When I was last in Tokyo I sat down with Lifehacker Japan and they have a long interview in Japanese and some photos from the trip. I don’t remember what I said, but the Google Translate version is pretty hilarious.
Priceonomics on The Rise and Fall of .Ly. Some of my favorite domains I own are .ly.
Working & Exercising
One benefit of working from home that doesn’t get discussed much is the ease of small, but frequent exercise activities through the day. I’m sure it’s not outlawed in an office to get out of your chair and do 20 jumping jacks, or plank for a minute, I definitely would feel awkward doing so. This is something on my mind as I’m working this week around ~400 colleagues for our once-a-year Grand Meetup.
When I’m home and have a ton of work to get through, my favorite approach is the Pomodoro Technique with 25 minutes on followed by a 5 minute break. (I use this app but any timer will do.) The 5 minute break is a fantastic time to do something small, like a few push-ups, squats, a plank, or even meditate. (The new Pause app is cool, and of course I love Calm.) You don’t have to do a ton, but over the course of a day or a week these 5 minute break exercises add up to be quite a bit and can kickstart a Tiny Habit. And don’t even get me started on the benefits of naps.
Again, not something that’s impossible in an shared office, just feels a lot more natural and less embarrassing in your private home office.
HR Meets Science
Great talk on analytical HR at Google. Hat tip: Sara.
Super Impressive Mario
This custom Mario Maker level, and the skill required to beat it, is one of the craziest feats of Mario virtuoso I’ve seen.
The app that changed my life is Simplenote, linked to Notational Velocity. I have Simplenote on my phone and Notational Velocity on my computer, and I’m obsessed with to-do lists and lists about my to-do lists. It allows me to have my lists on my phone and my lists on my computer, and they sync… if you are a list freak, with lists of lists, it will change your life.
— Lena Dunham
From a talk with Kara Swisher on Re/code. Listen to the whole podcast, Simplenote comes up at the 48-minute mark. Hat tip: Toni Schneider.
As was just announced on the VIP blog and Google, there’s a new open standard that competes with (or complements) Facebook’s Instant Articles. It’s easy for WordPress sites to support both, you can check out this Github project to see the plugin code so far.