I heard a great quote while on a webinar with Author and Wired Editor, Jonah Lehrer.  He was discussing the Paradox of Choice and Decision Theory, he said to think about the "why," and "what" decision we are trying to make.  Doing so can help us "...avoid, avoidable mistakes."  The essence of this boils down to the conscious choices we make and how the brain processes rewards and expectations.  It's a really meaty topic that I'm interested in learning more about.  For now, I decided to jump in and start applying what I heard.

His quote has been stuck in my head for weeks now.  Lately, I've been really thinking about the "why" and "what" of the choices I make every day. What I'm discovering is that these questions act like a firewall for the mind.  Keeping out the most harmful stuff and allowing in most of what will benefit me.

For example, I recently purchased a truck.  Originally I had it loaded with tons of additional options.  When I sat down and ran my decision through this filter, I ended not taking any of the options.  My new mental firewall saved me roughly ten grand.

As I'm writing this post I'm on a much needed vacation.  I even ran my vacation through the "why and what" machine, and I ended up staying local instead of traversing globe.  The vacation decision was both professional and personal.  I needed a break from what has been a particularly busy schedule.  But, after much thought, I didn't need to break from my home life.  In fact, I really felt the need to stay mostly local.  Not only did this decision keep my bank account topped off, it turns out I really needed to spend time with my family in their normal routine.  Going to the store, piano practice, playing catch in the backyard and all the things I take for granted.  It has only been a few days but its been wonderful.

I'm starting to run my professional goals through this as well.  If you do any mind mapping, this thought process may materially alter your goal setting, decision tree, etc.  A good starting point is workshifting goals.  When asking people why they workshift, the standard answers tend to be around freedom, family time, independence, etc.  Now take those answers and ask yourself "why," and "what" decision am I really making?  The answer could lead you in a surprising direction.
 
Ok, I'm starting to sound like a fortune cookie.  See what it's all about, and I think you'll find it as fascinating as I do.

Thoughts?

Photo Credit: Air Force One

Gear. It's an essential part of workshifting. While you don't want to be that guy or gal, you do need to carry a few things with you when you're working away from the office. And I don't just mean a laptop or netbook or tablet, either.

Whether you carry a little or a lot when you workshift, a good bag for all of that gear is essential. Here are a few pointers for choosing the bag that's right for you.

Size matters

Up to a point, anyway. You're probably not carrying everything and a microwave oven. But you're also probably carrying more than just your smartphone and wallet.

Look for a bag that has enough room to carry the tools of your workshifting day. At the very minimum, the bag you choose should have space for a notebook or netbook computer, your phone and MP3 player, some physical files, a paper notebook and pens, and a USB flash drive or two. You might also want to make sure that the bag has space for a book (or an ebook reader), your wallet, a bottle of water or travel mug, and some snacks.

The bag itself should have as slim a profile as possible, though. I've lugged bulky bags around and they've been an inconvenience to me and to people on transit. Duffle bags are out, as a some backpacks - way too bulky. A good messenger or courier bag is a worth holding on to. More about this in a little while.

Accessibility

I don't know about you, but I usually need to get to the things in my bag in a hurry. Whether it's pulling out my wallet to pay for a hot chocolate at a cafe, putting away my netbook, whipping out a USB flash drive, or getting to my Moleskine and pen to jot down a note, I don't want to struggle with too many zippers or clasps.

A usable gear bag should have enough easy-to-access pouches of varying sizes - small for things like your wallet and phone, and larger for ... well, for larger items. Velcro covers or straps for those pouches make getting to what's in them easier.

Durability

No one like a bag (or anything else) that doesn't last. It's more than annoying; it adds another expense to your balance sheet. Over the years, I've owned a few bags that didn't last 12 months. Straps frayed and broke. The outer shell tore. Pockets wore out. And I'm careful (almost paranoid) when it comes to my stuff!

You're going to pay a premium for a durable bag. Even then, you're not always assured of getting one that will last. There are a few things to look at when choosing the right bag.
First, make sure that the fabric is thick but not heavy. Thin nylon doesn't cut it. In fact, it's easy cut. Heavier nylon is good, and it's lighter than canvas. Canvas, on the other hand, is tough and it's a lot more resistant to water than nylon.

Next, look at the zippers. Are they thin or thick? Plastic or metal? And how strongly are they stitched to the bag?

Versatility

Chances are you won't just use your gear bag for ... well, just lugging your gear. If that's the case, then the venerable laptop bag just doesn't cut it.

My gear bag (more on this in a moment) is also my carry on when I fly. And I use it as an overnight bag when taking short trips. So I need something that can carry my gear and my travel items. That means a bag that's big, but not too big, and durable.

A few choices

There are a lot of bags on the market. Here are a few that I recommend, based on all of the factors I discussed earlier.

My favorite, and the bag I use daily is the Carry On Travel Pack from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (a Canadian outdoor and gear retailer). I've used that bag daily for over five years, and it's been everywhere with me from around town, throughout Canada and the United States, and to China. Best of all, whenever I need to I can turn the Carry On into a backpack.

The Tom Bihn ID, while pricey ($140 USD), is well worth the price. If I wasn't so attached to my Carry On I'd seriously consider one of these. The ID big enough for a laptop and your other gear. It also has enough pouches for any and all of your accessories. The main portion of the bag is also well reinforced with foam, which will protect your laptop.

