Daniel Coulton-Shaw

Life is too small not to always look for exceptional thoughts and things.

Lists

Sailing Costs (Added to notion)

If you’re going to charter, borrow or buy a 30-55ft yacht or sailboat for blue water cruising for any length of time, here’s a handy list of sailing costs.

Expected Sailing Costs

Apart from getting the actual yacht itself (chartered or bought) from chatting with a number of sailing buddies who have done cross-Atlantic / circumnavigational sailing trips, you can expect as a couple of people to spend £1000-£2000 per month (or around £250 per week, per person if not travelling any great distance) on:

  • Food & Eating Out
  • Marina & Harbour Fees (you can cut this down somewhat by anchoring out when and wherever you can)
  • Maintenance & Repairs (even if you have a brand new yacht, inevitability after heavy weather so things will need replacing / repairing or fixing – learn to fix as many things as you can by yourself, and carry spares to keep these costs down)
  • Emergency Fund (to be saved and put aside ahead for any medical issues)
  • Travel (especially if you need to go back home in-between)
  • Fuel
  • Internet & Telephone
  • shore-based entertainment / sightseeing
  • Insurance (boat & self)
  • Getting the yacht out of water yearly for antifouling & repair checks

Google Play Store Ranking Algorithm

Need to get your app ranking fast? Here’s the Google Play ranking store algorithm factors that you should be working on in order of importance gathered from 10 official ranking sources….

1. Number of Ratings
2. Quality of Ratings
3. Amount of Downloads
4. Downloads Growth
5. Number of Uninstalls
6. Level of Usage
7. Page rank (links coming into your app page on the play store)
8. Description: Fully filled out to max number of text
9. Keyword in Title & 5 times in description text (this article on playstore optimization has some updated data on this topic: https://www.simform.com/blog/google-play-app-store-optimization)
10. Video demonstration (reported by some users to have an effect on overall ranking)

Action point: print out this Google Play Ranking list and brainstorm how to get your app ranking better with each item for at least 30 mins each day…

Concerts

Somewhat similar to the list of top 10 musicians that I listen to, here’s a list of the top 10 concert artists that I’ve seen perform live…

  1. Marcus Miller
  2. Jamie Cullum
  3. U2
  4. Lenny Kravitz
  5. Sting
  6. Sade
  7. Red Hot Chilli Peppers
  8. Elton John
  9. Santana
  10. Diana Krall

Others include: Depeche Mode, Nick Cave

Personal Productivity (Added to notion)

Here are the top 10 personal productivity principles & techniques that I’ve benefited from in my life.

  1. Making a Vision / Mission Statement
  2. Setting Goals. Big, brave goals release energy. So, set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes.
  3. Morning Rituals
  4. Weekly Planning
  5. The Pareto Principle
  6. Task Management (Example: Getting things done – GTD – especially “mind like water” – getting everything out of my head, writing it down and using the “2-minute rule”)
  7. Outsourcing – Outsource everything you can’t be at BIW (Best in the World). Focus only on activities within what I call “Your Picasso Zone”.
  8. Time Management (Example: The Pomodoro Technique) and focusing on the moment.
  9. Doing the First Thing First (Example: Big Rocks principle, what matters most, eat the frog first)
  10. Inbox Zero

Other productivity tips that didn’t make the list, but are still so important to your productivity:

  • Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action.
  • Keep tidy. Mess creates stress.
  • Sell your TV. You’re just watching other people become successful instead of doing the things that will lead you to your dreams.
  • Build routines/habits into your life—it’s much easier than disciplining yourself. Peak productivity is not about luck. It’s about devotion.
  • Don’t say yes to every request. Most of us have a deep need to be liked. That translates into us saying yes to everything – which is the end of your elite productivity.
  • Stop multitasking. New research confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!). Be one of the rare few who develop the mental and physical discipline to have a mono-maniacal focus on one thing for many hours. (It’s all about practice).
  • Get fit. Reaching your absolute best physical condition will create explosive energy, renew your focus, and multiply your creativity.
  •  Workout 2X a day. Exercise is one of the greatest productivity tools in the world. So do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then another workout around 4 or 5 pm to set you up for wow in the evening.
  • Work in 90-minute blocks with 10-minute intervals to recover and refuel (another game-changing move I personally use to do my best work).
  • Write a Stop-Doing List. Every productive person obsessively sets to-Do Lists. But those who play at world-class also record what they commit to stopping doing. Steve Jobs said that what made Apple. Apple was not what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore.
  • Use your commute time. If you’re commuting 30 minutes daily, get this: at the end of a year, you’ve spent 6 weeks of 8-hour days in your car. I encourage you to use that time to listen to fantastic books on audio + excellent podcasts, and valuable learning programs. Remember, triple your learning rate is the fastest way to double your income.
  • Be a contrarian. Why buy your groceries at the time the store is busiest? Why go to movies on the most popular nights? Why hit the gym when the gym’s full? Do things at off-peak hours, and you’ll save many of them.
  • Get things right the first time. Most people are wildly distracted these days. And so they make mistakes. To unleash your productivity, become one of the special performers who have the mindset of doing what it takes to get it flawless first. This saves you days of having to fix problems.
  • Get lost. Don’t be so available to everyone. I often spend hours at a time alone outside. I turn off my devices and think, create, plan and write. Zero interruptions. Pure focus. Massive results.

