2018 (That is going to take a bit to get used to.)

We are at the beginning of a new year and it is a time of renewal. It is a time where people set new goals for the year. Some people’s goal come in the form of resolutions to do things like work out more or eat less. I am not the sort that waits for New Year’s Day to make changes, so resolutions are not part of my normal vocabulary. If I want to change some thing, I just start making the changes. I plan on talking about goal setting soon, but today is not the day for that.

My Best Nine from 2017 according to Instagram

2017 was a really difficult year in a lot of respects. We had a house fire in early March. While the actual fire damage was fairly minor, due to my wife’s very quick thinking, There was several thousands of dollars in damage as well as the time my family was displaced from the home. No one was injured in the fire, but, it did put the family in a bit of a tailspin until we all returned home a few months later. 

About a month after the fire, I competed in my first full Marathon. I picked one that was close to home, but at the time of the race, we were living in a hotel about 25 miles from where we live, so I had to drive a farther distance to the race than planned. That was not the only “home field advantage” that I lost or forfeited. I have lived in my town for over 10 years. I knew that the area where the race is held is windy all of the time. I did not take that into account when I picked what I was going to wear during the race. As a result, I froze over the whole course, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts. I would have benefitted well from a long sleeve shirt if nothing else. I ended up finishing the race with a time of 5:12:47. Not a bad time at all for my first marathon, but I will have to admit that I was disappointed with my time, initially. I had it in my head that I could estimate my time based on the times I have had during my half marathons. That could not be farther from the truth. Running a marathon is a lot more than double the physical requirements of a half marathon. There is a sizable mental aspect to the event. I learned about myself as well as how to prepare for a marathon. When I finished, I thought a lot about if I would do another one. In time, I decided that I would and that is part of what I will be talking about in the weeks ahead.

As far as my running for this year, I ran a total of 1,036 miles over the course of the year. Not bad, but I do plan to go farther this year. I am also planning on working more on my upper body strength. I think that will go a long way toward helping me improve on my overall race performance. I will be writing about that as well.

While 2017 was not the year that I wanted, it does not define what 2018 will be. I would like this to be encouraging to whom ever read it. Another project that I am doing this year is posting a picture a day on Instagram. If you are interested in seeing what I post the, please follow me @1pairofshoes. That is my handle on Twitter as well, but, I kind of just post wha comes to mind there as well as retweet the things that I find interesting. Beware!! Happy New Year!!

My iPad Experiment

My iPad Air 2 along side with my old school iPad.

I have been hearing a lot about the idea of using an iPad as a replacement for a laptop. From what i have heard and read, there seems like there is a split between camps as far as those who believe that the iPad is a tool for creating content and those who think it is a toy for consuming stuff on the internet. Even as I wrote this, I found myself writing in terms of using a computer versus using an iPad. It occurred to me that this made it seem like I had a bias coming into this experiment.  So, why am I doing this? I want to see what the true limits are for this technology at this point and how I can work with it. Just like trying to learn a new language, something that I have some experience with, I think that the best way to learn something new is through immersion. So, for the month of July, I didn't touch my MacBook Pro and instead, I did everything I normally do over the course of a month using only iOS. There are a couple of exceptions to mention up front. I do have a Windows machine at my day job that I am required to use. The combination of some specific software that I have to use and the restrictions that the company that I work for has pertaining to using personal devices on the company network prevented me from extending this project further. I haven't used my work computer at home and I have only used it for work tasks. Ironically enough, my work computer weighs more than my MacBook does, so I really don’t feel motivated to take it home under normal conditions unless I have to. 

Hardware:

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts about tech stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts about Apple tech stuff. Generally, they all have been referring to things in terms of the iPad Pro. The information that they share is great, however, I do not have the latest and greatest in iPads. I would like one at some point, but I cannot cost justify replacing my iPad that is working great for one that would work faster and possibly could  do some more stuff. When I listen to the podcasts, I find myself experimenting around the subject that are talking about to see if my iPad is up to the task. For this experiment, I have been rocking an iPad Air 2, an iPad mini, 4th generation (the first with the Retina display) and an iPhone 7. It could be said that I am living the MultiPad lifestyle, frugal edition. I am only using the software keyboard on the devices. They all have cases, but there sole purpose is to protect them from drops, smacks and my kids. The only reason that I am using the most current iPhone is because it was recently replaced after my  iPhone 6s was damaged in a house fire. 

