What is smartphone addiction? For me, it’s the habit of checking your phone every 5 minutes. We all know someone who does this. Perhaps you do it yourself. I know I did it. Most of the times it wasn’t even consciously. I wasn’t looking for anything special, I wasn’t even bored, but I did it out of pure habit.

I would put in the lock screen pattern to get to the, often unimportant, content that awaited me on the phone. …

How to use Kanban and Trello as a to-do list.

Following the publishing of my article on morning routines I got quite a few requests to share my to-do list system. But first let me share the long journey to find a system that worked for me.

The Pain

For a long time I’ve had the view that to-do lists was for the old and forgetful and that I was neither! Unfortunately I kept forgetting things and since I had no desire to be either old or forgetful, I grudgingly acknowledged that to-do lists could not be that bad.

I started with the good old post-it, building up a line of post-its on the bottom of my monitor. It actually worked! Although the downside was that I had to be at home to actually create tasks to do. Good for visualizing tasks, bad for that serendipitous thought I had on the road. For a brief moment I used to-do lists on my phone for thoughts on the road, only to make a post-it at home. …

Don’t be alarmed! This is real enough. I am writing to you, me, from the future to share some good advice now that you are turning 24 years old.

First of all, I have no idea how this works. I am only able to send this letter to you on this day — my or, well, our birthday. I am not able to fully specify anything particular event happening so unfortunately I cannot send you the lottery numbers or all of the sports results in the coming year. No pictures allowed either unless it is something that were taken before we became 24 years old. But I seem to be able to give you some advice. …

Since September 2014 I have lived and worked in the startup world — first at Copy Me That and later at EasySize. During this time there has been ups and down but it has been an incredible learning experience as well. I want to tell about my preconceived ideas, what you can learn at a startup and what I learned about myself.

Preconceived ideas

Before working at startups I had preconceived ideas of what it meant to work in the startup world. Here’s what I thought:

• Long, long working hours. While this is true, it is also very possible to maintain a work-life balance that won’t cause you to burn out. In fact, I work normal hours and while I might put in some long shifts, it is not really that different from most other places. …

I have always been good in school. Or so I thought until the moment I stared my professor in the eyes and he told me that he would be failing me. The result: prolonging my bachelors with another semester and feeling like a failure. But in retrospect: it might just have been the turning point of my life.

I grew up in an Asian household and my parents were strict on education following the classical Asian stereotype. I distinctly remember being told at least once a month about how I would become a doctor or a lawyer when I grew up. I had other plans though — I was to be a pilot and fly all over the world! Or an astronaut! …