Switchin' It Up with Nintendo and Gaining Focus with the Session App

Jeff: 0:00

So yeah, crappy, watch band compatibility and FaceTime.

Tom: 0:16

All right, here we go. It is another show Tommy Jeff B, the B-A-F boys, basic A-F. We're back at it again, Dang.

Jeff: 0:28

you planned that, didn't you?

Tom: 0:30

No, okay maybe a little bit. If I say I planned it and people don't like it, they'll be like God one thing if it's off the cuff. But he planned it and it still sucked.

Jeff: 0:45

We suck every week with the best. Well, we do, it doesn't matter.

Tom: 0:49

We do Yep, and so real quick, before we get things started. As always, I want to say thanks for being here with us and if you've been listening for a while now, we appreciate you coming back again and again for the show. It means a lot to us. And if you're new, we want to say thanks for checking us out, giving us a shot. We hope to earn a spot on your playlist. If you do enjoy the show and you wouldn't mind doing us a solid, you could drop us a rating or review or both on Apple Podcast. Follow us there.

Jeff: 1:21

Spotify Overcast all the big apps the podcast, all the big apps, that's correct. Every app that you can do it on. Actually, that's preferable. Download us from every single app. Listen to us three times a week. That's a good thing for all of us, yeah we're good with that.

Tom: 1:39

Yeah, come on. So, jeff, come on. Come on that nice intro music we have. Who's that? Courtesy of Jeff, why my?

Jeff: 1:45

friend that is from PsychoKinetics and who you can also find as Celsius7 on all your favorite streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify and I don't know wherever else you're stealing music from these days. We can find a way to do it. But yeah, that is PsychoKinetics artwork, as always by the amazing, the incredible Randall Martin design, and so we encourage you to check out both PsychoKinetics, celsius7 and Randall Martin design, and you will find that you get your bump on and then you can get some good design work done.

Tom: 2:26

So good stuff Absolutely, and we thank them for helping us out.

Jeff: 2:31

Yeah, definitely. And for donating music. And, randall, don't tell Mr Celsius7, we paid you, randall.

Tom: 2:43

It's our little secret. So, coming up in this show, we're going to talk about an app that Jeff and I have been using of late the Sessions app. If you were listening to the show we did with Adam Olsen a couple of shows ago, that was one that he recommended, so we've both kind of jumped on that one. We're also going to dig into some Nintendo Switch talks. We're going to talk games some as well.

Tom: 3:07

So I'm looking forward to that because I know that's something Jeff's been big into of late. So that's coming up. But before we get to that, just a couple of quick little things. Did you see this week the blurb from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg on the and this is all speculation, but the Apple Watch 10,?

Jeff: 3:28

did you see that? No, did not. Okay, so he had a blurb. Tell me about it.

Tom: 3:31

Power on newsletter to give attribution appropriately that in 2024 or 2025, the kind of the first, I guess, major redesign of the watch, excluding the Apple Watch Ultra, which was a different design form, is coming up, and really the only reason I wanted to talk about this because it's so far out is that one of the things he mentioned is that this could be the break from the consistency that Apple's had with the watch bands being compatible with all generations of the watch since day one, effectively. It's interesting, yeah, so I thought that was that's what caught my attention in the rest of the stuff, because they have done for Apple, because we ding Apple sometimes for cash grabs, for adapters for different things or nickel-in-dimeing for storage, upgrades and things like that, and so I got to be honest.

Tom: 4:33

I have been very surprised with how long they've actually maintained compatibility with the watch bands.

Jeff: 4:39

Yeah, across pretty much all of them. It doesn't matter. I think some of the larger ones you can't use on the smaller watches, but for the most part, yeah, yeah, because I mean everywhere, which for them is, if they do it, that's new Right.

Tom: 4:52

Right, yeah. And if they do it in a year or two, I think at that point it's like well, that was a good run, because I mean watch this, what 10 years. This would be series nine coming out this fall, yeah, so by then that's pretty good. I don't think I'd be upset with that at that point.

Jeff: 5:07

How many? Yeah, and here's another. You know what, since we're bringing up changes, possible design changes, the Apple Watch Excuse me, I'm coughing without hitting the mute.

Jeff: 5:18

Yeah you know we're cheap idiots. I don't have a real mute button. I'd have to do actual work to mute my mic. We I was. I'm actually back in California without getting my stuff stolen, which is pretty amazing. My mom had some surgery last week and so I'm here helping to take care of some things. But my brother asked me last night we were looking at the camera app that lets you, you know, control your iPhone's camera and you can see the video on there. But one of the things he wondered and I kind of do too is how come we haven't yet gotten an Apple Watch with a FaceTime camera? You think that's coming in the next one. Do you want it? Come on, man, I see that. Look on your face. It's like nah, I don't want that. Dick Tracy watch.

Tom: 6:12

Well, see, now they just spin it that way. Of course I want it.

Jeff: 6:17

Of course I gotta shape it.

Tom: 6:18

I mean, I was a kid once. It's a long time.

Jeff: 6:21

But still.

Tom: 6:21

Yeah, it shows. I think it's one of those things. I'd have to see it. Yeah, because I don't do. I don't do phone calls through the watch. We've talked about how I don't really do many phone calls, so that shouldn't be much of a surprise. But you know, it's one of those. I don't know if it were there where I would use it and I might.

Jeff: 6:41

Yeah, so have you turned on the cellular feature on your Apple Watch Ultra? I have not. Okay, so I have, and actually I have gone about not that I need to FaceTime anybody. You know that I could see similar to the touchscreen Mac, where you know who wants to have their fingers up on the screen all the time. I don't quite understand that.

Jeff: 7:00

I get it on an iPad occasionally. But it's kind of a pain in the neck sometimes to constantly have to work with your finger up like that and I can see walking down the street with your watch in front of your you know face. You're not not going to work out too well, but it's. I think you know my brother had a valid question. Is that technology seems like it should be there and wonder if we're going to get something like that in some near future iteration of the of the watch Right Necessary? Would I use it? I might. I mean I do. I did turn on the cellular feature on my watch and I do use that without you know if I'm mowing the lawn or something. I got my watch out there and don't have to have it by my phone. I'm all good with that. So I don't know. I could see it being used. I could see a lot of people using it.

