Tag: tech

Breaking Up with Big Tech: Ditching Gmail for Proton

For most of us, it seems impossible. A few of you are still using Yahoo or Hotmail addresses, but pretty much everyone uses the Big G. You know which one I mean. I understand; I’ve been a Google fan since before they IPO’d. Since before Gmail came out. I read John Batelle’s The Search with a starry-eyed breathlessness. Information wanted to be free, and radical free ubiquitous access to information was going to free the world and bring together humanity like a modern-day Tower of Babel.

As so often happens with history, I was wrong. Google quietly dropped their employee-chosen ethos (“Don’t Be Evil”) as they crawled into every corner of our lives. A few John The Baptist-types like the Electronic Frontier Foundation were out there warning us of the dangers attending our lack of privacy. As is usually the case with prophets, we either mocked them or ignored them. As is usually the case with prophets, they were right in the end.

I chose (and encouraged others to choose) Google Workspace for email domains, Google Photos for memories, and Google Phones for our pockets and hands. The litany of Google products I’ve used (and loved) is long. Wherefore Art Thou, Stadia? Whence thy code, Google Reader?

But as Google matured, they changed “privacy for free stuff” bargain. They altered the deal – I prayed they wouldn’t alter it further. My prayers went unanswered. My super-cool custom Shinnphoto.com Gmail account went from free to expensive. But I was so invested in the Google ecosystem that I didn’t think I could get out. It was like being in a once-loving abusive relationship.

Then, one day, I found an alternative: Proton Mail. Proton’s mail focus is privacy, which sounded pretty good. They’re hosted in Switzerland and subject to Swiss privacy laws. Email is encrypted, trackers are blocked, and there are no ads. And they have integrated Calendars for free. If you pay for an account (which I recommend), you also get a password manager, a VPN, shared documents, and lots of other stuff.

I’ve been using Proton for a year now. They have an app for your phone, a desktop app for your computer, and you can also access Proton on the web. It features everything you’d want from a modern email tool, like AI-assisted writing and labels. And there are other features that make Proton better than Gmail: the ability to quickly unsubscribe from newsletters along with throw-away alias emails. I almost never give anyone my real email address any more – everyone gets a customized alias address that I can deactivate if they leak my email or if I don’t want to hear from them any more.

Switching is easy – you can bring all your email history (and even your labels) from Gmail. Setting up an account is free. You should try it out.

Use this link for 2 weeks of free service on your chosen plan: https://pr.tn/ref/0DJ9P4XW. You and I both get 20 bucks toward Proton’s service. But I’m not sharing for the 20 bucks – I’m sharing this because Proton makes my email life better, and I want you to know you have options.

The big tech companies have made a lot of things better in the world. But many of us are increasingly finding that the price you pay in privacy isn’t worth it any more. Opting out doesn’t mean you have to stop showering, train a carrier pigeon, and avert your eyes from any and all pixels. You can still be part of modern life, but you can also do it on your terms, with your privacy intact.

Goals

(Insert standard statement about the time between blog posts, along with inevitable apology, here.)

I’m reading about goals for a leadership and organizational behavior course I’m taking.  The reading is a little academic in nature, which I really appreciate.  Some of the important things I’ve learned (that are borne out by actual, peer-reviewed research):

  • People tend to set higher goals for themselves in the workplace than their supervisors would have set.
  • Higher goals lead to higher achievement.
  • Goals that are shared are more likely to be accomplished.
  • The process of setting and working on goals, not the prospect of reward, is what actually improves performance.

So what personal goals am I working on?  I’ll share a few.

  • To study 64 hours for each of the two classes I’m taking this semester.  It should probably be more, but this is the amount I feel I can actually achieve.
  • To exercise at least 5 days per week.
  • To be consistent with reading the Bible.
  • To avoid checking my e-mail (and looking at Facebook) before 1pm.

Lofty goals, you say? Aye, say I.  They wouldn’t be worthy if they weren’t.  So what am I doing to achieve these goals?  Well, setting them was a good start.  But I didn’t stop there. Measuring them is the next step.  Here’s where to tech comes in.  I use a series of specialized iPhone apps to record my progress. (Click on each app name for a link to the Apple App store.)

I use iGoal Pro 2 to track my study progress.  It allows you to easily set time-based goals, then run a timer track your progress.  It allows for pretty-looking  charts and graphs, which are all-important to a data hound like me.  Progress so far? I’m 6% of the way finished with my study goal for one class, and 4% of the way toward my other class.  Not bad so far, but I need to pick it up if I’m going to hit 128 hours.

I use iFitness to track my exercises.  (This has since been removed from the iTunes App store, but I still use it.)  iFitness is great for tracking both which days I make it to the gym and what I do while I’m there.  Again, it has pretty charts and graphs.  Pretty is important, and it helps me to make sense of the data.  How am I doing so far?  Well, I’ve been to the gym 29 times (and I’ve been running twice) since January 1st.  If you include the running, that’s just barely more than 5 days per week.  Besides tracking, I also set out my gym clothes next to the bed before I go to sleep.  Help me to actually get up and get it done in the morning.

I use the great Bible app from YouVersion.com to both read the Bible and track my progress.  They have pre-built reading plans to help you set and achieve goals with your Bible reading.  There’s also a feature that will actually read the Bible to you, and this is what I use.  I have a set time every day when I listen – it’s first thing in the morning.  I listen while I get dressed, get to the gym, and warm up.  My only beef with this app is that the audio tends to cut out about 2/3 of the time if you change internet sources (ie move from wi-fi at the house to a 3G connection as you travel.  How am I doing on progress toward this goal? Well, this measure is a little more tricky.  I’ve started and re-started this goal several times.  But I CAN tell you that I’m 24% of the way through the Bible.  In the books of Judges and Luke, specifically.

I’m using Evernote to track my fourth goal.  Evernote is actually a note-taking program, but I’m using it because of it’s ubiquity.  It has free apps for the Mac, iPhone, and the web. So I can pretty much always  able to log my progress, no matter where I happen to be working.  This one is a little less automated, but it’s still working.  I use Text Expander and a keyboard shortcut to automatically insert a datestamp and timestamp. (The keyboard shortcuts are ‘ddate’ and ‘ttime’.)  How am I doing with this goal so far?  I’ve only been tracking this since the beginning of February, but here’s a screenshot of my log.  This goal might bear some explaining.  I’ll keep it short: I get more work done when I’m not living or working out of my e-mail inbox.  Hence the goal.  (Also, don’t expect a reply from me on anything first thing in the morning.)

That’s long enough, but I hope you picked up a tidbit or two about goals.  And feel free to ask me how I’m doing with any of my goals.  That’s part of the reason I’m sharing them!