Project Today

In the latest riveting episode of Project Today, the guys dissect one of the most prominent factors in each of our childhoods: video games. Whether you consider them to be an addictive waste of time or not, video games have no doubt played a massive role in how each of us grew up. But are they really all bad? Listen to find out our take!

Even between the three of us, video games are a hotly contested subject. Oliver was rarely seduced by the lure of video games growing up, whereas Chase and Dylan adopted them from an early age. This distinction gives us something important in any discussion: perspective. Whereas Chase and Dylan may be biased towards the positive side effects of video games, Oliver is there to remind us of the potential counterpoints, and vice versa. Hopefully our conversation today helps you to see a new side of video games, for better or worse.

We go over Pokemon, Minecraft, Dragonvale, Racing Live, Backyard Soccer, and many more games that have been with us since childhood! At multiple points in the podcast, you'll see our childhood nostalgia come out in full force, and for many of you out there, that same nostalgia may start forming too!

So what's your take? Are video games purely a strain on our brains, or could there be some positives to them?

Let us know your take on our Instagram page (@LifeTalkPod) or on TikTok (@ProjectToday). We hope you enjoy, and have an amazing day!

I don't know about you, but we're feeling 22! With Dylan's birthday just a few days ago, all three of us are finally 22 years old. We've learned that when you turn 22, you really get a whole new lease on life, gain some much-needed perspective, and also... you learn that not all of your friends are great at keeping secrets.

In today's episode of Project Today, Oliver reveals how he ALMOST ruined Dylan's surprise birthday party with a single Snapchat message! Plus, we each talk about a productivity hack that has dramatically changed our lives, before ending the video off with a classic conversation about the responsibilities you gain after graduating from college.

And as if that wasn't enough, suspense is in the air... will Chase ever remember what he was going to say? You can only find out by listening to EVERY MINUTE of this week's episode of Project Today!

Special thanks to Tim Ferriss, creator of the Tim Ferriss Show and author of "The 4 Hour Work Week" for teaching us about the power of productivity, which we go over in detail in this week's podcast!

Also we apologize for the audio issues in the video, we promise we're working on getting those fixed as soon as we can!

This week on the podcast we talk about a few updates in our lives recently. After a lot of debating, Oliver finally cut his hair! Chase is currently fostering a puppy, and Dylan is building a website to reduce his usage of Youtube. We talk about all of this and more on this week's episode.

Thank you for listening to the podcast!

#VANLIFE UPDATE:

It's back! It's been awhile, but you can't go long on this channel without hearing us talk about our crazy van plans! Today, that talk goes into how we plan on using a kitchen, sink, and even a ping pong table in our upcoming box truck conversion.

This conversation was spurred on by a Youtube video we saw recently (link down below!) showing a box truck conversion that had some really good features. This one video really challenged our pre-existing views on van conversions in many ways, and in this video we try to dig into each of the following topics:

Our kitchen setup

The necessity of greywater tanks

The importance of "stealth"

Windows

Our ping pong table

Dylan's incredibly important broom

And many more!

If anybody out there is an experienced van life dweller, or has some differing opinions on any of the conversations we had, reach out to us on Instagram or TikTok (@ProjectToday)! We'd love to discuss each of these topics in depth, and in all honesty could probably record twenty more podcasts about our van plans before running out of talking points.

Youtube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMbqddowQBY&t=121s

At long last, two Project Today members go head-to-head in a battle to decide who truly knows... more songs from Mamma Mia.

Not only do we tackle this important question, but we also dive head first into how each of us are crafting personalized schedules during quarantine. This crisis is an opportunity for each of us to plan our schedules out in advance, as we are each working/taking classes remotely. It's an unprecedented time, and for the three of us, it's quite possibly the first time in our lives that we aren't beholden to a rigid schedule imposed by a school, job, or sport. Because of that, we've each learned a ton from following (and oftentimes NOT following) our own self-imposed schedules.

