10 life improvements I have made because of NotePD

Because I’ve made lists like what I am going to do this weekend, 10 ways to do better at work, or even 10 things I eat for breakfast I think more about what I am doing throughout the day. For example, at the beginning of this calendar quarter I printed out my list of five things I wanted to do and five things that I don’t want to do and post it by my office door and review it regularly.

I need ideas for lists, and book summaries are great lists.

I don’t always take notes on every book, but I take notes on many books. This helps me pay more attention to the book and get more out of it. Also, by writing the list of ideas, I reconstruct the book. This helps me get the benefits that I would have. I listened to an audiobook or reading it

I am using this app to make this list while drinking coffee outside. This app is an extremely useful tool because it synchronizes with everything. I even wrote some lists about it.

You can save audio and video notes and movies in the same document.

By writing for an "audience" on the Internet, I express my thoughts for a few minutes a day. This daily practice has improved my communication at work and in my personal projects.

I subscribe to Grammarly, and I also take auto-reply suggestions for emails like "Great, thanks!" I resisted that for a long time because it did not seem genuine, but it did save a lot of time and brain energy.

I also have been experimenting with what AI can do with images and use it daily for coding and other tasks.

I just picked this as a round number. I always been a reader, but by setting a public goal for myself, I have become a voracious reader. This is helped me tremendously. Like so many people say, if you get one idea out of every five books that you read that will change your life. You can change your life a lot if you read 100 books . Once I hit 100 I didn’t stop. In 2023 I ended up with 147 books. In the first quarter of 2024, I read 35 books.

This does not always come easy for me. I struggled with depression for about 10 years and had trouble holding jobs, etc. Many circumstances have changed since then but actively cultivating a positive mindset has been extremely valuable. NotePD helps me keep on track with this.

Habit stacking is where you take one habit and then add another one to it. It is a very simple but clever idea. For example, I have a gratitude journal that I put in the bathroom. When I brush my teeth, which I do every day, I make an entry in the gratitude journal. I also make coffee every day, so I have stacked exercises with that and do a set of dumbells or swim while the coffee brews.

I bought the book, but I’m sure they have courses and retreats. What I get out of it is a simple barbell routine that takes me about six minutes and delivers results.

By creating a list of 10 ideas every day I know that some days they will be crappy. This is OK because I can make another list tomorrow. Extending this through the rest of my life has had significant benefits. It has enabled me to complete things like woodworking projects. None of them will be perfect but one that completes each one that I complete makes me better for the next one.