Tom: 7:49

Yeah.

Jeff: 7:51

I just it's kind of surprising and he wasn't wrong in stating that it was surprising that Apple hasn't yet added that option on any of their watches.

Tom: 8:00

So yeah.

Jeff: 8:02

Yeah, so we will find out. So yeah, crappy watch band compatibility and face.

Tom: 8:10

Man, that's quite a presentation, you're welcome.

Jeff: 8:13

Yeah, hi, son of your consulting for you for that. Yeah, let me ask the boss if I can, if I can do that section of the presentation when the time comes.

Tom: 8:24

But, yeah, I think I don't know We'll find out, but anyway, I don't want to dwell on the watch too much today, but I just thought that was of note of note.

Jeff: 8:32

That is notable, pretty interesting, and it would be interesting to see. If that's the case. I would like a couple more watch bands, I think.

Tom: 8:38

How many do you have now for the Ultra two?

Jeff: 8:40

three, well, I had four but one got stolen, so that and it never got used. That's the sad thing. That was the. That was the swimming band, the ocean band that I had planned to use, but it found its way, I don't know. I think if I go by the In-N-Out in Oakland over on Heggenberger, I dig around in the weeds, I might get my watch band back. I might get my laptop and my iPad back too, because nobody's using that?

Jeff: 9:08

Geez. Yeah, it would be interesting, that would be. But yeah, I have three. I have three, and the one that I wear most often is the I never know the names of these things the one with a loop and the orange tab on it. That's greenish. The trail band, trail band. Yeah, I like that one.

Tom: 9:28

I like that one too. Yeah, it's going.

Jeff: 9:29

Yeah, I got the Alpine one and I kind of funky just and I've got a, I've got a trail band for for what color trail band did you get?

Tom: 9:40

So you said it's the black one with the orange tab.

Jeff: 9:43

Yeah, okay, grayish black something like that Yep, yep and it's. It's probably grayer now, especially the orange tab, than it was the start. Sure Orange tab dirty it's filthy and I've tried cleaning it with a toothbrush.

Tom: 9:56

Yeah, it's just like. Yeah, just hopeless.

Jeff: 9:59

Doesn't? It doesn't look very pretty.

Tom: 10:01

No, it doesn't. And I got the green Alpine green, whatever they call it the loop. I got that one, and then I got the orange one, and I'm finding the orange one is just as prone to picking up dirt as the orange tab.

Jeff: 10:14

So that's that's my house band.

Tom: 10:16

I wear it around the house.

Jeff: 10:19

Good yeah, so what a waste of money 100 bucks One idiot. Yeah, right, yeah yeah. 100 bucks here, 100 bucks there, right, see, that are clothes. It's you only live once or you only wear one. I, you know, daily watch bands.

Tom: 10:38

Yeah, daily wear yeah.

Jeff: 10:39

Yeah, no thanks. Okay, I do change watch faces for various occasions, like I have one that I change if I, you know, depending on what clothes I'm wearing, I make it match my shirt, or something like that. Gotcha, okay.

Tom: 10:52

Yeah, because I'm that nerd. That's why they give you the option.

Jeff: 10:55

Right 100%.

Tom: 10:57

The only other thing real quick I saw was that the so the Apple cases for iPhone, the leather cases was reported by one of the rumor people that you can find it on Mac rumors. But it was some guy that just posts stuff on X. X, See that I got it right. X. What the freak.

Jeff: 11:16

I don't even know what you're talking about. Are you watching the porn channel again, tom? I gave that up, right, but you're watching X. You're on X all the time, right, and we're not talking X to C.

Tom: 11:27

Every time I see that I think a DMX. I think I've said that a couple of times now but it's true.

Jeff: 11:32

And people are working now are doing that too.

Tom: 11:36

Yeah, we're going DMX memes on the office but anyhow, they're not going to make leather cases. Was is what this guy was saying.

Jeff: 11:43

Can I just sell it here so nobody can see this online. But I have this leather case. That was beautiful and I really liked it. But, dude, talk about filthy and falling apart.

Tom: 11:55

Yeah, the quality is going way down on those things and I think it happened when they switched to the. What did they switch to this kind of rectangle format again, or design, not format, but 12 that they did. That was the 11, still kind of the rounded one like the 10 series and 12, they squared them off again going back to kind of like the four vibe anyway, yeah.

Tom: 12:17

And I think when they did that is when they kind of nose dived on the quality because they used to wear really well and they looked nice and but these like the, it's like it's a painted die or something and the corners rub off and then it's just their I like. The biggest reason I like is because they're light and they feel great Right and they're very thin and they don't you know, but quality wise they haven't been that great.

Jeff: 12:42

Yeah, I think after I am going to get the next phone and when I get that I'm going caseless again. I did that for a long, long time and then I got the leather case for the the 11 that I had, and then the leather case for this 13. I'm a odd number man and I, but I think I'm going back to no case.

Tom: 13:08

Yeah there you go.

Jeff: 13:09

I like that feel. So yeah, it could make a joke, that's would be filthy and I'm not going to go that direction.

Tom: 13:18

But on to the next topic. Yeah, and promise, we're not drinking, we're both we don't really drink Right Sober.

Jeff: 13:27

It's it's five o'clock in California on a Friday evening and I have only had water to drink all day.

Tom: 13:33

Eight 19 here and I'm in the same situation, so all right. So those two little things aside, let's get into the app that we want to discuss.

Jeff: 13:43

So sessions really interesting. So when, when Adam Olson that we had on last last show, when Adam was talking about sessions, I mentioned that I had been using in my writing app in Highland Pro, I had been using the timer for that, which I do all the time. It's a great way for me to get you know if I'm feeling crappy about writing or putting any other words down. It's a good way for me to just kind of kick that up and get going. And then I had it would on occasion use an app called Vitamin R, which is a Pomodoro app, pomodoro being you know Pomodoro timer method, where you do something for 20 to 25 minutes, you take a break for five.