My MacBook, with another project in progress from a few months ago.

In contrast to what I use that runs iOS, my MacBook Pro is a 13 inch, late 2011. It is from before the retina display was introduced to the line up, so, the screen resolution is not like what my iPhone or my iPads display. Part of the reason why I wanted to try this is that my MacBook is 6 years old and I can envision a day when it will not run the latest version of MacOS. As far as I know, it will run High Sierra when it comes out, but I can see how more of the resources get used up on the most basic of tasks, with each OS update. When I get to that point, I will need to look at what I can seriously afford in comparison to what my real needs are in a computer. 

One thing to bring up on the software side of things, I am running iOS 10.3.3. This is important to keep in mind as I am talking about the tests over the month of July. I don't have a need in my professional life to get a beta account with Apple, so what I use is what is available to anyone out there. With iOS 11 likely coming out in the next few weeks, there are a lot of things that I will talk about here that will probably not be consistent with how iOS 11 will work. I have not see iOS 11, in person, yet, so it is important that I am only writing this from an iOS 10 frame of reference. 

Preplanning:

I knew heading into this project, I would need to think a lot about how I do things that I do on the Mac and make that translate to do it on the iPad. I did add a couple of apps to get me going and make my transition a little easier. I didn't add anything that I would not have under other circumstances, but, this was a push I needed to make the additions. One app I added was 1password. I needed a password manager and this is one one I have been hearing the most about. However, I did not give myself enough time to fully implement 1password, so I had to refer to my old, less secure, methodology. I did get it set up on all of my devices. I also looked to see if my bank had an updated app. They have one, but it is clunky and not terribly helpful. There are a couple of things that I need to contact my financial institution about. Besides the state of their app, I would like to know when, or if they will get Apple Pay. There were some additional apps that I could have bought to make my iPad configuration close to my MacBook. I could have bought an Office 365 subscription, but, I really don't use Word or Excel that much at home, unless I am doing a work project. That is a purchase that I will likely make in the future, but I determined that it was not mission critical for this experiment.

Initial impressions:

At first, I really had to force myself not to go to my MacBook as the month started. It has been my go to place to do this kind of work for several years. That urge only lasted for a couple of days. It was easier to go the iPad to do stuff after I turned the MacBook completely off. I have had my iPads for a while, so I knew how they worked, up to a point. It was really easy to get a rhythm and a process down for doing things, like balancing my bank account, or writing in my journal. Since everything is connected to iCloud or Dropbox, getting at my information was easy. Hardest part was getting used to the software keyboard on the iPad. I have pretty large hands and I learned how to touch type in school. Even working in landscape mode was difficult while typing on the iPad glass. I got used to it in time, but, I do plan on getting a keyboard cover for my iPad. 

What I really liked:

The first thing that really jumped out was that things loaded so fast. Once I got multitasking down, which was no small feat, I was able to use that for a lot of my stuff. I did not put Workflow on my iPad on purpose. I am not opposed to it, but, I didn't want to try to teach myself how to use it during this experiment. Something else I did was start to expand my use of Pages. I have it on my devices, but, my career path has always put me in front of Word and Excel. As I said earlier, I could have put Office 365 on my iPad, but, I really didn’t know how much I would need to access the documents that I have already written. New stuff that I wrote at home, wrote using Pages. As I used it more,I actually came to like how much simpler Pages is to use. I may end up sticking with it after the experiment is up. Even as I have been preparing this blog article to post, I have been learning some things about using Pages on the Mac that I would not have if I had not done this experiment. I still have a lot of learning to do to get Numbers down as well as I understand Excel, but I will get there. There wasn’t any need for spreadsheet work over July, I that was a part of the immersion process that I needed to get into.  

The biggest thing I stumbled across doing this experiment is that if pushed me to use my iPad in ways that I had not learned without the necessity. Initially, I didn't use my iPad in landscape mode nearly as much as I should have. Things like using the iPad in split screen mode did not seem to work as well as I would have thought after hearing about it as much as I have over the past several months. At one point in the month, I started to think that somehow, split screen was limited to the iPad Pro and I had just missed that fact for all of this time. Turns out, I just need to figure it out. While it doesn't work on everything, I have learned which apps I have that will do the true split screen and which ones do the 1/4 split. As my knowledge of what the limits of each of these apps is, the more flexibility I am finding in using the iPad as a replacement for my MacBook.

