# Goals, Habits & Apps



## marklaukkanen (May 23, 2016)

Hello to all!

I've been trying to work on my music theory for a while now and have found habit tracking apps to be very helpful in the process. So I wrote a blog post sharing why I think these tools can be helpful and how to make the most out of them, based on my experience. Might be worth a read, if you're interested in that sort of thing: http://www.marklaukkanen.com/blog/2016/4/29/goals-habits-apps (http://www.marklaukkanen.com/blog/2016/ ... abits-apps)

Also, would love to hear ways in which you all are using technology to help you work toward your goals. Always interested in discovering new apps and tools etc.


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## Noam Guterman (May 23, 2016)

I use Habitica & Trello


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## marklaukkanen (May 23, 2016)

Noam Guterman said:


> I use Habitica & Trello


I tried Habitica at one point and it seemed quite fun. I quite liked the RPG concept behind it. It just wasn't flexible enough for me on a practical level. 

What do you use Trello for? Haven't ever used it myself, but I see/hear people using it for team project type of things. Is it mainly for collaborative projects or is it worth using even as an individual?


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## Noam Guterman (May 23, 2016)

marklaukkanen said:


> I tried Habitica at one point and it seemed quite fun. I quite liked the RPG concept behind it. It just wasn't flexible enough for me on a practical level.
> 
> What do you use Trello for? Haven't ever used it myself, but I see/hear people using it for team project type of things. Is it mainly for collaborative projects or is it worth using even as an individual?


I use Trello for both team collaborations and for my own project overseeing. I have 4 lists; TODO, Projects (active), Released (old projects), and Other (from stuff I want to read for later, to VSTs I am interested in). It helps me keep track of everything with its color labeling, checklists and due dates. Very handy. Trello is sort of my long-term business/personal development companion, and Habitica is more like a short-term, daily goals helper.


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## marklaukkanen (May 23, 2016)

Noam Guterman said:


> I use Trello for both team collaborations and for my own project overseeing. I have 4 lists; TODO, Projects (active), Released (old projects), and Other (from stuff I want to read for later, to VSTs I am interested in). It helps me keep track of everything with its color labeling, checklists and due dates. Very handy. Trello is sort of my long-term business/personal development companion, and Habitica is more like a short-term, daily goals helper.


Okay, makes sense! Thanks for the breakdown. I might have to give Trello a try at some point.


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## MoteMusic (May 24, 2016)

Mmmm, productivity and staying goal-oriented can be very hard, especially when working without a dedicated studio. I'll definitely have a read!

For my part, Trello is good, but I find a whiteboard also very handy. I like the impermanence of it, where you can brainstorm, or create lists and links between tasks quickly and easily, while it keeps things agile and nothing is set in stone. There's also a certain satisfaction to wiping tasks off when they're completed.


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## muk (May 24, 2016)

Any thoughts on privacy with these apps? I guess I'm old fashioned, but sharing my personal schedules with an internet company and community is somehow not very appealing to me. And certainly not for the benefit of a pixelated fox for my avatar.


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## Noam Guterman (May 24, 2016)

muk said:


> Any thoughts on privacy with these apps? I guess I'm old fashioned, but sharing my personal schedules with an internet company and community is somehow not very appealing to me. And certainly not for the benefit of a pixelated fox for my avatar.


Trello is fully secure (HTTPS with green certificate). Habitica is partially secure (mostly secured with certificates, but has some HTTP sources within - shouldn't be a problem unless you're a very, very wanted man or something)


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## muk (May 24, 2016)

It's not so much that the data could be stolen from their servers. It's handing it over to Habitica/Trello in the first place that I don't agree with. Why should I make my personal schedule known to an internet company? In my opinion the skimming of personal data is out of control. Thanks to smartwatches and training gear now even bodily functions can be reported to various companies. It's up to everybody to decide how much he/she values their own private information, of course. Personally, in most cases I am of the opinion that the returns that are offered are ridiculous. But that may be just me.

I'd be interested in knowing how digital natives react to George Orwell's '1984'. With a unconcerned yawn, most probably.


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## Noam Guterman (May 24, 2016)

Well, these websites are what they are. It's not for everybody


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## marklaukkanen (May 25, 2016)

MoteMusic said:


> Mmmm, productivity and staying goal-oriented can be very hard, especially when working without a dedicated studio. I'll definitely have a read!
> 
> For my part, Trello is good, but I find a whiteboard also very handy. I like the impermanence of it, where you can brainstorm, or create lists and links between tasks quickly and easily, while it keeps things agile and nothing is set in stone. There's also a certain satisfaction to wiping tasks off when they're completed.