Tom: 14:29

You know that. That real quick, that app. Vitamin R yes, I think when we were doing the Revenge of the Fanboy podcast 12, 13 years ago, whatever that was, and that was one of John's picks, remember, we used to do picks. Like each show, we do a pick or something, and I think he had that as a pick. He may have.

Jeff: 14:48

It's been around a long time and it is a great app. That's. That's a great, a great app. I and I've used it on the phone and I've used it on the on my. I've used it on my Mac quite a bit as well to do the same thing, just to kind of give me a kickstart.

Jeff: 15:07

So but what Adam said about sessions that was kind of interesting to me was that he was essentially keeping a diary of what it was that he was working on as he was going along, and that it gave great reporting, that it gave you the ability to kind of really look at what it was that you were doing and gave you the ability to go back in time and see, you know, what you accomplished, where, when, why and how. So I did download the app. I had a lot of stuff going on, so did not pick it up before my free session ended but I I began setting it up, setting up different groups, and what I started finding was is that I was using it more than I had used any of those Pomodoro apps before, for for a couple of reasons. One, I was scheduling everything that I was doing, and the upside to that for me was, you know, you get some days where you're doing a bunch of little things here and there, it really doesn't seem like you've done much of anything at all. It gave me a little better view, actually a lot better view, into those kinds of days, including days when you know it's a weekend.

Jeff: 16:27

I'm not really doing work. Work I'm doing, you know, housework. I'm cleaning dishes, cleaning the house, mop on the floor, mowing the lawn, you know, doing all that kind of stuff that those appear to be decent accomplishments. But I didn't realize, you know, when I mow the lawn I'm putting like three hours into it. I have a big piece of property. I mow it, you know, by hand. And it gave me, if I can say this, like a greater sense of satisfaction around the work that I was doing and like the setup I mentioned right before we started this session here. I kicked off a session's session before our recording session.

Tom: 17:06

And it has.

Jeff: 17:07

Before you begin every session, you have the option of turning on this breathe feature, and it's really crazy for me how that kind of settles me into whatever it is that I'm doing. I look forward to that, that breeze which, by the way, I just want to point out. I have set it up so that each of my recording things is supposed to have three breaths, not just the one to kick off the session. There's some bug going on, it's not working, it's doing one and I'm disappointed every time I use it. But it's become a really useful tool that actually I like using every day as a means of not tracking my time. I have time tracking app called Time. That's excellent TYME if anybody's looking for a great tool to be able to do some time tracking for billing purposes, but to track what it is that I was doing when, where, why and how. So I'm kind of thrilled to be using that.

Tom: 18:10

So sort of time tracking, but not for billing purposes or anything like that, it's more just so you're aware of what you just said.

Jeff: 18:20

Yeah, so I have some awareness around what it is that I'm doing in days that sometimes feel like you didn't do crap today, dude, which sometimes I didn't do crap today, but which is okay, there's nothing wrong with that no, there's something to be said for that as well but it's helping me to get a better idea of what it is that I'm actually doing and allowing me to keep notes around those same things, saying I did X, Y and Z.

Tom: 18:54

Now, I was just going to say talk to me a little bit about the scheduling. You mentioned that you were scheduling it, so are you Like scheduling the day and then working? No, I don't do it that way, or okay?

Jeff: 19:05

I usually have work to do it, so it what it does is it spits stuff onto the calendar. Yeah, I can see it from two to three. I did this from three or four, okay, so kind of all that kind of stuff. Right, it's a. It's more historical information in the calendar rather than you know.

Tom: 19:18

Let's do something like a time blocking type thing it's no here's what I'm working on, and then when I go back Then you, then you see how the day broke down, and stuff like that.

Jeff: 19:27

Yeah, exactly that and and I like that, I'm not. Adam does time blocking. Do you do that kind of thing where you block out like an hour to?

Tom: 19:37

do x dipped into that and out of it a Few times. It hasn't really stuck for me Because I just find work it's easier if it's like side hustle stuff, like for this. I can put okay, saturday morning 9 to 11, I'm doing whatever. But for like day-to-day work, it things just very too much at the office because it's a support role. So support it's the way I'm of support mercy of whatever the heck's going on.

Jeff: 20:02

Yeah, so that, by the way, is the kind of stuff I find this really valuable for. So I get a call from a client says hey, my website's down, can you do this? I can click that on in sessions and say I'm gonna work on this for 25 minutes, mm-hmm, and see where I get. And I say I'm working with, you know, the fengelstein law firm, or whoever it is that I'm working with, to do some, some piece of work, and I've I'm able To quantify that, whereas going to do a normal day I might say you know what I'm gonna sit down I'm gonna write for for an hour and a half to two hours today. I'm gonna edit for an hour and then I'm a revise for, you know, an hour more.

Jeff: 20:43

But because of the nature of what I do, work wise, you know I kick off that hour and then I get that message saying hey, and it helps support and, and so I Jump over the the help thing. But then I go back and go dude, you didn't write. You know, like you said, you're gonna write for two hours today. You didn't even write for two. You know it's. It's helping me to see those Things a little differently, and then you know, judge myself. I often do, oh, no, not too harshly, I hope oh every day come on.

Tom: 21:20

Yeah you know right so let's, uh.

Tom: 21:24

Let's go back a couple of steps and maybe talk about kind of the premise a little more of the app, kind of what the, the foundational setup components would be, because one of the pieces of feedback I got on the show that we did with Adam that was that content itself was great. But if we would had taken a minute or two for each of the apps to just explain a little bit more what the app is Conceptually, some of the kind of the basics to help frame it up a little bit, that might help. So maybe sure for folks here if you want to kind of run through that a little, Sure.

Jeff: 21:59

So first of all, I would say, feel free to download the session app on the app store and just have a first look at it. But what it is as I said, or I started to say in the beginning it's it uses Something called the Pomodoro method. Pomodoro method and I'm no deep diver in this Basically breaks your work down into bite-sized chunks. Typically, the default for the sessions app is 25 minutes. So you say, even I'm gonna switch over to the app right now and look at it. I'm gonna create a new session. I have categories for those sessions, so I have a general category. That is just kind of whatever. You know, nothing in particular.

