Methodology

I see the value of reflection, but I rarely set aside the time to do it properly. However, inspired by the end of the year, I decided to block out time to review 2014, remember the highs and lows, and save it in a Day One journal entry for future reference. If you missed the boat on reflecting on 2014 when it was still 2014, fear not! It’s not to late to get your rearview glances in, and I’m sharing the 7 steps I took to give the year a thorough pat-down. Here’s how I reflected on 2014. ...

I used to wake up a bit sluggish and slowly wake up to the sweet, yet distracting, sounds of Twitter chirps. After finding my seemingly optimal amount of sleep, mostly through trial and error [footnote] around 7.5 hours and I’m waking up before my alarm[/footnote]a few things have been significant in getting better sleep –something more people than I realized seem to struggle with. I cut back on coffee. I only drink 1–2 cups a day now, almost always before 2pm. I work out 3–4 times a week and have a goal of walking around 10,000 steps a day, which isn’t too hard in a European capital. That wears me down in a good way so that I’m looking forward to sleep. Our room is completely dark, like a cave but with better temperature control. We sleep using a white noise app cranked up nice and loud to drown out any other noise. I don’t look at my phone before bed. I charge my phone, which serves as my alarm clock, on the other side of the room, so I have to get up and turn off my alarm. Now, I sleep almost through the night, normally waking up once, about halfway through my sleep cycle. I’d love to be out cold for a solid night, but a once-a-night wakeup is certainly tolerable. ...

Four years ago I created a charity: water campaign for my birthday to raise money to build a well to provide clean water for people who didn’t have access to the most basic need in life. Through the generosity of friends, family, blog readers, and maybe even you, we raised $5,004 and helped build a few wells in Africa. If you’re curious, here’s an infographic I made about the project. For the last three years, the remarkable team at charity: water has wished me a happy birthday–the first year through a YouTube video, then via phone calls the last two years. ...

Jordan and Niki discuss the cure to clutter, how to figure out what stuff you don’t need, and best practices for eliminating clutter, after a brief detour about Harry Potter. Click here to listen. I’ll use the made up word “unclutter” a number of times, we’ll chat about why clutter builds up, and how to feel more comfortable throwing out picture frames from your grandma. Check us out in iTunes here or visit our podcast website. ...

Calling out awkwardness is the new black. Alerting the world to awkwardness is now cooler than sitting with the in crowd at lunch. There are hand signals for bringing attention to awkwardness. There are websites dedicated to awkwardness. Awkward is the strange love child of American culture. We’ve made it all encompassing. When something is weird. When it’s uncomfortable. When it’s embarrasing. When there is more than one second of silence in a conversation. When someone mispeaks. Or misteps. Or misses a cue. When you do something clumsy. When you run into that old, former friend in an unexpected, ordinary place. ...

I’ve been blogging, intermittently, for five years. Somehow I don’t completely hate my first post. I started with a hope. I hope this can be a place where I can share my thoughts, my encounters, and my opinions in an effort to make this world a better place, one reader at a time. I was called a pliable college idealist shortly after writing that. I suppose I’m now a pliable twentysomething idealist, because my hope remains. ...

It feels good to be remembered. It feels good to remember something you thought you might forget. Overall, remembering important things is pretty terrific. But we have a lot to remember. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Check the mail. Take out the trash. Call your mom. Text your friend. Finish that work project. Pay your bills. We live in a complex world, and our minds simply don’t have the capacity to efficiently and effectively remember all we need to do when we need to do it. ...

Jordan and Niki discuss developing habits, finding keystone habits in your life, and giving grace when we inevitably fall short. Chock-full of book recommendations and quotatious quotes. You’ll hear quotes like, “I didn’t grow up in the floss” and hear about the newly conceived Donut Willpower Theory. Check us out in iTunes here or visit our podcast website.

Coffee snobbery is easier than you think. This entire guide is basically brought to you by the fine folks at Sweet Maria’s, because they have a monopoly on teaching people how to cheaply roast their own coffee from home. You can check out their instructions for home roasting here. Also, you’ll be happy to know there’s a new episode of The Unpacked Podcast all about “Brewing Better Coffee” released today. Without further ado, here’s how you can get neck-deep in the fresh-coffee-roasting-at-home game. ...

Just over a month ago, I was the best man in my cousin’s wedding. It was the first time I was an official right-hand man. As far as I know, I didn’t completely blow it. The best man has two jobs on the wedding day. 1. Put out fires. 2. Give a good speech. In reality, it’s a pretty simple job description with high expectations. [footnote]We had no fires, so I had it easy.[/footnote] ...