One video letter from my quarterly mailings.

Every three months, I ship out a box of wonderful physical products, along with a video “letter” explaining how I found them and how I use them.

One such video letter is above.

The theme of these quarterly mailings is obsession–the ideas and objects I can’t get out of my head.

Obsessions enter my life from odd places.  Currently, my gadgets and gear recommendations are coming from Cirque du Soleil performers, chess prodigies, Fortune 500 CEOs, and military snipers.  It’s the randomness that makes it fun.

More than 1,500 people subscribe to these boxes through Quarterly.co. They are making 130 more slots available for my next shipment, which is going to be killer. You can subscribe here. If you miss TIM05, you’ll be first in line for TIM06.

Below, I describe the goodies from the last two boxes, so you can explore them a la carte.

Enjoy!

[Note for those asking about the TFX TV show — 13 episodes are coming soon, plus extras for iTunes season pass holders!]

Box TIM04

Scroll to below the photos for descriptions and links.

1. Vagabonding book — one of my all-time favorites — signed by author Rolf Potts – This is one of two books I took around the world with me for approximately 18 months. I love it so much that I bought the rights to the audiobook, worked with Rolf to add new case studies, and had him narrate an updated version. Listen to a free sample here.

2. Soma Water Filter – The water filter I use and show off to friends. More details in the video at the top of this post.

3. STX Lacrosse Ball – My all-around fix for muscular issues including foot ache (e.g. plantar fasciitis), tight chest (which can cause back pain), and more.

4. Rogue Fitness VooDoo Floss Band – This contraption is half torture and half miracle. Created by Kelly Starrett of SF CrossFit, it has helped me turn around nasty injuries in 24-48 hours.

5. Blue Bottle Coffee, 17ft. Ceiling – One of my favorite coffee beans from one of my favorite roasters on the planet. I like to hand grind and then brew using an AeroPress.

6. Red Blossom Pu-erh Tea – This is the tea I currently drink every morning, especially when experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (IF).

Box TIM03

This box was an experiment that included both physical and digital items, including one-of-a-kind remixes and welcome videos from band members and movie directors.

Even excluding the value of the 15 extra and remixed songs from Beats Antique, the People in Motion extras, and the Kumare extras, the box has a retail value of $209.25.

1. Clean Bottle, The Square, $45.00 — My favorite water bottle, bar none. Click the link to see how easy it is to clean. Genius.

2. The Five Minute Journal , $22.95. This is how I’ve been practicing gratitude and focus for months now. 2.5 minutes in the morning, another 2.5 minutes at night. Simple and effective.

3. Steve’s Grass-Fed Paleostix, $5.50. Need a slow-carb or Paleo snack? This one will do the trick.

4. CLEAR card, 4 months free trial, $60 value. This is how I skip airport security lines, saving my sanity and hundreds of hours a year.

5. Kumare, $21.73, including two albums of unreleased music, as well as behind-the-scenes photos. This is one of my favorite documentaries of the last 5 years. It blends reality and illusion into an amazing fabric. Check it out.

6. Beats Antique custom drive containing 7 (!) of their albums, as well as a special group of remixes and extras. I fell in love with Beats Antique at one of their live performances in SF. Their “electronic gypsy” music (as they’d describe it), combined with sensual dance, was mesmerizing.

To understand exactly what I mean, skip to 7:15 in the below video for one of my favorite songs (“Beauty Beats“). For the full sexy, play all 25+ minutes in the background while you work:

Here are the albums I included in the box:

Collide 2008, $8.99

Tribal Derivations 2007, $8.99

Contraption (EP Vol.1), $6.23

Contraption, Vol. II 2012, $7.92

Blind Threshold 2010, $8.99

Elektrafone 2011, $8.99

The Trunk Archives, $3.96

7. People in Motion — Documentary on parkour and freerunning, including custom-designed bracelet drive and extras.

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Want to get the next box of random goodness?  Just sign up here! Wait until you see what’s coming…

Question of the day: What types of items would you like to see in future Quarterly mailings and blog posts like this?

The post My Latest Obsessions: Voodoo Floss, Pu-Erh Tea, Electronic Gypsy Music, and More appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Every three months, I ship out a box of amazing physical products, along with two personal letters explaining everything: a physical letter and a video “letter.”  

One of the latter is above.  I do *not* plan on including these the blog, but giving an example is fun.

The theme of these quarterly mailings is obsession–I include the ideas and objects I can’t get out of my head.