Something else that I really liked is something that didn't really jump out at me as I started to write this is the fact that my power supply for my iPhone and my iPad was one and the same. Packing around my iPad is easier than my MacBook, which was completely expected. But, I did not consider that I would need to take less around with me in my bag. As far as cables in my backpack goes, I have one iPad power block,  one lightning cable, a short USB to MicroUSB, for charging my headphones or my block speaker, and the proprietary cable for charging my Fitbit. I would like to reduce my cable count to reduce further, but that is something that will come over time. 

What bothered me about it:

One of the things that some of the apps that I needed to use was not available in split screen at all. That is not necessarily a fault of Apple’s, but, I think that using only the onboard keyboard prevented me from switching apps as easily as I do on my MacBook. I will need do some additional research to see if there is a website that lists which apps work in true split screen, 1/4 screen or not at all. 

Also, I have big hands and, while I have one of the smaller MacBook Pro models available on the market, trying to touch type on the iPad keyboard was a bigger challenge than I would have liked. When I start looking seriously at keyboard covers, I will need to visit some at the store before I purchase one. I have also noticed that I really started to fill up my iPad as I worked on this experiment. I have added about 10 new apps to my iPad and, even with iCloud and Dropbox in use, I am down to about 10 GB available on my 64 GB iPad. I will take a serious look at which apps I have on there that I really need. 

End results:

After the experiment, I have determined that I could use my iPad, which is the make and model that some people would describe as the one for “consumption” as a replacement for my MacBook. There are some things I need to do, mostly in the form of changing my personal workflows for completing tasks, but that is something that I am confident I can do through experimentation. It was not a seamless transition from one to the other, but I don't think that would have been a realistic expectation. I need to consider that I did not preplan enough. 

What is next?

At some point in the future,I will try this again. It will, most likely, be on the same iPad, but, there will be some changes to my process before I begin. On the hardware side, I will need to get a  new case with a built in keyboard. I have been doing some research in to this and they are getting harder to find since the iPad Air 2 model was discontinued. My field trip to the store will have to happen sooner than later. The other thing that will change is that I will probably not involve my iPad mini in the next test. While it was my first iPad and I still use it, the 16 GB of memory makes it really limited as far as what I can do with it. On the software side, iOS 11 will be out before I do this and I will spend some time in advance getting familiar with that before I take another stab at it. I am sure that it will be successful, but I am interested to see if it will be easier than the month of July went. As far as when I may repeat the experiment, I think that I will spend a couple of months working with iOS 11. I will not completely cut myself off from using my MacBook, but, I am going to look at things from the vantage point of teaching myself as I go.

Deciding Between Digital and Paper Notebooks

This may end up just being a scary look at how I make decisions. Since I am writing this around Halloween season, I guess this could be considered a scary story. If you read this to the kids, and they, in turn, have nightmares, I take zero responsibility.

I have a day job where there is a huge part of the job where taking notes is an important thing. There are a bunch of meetings, many of them more time wasters than product makers, but there are nuggets of important information that can leak out of these meetings. There are also bits of information that present themselves accidentally at times. 

There dilemma that I find myself stewing over is what, from a tools stand point, do I use to take notes. I have read and really like Mike Vardy’s idea of “The approach is more important than the app.” I don’t think that is my problem. I have a pretty solid method of identifying quickly what information to write down and what to let fly by, but, I have a bit of hang up about what to write in. 

This is the issue of collecting the information digitally, such as an app on my phone or my tablet, or writing things down, by hand in a physically notebook with paper. I am not making a decision as to what to buy, i already have all of the tools in place to do both, i think I am trying to settle on a process and stick to it.

What I have been doing most recently has been to carry my iPad to every meeting that I go to, open Evernote, set up that note so that I have documented what the meeting is and when it is. After that, I sit, listen intently, and wait for that nugget of data to drop before I can type it into my iPad. Often times, there is no nugget to fall. When that happens, I digitally recycle my note with a new date, and or topic and continue. 

The benefits of this process is that I can write what is happening and it is easily read later when I have act on something. Anyone who has had the challenge of reading my own handwriting can testify that it is a big challenge. My parents thought I was going to be a physician based on my handwriting. I guess engineers don’t have great, artsy script either.

Also, I have lost bits of paper from time to time, but, the only time I have lost my computer is when my house got broken into. Since the notes that I write are ported to a cloud based software, I can open them on pretty much any computer with an internet connection. 

