three things that have made my life better

i might be overstating this because the three things i learned about in the last month haven't extended my life, or given me children, or greater purpose in the universe or anything, but they have had a really deep impact and i really didn't think that i was so impressionable (anymore). i'm also fairly sick of thinking or talking about sarah palin or stephen harper, so, for the first time ever, resulting from a fit of astonishment and delight, i am presenting the september 2008, "three things that have made my life better award" in the following three categories: time management, music appreciation, and physical fitness.

time management: GTD and OmniFocus
a friend at work asked me last month or so if i had ever heard of this time management theory that has been quite popular for a few years now called "getting things done" written by a fellow named david allen. at a high level, the core of the process is to capture those ("front of mind") thoughts that float in and out of your awareness into quick lists of action items that are classified by project, contexts. this sounds pretty simple and straight-forward, and like something you could do in your outlook calendar or a notebook or your smartphone or something. well, as it turns out, the omni group make a GTD client for the iPhone/iPod Touch that is beautiful, simple, and best of all - always on hand. whether i'm at work or on the subway or out with friends or shopping, i have my lists with me and i can add to them or manage them anytime anywhere in a far more elegant way than you could ever do with pen and paper. items that are upcoming or overdue are automatically collected in a priority list so that i can give them immediate attention. now that i have multiple projects to manage and many threads to watch, having a solid tool to help me manage all of my responsibilities has been indispensable! there's no way that i would have been able to transition from a single-developer consultant to a team lead on multiple projects without this Omni tool.

music appreciation: last.fm
no matter who you are, you know that you have a friend who listens to way groovier music than you do. you try and deny it but the fact is that it's hard to get past top-40 music circulation on normal radio stations, and alternative or folk stations can be too extreme for the average joe-six-pack. really, what is needed is some way of personalizing music preferences so that preferences can be anticipated, presented and approved of by users, and then, that data can be statistically analyzed for trending. end result - last.fm. it sounds very cold and like a huge personal privacy infringement. but look at the upside - i have heard some crazy good music (well, to my taste anyway), and last.fm can associate my listening history from my iTunes client at home or work, my iPhone, and even my iPod nano when i run, as well as the last.fm client that works effortlessly well through a web-browser. i know that i am relinquishing control over information about what music i listen to, but until they pass a law that makes listening to shawn colvin punishable by imprisonment, i'm okay with that. get this - after i entered a couple dozen of my favourite artists into it, it recommended a whole bunch of songs that i already had in my library, interpolating my preferences, and confirming to me that it was not a sham smoke and mirrors thing that was just going to play back whatever songs it wanted. after a couple more days of training, it started to really send me some new ideas - and then it became really exciting! i got this "My Friend" by Groove Armada, "The Lottery", by Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, and "Veins", by Charlotte Martin. delicious! so the best part, is now i can go and get these artists' music off iTunes or wherever. everyone wins. it's like having a groovier version of myself from whom i can get music suggestions!!! i can't even imagine a better tool for expanding my musical horizons is even possible.

physical fitness: ashtanga yoga at downward dog yoga centre
ever since i lived in toronto last time, i've been curious about the downward dog yoga studio. not only is it a super-interesting name for a complete outsider to yoga, but it had a strange... you know what - i have no idea... it's actually totally normal looking, but for some reason it has stuck in my head for five or six years until... i decided to start to take yoga. i have a few friends who have suggested that i would like it, but i've been putting off trying it out for a very long time. something about yoga seems very kooky - like it's all about freakish contortionism or eating flowers - things that from the outside, can seem very strange and make you ask why you might want to get involved in something like that in the first place. when i finally went, i was surprised - really surprised. i don't know if it was the heat in the studio, or the fact that i'd never done anything like this since my ballet days - but the workout was incredible. and not just because it was hard work or that it was great stretching. it was incredible because it really allowed me to focus my awareness - to give myself an opportunity to really reunite my body and mind and spirit that really, pursuit of any other goal-oriented activity can't, by definition, do. i am clearly a total n00b so i won't try and understand or explain the style of yoga i'm trying or what it means or where it is going. i'm really enjoying the ass-whipping it gives me though, but even more importantly and equally unexpectedly, giving me time and training to re-centre myself has been incredibly life-changing! i can see how yoga is becoming such a growing part of western lifestyles! give it a try!

- g