I agree, a lot of times a real, physical, whiteboard or piece of paper etc. can be really helpful. There's just something intuitive about it. Not having to mess with a user interface that has preconceived functions and ways of doing things. I tend to rely on paper more, however, when I'm creating something or coming up with new ideas. I'm fine using apps and technology to track habits and set reminders etc, but brainstorming new ideas is something I prefer doing on physical paper.


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## Firpow (May 25, 2016)

Cool post Mark. Love the fact that people are getting stuff done in various ways. 

Habit trackers work for me too in my work (not music-related). In work, I use Outlook's task function which is good for managing various tasks coming in as my work varies from day to day. Task lists are great for scheduling and prioritizing work. For music and exercise which is more habitual stuff, my choice is Google Keep which syncs nicely with Google Calendar. Very simple and somewhat customizable and has that feel of a scrapbook.

What I would love to find is an app for project management that allows for short, mid and long term goals and has easy synchroniziation with the most common email services and calendars. The mid and long term goals are exactly what many of the to-do and habit list apps are missing. Wouldn't it be great to have an app where you can customize your mid term goal (20 songs a year) and the necessary checkpoints on a daily accuracy to reach that goal (sound design themes etc.). The features that I would love is a personal assistant -kind of reminder for each morning of the to-dos and a tree view of the big picture showing the main tasks and their subtasks in one single view.

Would be great to hear if someone has found something that works well for them for this purpose.


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## Noam Guterman (May 25, 2016)

Firpow said:


> my choice is Google Keep which syncs nicely with Google Calendar. Very simple and somewhat customizable and has that feel of a scrapbook.


Cool stuff, never heard of it. Will try!


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## marklaukkanen (May 26, 2016)

Firpow said:


> Cool post Mark. Love the fact that people are getting stuff done in various ways.
> 
> Habit trackers work for me too in my work (not music-related). In work, I use Outlook's task function which is good for managing various tasks coming in as my work varies from day to day. Task lists are great for scheduling and prioritizing work. For music and exercise which is more habitual stuff, my choice is Google Keep which syncs nicely with Google Calendar. Very simple and somewhat customizable and has that feel of a scrapbook.
> 
> ...



I love Google Keep! I primarily use it for quickly jotting down ideas I happen to get and don't want to forget. I might be working on a track and take a break for a while. On my breaks I often get ideas on how I could improve the track, so I tend to write those down in Google Keep and then try those ideas out once I get back to work. I really enjoy the simplicity of it with the scrapbook/Post-It note type interface. It's really visual especially once you start color coding some of your notes. Not that great for longer form note taking (which I use Evernote for), but for quick notes and todo lists and stuff its perfect.

I haven't really come across any app that would do exactly what you describe. Although I can definitely see the benefit of a system like that; connecting your daily to-dos to the big picture. I believe AnyDo has some sort of a personal assistant type function that sets you up for the day every morning. I think it also has the option to add subtasks. Not exactly what you're looking for, but it could potentially be made to work somehow.


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## Noam Guterman (Jun 8, 2016)

FWIW, Habitica just updated their security and they are now also fully HTTPS with that green lock certificate.


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## mc_deli (Jun 9, 2016)

muk said:


> It's not so much that the data could be stolen from their servers. It's handing it over to Habitica/Trello in the first place that I don't agree with. Why should I make my personal schedule known to an internet company? In my opinion the skimming of personal data is out of control. Thanks to smartwatches and training gear now even bodily functions can be reported to various companies. It's up to everybody to decide how much he/she values their own private information, of course. Personally, in most cases I am of the opinion that the returns that are offered are ridiculous. But that may be just me.
> 
> I'd be interested in knowing how digital natives react to George Orwell's '1984'. With a unconcerned yawn, most probably.


On a serious note, if someone wants to hack you and they can afford to, you will be hacked. If you are connected, anybody who can afford it can track, stack, extract, whatever your data.
On a less serious note, I agree totally, it disgusts me that Google's log in practices, geolocation practices, ad serving practices etc are so opaque. Same with Amazon's cookies. Same with Apple's user data tracking. Unfortunately though, if you use the internet, use your mobile phone, unless you are actively lobbying for the powers of these companies to be restricted then it is hard to take comments like this seriously  (Oh and just to kick you right in the nuts, they don't pay tax!)

(Edit: Trello, Asana, Teamwork and more user here. Trello is great but really that's work!)


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## muk (Jun 10, 2016)

Again, it's not that I fear my data could be hacked and stolen - as you could have noted had you been inclined to really read my posts. It's the fact that they don't have to be hacked, because online companies amass a frightening lot of it in a totally uncontrolled fashion. Meaning: yes, I am absolutely of the opinion that we are in dire need of international online privacy regulations. Unless you are telling all your friends and buddies from work which underwear you are wearing, which medication you need, and other private stuff like this, I don't see why google should have a right to know.


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