Jeff: 22:42

I have housework. I have writing. I have reading Believe it or not, that I've. I've rolled into this. That's a good one. I've had podcast rolled into this. I've got personal stuff. You know where I'm doing stuff around the house. I have play, believe that or not, but I've added that in as a thing because you know, for me, being raised as a is a prize. Protestant with the Protestant work, ethic play is not something you do. So I've.

Tom: 23:17

I've added we're gonna talk about that play stuff in a little bit too.

Jeff: 23:21

We are gonna talk about play in a second, which I'm excited about, consulting in theater. You know, these are all things. And then, finally, cooking, believe it or not? Because I spend, you know, I do the majority of cooking, which I like a lot, but you know, that's Typically an hour or so on every day. But I've created these various, these various groups.

Jeff: 23:42

And then, for example, for tonight, for our, for our podcast session Recording. What I would do is I would prep this, I would say I'm doing a podcast, I'd give it Essentially what they call an intention, but I'm just saying we're doing episode 16. Believe it or not, folks, this is 16th episode of the Bay, of A basic AF show. So thank you. And then I set a time for it. Default in the application is 25 minutes. You can set up your default to be whatever it is that you want it to be. And in this case I just wound the clock to an hour and 15 because I know, you know, we BS off mic for the first 15 minutes or so and we BS on mic for the next hour.

Jeff: 24:26

Right, but we get all the dirty words out Right At the beginning.

Jeff: 24:30

We get our threats out of the way early, yeah, yeah, and then I kick off that timer and go about the business of doing whatever it is that I need to do Once a session is completed. Once you've completed a time session, you can either go to a break or you can end the session, or you can continue the session. If you end the session, what you have the option of doing is then rating how it is that you were during that session Were you distracted, were you neutral, were you focused and then you can put some notes in. You know, we recorded for an hour. I was mostly focused, although, you know, not as focused as I should have been. Tom was getting pissed at me, and so I'm gonna be a better boy next week, you know. But you can put those kinds of notes in. So you've got the ability to review what it is that you're doing, or what it is that you have done in that, in that proceeding session, and then, once you complete that session, you can create a new one.

Jeff: 25:36

If you repeat the session or go on a break, you break for a set amount of time, again determined by you, which that's kind of the idea behind the Pom Dora method as well is you need to focus for a specific period of time and then you need to let your brain breathe for a couple of seconds. So you go do something else, you know. You go walk outside or you do some other thing, and then you come back to whatever it is that you were working on before, and so it goes. So what it's doing is helping you to break your day down into chunks, into manageable chunks, and I think sometimes the most overwhelming thing is to look at the task at hand and think, oh my God, how am I ever gonna get this done today?

Jeff: 26:21

And by saying, instead, I'm just gonna do some stuff for 25 minutes, I'm gonna do what I can, and then I'm gonna take a little break and then I'm gonna come back and do it for another 25 minutes and continue through that process until you get it done. What it does is, for me at least, that overwhelmed feeling that I can often get when I have a large task at hand. It pulls that back for me and that's oftentimes what I say, that I use that in my writing app, oftentimes the idea of starting writing again if you've got a lot behind you and you're in the middle of writing something. Just the idea of, oh my God, I'm working on a novel. What am I gonna do? You know, just saying you know what I'm just gonna write for 25 minutes, right, and I'm not gonna worry about it is a really useful feature.

Tom: 27:14

It just feels like a much more manageable chunk rather than right. So much of it is mental and to be able to do that. And you mentioned the categories there and one of the things I liked is it's kind of up to the person, the individual, to see how many categories they want, and so it sounds like you had maybe 10 or 12.

Jeff: 27:35

I have about 10.

Tom: 27:36

Yeah, and I think I ended up with about the same eight to 10, something like that. And I'll tell you, like this week I'm still developing the habit, Like I don't think I've gotten as far as you have with the consistency of it, but like I think it was yesterday I was working on something and I forgot to put it in like as the session, so I just went in and added like a little 15 minute session, Right Cause you can do it after the fact too If you forget or just want to add it. For you know, historical data purposes, and. But today in particular, there were a couple that I ran this morning when I was doing something. And do you keep the menu bar thing up there? Up in the menu bar that shows the current session and the time remaining and that sort of thing.

Jeff: 28:26

I do, but because I use the menu bar app that hides it.

Tom: 28:31

So if I open it up right now, it says I see podcast episode it.

Jeff: 28:39

you know I could see it if I do it now and it kind of gives me a little timer. I really don't need that or want that. In fact, the other thing that this app does is it can make like little ticking sounds in the background.

Tom: 28:50

Yeah, I turned that off.

Jeff: 28:51

Same. I don't not want that.

Tom: 28:53

It freaked me out. The first time it kicked in I was like what is that clock? That's right.

Jeff: 28:59

But what I do like is the two minute warning and it will give you a warning again, something that you can set a time on that. But at two minutes it'll say, hey, you've got. You know your session's about to come to an end, oh, I've checked that out.

Tom: 29:13

I haven't looked at that.

Jeff: 29:14

Yeah, it's a really nice feature. So you turn that on and what it does is you know it'll say this session is gonna end in two minutes and then you have the option of tacking on five or saying you know what, I'm gonna be complete with it. This. And I've had situations where, say, I'm reading a script and I'm five, six pages from the end and I want to start a new session like that. So it's like you know, add it, add it, add it, add it and then get it done and then put my notes in. Integrates well with Apple Watch, but no app for the Apple Watch. You can't kick it off. It all as it does is gives you notifications, but it's a nice and allows you to. You know, either end it or you know, add five minutes and that's great.

Tom: 30:01

if you walk away like you get distracted or something happens and you have to leave may not just be a distraction if something comes up. The thing with the menu bar thing that today I was when I was working on those couple of things, I actually reached for my phone so I was like, oh, I'm gonna check something on social right. Then I saw my clock ticking up in the menu bar thing and I put the phone down.

Jeff: 30:26

So it served the purpose, right.

Tom: 30:27

So I was like yeah, yeah, I was like that's good and it did.