The internet connection is possibly one of the drawbacks. In my case, my personal devices, i.e., my phone, my iPad, or my personal computer, if I took it to work, are not allowed on the work network. As such, any notes that I take on my iPad will not be saved until I get my iPad on a wireless connection. This means that I have to wait until I get home before I can save the notes. With that, there is some risk. The iPad could be stolen, or broken, or some other cataclysmic event could make my notes go bye-bye. 

The other method that I have used in the past is to carry a physical notebook with where ever I go. I can stop, whip out the notebook and write down whatever information that I need to. I doesn’t matter if I have an internet connection, or not. I don’t run the risk of my paper notebook running out of batteries, and, if my pen, which is a favorite, gets lost, I can feel pretty confident that I can find one to use to write down what I need to write down.

The downside to the paper notebook is the whole crappy handwriting thing I talked about earlier. The other thing about the paper notebook that could be problematic is the possibility of losing it. I have been working hard toward only having the things that I need and use in my life, so, the minimization of clutter helps promote finding my stuff when I need it. I have a bag that I keep my critical gear in, an my notebook is in that bag. Then again, my iPad is in that bag, unless I am using it or charging it.

I could minimize the damage caused by losing a notebook by typing my notes from the day into Evernote and use that to make the notes searchable and recoverable. It is also a good Idea for me to review my notes when I have the best chance to be able to read what I wrote down and turn it into something useful. I also will give myself the best chance for my action items to actually make it into my task management system. 

So, it sounds like I might have a plan. Let’s see how this goes. I would like to know what you use and how that works. Please leave me some notes in the comments.

Retread-Why do I run anyway?

After the finish of the 2016 North County Wine Run Half Marathon.

As I write this, I am recovering from running in the North County Wine Run. The race was a half marathon and this is the third half marathon I have completed since June. As I have been thinking about writing, in general, and restarting this blog again in particular, I don't think I have written much about my adventures in running. No secrets, and admittedly, I haven't written much about anything, but I just haven't really talked about it.
About two years ago, I had the experience of having to start wearing size 40 pants. That event really messed with my head for a long time. I think that it shattered my sphere of deniability. I was truly more than chubby. I was fat. I was a dangerous kind of fat. It wasn't until about 6 months later that I actually started to do something about it.
Toward the end of June 2016, I got on the scale and it said that I weighed almost 300 pounds. There are some people in this world were that weight is expected. They are NFL linemen and centers in the NBA. Since I am about 6'2" and my day job is as an engineer, so I don't think that I can tell the truth by saying that 300 pounds was a healthy weight for me. If you have ever heard Dave Ramsey talk on his show, or in his books about the "I've had it!!!!" moment, than you can understand what I was feeling. He talks about it in the frame of reference of getting out of debt, but, for me, it was in terms of my weight. I had that moment in my mind when I screamed, to myself, "I'VE HAD IT!!!!!!" I knew that I had to do something, but I had to come up with something where my chances of finding a reason to give up was small.
I live in a really small community of less than 10000 people. We do have a couple of grocery stores, a post office and more than one stop light, but, it isn't like Portland, or where I grew up. As a consequence of this, there was no gym here. I like to lift weights and do other kinds of exercising like that. I quickly realized that the only real think I could do, for exercise, was run. I have a treadmill, which works perfectly fine, but, my foot strikes are kind of loud and I really didn't want to wake up the whole house with an early morning run on the treadmill.
I figured that the only thing I had really any control of was my schedule, so I started to get up early so that I could start to walk/run before work. Early is an interesting thing, because, it means different things to different people.

My early is 4am.

This is the time of day when rock stars start thinking about going to sleep and I get up that early. I really haven't had any trouble getting up that early. This is the time of day that works for me to run. Mt family is asleep, so I am not taking any time away from them. Also, there are very few people out, so nearly no cars on the road and I don't see many people outside. Running in the dark is not something that scares me, but, people my size don't get jumped often, unless it is by a mob. My experience has actually been the reverse. I have sensed a feeling of peacefulness this time of morning. It is just me, the road, and whatever podcast is playing in my ears.

