I feel like I won big time with the family today: purchased Frozen for movie night

Published via Pressgram

Starting over, again, is no fun. It’s not sexy, it’s not easy, and we know it. But we find ourselves here just about every year at this time. The snow and cold is starting to break. The roads are wet but they’re not icy and full of snow. You can feel spring right around the corner. Some of us wait for 60 degrees to start running outside. Others were out there yesterday because 35 felt like 60 after the winter we had. Whenever you start exercising again, most of us are picking it up again after being away for quite a few months.

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TRX Training

Sometimes you come across a product in your field and have that “ahh haa” moment. My formal education and training, along with my personal experience including time with clients has given me an eye of critical thinking and a gut instinct. When I first saw the TRX suspension trainer, I thought, “of course!”

Military Origin

What began in the military using parachute chord has evolved in to a great product. The concept is simple:

• hang straps from a secure structure
• use the straps to push, pull and twist your body
• adjust the intensity with a few basic, common sense modifications

Now, I’ve simplified. Trust me, there’s an incredible amount of science behind this training. We’ll get into that later. Yesterday’s training (a) taught me some great principles, (b) increased my exercise library, and (c) invigorated my spirit for training on this device. And I’m happy to announce that I’ll be featuring suspension training on my blog because I believe in it’s ability to work for so many people.

One important take-away for the day was continuing education. Full disclosure, I hate that phrase. It sounds so dull to me. You too? I’m not sure where that comes from but if you’re like me, you need to fight it. Because when you think about it, continuing education is so important. Leaders and successful people continue their education. They try new things. They update their skill set on old things to push the bar forward. I’ve done TRX informally (without training) for over six years. This educational experience was so worth the time and money.

You don’t need to take a class. You don’t need to purchase a product. You need to write in your journal something you’re going to do to advance your skills. You need to look back on a day, a week, a season or a project and say “this is what I did.”

I’m so excited about TRX training. If you’ve ever thought about it or have any questions, please make drop me a line in the comments.

A couple weeks ago I went over the big tools I use everyday to get things done. I’m kind of a geek for those kinds of posts; I love looking over other peoples’ shoulders to see how they work. I went over most of the basics, things that are fairly common and standard.

Today I want to dig a little deeper. I have some social media tools that I use for different situations and I have some other apps that help me stay organized and be productive.

Twitter
Twitter is powerful, as a news source, social medium, and for entertainment purposes. I absolutely love it. What I don’t love is one particular app. I currently like Tweetbot the best because it allows me to easily see where @replies originated; it lets me see the conversation as a whole. But I’m also a fan of Hootsuite because I can post to Facebook from the same screen and I can also schedule tweets. Yes, I schedule tweets to spread out my sharing experience. The interface on Tweetbot is much nicer than Hootsuite, but the later makes my writing experience easier and allows me to track clicks.

Pulse and Zite (news)
I’ve been convicted lately at how little I pay attention to the news. I always wish I knew more about politics, and even local stuff is important to stay up to date. Pulse is great for national stuff. It’s an app on iPad and I’m slowly getting the feed worked out so I can tailor my information. Zite is pure joy for me. I actually am trying to spend less time on it because my business simply doesn’t get advanced with its info. I use Zite to stay up on all things Apple, productivity, techy, and anything else with a really catchy headline that doesn’t move me forward. Still, I think there’s certainly room in a person’s life for these kinds of apps. Reading is always good. Current events and new product information is usually good. I have fun with it, it’s great conversation pieces, but I need to keep it in check.

Email to Evernote
Now my two worlds start colliding. I mentioned articles on Pulse and Zite. When I come across articles that aren’t only fun but I think I could use, I send them to Evernote, my digital brain. I love this feature because it allows me to send entire article to my notebook and based on my subject line, I can add it to any notebook I want and include any (and all) hashtags for additional organization. If I ever want an article down the road, I’ve got it. Period.

iPhone
I include my iPhone because it’s such a fundamental part of my daily workflow. One of my favorite friends just switched to Android – I don’t care. I’m not about the debate. I use my phone as a PDA more than a phone, and I think that’s pretty spiffy. Always taking photos, always taking notes, always reading Twitter and news, always organized with all my documents and projects.

iPad
I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of the iPad’s brilliance. Many days are tough for me at work because I have so many apps open, so many pings (I know I should turn them off) from so many sources. I’ve been reading a lot lately of people working solely from their iPad. I’m actually leaning towards an iPad mini. Staying focused is essential to being productive, at least in my current role. The iPad helps me work on one thing at a time with greater ease. Plus it’s an absolute joy to work with such a piece of hardware.

WD External Hard Drive
My MacBook Air is light and fast. To keep it that way, I keep all my photos and music on the WD. At home, I sync my devices while plugged in to that so I have my essential stuff. One wrench in the system is now that PhotoStream goes to my Mac, I wish my iPhoto was on the Mac instead of the WD. I think I might be able to fix this when I upgrade to Aperture. Of course the biggest reason for the WD is backups. Yes, I have two (and so should you).

