How I Work - Braverman Edition
I thought @skylinegtr94 had a great idea the other day, so here's my contribution.
Current gig: Author, Social Commentator, Content Curator,
Location: Paris, France
Current mobile device: Samsung Galaxy Ace (gnarly spiderweb crack on screen, thanks to rough night out with @rufiolove), Kindle Fire HD 32gb
Current computer: HP Desktop (Win 7/8), Acer Laptop (Win 7), Dell Laptop (Linux), Acer C7 Chromebook (Chrome OS)
One word that describes how you work: Purposefully
What apps/software/tools can't you live without?
Since I'm in the content business, content tools are at the top of my list. I use Pocket probably more than anything. Flipboard and Zite run a close second. I use StayFocusd to keep me on track, and it's the most hateful app I've ever encountered. They might as well call the damned thing the ChiveSlayer. Tweetdeck keeps my feeds organized, and I have it pinned in my Chrome browser.
What's your workspace setup like?
Pretty mundane. Desktop computer with a single 24" monitor. Comfort keyboard, because I'm usually cranking out hundreds if not thousands of words per day.
What do you listen to while you work?
Grooveshark is a lifesaver for me. I have pretty eclectic taste in music (at least I think so), and Grooveshark is always finding me cool new stuff to listen to. When I get bored with my own station, I tune into others for variety.
I also subscribe to a ton of business podcasts. My top three are Pat Flynn's, Ryan Hanley's, and John Lee Dumas's, who is an absolute beast in the podcasting world.
What's your best time-saving trick?
Batching, and even I could be better at it. What I mean by batching is taking all the tasks I have and grouping them according to their similarity. For example, if I have three articles due this month, I get them done a lot faster (and higher quality) if I sit down and do them all together.
If I know I have marketing tasks to do (answering emails about the book, scheduling stuff, selling stuff) I batch all that together and do it all at once.
I find that a singular focus helps me to, well, focus and I'm able to knock out a lot of disparate tasks which would normally take much longer if I did them one at a time.
What's your favorite to-do list manager?
Honestly, I think the one that comes stock with Gmail is pretty adequate. I've tried several others, and I will say that Todoist has come a long way, but I still default to the Task Manager in Gmail because it goes wide across all my devices and I can access it from anywhere.
Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without?
My Kindle Fire HD is the obvious choice here, but since that's kind of a computer I'll pick something else.
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but the gadget I can't live without is my Moleskine. When all else fails, write it down. You'll never find me without it, and my old Moleskines would probably create several millionaires just with the business ideas written in them. Come to think of it, maybe I should sell them on eBay.
What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
Writing. And it's not that I'm particularly gifted, it's that I get the most practice. I literally write every single day of my life. It's a compulsion now, as in, I feel all squirrelly if I don't do it. Nathan Barry says he got himself in the habit of writing 1,000 words a day every day, and he eventually had a 370+ day streak at one point. I can't say I write 1,000 words a day, especially not every day, but I bet I get pretty close.
What's your sleep routine like?
Horrible, and I'm paying the price in cortisol buildup. Going from the Marines to the trading floor got me in the habit of functioning on four or five hours sleep a night, and that's just not optimal - especially at my age. Still, I try to get to bed between 1 and 2 in the morning and my alarm goes off at 6. I have a hard time sleeping more than that without a little help, which usually comes in the form of rum and/or melatonin. Mostly rum.
Fill in the blank. I'd kill to see _________ answer these same questions.
Patrick.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
If it flies, floats, or fucks, you're better off renting it. Of course I ignored that advice. Multiple times.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Just that I enjoy what I do and I enjoy learning how to do it better. I've loved working with WSO because of the community and the feedback I get from you guys. It's easy for a writer to get lost in his head, but you guys call me out on my bullshit and I can't tell you how valuable that is.
Regarding your keyboard - you should explore getting a mechanical keyboard. They are an absolute joy to type on. You should research some of them and the various types of switch options you can choose from. I actually just purchased a new one yesterday with Cherry MX Blues. Just something to think about. These keyboards actually do make a difference for people that type a lot and can result in an increase in WPM.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mechanical+keyboard&oq=mechanical+keybo…
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/mechanical-keyboard-guide
You trying to give Nathan Barry unwarranted props Eddie? I followed your embedded link and he claims 230 days in a row... Either way that is absolutely absurd that to have essentially written 4-5 books consecutively with no break. Very impressive. I loved a lot of the productivity tools you listed as I use some of them as well.
