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Mark Koester

Writer, Product Designer, and Software Engineer

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February 22, 2022

How to Develop a Fasting Habit: Behavior change and tracking my progress with Zero

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

January 28, 2022

Time Management as Life Philosophy: Book Notes on Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

Time management is all life is.

Book Review Time Time Management Philosophy

December 2, 2021

Data-Driven Growth Hacking: An Experimental, Iterative Approach to Finding and Acquiring Your First Customers

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

March 16, 2021

A Year in Tasks, Projects and Goals: 2020

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

March 15, 2021

A Year in Time: 2020

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

February 26, 2021

Migrating to Jekyll, Again: How to Migrate Your Octopress Blog to Standard Jekyll

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

February 11, 2021

Give Me My Data, Tell Me a Story: Introducing Quantified Self Ledger

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

March 17, 2020

Tracking Flow: Guide to Quantifying Momentary Mental States

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

March 5, 2020

Science of Flow: Nature's Peak Performance Enhancer

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

February 6, 2020

A Year in Writing and Creating: 2019

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 Knowledge Management

February 5, 2020

A Year in Reading: 2019

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

February 2, 2020

A Year in Health and Fitness: 2019

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

January 31, 2020

A Year in Tasks, Projects and Goals: 2019

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

January 30, 2020

A Year in Time: 2019

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

October 9, 2019

Paper to Paperless: A Guide to Digitalizing Your Journals with a Scanner App

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

October 2, 2019

Gordon Bell and The Epic Quest to Digitalize Everything

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

September 9, 2019

Instapaper: Empowering How I Read Articles with Highlights and Tracking

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

August 5, 2019

How I Write (2019): My Favorite Tools and Apps for Writing

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

August 2, 2019

No YouTube: 30-Day Challenge

Over the last 6 months or so, I’ve been tracking my Youtube usage. I came to discover that I was spending on average about an hour a day watching YouTube videos. While there are a lot of things I love...

Goals Tracking Track Everything YouTube Online Video Consumption Media Tracking Quantified Self Self-Tracking 30-Day Challenge

July 16, 2019

Can Meditation Improve Your Attention? Self-Experiment into Mindfulness and Cognitive Testing

The reported benefits of meditation are quite impressive: better physical health and happiness, less stress and anxiety, and even improved mental health and cognitive functions.

Self-Tracking Track Everything Tracking Everything Meditation Relaxation Mind Tracking Cognition Cognitive Enhancement Cognitive Testing Cognitive States Attention

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