For those of you that don’t know me personally, I hate paper. I wish I could say it’s because I’m an environmental nut, but I just hate organizing when it’s not necessary. I recently came across the new service called Shoeboxed and it looks awesome. If you have lots of receipts or paperwork that needs to get scanned, Shoeboxed is the answer. Here’s how it works:

1. You sign up for account.
2. Shoeboxed sends you pre-paid envelopes.
3. You take anything you want scanned and place it in envelopes.
4. Depending on your plan, the items will be scanned and placed into text (verified by a human) in a couple of days.

The post Hate paper? Try Shoeboxed. appeared first on Chip Hanna.

1. What was behind the tasteless Kim Kardashian/Auora tweet last week (below)? Turns out the company behind the tweet outsourced their social media to a non-US company.

2.  It costs $450 in marketing to make someone buy a $49 Nokia Lumia. I guess that’s not a positive ROI. Obviously, this doesn’t count the elevated brand perception and earned media, but interesting, none-the-less.

3. Jack Daniel’s Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever. As someone who has got a cease-and-desist letter (or two), I’d love to get one like this. I’m sure the lawyers will be getting more business from this. Lawyers, getting more business from being human? Who would have guessed?!

4. Are you ADD/ADHD? Then try working on your working memory. Studies show increasing your working memory can make you less ADHD. What is working memory? I use Lumosity. There are also a couple of great iPhone Apps to help increase your working memory.

5. Are you a super-athlete? Or want to be? Check out Ubersense. It allows you to record swings, hits, and jumps and overlay graphics.

6. Ads are coming to your favorite NBA team’s uniforms. I hope they do some creative ones.

7. How much water should you drink? Did you know the 8 glasses a day has no scientific backing?

The post 7 Things You Should Know (Monday Edition) appeared first on Chip Hanna.

For this Father’s Day, I’m getting my dad Lumosity – a service that improves brain health and performance. Why would I do such a thing? The main reason is that my family has recently gone through some really tough stuff that involves dementia. Dementia is disease of the brain. Studies have shown that brain games (like Lumosity) can help you avoid Alzheimer’s. Dementia is the most common form of Alzheimer’s. What does Lumosity do?

• You take a basic assessment of what you would like to improve on. Lumosity focuses on these areas: Speed, Memory, Problem Solving, Flexibility and Attention.
• After 40 Days of “Basic Training” you can enroll in additional courses, such as “attention boost,” “speed boost” and “peak performance.”
• I’ve heard before that creativity is simply connecting the dots. I really feel that using a program like Lumosity really helps with my creativity by working out my brain.
• Just like any muscle in the body, the brain needs to work out. The more you train it, the better it performs.
• Lumosity has performed several studies to show how it helps with different aspects cognition. Study after study showed how it was possible to improve brain function with training.

Lumosity measures your progress with a score called BPI (Brain Performance Index). Some of equated this to a bit like your IQ. Here’s how my BPI has increased over the past couple of weeks:

My BPI Score

It also allows you to break down your BPI by other Lumosity users around your age. Here how mine looks:

I found it very interesting that I was in the middle, with the exception of flexibility  – which is where I was VERY high. No surprise, my Attention is low (SQUIRREL!!!). Problem Solving was also low, but I think I know why – those games are mostly math problems. I HATE math and my attention goes away when a math problem jumps on the screen. I’m not making excuses, but I think they are very related.

I, personally, think dementia and Alzheimer’s are some of the worst things to suffer from. I feel like Lumosity has made a huge difference in the way my brain works and I’d encourage you to test it out.

The post What I’m getting my Dad for Father’s Day…and you should, too. Lumosity. appeared first on Chip Hanna.