Go Ask Ben

"Every intellectual endeavour starts with a note." (Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes) If you accept the premise, you will do your best thinking, analyzing, and problem solving by writing a note.  What problem can you begin to "push into a corner" to better define it? 

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.  - 1 Corinthians 13:13 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1Corinthians13:13&version=NLT

What does personal productivity and the band Blur have in common? "I got my head checked By a jumbo jet It wasn't easy But nothing is No"   - https://youtu.be/Wc18xt5wQnk Everyday something big and scary is coming at us, often as a surprise. When they come and we are unprepared, it's like getting checked in Hockey but with a Jumbo jet. It's inevitable that we experience these situations but constant preparation makes the impact less devastating. Having your desk organized Resources ready for action Review Calendar events Reviewed tasks due Cleaning up your workspace When you've prepared, you can sing the song, "Whoo Hoo" and avoid the stress.

There are very nuanced reasons why I want to be a digital note taker. These are some thoughts and opinions about my journey. I don't like pens (on paper) unless they are the erasable Frixion type Paper is harder to organize, make available online, and find using search I like digital writing as it is essential to skill building, memory and learning I want to write using ePaper devices as they can be setup similar to real paper experiences I will use OneNote and OneDrive to capture my ePaper notes for review and long term storage Digital pens like Livescribe and Neo are great solutions but require equally great and available paper accessories Supplies have to be bought by the digital pen manufacturer to work You can easily lose a digital pen You can break an e-ink screen The e-ink tablets have their own UI and can be difficult to use, forcing you to learn their OS and changing your workflow. I prefer an eco-friendly writing solution I don't want to run out of paper or pen suppl

I started in my digital journey fifteen years ago in the Apple world, soon after the iPhone was released. I spent ten years in the Apple ecosystem and was a faithful, vocal fanboy. Then Google changed Android to be more secure, updatable, and customizable. I bought my first Samsung phone (Note 9) and I have never looked back. The transition to Samsung and Android has been a good one for me. While I had some issues with my Note 9 updating (never switch carriers.....ugh), I tried the Google ecosystem to be as  integrated as possible but that never really happened. The problem was Microsoft. I have been using Outlook (remember Hotmail) since I got my first computer and my association with Office has been long. While you can live in Google and Microsoft ecosystems simultaneously, I couldnt find my happy place. When Microsoft started building software for Android, things became clearer to me. Over time, Microsoft built many great apps on iOS and Android and I found myself admiring their wor

I used to think I could be careful enough to avoid COVID-19 since we haven't been in the places where it was most active (bars, restaurants, etc.). This week I came down with a terrible sinus headache that I mistook for a broken tooth filing. When my dentist didn't find any problems, I considered this to be a bad sinus issue and nothing more. I was tested positive at work for the first time the next day. After getting COVID, I realized how unprepared we were. While I don't have a lot of money for such emergencies, I found things you can have on hand to make the experience a little less troublesome. The State of Virginia has this simple guide as a start: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/13/2020/03/Checklist-for-COVID-19.pdf Prescribed medicines and supplies, such as glucose meters and blood-pressure monitoring equipment  Soap and water  Alcohol-based hand cleaner, such as Purell® or store-brand  Medicines for fever and pain, such as acetaminophen and ibupro