State of the Blog

I have been slow to post any­thing for the last few weeks, and with good rea­son. I have decided to no longer pub­lish reg­u­larly to this blog. I started Pro­duc­tiv­ity Hacks to share my progress on try­ing to become a more pro­duc­tive per­son. That project was a suc­cess as I feel now a year later like I have a much bet­ter grasp of what I need to do to remain productive. I am not rul­ing out any future posts, but don’t hold your breath for them. I have went... Read More

∞ the iPad – One Month In

I had a lot of trou­ble decid­ing what I think the worst fea­ture to be, but I think I finally dis­cov­ered. Lack of pri­vacy is the iPad’s worst fea­ture. I think Craig Hock­en­berry said it best: “The iPad was nat­u­rally passed around amongst the par­ty­go­ers. Many peo­ple inter­acted with it dur­ing the evening, and I lost track of who had it at any given time. And therein lies a fun­da­men­tal prob­lem. My iPad has a lot of per­sonal infor­ma­tion... Read More

∞ the Productivity Myth

Tony Schwartz: We need a bet­ter way of work­ing. It’s not about gen­er­at­ing short-term, super­fi­cial pro­duc­tiv­ity gains by using fear as a moti­va­tor and then squeez­ing peo­ple to their lim­its. Rather, it depends on help­ing lead­ers to under­stand that more is not always bet­ter, and that rest, renewal, reflec­tion, and a long-term per­spec­tive are also crit­i­cal to fuel­ing value that lasts. A must read. via Har­vard Busi­ness Review.  Read More

∞ Three Quick Organizing Projects You Can Do Right Now

These are all really fast, really good tips. They are also three things I try to do at least every other day. Via Unclut­terer  Read More

∞ When Is It Time to Ditch Your Home Office?

When is it Time to Ditch Your Home Office? This gives some really great tips on when you need to go from home to pro, in order to be more productive.  Read More

∞ OneThingToday

There are lots of ways to get things done. With OneThing­To­day you sim­ply assign a sin­gle task or project to each day. This helps you focus on one major goal each day, avoid­ing the dis­trac­tion of other pend­ing tasks or ongo­ing projects. Plan your time in Cal­en­dar mode, which gives you an over­iew of one or sev­eral weeks. Once you have your time mapped out, switch to Sticky mode which dis­plays only the task you have assigned for the cur­rent day. via... Read More

∞ PowerPoint Makes Us Stupid

Elis­a­beth Bumiller for the NYTimes.com: “Pow­er­Point makes us stu­pid,” Gen. James N. Mat­tis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces com­man­der, said this month at a mil­i­tary con­fer­ence in North Car­olina. (He spoke with­out Pow­er­Point.) Brig. Gen. H. R. McMas­ter, who banned Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tions when he led the suc­cess­ful effort to secure the north­ern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, fol­lowed up at the same con­fer­ence by... Read More

∞ Simplenote for iPad

Just released is Sim­plenote for iPad. This was a great app for the iPhone and thus far it is great on the iPad. Oh and it is free.  Read More

∞ Minimalism, Rethunk

Leo Babauta: The min­i­mal­ism trend has had cer­tain ele­ments that leave some read­ers with a bad taste in their mouths: ele­ments of hype and sales­man­ship, ele­ments of obses­sion, ele­ments of one-upsmanship, a focus on aes­thet­ics, a focus on pos­ses­sions to the point of obsession. Leo goes on to say: I have to con­fess I’m as guilty of these things as any­one else, so please don’t take this as an attack on any­one. If any­thing, it’s sim­ply... Read More

∞ Work-Life Balance Digitally Destroyed

Kit Eaton: Can you say “Crack­Berry” and “iPhonead­dic­tion?” And can you add on “Bye-bye any notion of work-life bal­ance” just for good mea­sure? One in three peo­ple is basi­cally sac­ri­fic­ing their entire life (in a small, but nonethe­less mean­ing­ful) way to their employer, which really is push­ing the “live to work” say­ing to its lim­its. While it's under­stand­able that the reces­sion has strained com­pa­nies to the point... Read More