I genuinely hope these personal productivity tips have been valuable to you. And that I’ve been of service. Your productivity is your life made visible. Please protect it.
Stay productive.

Apps

The Top 10 apps I use daily:

RunkeeperRunKeeper:

Free – Premium 15€ yearly

Does technology motivate you to keep fit? Well using this app certainly does. It records all my runs, walks, bike rides etc and lets me know how far and how fast I’ve gone and become.

EvernoteEvernote:

Free – Premium 34€ yearly

Emptying my brain into this help me to record, organise and more importantly – do everything that I feel is important to me. True GTD skills can be applied digitally here from anywhere I am in the world.

Free DropboxDropbox:

9 GB Free or 100 GB costs €100 yearly

All my files accessible from anywhere and secure if my computer or their server goes down.

Lastpass:

Free – Premium €9.68 yearly

Over complicate and forget all the passwords I’ll ever use behind one single secure password, that opens all my sites instantly.

ohlifeOhlife:

Free – Premium 14€ per year

My daily journalling / diary keeping each evening sent to here by email with a photo, safe and secure.

sygic gps

Sygic: android GPS:

Free & pay per country area

Makes sure I don’t get lost. All I need is my phone with me (and charged up of course, but my solar charger can handle that 🙂

moneywise proMoneywise pro:

Free – Premium €4.50

Keeping track of my everyday expenses

Google CalendarGoogle Calendar:

Free

Keeping track of all my time/date related appointment / tasks.

gmailGmail:

Free

Helping me get to inbox zero every day by archiving (not deleting) any email that I might one day have to refer to again.

google driveGoogle Drive:

Free

Goodbye Word, Powerpoint and Excel (the only reason I didn’t move to an apple mac for the past 10 years). Anything that’s sent to me in those formats, I can open here. Does the same as those programs, but without any computer slowing expensive software from Microsoft  Accessible from anywhere, even on my tablet and smartphone and can be shared with others for live collaboration.

Others:

These I use almost daily, but didn’t make the “top 10” list…

  • Twitter (for quick responses from companies whose services I use, and keeping up with the latest articles from people I respect)
  • Picasa (for organising all my photos according to faces, and for quick photo editing)
  • Skype (for chatting with my granddad)
  • Gchat (for chatting with my colleagues & wife)
  • Google Contacts (for keeping all my contacts in order on my phone, in Picasa and on the web)
  • Google Chrome (for the fastest, integrated web browsing experience)
  • FireFTP (for managing my websites)
  • Notepad++ (for doing code edits)
  • VLC player (for listening to music and watching films)
  • Google Alerts (keeping me aware of any new developments for chosen keywords on the net)
  • Dolphin Browser ( for it’s integration with lastpass on my tablet)
  • Mighty Text (for sms texting and phone notifications right from my tablet or laptop)
  • Eye Dropper (for finding #HEX colours on a particular website or image
  • Wisestamp (for a dynamic signature for every email)
  • KeyRocket (for learning keyboard shortcuts)
  • uTorrent (for downloading films)
  • CCleaner (for cleaning up my computer regularly)
  • Soluto (for maximising my computer start up time)
  • Paint.Net (for image editing)
  • Paypal (for online payments)
  • WordPress (for creating websites)

 

Listening

  1. Nina Simone
  2. Marcus Miller
  3. Jamie Cullum
  4. Stevie Wonder
  5. Evanescence (especially when out running)
  6. James Bond Film Soundtracks, Theme songs & James Bond Computer Game Music
  7. Diana Krall
  8. Jamiroquai
  9. Lenny Kravitz
  10. Dan Barta (Czech Singer)

Upcoming: Tina Dico