Jeff: 30:30

So are you using? Because the other feature that's there is if you have the phone app. The phone app also has that feature. So on a lock screen Right, you've got the little widget that when you pick up your phone to it goes yo, dork, you're supposed to be doing thing number three or whatever it is that you were doing Yep, and it'll throw the live activity up in the thing too.

Tom: 30:57

On the 14th.

Jeff: 31:00

Yes, and here's another thing that you can use the app for. I haven't really done this yet because I'm pretty good at it, but you can make it so and Adam actually alluded to this last week you can make it so it turns apps off when you begin a session. So no messages, no teams notifications, no Slack notifications. It has direct integration with Slack, which is kind of nice. Although I don't use Slack, or I don't. If I don't have to, I don't use Slack. There are instances where Slack is definitely a requirement, but what it will do is you got to open messages. It goes no, kicks messages off.

Tom: 31:40

That's what he said.

Jeff: 31:40

he thought it was crash, yeah he thought it was crash, and every time he opened it he was just in a session, but it is able to do that, and then it turns those, those app blocks off as soon as your session is done, so it's not like you have to go back in and reopen the application.

Tom: 31:54

Yeah, you do anything with shortcuts I haven't yet. Yeah, I did the real simple, built in ones where when it starts the session it just turns on, do not disturb.

Jeff: 32:05

And I just roll with that. Yeah, I haven't done any of that. I plan to do that a little more, but haven't done that, although I will say I'm starting to play with shortcuts a little bit more.

Tom: 32:17

Yeah, I think we're going to come back to that. I think that's a show we should do just on shortcuts stuff. And see what we can come up with.

Jeff: 32:25

Yeah, and maybe we're going to stick a couple out there.

Tom: 32:28

Yeah, can download them and see what uses people, yeah, be curious to see Because shortcuts is interesting. So I think we should definitely come back to that.

Jeff: 32:36

Yeah, absolutely true. So how about you? So you said that you started using it, but not a lot. I will say I want to hear how you're doing it, but I will say that I got a little anal about it and with every single thing that I was doing, I would just say you know what A session I'm going to put it on a session? Yeah right, it was easy, especially after I created those categories, to say, okay, this is what I'm doing, donk, donk, donk, boom, right, and let it go. Yeah.

Tom: 33:05

So last. So I've got it up and I'm looking. So one of the nice things and you touched on it a little bit is, after you've done the sessions and everything, there's a section in the app for activity I think that's what it's called and you go in there and you can look at your activity day, week or month and it's got your typical day ranges right so you can do today, yesterday, this week, last week and so on, last 28 days, 14, whatever. And so for last week, for example, I had an average focus per day and of course this is all because of it's based on what you put into it, but it was hour and 16 minutes says I was most focused at noon. Not sure what to take from that, but the total focus for the week was seven hours and 41 minutes. So let's see how it looks this week, fairly consistent. So this week I had six hours, 28 minutes, which was down 16% from last week, still most focused at noon. Man, I like lunch which I don't track, by the way, and that's not in there but categories that I had were pretty comparable to yours. I kept just a general work and then I separated out by intention, so it could be admin work or it could be reporting or whatever it is for work.

Tom: 34:27

I have started tracking exercise stuff, like I'll start a session when I work out, then I'll put some notes in it about the workout and things like that. I set one up for home stuff. So when I do budgeting and that sort of thing. As far as my ratings go, last week I rated 14, because I don't do it every time. So I had 11 that were focused. Three were neutral. This week I only rated seven, but they were all focused.

Tom: 34:59

But what's kind of nice is like. So today, when I was doing some of that admin work and I was tracking it, I made a note about the work and then I put a link to the actual note that I have in the bear app, because when I was working I had to take some detailed notes on what I was doing. So if I see it here and I got oh I wonder what I something I can always link back to the note because it's got those URLs and everything. So that's kind of nice. So yeah, I'm going to stick with it. I did the monthly subscription for now, I think. Did you do the did?

Jeff: 35:31

you commit to the whole year. Yeah, I mean, once I started playing with it I thought you know what? I want to give myself time to really use it and not feel pressured to, you know, to have to re-up again after a month. So yeah, I've already canceled the subscription, but I probably will re-up it. I just texted you something and actually you can maybe throw this up in the show notes too, the thing that I tried to text it in Riverside, but it wouldn't let me do it.

Tom: 36:02

But that's kind of an interesting breakdown.

Jeff: 36:05

So that was a pretty decent day for me. Didn't use it every single step of the day, didn't do it every every way, but what's nice is you can kind of see the actual breakdown of what it is that I did throughout that particular day, which is, you know, fair amount. There are gaps between sessions. I don't think that that's a problem. There was an actual break, you know that was in there for 45 minutes, which is lunch for me, I think. But it's nice for me to see this because sometimes I think if, when going through the day, that I'm not quite getting done what it is that I need to get done, you know and this has really given me a better eye into the fact that I am with some detailed notes, and it also throws this on my regular calendar I'm not quite sure whether or not that's a thing that I want for keeps.

Tom: 37:03

I'm on defense with that one too. I just made a new calendar for it. I just had session stuff and it just drops it into that.

Jeff: 37:09

Yeah, same, I did the exact same thing.

Tom: 37:12

I'm trying to figure it out. I'm sure there's like use cases for that. If, like, if Adam explained it, I probably oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but I'm struggling a little bit with that one at this point.

Jeff: 37:23

And I think that's one of the things that he was saying about historical, being able to look at historical work on the calendar, just have some idea of what it is that he's doing. But it's, the reporting on it is really nice. The the. I'll send a screenshot of the other one too for the same day, just so people can see see that as well. So you've got the ability to oops, did not want to take that screenshot. Let's try it again. So it's, I think it'll be something that you can kind of get a really good idea for for what the app is. But personally, I found it quite quite useful. Like I said, I'm in California for my mom this week. I'm not using it at all. It's not a. It's not a thing. I'm using it for the podcast right now. But the important thing is whatever mom needs. So you know hanging out with her and you know goofing off with my niece and just stuff that need to be in there.

Jeff: 38:26

Right and it doesn't. I've got no other goal during this time than it.