Obsessions enter my life from all over the place.  Currently, my gadgets and gear recommendations are coming from Cirque du Soleil performers, chess prodigies, Fortune 500 CEOs, and military snipers.  It’s the randomness that makes it fun.

More than 1,500 people subscribe to these boxes through Quarterly.co. They are opening up 1,000 more spots for my next shipment, if of interest.

Here are the goodies from the latest:

1. Spectacle by David Rockwell with Bruce Mau ($49.95 retail, $33.94 Amazon)

2. Edible Green Tea ($25 retail)

3. LSTN Earbuds ($50 retail) Get 20% off by using the code “Quarterly” at check out!

4. AMRAP Refuel Bars ($23.95 retail, $23.90 Amazon)

5. Creative Whack Pack ($16 retail, $11.30 Amazon)

6. $20 DonorsChoose.org Gift Card

7. Hacker Credit Card, Mini Work Tool ($7.95 retail, $8 Amazon)

8. Alpha BRAIN ($35 retail)

Want to get the next box? First come, first served here.

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Some of the feedback so far (more here):

Joshua Millage – @jmillage – on 26 May

WOW @tferriss #TIM02 spanked #TIM01 if you keep this up – Im guessing we will be getting Ferraris in our boxes soon. THANKS!

Scott Miller – @Scotchmo – on 28 May

@tferriss Tim02 box arrived LSTN headphones sound great, and I am a headphone snob! Thanks Tim! #tim02

Will Lenzen Jr – @wlenzenjr – on 30 May

Blown away by the quality & thought put into what @tferriss included in #TIM02 of @Quarterly. Thanks Tim! pic.twitter.com/fdLoidRF7u

Want to explore further?  Here are the Twitter handles for all the above, in alphabetical order:

Alpha BRAIN by Onnit Labs – @Onnit

AMRAP Nutrition – @AMRAPUSA

Donors Choose gift card – @DonorsChoose

Eat Green Tea – @eatgreentea

LSTN headphones – @LSTN

Mini work tool is created by BCB International – @bcbin

Spectacle, by David Rockwell and Bruce Mau – @labatrockwell, @brucemaudesign

Whack Pack, creator Roger von Oech – @RogervonOech

The post The Quarterly Goodies — Hacker Credit Cards, Alpha BRAIN, Refuel Bars, and More appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Screenshot of my first video “letter” to Quarterly subscribers.

Roughly 2-3 weeks ago, my first Quarterly package shipped out to subscribers, including many of you.

The theme of my Quarterly mailings is obsession–the ideas and objects I just can’t get out of my head. I get obsessed with all kinds of things. Sometimes I’m hooked on a great health product or travel gadget. Other times, I find a new productivity booster or incredible book through my experiments and research.

I never know what I’ll get obsessed with next, and that surprise factor is what makes obsessions great.

Here’s what the first box looked like (click to enlarge)!

The descriptions are below… and just wait until you see what’s next!…

Quarterly is now accepting 500 more subscribers — first come, first served. Just click here to check out the details. International is no problem — just a $10 shipping fee for Canada and a $15 shipping fee for all other non-US countries.

Anything in particular you’d like to see in future boxes? Please let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, here are all of the products from the first box ($200+ value):

1. Gyokucho Japanese Saw

2. Bird by Bird

3. Letters from a Stoic

4. Buddha Board

5. Prismacolor Col-Erase Colored Pencil Light Blue

6. Bigger, Stronger, Faster (DVD)

7. Athletic Greens

OR

BioTrust Low-Carb Protein (This was only for some international subscribers, who could not receive Athletic Greens due to customs regulations)

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Odds and Ends: Live Event and Merrell Winners

Live Event: “Building the Perfect Human: Tracking Biomarkers for Performance and Health Enhancement”

I use a start-up called WellnessFX for all of my comprehensive blood testing.

Be one of the first 200 people to purchase a WellnessFX package between now and March 28, and you’ll receive an exclusive invitation to see me speak live in downtown San Francisco on March 28th from 6pm-7:30pm. It will be an intimate group, and there will be plenty of time for audience Q&A.

Check out all the details here.

Merrell Winners

The 10 winners of the last comment competition are listed below. To the winners: keep an eye on your email! Also, since so many people have asked about my default shoes, here are my two current favorites:

– For all-around use: The Reach Glove

– For walking and (carefully) running: The Vapor Glove, their most minimal “barefoot-like” shoe

http://bit.ly/13VVpCk – Men’s

http://bit.ly/Z7TOoB – Women’s

THE 10 WINNERS:

It was hugely difficult to narrow these down, but here are 10 that my magic elves and I particularly liked. Thank you to everyone how commented!

