Mark Koester

Music to Take You Somewhere

Music Music Production Stellar Mammals Album Release Ambient Relaxing Music Focus music

Does mindfulness meditation make us less caring about the world? Less ethically and socially oriented? And more passive and self-centered?

Book Review Philosophy Buddhism Politics Ethics Meditation

How can we use technology to enable positive behavior change, as opposed to promoting distraction and negative behaviors?

Track Everything Fasting Longevity Behavior Change Self-Tracking Habits Design Tracking Progress

Time management is all life is.

Book Review Time Time Management Philosophy

How can you start growing a business, startup or side hustle when you aren’t even sure who your customers are or even how to reach them?

Track Everything Marketing Growth Hacking Growth Marketing Startups Data

My personal data analysis of my tasks reveals that I completed less tasks in 2020 compared to 2019. Even though I had a consistent weekly goal completion rate, I failed to reach several of my major goals. Most impacted when...

Project Management Task Management Todoist Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

There are 8760 hours in a year. In 2020, I spent, 1313.2 hours on my computer and another 1235 hours on my phone or tablet. Put another way, 2547 hours out of the total possible in 2020 was spent on...

Time Time Tracking Time Management Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

This blog is written in markdown, generated using Jekyll and hosted in plain old HTML. It’s all managed using Jekyll, a ruby-based static site generator, and it’s roughly the same setup I’ve had for nearly 7 years. I love it....

Web Design blogging Migration Jekyll Writing

Several years ago I was exploring various self-tracking technologies and how I might integrate personal data into my own life. One of the first things I discovered was just how many ways you might track a life using wearables, apps...

Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data Python

Flow is a key mental state we experience when we become engrossed in an enjoyable challenge or activity. An athlete might feel flow in a competition or surmounting some obstacle, like climbing a mountain. A writer or painter might get...

Flow Peak Performance Tracking Track Everything Quantified Self Psychology Experience Sampling

Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the frenzy with which you should be inoculated? Behold, I teach you the overman: He is this lightning; he is this frenzy. – Friedrich Nietzsche (quoted in Rise...

Psychology Science Flow Peak Performance Happiness Learning

This data was tracked and logged with a combination of tools (more on this below). The short of it is that my number of creative words typed was tracked with Wordcounter for Mac and my project and smart notes with...

Writing Creativity Writing Tracker Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

This data was logged with Goodreads, Kindle and Instapaper. Data collection and visualization powered by QS Ledger. This post is part of my 2019 Year in Data project.

Books Book Reading Articles Article Reading Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

How I Tracked It:

Health Fitness Data-Driven Health Health Tracking Strength Training Running Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

This data was logged with Todoist and my simple goal scoring system. Data collection and visualization powered by QS Ledger. This post is part of my 2019 Year in Data project.

Project Management Task Management Todoist Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

This data was logged with RescueTime and Toggl. Data collection and visualization powered by QS Ledger. This post is part of my 2019 Year in Data project.

Time Time Tracking Time Management Tracking Data Visualization Quantified Self Personal Data Analysis Track Everything Year-in-Review Year-in-Data

One of the most effective and powerful tools for taking notes, capturing memories and creativity in general is using a physical notebook or journal. Research has shown that writing by hand improves our retention and learning and even has benefits...

Tracking Quantified Self Track Everything Going Paperless Scanning Journaling Digitalization

Gordon Bell might rightly claim the prize for one of the most digitalized life ever. Born in 1934 and coming of age after World War II, Bell witnessed and spurred on a societal shift from paper to digital, from paper...

Tracking Quantified Self Track Everything Going Paperless Scanning History History of Computing

Are you facing a never ending pile of articles to read? Have you ever remembered this amazing post you recently read but forgotten the title or URL? Or are you just hoping to augment and improve how you read and...

Tracking Quantified Self Track Everything Reading Read-It-Later Article Reading Instapaper

So, you want to write? And you’re looking for a few tools to make your writing easier, better organized or adapted for a new publishing format?

Writing Productivity Tracking Mac OSX Tools Writing Tools Typora The Archive Markdown Organization