Fast forward to today. As the titular question asks, why do I run? The physical reason is that it is how I like to exercise. I am about 60 pounds lighter as a result of running and changing what I am eating. There has been a social component to the experience. I have met people at races and started talking to people in running groups all over the country. There is a competitive aspect to it as well. The other night, my wife gave me a bit of a hard time calling the half marathon a race as opposed to a run. Yes, there is a price for first place, but, I see it as my racing against a former version of me. A slower version of me. A heavier version of me. I finished with a time of 1:57:35, which is my third personal record in 3 races this year. I get faster with each race. I also wanted to finish in under 2 hours today, so I am really happy with my performance. There are different kinds of results that can be looked at. During those times when my weight plateaus, I can see the gains in my time improving.

This journey is not over by any means. I am not the weight I want to be yet. I am not as fast as I want to be yet. I want to run longer races. I am still a work in progress. I don't think anyone is completely finished until the end. I am just being really intentional about who I want to become.

Penanoid

Sometimes, people get possessive over stuff. I am not talking about greediness or envy, or anything that would fall into the "seven deadly" category. It's like when a kid gets a new toy for Christmas, or when a person gets a new car and won't even let their significant other drive it.

I admit that I am pretty particular about the stuff that i use. I am writing at least part of this on my iPad mini I got for my birthday a couple of years ago. I use it basically everyday for something. I do most of my reading on it, as well as some basic web stuff that I don't necessarily need my computer for. It isn't the fastest tool for writing, but works well enough when I travel and don't want to pack my laptop on a flight.
My day job is as an engineer for an aerospace company. I am a Mac user at home and use a PC for my work stuff, so I needed to have all of my different productivity tools set up so that they would sync between both my work and home set ups. I have one of those jobs where ideas, thoughts and action items come to mind, even when I am not in my office. They come leave my mind as quickly as they get in there. It isn't just work stuff that this happens to. The idea for this post came to my mind as I was walking from one production area to another while I was at work. I would rather capture the ideas and process them later than hope that I remember them when I am at a good place to write them down.

The Fisher Space Pen with a standard size business card for scale. 

A tool that I use everyday is the common pen. I have to sign documents, write down changes to manufacturing processes as well as take notes in meetings. Me without a pen is like a mechanic without a screwdriver or a doctor without a stethoscope. For my most recent birthday, I got a pen from my family. It may sound simple, but my wife shares my particular bent toward being specific about my tools. She is also really particular about her pens, so she gets my quirkiness. I got a Fisher Space Pen for my birthday. If you are interested, please take a look at the link. I picked the pen, not just because they write upside down, or because they don't leak, but, because it closes up small. I can put it in a pocket in my pants and not feel it stab me in the leg.
The thing about a small pen though is that it has this magical power to disappear. I start and end my day with a clean desk, but as I get going on a project and I have drawings and specs on my desk and on the computer screen, it isn't hard to set a work order down on my pen and not realize it. I found myself to start to worry about losing my new birthday present. It is not a Smeagol kind of worry. I will not refer to my pen as my precious, but, I got it from my family, so it has some significance to me. I found myself getting penanoid about losing my present.
I think this is a feeling that most people get. It probably isn't about a pen, but it could be a family heirloom, or a gift from a relative that has passed away, or an award from a hard fought competition. I am not advocating that people should be possessive about their stuff, far from it. I like my pen, but I love my family.

2015. Wow, that was fast.

It has been a really long time since I published anything here. I have seen it written in a lot of places that a person writes what they know. There are some interesting challenges in finding things to write about when you are not allowed to talk specifically about two of the biggest areas of your waking life. About five years ago, my wife, and I became foster parents. Over that time span, we have had 19 kids come into our care. A lot of them have been infants with all different kinds of medical needs. Most of them went home to their parents, or other family members. That is, except for four of them.
At the end of October, my wife and I adopted 4 girls and our forever family has grown in a very short period of time. They have all been with us for quite some time and we have treated all of the kids in our care as though they were ours, but these four will be with us forever and share our last name. Nice thing is that, I can talk a little about them if I choose to without getting in trouble. I am not turning this in to a parenting blog, but I can refer to them as I write about the occasional family adventure.
As far as work stuff, I spent 7 months taking classes on export law compliance. I was not able to find any blogs or podcasts on the subject and I can totally understand why. Unless, it is something that you have to work with on a daily basis, it is the kind of thing that would put a person to sleep in no time. I have discovered the cure for insomnia.
In between work and kids and life stuff, with a little bit of sleeping in between, I got serious about running and started to do it on a consistent basis.

What scared me straight?

What put reality in my face and cause me to take some changes seriously?

It was the scale.

