drop closed.”
Take 17 minutes and indulge in some advice from Gretchen Rubin and Manoush Zamarodi
Top image courtesy of Flickr’s bank of Creative Commons images