Since this year started, I’ve completed 496 tasks. At least, that’s what OmniFocus – the software that I use for task management – tells me. I dove into the deep-end of the productivity pool after Alberto Rademaker‘s Second Brain presentation during my trip to Chile for Exosphere. I’ve adopted the “second brain” metaphor quite literally – blindly following the... 
At the end of October, I took a week off to lead a programming workshop in Santiago, Chile. In typical form, I had been up for roughly 26 hours before I hopped in a cab to begin my 21-hour trip. I can’t remember what I was thinking, but I expect sleeping on the plane was part of the plan. I can never sleep on planes, I always deprive myself of sleep beforehand, and I always arrive a complete mess.
After... 
3 blocks to the closest surf spot
When I decided to come back to the States, and being the person I am, I immediately began work on a giant spreadsheet to help me choose where I wanted to go next. Warm weather and proximity to a good surfing beach were obviously the first two entries. But I also had a few more personal things like how long it would take me to visit friends and family and $$ invested in... 
2012 was a year of restlessness and unhealthy work habits. It was also a year of self-discovery (or self-annihilation, depending on your view of self!) and a redefinition of priorities.
2011 was brought to a close in Maui after a month-long trip around SEAsia. What followed was a year of 80-hour workweeks and, to be honest, I can’t even remember where I was, who I was with, or what I did for New... 
I decided to not go through with my Divemaster on just about the day it was supposed to start. The question over whether I really wanted to pursue it or not niggled into my mind somewhere in Kuala Lumpur – probably while I was staring at the ceiling fan of my 6ft x 12ft cell. Did I really want to spend the next 2 months in a town with 2 roads and a dozen restaurants? Also there’s no surf. And... 
Life on Koh Tao is a lot slower and a big part of my day – when I’m not seasick on a boat or 75 feet below the ocean’s surface – is spent eating, talking, and thinking.
My favorite place is a French café right off the main street in Mae Haad called Cappuccino. Like almost everywhere on the island, it has an open-air patio and is way too big for the number of customers it ever has at any point in... 
I landed in Kuala Lumpur with a backpack and little more than a vague idea about where I was going. My first time traveling without a real “plan” was on my previous visit to Thailand two years ago. Arriving in a new place with a guidebook and a booked room has just the right combination of safety and spontaneity to get your adrenaline pumping while still knowing everything is going to turn out... 
I’m an ex software engineer, a newly-minted exporter, and on my way to becoming an international vagabond. I write about things like polyphasic sleep, moving to the other side of the world for no good reason, and surfing. Read more...
