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Lifehacks

To Do/Project Management
+ Asana: Simple task and project management built on the concept of flow.
Email
+ Boomerang: Schedule emails to be sent later or setup reminders.
+ Rapportive: View LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter/Other Profiles all within gmail. Not only does this save time, it helps keep you in the know when communicating via email.
Productivity
+ Google Chrome: Although, I am still hoping Mozilla Firefox gets to be a lot better again — Google Chrome is fast, easy-to-use, efficient and has tons of apps that you can add on.
+ Evernote & Evernote Google Chrome Clip: The best way to organize all of your notes, paperwork, and memories.
+ Dropbox: Keeps all your files available anywhere and between all your computers.
+ Fujitsu Scansnap: This amazing little machine has more than paid for itself. I am almost 100% paperless and this little scanner scans perfectly into Evernote like a charm.
+ Pinboard: A clean and friendly interface for saving bookmarks.
+IFTTT: IF This Then That. This convient web app connects all your other apps. For example, if you take a picture on Instragram it will automatically save it to Evernote.
Reading
+ Instapaper: If you are anything like me, you are always reading articles online and 10 minutes online can lead you to find hundreds of interesting websites. Sign-up (for free) and  install (drag and drop) the bookmarklet. Whenever you find an interesting article that you want to read, then Instapaper-it. Later, you can go to Instapaper.com and read the article or  go to the iPhone app and read your articles.
+ Kindle: Although I still love reading books in paper, I love having my books at my finger tips and being able to highlight quotes and passages that I find interesting.
Meditation
+ Insight Meditation App: This app is perfect for meditating. It has a lot of nice options for mindfulness bells and it will ring at the beginning and end of your meditation.
Service
+ ServiceSpace.org: ServiceSpace is the best community on the Internet. This completely volunteer run organization (which I am a part of), provides you with a forum to share inspiration, random acts of kindness and a nice way to create an online and offline community that is focused on doing good.
+ KarmaTube: KarmaTube (from ServiceSpace) curates inspirational videos and gives you specific actions on how take advantage of them. (Disclaimer: I help do the write-ups for the videos).
+ iJourney.org: Inspirational, thought provoking and spiritual passages that will provide the perfect conversation topic for a meditation group or just with your friends and family.
Photography
+ Instagram: No wonder Facebook bought this for $1B its fun and addictive. I love taking pictures with it and sending them around.
+ Google Picasa: I prefer Google Picasa to iPhoto or any other photo management app because it enables me to maintain my photos based on the folders on my computer and it enables me to sync easily with Google Web albums!
Collaboration
+ Join.me: Need to share your screen in two seconds? Go here.
+ Balsamiq: I love the companies culture and I love the software they have developed for creating mock-ups.
Learning
+ Google.com: The most game changing web application that has changed education: Google.com. Google let’s you find the answer to whatever question you may have and let’s you go down the rabbit hole of your curiosity.
+ Khan Academy: Sal Khan started making videos for his nephew in India and they came extremely popular. Now, his website is Gates backed, and he is changing how people around the world can learn about anything.
Blogs
+ ZenHabits.net: I have been reading this blog for almost four years. The blog focusses on simplicity and mindfulness. The writing is simple and the website is to the point.
+ The Art of Non Conformity: This blog depicts the journey of one man to visit every country in the world, and he provides some amazing insights on life.
+ James Altutcher: As a writer, James bleeds the truth — he is brutally honest about all of his experiences and provides practical and actionable ideas.
Travel
+ Rolf Potts: Rolf Potts is absolutely my favorite travel writer. His writing is thought provoking and forces you to look at travel, work and life in different ways.
+ RickSteves: Rick Steves got me through all of Europe. His small business is honest and provides good and solid guides and other travel related products.
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Best of Istanbul Turkey

I had the opportunity to spend a couple days in the beautiful city of Istanbul, Turkey with my Mom. Not only was it wonderful place to travel with my Mom, the culture, the people, and the experiences were amazing. Some useful highlights:

1. Where to stay? Tan Hotel: This hotel was gorgeous, simple, quaint and had great service. Aside from enjoying a small business, it had spectacular views of the Blue Mosque from its breakfast area on the roof!

2. What to do? 

  • Cağaloğlu Hamami (or, Turkish Bath): According to the sign in from of the this turkish bath it is one of the 1,000 Places to Visit Before You Die, so I figured it had to be done. When you first enter, you can see the age and history behind one of Instanbul’s oldest baths. Men and women bath areas are separate and the service is classically Turkish: simple and good service with a smile. An old man scrubbed every knock-and-cranny on me…and I was probably the cleanest I had been in all my life.
  • Visit During Ramadan: The Blue Mosque, the cistern and the Topikapa palace were all amazing, but, the best part of Istanbul was visiting during Ramandan. Every evening at 5PM, we were able to enjoy the food, culture and people in the evenings.

2. Where to eat if you are vegetarian?  

  • Dubb Indian Restaurant: As a vegetarians, I noticed that all of the food was very similar for vegetarians: vegetable kabobs, yogurt and rice. This Indian restaurant was our salvation: the Indian food was better than most Indian restaurants in NYC and the service was quick and simple.

 

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What would you put in your to don’t list?

I have always had a to do list…even back in high school — I had a Palm Handspring! Now, in an effort to rethink, how I get things done: I am considering adopting this idea that I read about in Daniel Pink’s The Flip: To Don’t List.  Here are some ideas for keeping a to don’t list:

  1. Don’t keep checking my email
  2. Don’t keep my phone on me all day
  3. Don’t eat and watch TV
  4. Don’t eat 2 hours before I go to bed
  5. Don’t get out of bed without taking a deep breath
  6. Don’t hang out with negative people
  7. Don’t be mean
  8. Don’t get ahead of yourself
  9. Don’t rush
  10. Don’t look at your iPhone before you go to sleep and right when you wake up
As Mark Twain said, “If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter?” In the same way, what we leave out of our day-to-day is just as important as what we leave in. What about you?