The simple, clever Time Timer has proven a useful visual aid that helps me focus on whatever I need to make headway with, and then get up and take a break, disrupting the obsessive overfocus I’m prone to. It helps me work more efficiently, with less stress.
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This coming June, I will be leading a workshop at Omega Institute’s Build Your Audience in the Digital Age Conference which will cover the how-to’s of creating digital products, from blogs to apps to online courses to newsletters, at Omega’s extraordinary, always transformative campus.
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One of the most magical places I know of to take stock of life and transform it is Omega Institute, a true catalyst for change and possibility thinking. I’ll be teaching a workshop there this summer…
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Every Sunday as many as 14 family members over 4 generations —from 1 to 102-years-old — in six cities gather virtually to visit and hangout. It is just one of the ways video conferencing platforms can provide remarkably deep connection between far-flung family and friends.
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Though we’re not fans of Twitter, we are enthralled by British writer Robert Macfarlane’s feed for its remarkable ability to connect us to nature, landscape, heart…
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Among the email newsletters I subscribe to, From the Curious Mind of Jocelyn K. Glei is one where I always find something that challenges my thinking and/or makes my life better.
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I hadn’t realized just how addictive the colors of my phone are until I changed the its settings to Grayscale, the latest strategy in combatting phone addiction…
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Here are two virtual ways to experience Jame’s Turell’s remarkable artwork, along with a poem by Emily Dickinson.
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Computer vision syndrome is the narrowing of vision that reading off flat screens, handhelds and desktops cause without our even realizing it. Here’s a cure.
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Facebook’s strange punishment when I inadvertently published an “offensive” image on their platform mirrored the artwork Michael Druks made 45 years ago.
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In describing what writing lines for AI like Siri is like, Mariana Lin nails what human to human communication actually does.
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When solar-powered Bigbelly garbage receptacles appeared in my nearby park, their design flaws went way beyond their clunky visuals.
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School of Life’s How to Live More Wisely with Our Phones is a remarkable essay about how we can gently balance our relationship to our smart phones. Here are the most useful and view-shifting hunks.
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After 2 months of test-driving a Flexispot Sit Stand Desk, I’m smitten, fitter and thinner. Here’s my honest review, with pros, cons and what to look out for.
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We’ve found that reading catalogues not only relaxing, but makes our brains sparkle with unexpected ways to use materials. Our favorite catalogue of all is Cool Tools, a catalogue of possibilities that EXPANDS our view mightily.
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After Improvised Life’s part-time editorial assistant Mira Keras had a health challenge that lasted months, causing extended leave from her two steady gigs, her laptop broke. It happened just as she was feeling well enough to return to virtual work at Improvised Life AND when her emergency-slammed finances were at an all-time low. She told me about…
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When visual artist and poet Jen Bervin learned that researchers were experimenting with nano-printed silk medical sensors for patients monitoring serious health conditions, she wondered, If I were to have a silk sensor embedded under MY skin, what would I want it to say? The story of her exploration and the results are astonishing and deeply heartening.
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We were thrilled to find an email from paper artist Matthew Sporzynski, aka Couturier de Cardboard (whose work we’ve featured in the past), that said simply XO from W23! with photos of his a la minute improvisation: a tablet stand. Of course, we asked for details:
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As kids we loved old-fashioned vending machines that would drop a little plastic container holding a treasure — a ring, miniature toy, or candy — through the shoot when we put in a dime or a quarter. Lately, various iterations of poetry vending machines have been coming to our attention, perfect for our adult selves. Imagine…
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We’ve tried numerous day/task planners in our quest for one that really works. We recently came across a graphical way to plan time that claims to liberate us from linear agendas and apps. The GutenTag Method features a clock face that you stamp into a notebook so you can graph you day around it. We found downsides and wonderful benefits once we started hacking the idea.
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