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Tag Archives: geeky

Gadget Review at 30 Days: FitBit Flex

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Geeky, Health, Stuff that Works

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geeky, goals, health

So I got my FitBit Flex just before Christmas pretty much to see what all the fuss was about with the fitness trackers (and because they hired a Windows App team so I can nearly taste phone sync in my future).  I posted some initial impressions about the device a while back and figured I would revisit after a month and then again at the 3 and 6 month points.  And I’m still in love with this thing – to the point that I purchased Premium just to have more data to play with and to use the trainer dashboard.Fitbit-Flex

I’ve lost 9 pounds.  I’ve increased my daily activity even in the face of a bitter cold winter.  I’m hitting my water intake goals (64 oz/day).  Best of all, I’ve gained some major insight into my sleep patterns, done a bit of tweaking and am sleeping both longer and better now.

The battery life is as advertised.  It’s extremely simple to use, including the food journal.  The charge battery and update emails are really neat and a nice touch.  It connects to social media platforms as well as other fitness apps (in my case, HealthVault and Endomondo – both quite good if you are looking).  It is comfortable.  The dashboards, settings and goals are mostly well thought out (there is one dashboard widget that isn’t terribly useful, but you can customize the dashboard so not a huge deal).  The data is cool and you can “compete” either with yourself on a daily, weekly, monthly basis or you can add friends and compete with them.

I’ve started actively looking for opportunities to get in more steps and have found myself out taking a long walk to finish up the daily step goal.  And hey, it has blinking lights.  Everyone loves blinking lights. 🙂

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Week One Update

05 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Geeky, Health

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geeky, goals, health, money, organize, updates

Completed bold green with strikethrough, in progress in bold with italic, notes, summary and updates inline.  Not started in blue.

  • Fitness – Hit my Fitbit goals for the month.  Starting out with the preset 10K steps per day.  Laid out a walking/running schedule to be ready to go for the March 5K.  Naturally this week brought some of the coldest (and wettest) weather so far – will be looking to make up some steps as the month progresses.  Still, definitely heightened awareness of ways to boost steps.  Cool dat. 😀
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 Intermediate SOA qualification.  Ordered up the SOA course from The Art of Service, did all my downloads and set up a daily task reminder.  Completed through Module 2 of 12.On Track!
  • Habit – Fitness and Food Journaling.  Set up my apps – Endomondo, FitBit and Livescape on the phone, FitBit on the PC.  Completed some journaling every day but not consistent or complete yet.
  • Home – Guest bedroom
  • Financial – 401K and retirement accounts.  Registered and set up the 401K for new employer.  All that remains is to review and update (as needed) the other accounts.
  • Decluttering – Filed the rest of 2013 and set up 2013 tax notebook, set up 2014 files (go label maker).
  • Cost cutting – Insurance review

One complete and four underway.  Seems about right at this point, especially since the four underway are the build a habit kind of goals.

Gadget Review: Fitbit Flex

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Geeky, Health

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geeky, goals, health

So I got a Fitbit Flex for Christmas (Santa ordered it from the Amazon elves for me since no male in my family is insane enough to give appliances, fitness equipment or such for a gift).  I had zero problems setting it up and none of the reported problems snapping the band in place – a lot of reviewers complained it was stiff and difficult, it didn’t seem so to me.  I’m going to write this review with the initial impressions and then come back and follow up in a month so I can give a run down of how I like it after using it for a while.

Initial impressions:

  • Setup – easy and fast
  • Dashboard – pretty clean and easy to customize.
  • Help – had to dig a little more than I had hoped for some settings information, but overall pretty thorough and easy to use.
  • Sleep – so far I’m 50/50 on remembering to put it in sleep mode.  We shall see on this one.  Having to think just prior to bed is a bit much to ask – I’m probably going to aim for starting sleep mode in the 30 minutes of tea and reading prior.
  • Goals – 10K steps/5 miles is a pretty standard starting point.  Adding a common goal like weight loss or calorie intake requires a bit of slogging through help which it probably shouldn’t.
  • Water resistant – showered with it and no issues.
  • Non-dominant hand – sucks for us watch wearers.  Changed the setting rather than try to pair it with my watch.
  • Wake up alarm – very cool and dead on with timing.  Nice.
  • Sync – dammit, I want a Windows 8 phone sync.  Seriously.  The 3rd party app is pretty good though – I do wish it let you enter foods.

