A blog about productivity for the Internet entrepreneur.

The Miracle Morning

January 14, 2015 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

Here is a summary of the Life S.A.V.E.R.S technique, to be done immediately after awakening and 30 minutes before your normal waking time:

Silence – prayer/meditation
Affirmations – describe the highest vision for yourself
Visualization – visualize what success looks like and the actions to get there
Exercise – 10 minutes to get the blood flowing. Try a push-up/sit-up/air-squat/pull-up circuit
Reading – self-help/motivational books
Scribing – check out the 5 minute journal

From the “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod

Listen to Hal’s explanation on the Smart Passive Income podcast.

Filed Under: GTD, Life 3.0, Life Hacks, Personal Development, Productivity

Best Productivity Hack of 2014: Touch ID

January 2, 2015 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

Touch ID iPhone 5s” by Pixeden.com – http://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates/iphone-5s-psd-vector-mockup. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I had given up on fingerprint readers in the 90s when I first used a Dell laptop with a built-in fingerprint reader. At the time, you had to swipe your finger downward across the sensor and most times it would take several swipes to work. Probably because I did not RTFM, I could only use the fingerprint reader to unlock the laptop, though my goal was to login to websites with a swipe of my finger. One could dream …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Apple, GTD, Life Hacks, Productivity

Import an OmniFocus Completed Task Report into Evernote via AppleScript

October 12, 2014 by Elmer Thomas 1 Comment

This OmniFocus AppleScript (based on this code) allows you to specify a time frame (e.g. Today, Yesterday, Last Week, etc.) of completed OmniFocus tasks to export into Evernote.

This is what the report looks like:

Here are some ideas to expand this script:

* organize the results by Folder
* make the note title start with YYYY-MM-DD
* send this report via email

Filed Under: GTD, OmniFocus, Personal Development, Productivity

Food ID

October 9, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

I *really* want this idea to become reality. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: GTD, Health, Life 3.0, Life Hacks, Productivity

How can I be productive on the Internet?

October 8, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

This is the question I answered over on medium.

To me, opening up a web browser is like walking into a large library. The potential is overwhelming and a strategy is necessary to maximize the amazing opportunity before you. Check out my strategy and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Talk: A Personal Life API

September 17, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting a 40 minute tutorial on how to create your own Personal Life API at API World in San Francisco.

The talk consists of the slides, documentation (on APIary) and code (on GitHub, written in Python/Flask).

Big thanks to API World for offering a platform to express these ideas and SendGrid for sponsoring my attendance.

Personal Life API from Elmer Thomas

Filed Under: APIs, GTD, Life Hacks, Personal Development

Terror and Fiction

August 27, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

Last night, I woke up in a state of terror several times, with no real reason I can remember. Perhaps I should not have watched The Leftovers right before going to sleep.

When I awoke for the day ahead, I was determined to carpe diem, even though I was feeling weary due to lack of sleep. And in fact, today ended up being among my most productive days.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging, offbeat

Chaos Proof Your Habits and Routines

August 9, 2014 by Elmer Thomas 2 Comments

When I became a Developer Evangelist at SendGrid (one of the best jobs on the planet), I learned just how difficult keeping habits and routines while traveling really is. While I still struggle with this challenge, there are a few tips I’d like to pass on to help you keep moving towards your goals, posthaste.

Enjoy and pass along to your chaotic good friends.

Have you created your own Personal API?

June 10, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

If so, tell me about it 🙂

If not, head on over and read my latest blog post, Quantify Thyself: Creating a Personal Life API, that describes how to create one.

Filed Under: APIs, GTD, Life 3.0, Personal Development, Productivity, SendGrid

Automate Thyself, Then Go Forth and Multiply Your Robots

April 24, 2014 by Elmer Thomas Leave a Comment

I’ve written a two part series about creating bots to automate various aspects of your life. The first part, Automate Your Life With a Bot Army, was published today and the second post is coming soon.

If you have automated something in your life that has been a game changer, let me know and I’ll add it to the second post.

ACTION: Commit to automating at least one system/process per week. Imagine the outcome after 1 year!