In this video we go over exactly how each of us has scheduled our time, from the moment we wake up to the moment we settle back into bed. We each have an IDEAL schedule that, if followed, will yield the maximum amount of productivity and efficiency for our time. But at the same time, this freedom also means distractions have never been more prevalent.

So, are we sticking to our own schedules? Have we been able to actually live out our ideal schedules? Does Oliver know the words to Dancing Queen?

Find out the answers to these questions and many more in this episode of Project Today!

Today marks the end of our second-ever social media cleanse! For 30 days we have intentionally avoided all social media usage, and today we go over exactly what we've learned in those 30 days, plus what each of us plans to do now that we can re-integrate social media back into our lives.

We did a 30-day social media cleanse last year as well, however we soon discovered that the cleanse did almost nothing to ACTUALLY affect our social media usage. After a couple months we found ourselves once again making poor decisions when it comes to social media, mainly allowing its addictive nature to negatively impact our productivity and focus.

Leading up to this social media declutter, a variety of apps were causing each of us issues. Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok were finding ways to distract us from productive work every single day. In order to actually change our habits, we pursued a much more intentional social media detox.

Following the advice of Cal Newport in his book Digital Minimalism, we began a very intentional declutter. We started this month by setting parameters on each of our social media apps, and we wanted this declutter to become something that would forever change the way we use digital devices.

Did we succeed? Find out today, in the newest episode of Project Today!

Recently we discovered an article about traveling with only 15 items to your name, and this sparked our interest: could we live on just 15 items? If we started today, how minimalist could each of us actually go? That question is answered today!

Andrew Hyde, a world-traveling blogger, lives with just 15 items in his bag. He even goes so far as to only use a couple shirts and a single pair of shoes. Colin Wright, author of the "Exile Lifestyle" blog, lives with just 51 items to his name. We were instantly captivated by both of these journeys, as we also want to travel the world one day soon, and employ a minimalist lifestyle along the way.

To see if we could potentially live like that, we each came prepared today with the list of our bare minimum essential items and counted up the total. One this to keep in mind is that these lists are mostly prospective; Dylan is the only one of us with minimalist traveling experience. He once traversed around Southeast Asia with all of his luggage stowed away in a single backpack, and learned some helpful tips and tricks from his travels.

So, could each of us survive on just 15 items to our name?

Is minimalist traveling viable at all?

Do you actually need more than one pair of underwear?

All of these questions, plus more, are answered today on the latest episode of Project Today!

Will any of us ever actually make it onto the Amazing Race? We're not so sure... so what if we just created our own Amazing Race? In this episode, we do exactly that. We begin planning how we would start our own Amazing Race, from where we would film down to how we would film each individual episode.

Would we create something just like the actual Amazing Race, or would it be a new competition altogether? Would we be able to plan the race and compete in it ourselves, or would that be giving us an unfair advantage? Is there any three-person group in the ENTIRE WORLD that could beat Dylan, Oliver and Chase? Find the answers to all of these questions and more on today's episode of Project Today

This weeks project is to finally commit to our Project Today TikTok and post twice a day for the entire week! This is something Dylan and Oliver have been talking about starting but have yet to fully commit! Part of what Project Today is, is failing from time to time and learning from why we did fail and how we can use that to succeed in the future. We are certainly not perfect when it comes to living this lifestyle and are always striving to be better which is a huge part of what this podcast is!

In that light we talk a bit about some things we have been implementing and or failing to implement in our lives and methods to make it easier for us to stick to doing them everyday! If you are doing this social media declutter with us shoot us a dm on Instagram and let us know how it is going!

On this episode we give an update on our digital declutter and discuss strategies that we are using to stay away from social media and other technology. We also talk about making videos for a Yes Theory challenge!

Intro music is the Less I Know the Better by Tame Impala

Outro music is Listen to the Music by The Doobie Brothers