Our scale is not something special, or unique. It doesn't yell at me like a drill sergeant and call me names. It just sits there. I stand on it and it tells me a truth that I could not ignore. In June, it told me that I was really close to being 300 pounds.  Between that and the size of my pants, I knew that I had to change things. I was getting ready to adopt four children and I knew I had to make sure that I was around for them.
So, it started. I started. I started to get up at 4 in the morning. Every day. At a time, when rock stars are starting to think about the second party of the night, I was thinking about the road ahead of me. I realized that running was going to be the easiest form of exercise for me to take up. I live in a small community and there were no gyms any where near me. I could swim in the lake, but I didn't want to be mistaken for a wayward walrus. I do have a bike, but it is in need of some repairs. I had the shoes, the clothes and found the time in my schedule to make it happen, so, away I went.
It started slow. I did more walking than running. The key for me was being consistent. get up at 4 everyday and putting the miles in. I also setup a play list on my phone to listen to during my run. I think a lot on the road in the morning and I needed to have something else going through my head than my day ahead. Over time, I worked and I got to the point where I was running more than walking. Later it got to where I was running the whole thing. I now running the whole thing for about 3.5 miles every morning. Some days, I feel like going farther and I have a route in my neighborhood that gets me there.
I have come to really enjoy it. For some people that my sound like crazy talk, but that is where I am. The girls, except for the little one, came out with me on Thanksgiving morning. They did not go as far as I did, but it was more about the memories than the miles. I had fun with it too.

This mornings run was my longest of the year at 6.27 miles. I even went up this intimidating hill for the first time that is behind our house. It is something that I am going to have to spend some time in 2016 getting stronger at.
I want to get back in the habit of writing here too. Two term papers a week for 7 months as well as my normal work kind of pushed away any fun writing, but I feel like I have something to say that may help someone and I won't find my voice if I don't start talking.

Happy 2016 everyone!!

Fitbitten!!!

About a month ago, my wife and I each bought a Fitbit. I realize that I probably am a bit late getting on this bandwagon. The fact of the matter is that I spent a bit of time researching personal "metrics" devices for a while. After talking to some of my friends and my wife's friends, and polling Facebook, I decided on a FitBit. But what kind? I have so many things that I am keeping track of and have to remember to put in my pockets everyday. With that in mind, i decided that something that I didn't need to remember to shove in a pocket and take out to avoid putting through the spin cycle. With that in mind, I chose the FitBit Flex.

It wears just like a wristwatch. Unfortunately, it looks a bit silly on my wrist next to my regular watch, so about the only time that I wear the two at the same time is when I am out on a run. I have just been using my iPhone as my watch and just wear the FitBit. Most people I know most people use their mobile device as a clock, so this isn't a big thing to work with, however, I am use to wearing a watch and I lost count of how many times I have looked at my FitBit expecting to see what time it is. Maybe that is something that can get worked into the next iteration of the device. (Hint, hint FitBit).

As you can see from the chart above, I have become somewhat FitBitten. I doubt that I am the first one to say that, but, I am going to go with it. The bar graph shows how many steps I took each day for the first month that I had the device. Seems unreal to me that I traveled almost 132 miles on foot in one month. 

The business productivity expert, Peter Drucker, said "What gets measured, gets managed." I have found this tool to be great for measuring more things than just my activity. I can manually input what I eat over the course of the day into the FitBit Dashboard as well as how much water I drink. The biggest challenge I have with this is figuring out how to accurately account for dinner. I think I may actually be calculating high for that. 

The other thing that this FitBit Flex tracks for me is how I sleep. It measures restlessness as well as how long I sleep. I just need to tell it when I go to bed and when I wake up. I have a moderate case of sleep apnea and this really tells me if my CPAP machine is doing the job or not, besides my wife telling me when I have kept her up with my snoring.

Part of my day job is looking at things from an efficiency standpoint. Doing things in the least amount of time and with the fewest possible steps. I have found that with my FitBit, I have taken the time to walk down to a work area to talk to a coworker, versus sending and Email or calling them on the phone. I think this interaction actually helps get work done a bit faster and clearer with the direct conversation versus trying to interpret the subtext of an email. 

Overall, this has been a great tool for me to make more intentional decisions about what I do, how I get there and what I put into my body. Now, if only I can stop looking at it to see what time it is.

What tools do you use to keep track of your day? Your goals? Your Fitness?