1. Adam Brady

Connection for me occurs when purpose meets emotion. You can do things with purpose but without emotion and you can do things emotionally but without purpose, “connection” is when the two sentiments converge. Many individuals work with the purpose of making a living, and many play for the pure emotion of joy but, when one finds a calling or activity that speaks to them they become connected, and that work/activity is executed with both purpose and joy.

My favorite body weight exercises are pull-ups, push-ups, mountain climbers, deep squats and planks. 5 exercises, whole body, simple and effective.

2. Connor Grooms

It is inherently foolish to try to put words to connection. Connection is not possible to describe, just like the tao, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name”. Connection is what makes life worth living, what makes relationships deep, and what makes being alone in wild Nature feel so freeing. There are more literal meanings, but those are insufficient.

Best body weight exercise is Pullups, especially ones on door frames (grip strength)

3. Rachel

When we feel our hearts beating, blood pulsing in our veins, and our breath moving inside of us we are fully alive…we are in connection with ourselves and we are connected to all other living things. Connection is life.

Yoga is connection and is by far my favorite body-weight only exercise for mind, body and spirit!

4. Mike Gopsill

Connection is the noun for Kevin Bacon, who is always connected, by 4GEE and by six degrees.

My favourite bodyweight-only exercises are dips because they are isolated and intense, a one-handed pushup (Rocky-style) and I like a Turkish getup with no weight if that counts.

Great post Tim, looking forward to getting outside myself when the UK summer kicks in.

5. Edmundo Gurza

What does “connection” mean to you??A connection is the perfect mix of focus and calmness, which allows you to be in the moment with all your senses. Whether it is with a person, a task or nature, being in the moment and allowing the connection to happen opens your senses to bring clarity and be able to focus on what is surrounding you.

What are your favorite bodyweight-only exercises??- squats (such a natural movement that has been so lost in our culture)?- anything handstand-ish (pushups, holds, one handed, etc)?- and of course pullups

6. Rebecca

Connection is intangible, invisible and undeniable. Felt as an energy toward someone or something, our ears perk up, our eyes open wide and our hearts start to flutter.

It sneaks up on you when you least expect it. It grabs you by the heart and says “listen up!” It is the extra “something” that we often cannot put words to because there are some things in life that are too unique and special to name or label.

Best body weight exercise is full body squats in sets that make you wonder if you are going to be able to get off the toilet later! :0)

7. Drew

Connection, to me personally, is what I felt the first time I went to Brazil, speaking no Portuguese, and met a Japanese Brazilian girl who didn’t speak English. We had the strongest CONNECTION I had ever felt. We had a “chemical”, as she said, using her English dictionary.

8 years later: she is fluent in English, I am fluent in Portuguese, and we are married.

My favorite bodyweight exercises are the ones that use leverage and creativity to create extreme difficulty – one-armed pushup and one-armed pullup.

8. Ryan Ripley

Connection – a strange attractor that leads to unpredictable interractions and consequences.

Favorite body weight exercise: Face the wall squats (RKC)

9. Monica Ridgway

For me, “connection” means surrender, at least to some extent, allowing unity with whatever one is connecting with – be it nature, God, oneself, a dance partner, a spouse, a friend, or whatever. In order to connect, we have to let go of our own need for control, let go of preconceived ideas and agendas, and allow the external to enter and exert power over us. This surrender and connection changes us, the whole more than the sum of its parts.

As for favorite body-weight-only exercises, my top choice has always been dance. From the strict forms of ballet and modern dance, to ballroom and swing, to the nearly-formless bouncing and shimmying to be witnessed in nightclubs, to break dancing, dance involves all parts of the body – particularly the core – and it is also a great cardio workout. Dance is also an excellent way of connecting, be it with music – giving your body over to the music to drive your movement – or with a partner – surrendering the self to move together as one body.

10. Mark Greenman

1. For me, “connection” means a lot of things, but when I first read it, the connection I thought of was the feeling I get when I connect with a particularly well designed piece of gear, something that has been designed for exactly what I need it to do, and expresses itself instantly. But then I’m a gear nerd!

The post My First Quarterly Shipment! (Plus: Live Event 3/28, Merrell Winners) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.