While the design isn't quite to my liking, I'm impressed with the Ogio Hip-Hop. Once again, it's a bag that has more than enough space for your gear and offers quick access to your phone, MP3 player, and even your laptop's AC adapter. There are also a pair of pockets on either side of the Hip-Hop for bottles of water or a travel mug.

What gear bag do you use? Share your favorites by leaving a comment.

Photo credit: fotolia © 2happy

Today's post is by David Romm, a writer, blogger and thinker from Watertown, MA.

There is a really interesting new app that I enjoy using on my Blackberry called Note2Self.
 
Let me preface this review by stating that I would recommend this application to people who use Blackberry's Voice Notes on a regular basis. But to the people who have yet to use voice notes, I have a few reasons to switch over. 

There are too many places on one's Blackberry to enter notes and deciding whether to use MemoPad, the Calendar, or The Inbox, can be a daunting task. Writing extended messages can be tricky and frustrating on the small blackberry device.

Note2Self solves these problems. Like VoiceNotes, Note2Self is a voice recording device, but rather than simply saving the file, it asks you who you want to email it to, and allows you to enter a new email address or pick one from the contacts list.
 
There are times when a written email is insufficient to communicate a message and a phone call is necessary. But what if you want to leave someone a detailed instruction for accomplishing a task without clogging up that person's voicemail? Notes2Self would allow you to record your message (without restriction on note size) and email the message to up to 3 recipients. My coworkers have used this app to communicate project instructions to me; my brother has left me messages that keep my voicemail from getting full; and I can send all my grandparents a single message to brighten their day without making 4 individual phone calls. Note2Self is a simple device with a lot of uses. My only recommendation is that the developers change the name to independent voice messaging, to more accurately describe its capabilities. Definitely worth $4.95 in the Blackberry App Store.

Photo Credit: BlackBerry App Store

As a consultant and blogger, I keep a pretty full plate.  There's always a client project or a post I'm working on.  Staying organized is key to me getting everything done.

So I live by my Outlook calendar.  I schedule project milestones, blogging deadlines, etc.  I've always known that I was pretty dependent upon my calendar, but didn't realize how much until my computer crashed a few weeks ago.  Lucky for me I didn't lose much. 

But where I really felt it was in the notes I kept on my calendar.  I lost some of the data I had been collecting for future blog posts or business ideas I wanted to research.  I was able to recover quite a bit via my iPhone, but not everything.

That's when I realized it might be time to find a note taking application that could not only make my life easier but provide a better way of collecting information.  So when the folks at Workshifting were looking for someone to test drive a few note taking apps, I jumped at the chance.

The three I looked at were Simplenote, MobileNoter, and Evernote.

Couple of things worth a mention:  all of the apps I looked at offer some kind of tutorial whether it's a blog, user guide or video.  Kudos to them for helping users get the most out of the app.  All of them also offer a free account as well as a premium account.  You have the flexibility to get what you need.  I'd suggest checking out the free versions, see what you like best and then decide if you need the premium model.  None of the premium models I looked at seemed cost-prohibitive.  And they all have the ability to sync to the web.

Simplenote is exactly that...a place to create simple notes.  On their blog, they do mention a challenge with notes that contain hyperlinks.  This is a bummer for me because many times my notes are reminders to visit a website.  Hopefully they will quickly get that fixed.
Once you create a note on your phone, you can sync it to the web or email it.  The email did seem a bit redundant, because I can send myself an email.  But maybe I'm not thinking broad enough and there would be a time when I need this feature - just can't figure it out right now.
Where I saw Simplenote working well for me was for things like errand lists or shopping items.  It's a great place to jot things down - versus if you want to cut/paste a file for reference later.

MobileNoter reminded me of Microsoft Word.  So if you are familiar with Word, you'll find MobileNoter very similar and easy to learn.  With this application, you can create notebooks that contain similar ideas.   It also gives you the ability to share a notebook.  I thought this would be very cool for my volunteer projects - many of the people I volunteer with have iPhones.  We could have a shared document for an event and all contribute to the notebook.
In addition, it was very convenient to cut/paste.  With MobileNoter you can add not only text but entire files.  You can also insert maps, photos, images, etc.

MobileNoter connects to MS OneNote.  That means once my MobileNoter files are synced with OneNote.  I can create tasks within Outlook from my notes. 

In Evernote, you can set up folders and collect information for each (similar to MobileNoter).  But one of the things that Evernote really highlights is their search capability.  You can attach keywords to your files (whether it's a text file or an image).  This would be especially helpful when I find an image that inspires me but I don't exactly know what to do with it.  I want to keep it but I don't want to forget about it.  Having the ability to attach keywords would be great because I can do regular searches.

And speaking of searches, Evernote allows you to save searches that you do on a regular basis.

As you can see, there's a lot to choose from in the note taking app department.  And I'm sure I've only scratched the surface with these three apps.  What I realized in looking at Simplenote, MobileNoter and Evernote, is the decision of whether an app is good or not belongs to you.  It's what you do with it.  If it makes you successful, then it's fabulous.

What note taking apps are you using these days?  Drop a note in the comments


Photo Credit: ChicGeek