GoodReader
This is probably my favorite app right now. In grad school, I was bombarded with scientific papers (PDFs) and being a hoarder, I wanted all of them at all times. And fully organized. All my documents (PDF, Word, Pages) are in Dropbox in nicely organized folders. The GoodReader app allows me to connect to my Dropbox account and sync whichever folders I want. This is big for me because if I can work without an internet connection, I have a better workflow and less chance of getting distracted. So as long as I leave the house and sync iTunes for pics and music and GoodReader for documents, I have everything I need.

Moleskine app
I love my Moleskine notebooks. I was very skeptical that they were jumping into the digital app because how do you get away from the culture of your notebooks?! They’re legendary! Well I’m all but sold. The digital Moleskine app for iPad and iPhone looks like the notebooks we’re familiar with, but they have the ability to change fonts, paper styles, add pictures, and draw with pens, pencils, and highlighters. It certainly takes a little time getting used to it. But if you value capturing ideas and thoughts, then the medium shouldn’t get in the way. And the Moleskine app is no trouble at all. They’re still working out some bugs, but I can transfer any or every page to Evernote or Dropbox – bliss! Taking notes, brainstorming concepts, fleshing out ideas and being creative with words and pictures makes me a better man, makes me a better worker. I love this app.

Paper and SketchPad
As much as I love the Moleskine app, I eluded to the fact that many of these apps overlap in different areas. Moleskine is nice but it doesn’t have the versatility of brushes and pens that these other two do. I used the Paper app to fully design my proposal for my current contract with Transform Wisconsin. I use the SketchPad for more intricate drawings, fine tuned brushes are fantastic in this free version. My biggest frustration is that I’m a horrible artist. One of my goals for 2014 is to spend a little more time drawing to add some drama to my writing.

Be honest, you don’t really want me to go on. And I won’t. I believe thinking through what tools we use is important. As Coach Lecher said, “Life is a series of adjustments.” We need to understand our needs, understand the tools we have, search out the ones we need, and then get comfortable and start creating great work. These apps are great, they work for me. Your mileage may be different. I’d love to hear some of your favorites. Might you consider writing some of your tools down and sharing?

If you’re in Pewaukee tonight, there’s still time to head up to the high school to see JJ Watt’s number get retired. I wish I could be there. I think JJ is a special person. He’s great for football, he’s great for his communities, and he’s great for the kids. But as JJ said himself, never forget where you came from. JJ wasn’t the first to “make it” (and he’s never claimed to be the first). He’s certainly made it the furthest! He was NFL Defensive Player of the Year! But the first to “make it” was Mac. This post isn’t about Watt vs. Mac. It’s about remembering the story. Remembering the giants who came before you. Remembering the past, celebrating the now, and hopeful for the future.

I’m so convinced that you’ll love Jars of Clay’s new album, if you purchase the digital download for $5 and *don’t* like it, I’ll buy it back from you no questions asked.

*Offer only valid for Facebook and Twitter friends

Published via Pressgram

I had the privilege of testing Pressgram in its beta stage. I’ve known John Saddington, the developer, for a number of years now. He created Pressgram with some deep conviction. In one phrase: “total creative control.” When we publish pictures to Facebook and Instagram, we actually give up the rights to those photos. I honestly can’t imagine Facebook using my pic for advertising purposes, but in reality they could. Yes, I still post pics to both those social networks, but a lot less than I used to. I’m transitioning to Pressgram as I go down this road of internet sharing and the new lifestyle many of us have embraced.

Many of you I love blogging and I update my Facebook and Twitter quite often. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – those could all be gone tomorrow. I can’t imagine that would happen, but the fact is I want a digital platform where I can have complete control of my content. I have that in my blog. It’s never going away as long as I pay the bill. Saddington is a professional blogger and he loves his filtered photos. As he was thinking about his digital content and the idea that user agreements basically state you give up the right to those posted photos, he came up with the idea of publishing filtered photos to your WordPress-powered blog. At first it seemed like a stretch, but I’m starting to understand and appreciate the fact that I have complete control and ownership of these pictures. It’s reinvigorated my passion for blogging – conveniently at the same time I’ve started a new job, so there’s lots to talk about! And if you remember the initial Instagram days, it’s that good and even better. Very fresh stuff on Pressgram. Much more personal. And the platform has so much more ambition and potential in the near and distant future.

Please consider joining Pressgram. It’s FREE! Currently it’s only on iOS. You don’t need a blog to start, but it sure is fun. I say that because I constantly push people to blog and write. You have great stuff to share, you’re an expert in something and you should share that with the world. I honestly believe we become better people when we reflect on a niche topic and write.

We are trying to get as many downloads this month as possible. Katie and I are already on it and we hope you will consider joining! If not, or if you try and it’s not for you I promise not to push the issue. But I certainly wanted to make a personal invitation to my friends and family.

Let me know if you have any questions!

You can find us on Pressgram @Hans and @Katie.