Tom: 38:34

Just you know maybe hang out and be useful. Right, hang out and be useful.

Jeff: 38:39

Yeah, exactly.

Tom: 38:40

All right, so I think we're both fans of it and yeah encourage folks to go out and give it a try, and it's one of those things. There's a trial, so there's really nothing to lose. So no, not at all. And if you're one of those that's curious, like how you're spending time, and even if you don't want to do the logging stuff to any great degree, you can always just use it for the, the Pomodoro things, which if you have problems focusing, like sometimes I do, like earlier I said I almost picked up the phone but then I put it back down because I saw no and all. I had like three minutes left in the sessions. I'm like just finish what you're doing. So if you're that type personality, it could be helpful.

Jeff: 39:17

Yeah, and I will say there is a free version of the app. That free version doesn't have dark mode, doesn't have some of the reporting features, but you've got the ability to use a believe, the Pomodoro timer.

Tom: 39:28

So there's yeah, but, but you're gonna work for free.

Jeff: 39:31

Yeah, exactly, and you know it's. I like it, I like it a ton. And you know, once I'm back, you know not not doing what I'm doing at the moment I'm back on it. It's going to be a regular, nice regular thing.

Tom: 39:44

Thank you, adam Olson, for the recommendation.

Jeff: 39:46

Yes, thank you very much and thank you for those who said a little more detail when we're talking about apps and what it is that we're doing.

Tom: 39:54

Yeah, absolutely. So it's probably the best time as any to say if you have feedback like that, like obviously, if you know us in person, just tell us, but if you can send us an email feedback at basicafshowcom, because you know, sometimes when you know we're using this stuff day to day, we do kind of skip over that.

Tom: 40:12

It's like it's great. We need to explain it a little bit more. So all right. So sessions app two thumbs up at this point. Maybe in six months or so we'll revisit see if it's stuck with us long time or long term or not, I think valuable Okay. All right.

Jeff: 40:26

So up next, up next, Tom. You may recall that for my birthday this past year, both my daughters and my son in law decided that I needed a Nintendo switch.

Jeff: 40:42

Yes, I do recall that gave me a Nintendo switch and little true confession business here. I, you know, played video games back when you know, on the Apple too you had space invaders and you know I did that for a little bit. And then jumping back to my relatively I won't call it strict upbringing in Protestant upbringing, but it was definitely something I imposed upon myself was like dude, the world's going to end, no time to no time to be playing games.

Tom: 41:17

I got time for that.

Jeff: 41:19

So I, I limited myself and did not, did not play a lot of games, but I what's funny is, at the time that I, my birthday, was coming around, I started asking my kids saying you know what, if I were to get myself one of these for my birthday, I was thinking to give them myself a present, you know, like what might be some good games for me to start with. And I got a message back from the kids saying, uh, don't, don't do that. No, telling that, yeah, don't don't get yourself. You know they were good about it because they were funny and they, when they delivered that, you know, when the gift came and we had a little birthday celebration, uh, there was a piece of paper in the box that says so sorry about this going to be a couple of weeks, but you're not going to get the uh switch. And then they had it in the back room A bunch of goofball. So I got some very nice gifts for that birthday. By the way, my son got me this electric massager. That's awesome Uh, that I would highly recommend. But then the uh, the other kids got me the switch.

Jeff: 42:35

So I have been since then, um, playing games on the switch and really just kind of relaxing into it. Thus, you know the play, uh, the play category that I have in in sessions where I just say you know what I'm for the next half an hour, I'm just going to play game and I'm I'm going to chill with it. And I started out with a game that I began, uh, playing on the Mac and never could quite edit it with the, the. There's something about playing games on a computer that I just can't handle. I don't know what it is. I'm not very good with controls. I forget where they are. You know is the K, the S and the D and the F key and then the E. You know all that stuff to move around or the arrow keys.

Jeff: 43:21

It never really worked out with me, but I had started a while ago, several miles ago, playing Firewatch on on the uh on the Mac, and couldn't hang with it but decided that that was going to be the first game that I was going to play on the switch. And, man, I'm telling you a couple of different things, no-transcript, first game of that sort that I have ever finished. Now I will say there's a. You know, there was an iOS game or two that I've played to the end. That I love. But otherwise, you know, I would buy these games and I would never Play them or I would never finish them. I finished that and I will say that it for me has become almost a new kind of storytelling that I hadn't really Considered before. I just thought it was playing a game playing a game I'm playing.

Jeff: 44:23

It's almost it up like it, and Firewatch for one, really kind of a melancholy, sweet, sweet, interesting game. What's the premise of that? So you've got, you've got this guy who is Walking out and starts by walking out into the woods and he's in radio contact with a Another person. He's gonna be essentially a ranger. He's gonna sit in a fire tower all summer and watch for fires and as the story unfolds, without given any spoilers, you discover that he's married, but not together. His wife is sick, you know, there's a number of other things, and he's just kind of, you know he can't hang with that, so he's, he's gone to do some other thing, he's got you be a guy his

Jeff: 45:16

escape woods. It is his escape and the the voice on the radio is the person. The other fire tower is a woman which you know in from the story's perspective at least from my perspective in the story is giving him kind of a way to Touch his wife, you know like emotionally kind of have that. The conversations that he couldn't have with her. He does have with this person throughout it. He's got some problems he's got to solve there. You know, an actual fire does start and he's got to make sure people get out of there and then the next thing he has to do is he has to make sure he gets himself out of there.

Jeff: 46:00

But it's a really gorgeous environment. Puzzles that were on par with my, you know, lack of game playing for over the years, but Really fun, and the experience overall on the Nintendo switch has been Delightful to me. It's like I've got it sitting right here. It's super portable. I've never and I've been told I should do this, but I've never hooked it up to my television yet. I just popped the thing out sit down.

Tom: 46:31

I was gonna ask about that, yeah. Yeah, I haven't just chill out on the couch. Then handheld mode right Mostly handheld mode.

Jeff: 46:38

Yeah and it's I. There are some games that I have that I think deserve to be played More than just in handheld mode. Mm-hmm, I have started Breath of the Wild, which is one of the Zelda series. Yeah, that's gorgeous.