I do find the flashing light progress bar pretty danged addicting and it has gotten me to take the longer route several times just to see if it would kick over to the next light.  Pleased with the decision so far.

TEDTalk: Do One New Thing for 30 Days

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Geeky, Health, Stuff that Works, TEDTalk

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geeky, goals, health, TED Talks

I’ve actually been doing this for a while, so imagine my amusement when while watching a TED talk every day for the month of September, I came across this gem:

Watch it and pick something – something little, something you’ve always wanted to try, something good for you, something fun.  I’m thinking for October, I’m going to be taking that daily picture.  Though I’m not going to give up my daily TED talk – and I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?

Household Management With Outlook

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Geeky, Home, Paperless, Stuff that Works

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geeky, goals, home, money, organize, paperless

It doesn’t really matter which version of Outlook you have, you can use it for more than email (indeed, this applies to just about every email/calendar/to-do application out there) and keep stuff clean, paid and current.  Years ago I used to keep up with annual stuff (like physicals, vet appointments, car registrations), seasonal stuff (air filter changes, fire alarm batteries) and even weekly and monthly things using either a paper calendar or index cards.  I quit doing that several years ago and switched to using Outlook so I wouldn’t have to think about things until they came due.

I use two features – the calendar for things that occur on specific dates or in certain months and the task list for recurring and one time “just do it” items.  Starting with the task list, just open up the list and start entering things.  Don’t worry about setting them up perfectly yet – you are going to do that as you get to them.  Some example things to add are:

  • Pay bills & deposit checks (I do this twice per month though most of my bills are autopay, I also take a look at the bills just so nothing sneaks by me)
  • Car, people and pet maintenance – oil changes, physicals, vaccinations, registrations and so on
  • Cleaning – daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal.  I do them individually by room or section of the yard so the actual task is smaller and I get to check off more things.
  • Goals and resolutions – a few years back I quit making a huge list of big annual resolutions and make 12 per year, 1 per month.
  • Errands – I have a weekly task for grocery shopping in the body of which I add that week’s list.  When it’s time to go, print the task and you’re off!
  • Monthly bill/investment reviews – this is different from looking at individual items.  Every month I have a different bill type I look at (insurance, phone, cable and so on) and research whether it’s still competitive, useful, new features, features to drop and so on.

Once you have your tasks listed, as you do them the first time, open them up and set how often you want to do them.  There is a “Recurrence” option that lets you set daily, weekly, monthly and annually as well as whether it resets for after you do it or whether it turns red (overdue).  You can also set a time span for that particular task – I use that for things like vacation packing and planning which obviously ends after you finish the trip.  Use help in the options to understand exactly how you are setting things up and don’t get all stressed about it, change and modify as you go until you hit the right balance.

Blog Task

For calendars it’s even easier – if there is a regular date for it, especially things you tend to forget like that dentist appointment in 6 months or which pet is due for which shot when.  There are also recurrence options and alert/alarm options that let you know something is coming up.  Of course, also include those things like Aunt Effie’s birthday and the family reunion (and set the reminder enough in advance to get that gift ordered).

If you are using an online email/calendar/to-do application, you also have the ability to view and take all of this with you on your phone or tablet so you don’t even need to print out that grocery list or try and remember what that other errand was that needed to be done on Tuesday.  It’s right there, you can check it off and bask in the accomplishment!  This also lets you add things on the fly as you are thinking of them.

Finally, a word of warning – don’t become a slave to this.  It’s supposed to help you, not turn you into Polly Perfect.  If you don’t feel like cleaning the den this week (or if it just doesn’t really need it) mark it off and move on.  If you think something needs to be done every day but you never actually get it done every day, move it to every other day or even (gasp) once a week – perhaps you simply don’t have the time or it’s really not that important.  Never be afraid to look at your list and just skip an instance or change the frequency – going outside and enjoying the day with friends or family is always going to be more important and better for you than cleaning the grout.  No, really.  I promise. 🙂

 

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