My Favorite Things: January 2021
Every month, I'm going to publish a running list of my favorite things—apps, articles, podcast episodes, tweets, quotes, products, and services. I hope this list inspires you, fills you with hope and great ideas, and saves you time!
January 2021: Favorite Apps
Opal
One of my big goals this year is to transform my relationship with my phone. I'd like to use it consciously as a tool, but I don't want it to use me (and I think it has for years now). I've been looking for an app that will "shut off" distracting apps on a schedule. I found Opal, and so far so good! Hoping it sticks.
Chani
The world falls into three camps when it comes to Astrology: (1) it's nonsense, (2) it's fun to read but I don't take it seriously, and (3) it defines how I live. While I'm certainly not in the third bucket, I spent some time this year asking more questions about it. Where DOES it come from? What do people get wrong about it? Is there any truth to it?
I think we have to be careful with Astrology in the same way we need to be careful about political parties or religion or investing strategies or sports teams—by all means enjoy it, but be weary of defining too much of your wellbeing on any one perspective or expectation.
This is all to say that I really enjoy the essence of astrology, but I attribute that largely to finding an astrologer who writes poetically, simply, and joyfully, Chani Nicolas. She wrote a great book about Astrology if you're curious to learn more, and she recently released an app called Chani that is—no exaggeration—one of the most thoughtfully designed content-driven apps I've seen in a while. It's a joy to listen to her "Week Ahead" audio messages and personalized written horoscopes. The depth of content is crazy, and worth every penny.
January 2021: Favorite Articles
The Art of Single-Tasking
I don't know about you, but my brain feels like someone is wringing it out by the end of the day sometimes. There is so much pulling at our attention—never-ending news updates, social media posts, Slack messages, texts, calls...the list goes on. So much contributes to this "brain fog" feeling (like sleep, sugar intake, water consumption, lack of exercise, too much screen time, life stress, health issues, etc). But, this is one I don't think we pay enough attention to: multi-tasking. A lot of us still think being a good multitasker is a good thing when, in fact, it's a terrible thing. This was a good reminder to focus on just ONE thing at a time.
If Naval Ravikant Had a Goal Setting System...
I came across this blog randomly, but quickly realized the author, Justin Mares, is one of the co-authors of Traction (one of my favorite marketing books) and the Founder + CEO of Kettle & Fire. K&F is the fastest growing bone broth brand in the country and I keep noticing it on grocery shelves, so my brain lit up like a Christmas tree when I made all of these connections. He wrote an article about how he structures his goals around a tweet Naval Ravikant wrote back in 2018. As someone who is on a mission to simplify goal-setting and help people fall in love with how they spend their time, I said "YASSSSSS!" out loud while reading this one. If you want a super simple way to set goals for 2021, this is for you.