Tom: 46:53

It is. Yeah, I've played that one a little bit.

Jeff: 46:56

Yeah, it. It's something else and I think that's something that that deserves to be there. Last time I was in California when I Got my other stuff stolen. What was really nice is I had left my my when I'd gone on that trip With all my stuff and went up to see my friends in Northern California. I had left my switch with my niece so she could play Stardew Valley. Well, I was was away. I knew I wasn't gonna be Spent is, I wasn't gonna be playing it, and the beauty of that was the switch didn't get stolen when all my other stuff got so yeah so, you know, that was kind of a kind of a cool thing.

Jeff: 47:37

But during that trip the entire bio shock series Was on sale for 19 bucks. So I was able to get three games for 19 bucks that I intend to play and that one really seems like it's more suited To a television as opposed to the handheld, you know, particularly since it's got a Lot of dark stuff, but I you know dark areas on the screen that can sometimes be, you know, difficult to kind of figure it out, and so I have. I played Firewatch to the end. I played another game by a company called play dead, called inside. It was gorgeous, gorgeous game, again not too complicated, which is what I need at this point in time. You know I'm not right, too good at wait. It's the left gr button, it's. I'm not up to speed on the plate that someone iOS that one, yeah, yeah, it's a great game.

Jeff: 48:39

It's dark, very, very dark, but really beautiful in terms of the gameplay and such satisfaction when, when you solve some of the puzzles, really Really like amazing, there's one in that game where you're you're underwater Spoiler ahead for those of you who have not played where you're underwater in this Essentially submersible and there's this this demon mermaid comes after you and I would continue to try to run to get past the demon mermaid. She would hop onto the submarine and kill me and I would be back to be like happened probably 20 times. I'm like trying everything I can. Can I go faster, can I make it so I don't get into the, you know, into the submarine and so on further away, and she would always catch me in. There were Was a headlight In the, in the submersible that you were in, that if you shined it in her face she couldn't come and get you and I finally figured that out.

Tom: 49:48

I was like oh my gosh.

Jeff: 49:51

But it was so, so satisfying to me, and I Mean notwithstanding the fact that this was given to me as a gift. So, thank you, really appreciate you know the gift that, like I said, I was thinking about buying one for for myself, but notwithstanding that this was a gift, I I'm not gonna buy a ps5. I'm not gonna buy, you know, an Xbox. I'm not gonna sit down with with one of those and begin playing. And one of the other things that I found is that a Lot of the games in the switch are kind of whimsical. You know they're. They're really Not expensive for the most part. You know, breath of the wild is gonna cost you 70 bucks, but or not, breath of the wild, but whatever. The new tears of the kingdom, which is the, the new one, but it's. You can get the gore and killy stuff if you want to. Bio shocks got plenty of that, but right, there's just kind of a simple delightful, something like it in an fable.

Jeff: 51:00

It's an ineffable vein. We'll use that big word. You know, there's something just really sweet about playing games on the switch that I'm I Really am finding that, I'm joy, I'm really happy that I've kind of found that place, but it's, it's been such a delight to me. It's just like a simple thing don't have any pressure, don't feel any pressure to do anything just gonna sit down and play for a little bit and then you use headphones with that?

Jeff: 51:27

I have, but not always, you know. And, by the way, if you have AirPods or Beats or whatever it is, any Bluetooth? You can you can connect those to. Yeah, to the switch, at least the switch I have, I don't know about the, I have the.

Tom: 51:41

Oh, you've got the old head right.

Jeff: 51:43

Yeah, I do. Yeah, so it's I have. I have used them but have not fell. You know, compelled to use them all the time. A lot of times I don't airplane flight. I was played for a while. I put the headphones on. That was, you know, that was fun.

Tom: 51:59

Maybe I'll have to dust it off. Jeff, we've got one. It's behind the TV and it's behind the TV. I think you said the charging dock, or whatever well, not charging dock, but the docking station, yeah yeah. So it's there and it's, it's ready to go like. I checked it the other day and it was charged.

Jeff: 52:14

We could be friends online time. Oh, you could be my Nintendo friends, right.

Tom: 52:19

It? I don't know. Yeah, there's just some name for it. Yeah, but I know yeah, cuz I was looking at the games earlier this evening, just as kind of a refresher, just to see you know cost and things like that, but you know there's 60 bucks on down, there were some like $3, right? So, and they have a lot of really good sales.

Jeff: 52:36

To like that bio shock sale all three games for like 19 bucks.

Tom: 52:39

Yeah, kind of a test that I do like I was a big fan of double dragon back in the day and I can't even remember what console I first played that on, to be honest, but they have it. Yeah, I want to go retro. I can play it and I've played that with the kids and stuff and they liked it and everything. So yeah. I may have to check it out. I think you should, because there's no money out of pocket.

Jeff: 53:03

I already have the thing, so it's like yeah, and if it's sitting behind the TV and nobody's playing it, it's yours, it is yeah, and I think it's funny, though, like every once in a while, the kids, you know we'll fire up Mario Kart or something. Yep cuz.

Tom: 53:18

That's a fun one, especially if you're playing with other people. Yeah, that was a good time and and so yeah, I think I'll try it out again. I think you should like I'd never disliked it. It's just Something I don't think about because it's behind the TV, probably.

Jeff: 53:32

But yeah, yeah, what wasn't mine for one it was.

Tom: 53:37

It was the boys, so of course, but I can make it mine, as you said, yeah, do you guys don't play it.

Jeff: 53:43

Yeah, right, and you paid for it pretty much. Yes, there you go.

Tom: 53:48

Yeah, game recommendations how many games do you have at this point, before we go to that?

Jeff: 53:51

All right. Well, let's, let's, let's go down that path. Let me pop this thing out and I'll tell you. I, I, I have found that I like Scanning the store to find thing. Here we go. Okay, let's wait for the satisfying sound. There we are. Yeah, I have See, isn't that cute? Even the sounds are nice. It's one of the things that that Nintendo does, that Apple does really well. Yeah, there's some, definitely similarities there satisfaction I have.