That's funny. I know I heard him say something like 373 in a recent podcast. Either way, it's mad consistency.
How do you like the Kindle Fire?
I was thinking about getting the small version of it. I have a first gen iPad that I never lug around and think it could be a good cheap alternative.
It came down to the Fire HD vs the Google Nexus 7 for me. A friend ordered the Nexus 7 and let me play with it. Great device, but ultimately too small for a power user. I love my Fire HD 8.9". Whichever you go with (if you go with a Kindle device) get the max memory you can because they're not expandable. Also, my one complaint is the way Amazon lords over the app store. The Kindle Fire HD is an Android device, but because AMZN is basically in a pissing contest with GOOG, they block some of the more useful Google apps like G+ and Hangouts. The screen and the speakers are absolutely superlative for a tablet device, however.
Thanks dude. I think the iPad Mini is great, but the cost is just over the top for something that, frankly, I just want to use apps like Kindle and Flipboard on.
Since you are a content guy - what is your RSS client right now? Are you going to pay for Feedly Pro? Google Current vs. Flipboard. Especially interested in this for reading market news, especially medium-form stuff from Ritholtz, Lex, etc.
Eddie, have you tried Pandora? They seem to have a lot more music than Grooveshark.
@meabric I've moved completely away from RSS. Twitter basically took the place of RSS for me, and apps like Flipboard fill in whatever gaps were left. Before I moved almost entirely to Flipboard, Zite had taken over for me as a replacement for RSS. Zite is a great app too, but I like Flipboard's UI better.
@Alexander Hamilton I haven't tried Pandora, though I'm familiar with them. Also missed the boat on Spotify when it was free over here.
Braverman I love your life
I use Feedly as my RSS reader. I tried The Old Reader but it's inconsistent and broken enough that I've moved to Feedly and am pretty happy now. You can adjust the settings so it feels very similar to Google Reader.
Also, you should really check out Spotify. It is the only monthly subscription service I actually pay for and I am definitely getting my money's worth. The one thing it doesn't do is automatically create playlists based on what you like (which is what Pandora does) but it's great for everything else. I love most that you can share and add playlists really easily and don't actually need to download the songs. So for example, I downloaded a 1,000 song instrumental playlist to work to and it took about 5 seconds to add to my Spotify. Anyway, worth checking out.
Oh, and Pocket is by far my most used iOS app. That and Reeder, which is also great and definitely worth paying for.
I don't pay for Spotify and it does this for you for free in the radio section. It's practically the same thing since you can skip as many songs as you want (when you pay) or am I missing something?
I've never actually used the radio function so I wasn't aware of this. You could be right though.
Interesting stuff, thanks for posting this!
Just out of curiosity, how does Pocket compare to Evernote or Instapaper?
I've never used Instapaper but I know people who swear by it. Evernote is a horse of a different color. I know people who basically manage their lives with Evernote. I know an author who wrote an entire book in Evernote. It is extremely powerful, and with the API it is eminently extendable. Frankly, it's more than I need, which is why I don't use it.
Relatively new to the site and have been reading your posts whenever I see them pop up- very informative/entertaining.
Batching- dam man, that's genius. I kind of do it naturally (in that I'm still in UG and will do similar work/work for one class at the same time before moving on to other stuff) but will definitely attempt to incorporate this into my life outside school and especially my upcoming IB SA gig, if applicable.
@CRE @Edmundo Braverman @skylinegtr94 and anyone else who has done/will do one of these- another question I'd be curios to hear the answer to- what's your internet homepage set to?
hah, www.google.com
C'mon, man. WSO of course.
the last page my in browser was open. usually this site, feedly, espn or something like that. i rarely restart and chrome always gives you the option to load previously closed tabs.
How I Work...
I thought you were an MD in IB....
God no. Bite your tongue.
Thanks for the write up Eddie.
As for the bro who asked about homepages, I use the desktop add-on in Firefox. It opens within any new tabs. I have mine set up beautifully, so it is very handy. Check it out.
I skimmed through the comments so I may have missed it, but I'd be interested in hearing your top 10 twitter accounts you follow. I use twitter mainly for news/source of info and I'm still trying to find reliable/solid sources
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