In a recent declaration, ‘podcast’ has been awarded ‘word of the year’ by Oxford dictionary, leaving many worthy runners-up…
lifehack (a more efficient or effective way of completing an everyday task: “I found a great lifehack for getting a cheap hotel room.”)
Merlin shares his kGTD setup:
“While I‚Äôm not prepared to do a major sales presentation, I am happy to oblige the folks who wanted to see how I‚Äôve set mine up. Also gives you a little window into my current contexts (as well as my atrocious personal habits).”
I can also vouch for kGTD - if you have a Mac and you are with your Mac most of the day, its the best!
David Seah has been exploring these waterproof notebooks for writing ideas with his Fisher Space Pen in the shower:
“A basic no-frills sketch book of 42 blank sheets‚Äîexcept unlike your average sketch paper, these sheets are waterproof. ¬†If you sketch in the field when there‚Äôs a chance of rain‚Äîor a chance of dropping the book in a stream‚Äîyou can feel assured that your artistic creations will not be lost.”
Mark Cuban picks out his favorite posts how how he became successful:
“I get so many questions about how I got¬†‚Äùlucky‚Äù so many times,¬†things I have done that have worked or not.¬†Experiences I have had. This series of entries, written more than¬† a year ago, I think,¬†bring back some great memories for me and I think are worth sharing again.”
David Seah writes about how we are all talking about a very different beast when we think about (if we think about it) personal productivity:
“Being productive‚Äîoutside of the work context‚Äîis feeling that sense of accomplishment. This isn‚Äôt a metric like ‚Äúlines of code‚Äù or ‚Äúnumber of widgets created‚Äù or ‚Äútime to write a proposal‚Äù or ‚Äúnumber of items I checked off my To Do list‚Äù. Those are examples of metrics and they‚Äôre useful, but what really matters is feedback. Feedback is measurement with meaning. You do not get a sense of accomplishment without that; this is particularly true in video game design.”
This strikes a nerve, as what time do we value more than our personal time - the time we spend any way we like? It’s one thing to be hyper efficient at work to make more money, get ahead, etc etc - but what about with our so-called “free” time?
Haha! Here is a training system sure to shock you! The USB-powered buzztrainer is here to help…
The BuzzTrainer assists computer users in learning software, and can also be used to eliminate bad PC habits. Through the use of small electric shocks administered through the wrist strap, the BuzzTrainer is guaranteed to improve your PC skills, help you restrain specific behaviors, or control PC addiction.
Configure any application as a BuzzApp and eliminate the desire to spend hours gaming, to file share, or to download illegal music.
Well, if using this as a way to curb some bad habits is not for you, you can also try it as an acupressure system, as it can be programmed to target the 5 pressure points in the wrist. The claimed effect is to improve your overall well-being, possibly so you can sit/waste a few more hours at the computer.
Working Smart reminds us to get rid of apps we never use:
“Unfortunately, after a year of using my Mac‚Äîand loving it!‚Äîit looks like I have almost 150 apps installed on my PowerBook. This is way too much clutter. I need to simplify my life‚Äîand regain some much-needed hard disk space.So I created a ‚ÄúDeath Row‚Äù folder. I then moved any program I haven’t used in a while to this folder. I plan to sequester the files for the next 30 days.”
Lesser Known Proofreading Marks from Geist
As usual David Seah hits the nail on the head when he relates the way pilots measure their own experience in hours logged to other areas of self-improvement:
“The point: the ability to improve ourselves is very much within our grasp. I always knew this, but putting it in terms of accumulating hours of experience is awesome. An acquaintance of mine put weight loss in similar terms: ‚ÄúSure, it‚Äôs going to take two years to lose that much weight‚Äìit‚Äôs a drag. But you‚Äôre going to be living those two years anyway, so why not slim down at the same time?‚ÄùIf we are mindful about the way we exist, we really have no choice but to get better at whatever we‚Äôre doing. Mindfulness is the key. There probably is an optimal way of structuring that time for efficient learning, but the general idea is awesome.”