Jeff: 54:24

I have 30 games nice on here, and One of the things I was doing at the beginning that I no longer feel compelled to do either is I was saying no, you got to finish this game before you play the next one. I Am not, I'm not doing that, I'm now just taking a game. I another game that I just finished that I thought was really sweet was the first oxen free, not familiar?

Jeff: 54:56

that yeah it's kind of a Twisty ghost story. Okay, it's surreal ghost story, a lot of fun like that. There's a new version of it out. That came out too. A couple that I had here's an old-school one the last First-person shooter that I really played was oh yeah, laugh at me doom.

Tom: 55:20

Oh, I remember that we used to. Oldays, we'd play yeah, so. I do knuckum and all that stuff. Yeah, all those. So I Did?

Jeff: 55:29

I downloaded doom. I was playing that the other day doesn't creep me out as much as it used to then, right, doom was pretty creepy at the time. But I've also picked up a lot of the games that I started but didn't finish, either on iOS or on on macOS, just to kind of Kick that into gear. And so I I have found a couple of those. The limbo is one of them that I'm playing. The there's one called old man's journey, which was available on arcade, which was really sweet, but I'm enjoying that on here. Creeks, another really good one kind of fun. I Am playing Zelda off and on. That's a little bigger than I'm capable of handling right now. Mm-hmm, you know it's. I think I need to learn a little bit more about that. So, yeah, so a number of games like that that I that I really have enjoyed playing and you know, Whatever I feel like playing at this point in time, I play.

Tom: 56:35

You ever play any of the Metal Gear titles? No, like they were being, like, I think they're ps2 or 3. I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, memories not what it was, but when I was browsing earlier I saw they had that, and so maybe that's what I'll use to kick start my switch playing as.

Tom: 56:56

Oh, I'll go back to that because I think they had the trilogy and those were a lot of fun for me they were. They're kind of a shooter game, but it's not like a call of duty style type stuff. It's more of a behind enemy lines and you've got missions to accomplish and stuff like that.

Jeff: 57:14

Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of fun. I, those are. Yeah, those are. I don't know, I'm not Bioshock aside the first person shooters, not not really a thing that I'm very good at. So, again, because it controls, so maybe I'll pick that up. I, I, I like Puzzle-ear games, yep, or mysteries. You know that you kind of need to solve which is what fire watch was and in that. But you know I'm, I'm old, on this bus, you know.

Jeff: 57:49

Yeah, you know I'm not the the new guy in the block, but it's. It has been a really Really new and enjoyable experience for me.

Tom: 57:57

I'm very nice. It's kind of fun. Yeah so, and it's good to do that sometimes you know, yeah, you gotta unplug at some point, and yeah, it's not mindless necessarily either, things like that. There's a lot of thinking, so it's not like it's. You're just sitting there watching tiktok, or something. I think it's like that because not all tiktoks are completely mindless.

Jeff: 58:26

No, no, it's. Nor is, nor is YouTube right. Yeah, but it can be it can't be anything beyond me on that Twitter. See what I did there Me on that Twitter app. Watch it. You know People crash into things Endlessly which I could burn, you know, in our easy sometimes doing that is a waste, a waste of mind space. You know it's satisfying on some level, but I think it's mostly a instantaneous dopamine hit.

Tom: 58:57

Right, yeah, all right, well, good, I'm glad you're enjoying it, because I remember you were telling me you were thinking about getting it and Then that they got it for you as a gift, so I'm happy.

Jeff: 59:07

Yeah, no, I really that is where you like it. It's been great. Really has a lot of fun All right, good stuff.

Tom: 59:14

So there are three switches available. Prices 199 up 350. I'm sure you can find them on sale here and there too.

Jeff: 59:20

So and they then I know they do on eBay.

Tom: 59:22

Yeah, so if that's something that that you're curious in, maybe, maybe give it a go and yeah, highly recommend. All right. Well, jeff, my friend, we've done it yet again. What we burned, another hour, another hour, man, they go quick.

Jeff: 59:36

They do. Yeah, you should have been playing a switch instead of listening.

Tom: 59:43

I'll see that when I review sessions. All right, so just remember everybody. If you have any questions or feedback, hit us up feedback at basic af show comm Websites. The same thing, keep in mind. We still do have stickers, so if you'd like a sticker, just ask. Be happy to send one.

Jeff: 1:00:02

I've got a magnet. We have magnets, We've got magnets. I ordered the magnets. You always talk about stickers but I don't know one who got magnets you did. My mom even has one on her on her dryer. Well, she's a good mom, that's how good they are.

Tom: 1:00:14

Yeah, she loves me, yeah that's good, and so if you like a magnet and or a sticker, just ask. We're nice guys, we'll send it to you, won't even charge it for it. So, no, we'll even pay for the stamp, right, we will. So just ask for crying out loud, trying to get rid of these things. Yeah, so basic af show again All the podcast apps. Tell us again, jeff, who the intro music and artwork is from, just in case people can't remember kinetics frontman of For whom is Celsius seven.

Jeff: 1:00:50

Highly recommend you check out their music, great, great stuff. And then we have Randall Martin design, which you can look that up on the internet Fantastic design work. Yeah, he he does amazing work and we highly recommend it. He's done a lot of stuff for both Tom and I separately and in he does brilliant work, very well able to make Something amazing in a in a little bit of time. I mean, just look at it.

Jeff: 1:01:21

I mean honestly. Go look at our logo on your favorite podcast app. You see that we stand out like nobody else does. It does it looks great, best friggin artwork on the planet.

Tom: 1:01:32

So he's done another piece for me, that that's. That's been very well received by a lot of people that I Also have stickers for.

Jeff: 1:01:40

But Tell us who it is, tom, you don't.

Tom: 1:01:45

I do for my, my Subaru side of life.

Jeff: 1:01:47

Oh, it's a call to be adventures which.

Tom: 1:01:49

I know some of you know about. But but, yeah, the stickers have been very popular there. People really like those, and that's all Randall's work. So if you need work, he's your guy. Yeah, absolutely All right. Well, that's it. Thanks for being here. Have a fantastic rest of your day, rest of your night, and we will talk to you again next time.