Talk of the Nation on Procrastination

Merlin Mann — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:13:26 -0400

How to Be a Productive Procrastinator : NPR (Talk of the Nation)

The Talk of the Nation that’s on right now (available for streaming later) is on the topic of procrastination.

Why do today what you can do the day after tomorrow? Procrastination expert Timothy Pychyl and self-professed “structured procrastinator” John Perry discuss the latest research on this type of behavior and how to prioritize what’s really important.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll remember John Perry for his excellent piece on “Structured Procrastination.” Great stuff.

”Talk of the Nation on Procrastination” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 12, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Links (and Distractions), 27 Nov 07

grant — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:10:41 -0500

Daily Galaxy on the virtues of clutter - For a junk junkie like me, I don't know if this counts as "triggering material" or not.
The OSX86 project builds a "Hackintosh" - Some kind of convergence, done lo-fi.
One Laptop Per Child faces competition… over who can create the cheapest functional computers for kids in developing countries. And how to get around the "W" word. You probably already know that the OLPC comes with its own special benefits, though. (No, not these benefits!)
How to Develop a Mindset for Math - This has always been one of my greatest challenges. Numbers will eat me! [via.]

”Links (and Distractions), 27 Nov 07” was written by grant balfour for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 27, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Gruber on "Rethinking Email"

Merlin Mann — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:47:13 -0400

Rethinking Email

Good insight from Chairman Gruber, related to the email system he’s started employing since moving to Mail.app

…I can classify all incoming personal email into three broad categories: (a) messages that are either very important or very interesting; (b) messages that are utterly non-interesting; and (c) those which fall somewhere in-between.

The vast majority of my email falls into the latter category. Under my previous “system”, I let them pile up in my inboxes, under the assumption that some day I’d get around to answering many of them. Under the new system, if I don’t respond immediately after reading them, they go right into my archive. Out of sight, out of mind.

For folks who haven’t crossed the line to where this realization really clicks, I understand that this can sound harsh, even uncaring. But once you have gotten into the habit, you realize the amount of bullshit you had been shoveling to yourself — hoping that all that stuff in your inbox, which you knew in your heart you’d never do anything about, would just…what?…grow wings and fly a response back to its sender? It’s daft.

It’s so tough to be honest with yourself about your real situation with email, but once you’ve made the admission, you’re weirdly freed up to communicate more authentically, and, in my experience, with a renewed enthusiasm.

”Gruber on "Rethinking Email"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 28, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

DailyLit: 5-minute literature chunks, via email or RSS

Merlin Mann — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:27:34 -0400

DailyLit: Read books by email and RSS.

To know me today, you’d never imagine how many hundreds of pages a week I read in college. Surprises me, anyhow. While I’ve devolved into an accomplished skimmer of Harper’s and the The New York Times Magazine, I rarely find (or, make) the time to finish a whole book about anything that’s not related to “work.” That’s why I’m intrigued by DailyLit, a service that leverages rather than battles the tendency to hang out online.

The idea is simple enough: select a “free” book that appeals to you, then, every day or two, via either email or RSS, the DailyLit robot sends you a section that’s readable in about five minutes. If you want more at any time — the digital equivalent of turning the page — just click to have the next installment sent, then keep on a’reading.

The variety of available selections is handsome, including favorites like Tristram Shandy, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Devil’s Dictionary and over 400 more. Feeling ambitious? Try War and Peace (675 5-minute parts), The Count of Monte Cristo (581 parts), or Don Quixote (448 parts). Want something a little lighter? You can’t go wrong with Candide (42 parts) or A Modest Proposal (4 [still hilarious] parts).

The site could benefit from a few additions — there’s no link to download a full version of the book or to directly request a dead-tree copy from the local library (ala) — but the clean design and stripped-down approach generally suits the functionality; the action is all happening in email and your feed reader, so the site just acts to manage subscriptions and afford finding new books.

I don’t thinks DailyLit’s intended as a replacement for holding a real book in your hand, and it would be cynical to imply that it is. Seems to me it’s basically a clever life hack for people who want to read more but who’d benefit from a short ramp and a timer. By sneaking the medicine into a mini-sized Oreo, we may just find ourselves getting back into a reading habit.

For myself, I’m not promising any college-style 1,000 pages per week, but I’m certainly game for giving T.S. Eliot five minutes of my time this morning. And then another five tomorrow…then another five….

[via: Cool Tools]

”DailyLit: 5-minute literature chunks, via email or RSS” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 01, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Neatorama on sustainable email fu

Merlin Mann — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:29:47 -0400

Rule the Web (and Rule Your Email Inbox!)

Alex from the always-swell Neatorama has written up the bullets on his preferred method for keeping an email inbox at zero.

4. Have a Simple Filing System
Don’t overthink this: a complex folder with subfolder system is not what you need to remain organized. Obviously, your particular needs will dictate how many folders you have … but in my experience, you rarely, if ever, need subfolders.

5. Have a Follow Up Folder There will be times that I need to research an answer to a particular email or do something before I can reply. I let these emails sit in my inbox for a maximum of 1 day (gasp!), then they get put into a Follow Up Folder if I haven’t gotten around to them - and then I add an entry in my to-do list.

Good tips, and my only (seemingly omnipresent) comment is to underscore that need to empty all your baskets regularly. Hence, one benefit of keeping your email storage and action structure light is that you won’t have to dash around to multiple places to see what’s on your plate.

”Neatorama on sustainable email fu” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 10, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

My War on Clutter: Inspiration for Independence Day

Merlin Mann — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:08:15 -0400

Tomorrow is the Independence Day holiday here in the US, so a lot of folks reading this will have the day off from work. If my own clutter war is piquing your interest in improving your surroundings, tomorrow could be the occasion for you to put a few minutes toward making a dent in your own pile.

Here’s some inspirational (and cautionary) links to get you started.

Unclutterer: Tips - A major tip of the cap to Jerry Brito and his pals at Unclutterer; in addition to having great tips on doing more with less, this is the site where I first learned about Peter Walsh’s book, It’s All Too Much, which I will freely credit with kicking off my recent spree of de-cluttering
Declutter 101: Declutter Strategies - This is the first place I ever saw the “four box strategy.” While this amount of sorting is a little more nuanced than my own scorched earth approach, it’s much more appropriate for people with minor clutter issues or who are just in need of a little regular maintenance.
Declutter 15 Minutes per Day - If you can slice through the velvety nougat of prose in which they’re suspended, Fly Lady’s tricks are almost always fantastic. This page pulls together some of her best tips in one place. Highly Recommended and very life-hacky.
OC Foundation: Hoarding Introduction - Information on understanding and treating compulsive hoarding. Hoarding is real, widely misunderstood, and totally sucking for everyone it touches. While not the garden variety source of clutter, it’s something to be aware of if the clutter problems of you or someone you love are spiraling.
Squalor Survivors - A support site for compulsive hoarders and anyone living in squalor. The before and (yikes, even some of the “after”) photos from this site’s contributors are dramatic, to say the least (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Collyer brothers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Perhaps the most infamous compulsive hoarders, the Collyer Brothers lived and died surrounded by “over 100 tons of rubbish.” That’s in one Manhattan apartment, mind you.

Do yourself a favor, though. Don’t just read and gawk. Take at least one step today to do something that clears a single small area or that ensures one dead piece of your world gets delivered to the curb.

Whatever your current state of clutter keeps you from doing (or being), remember it all starts with the first piece of junk you move out of your world. Talk about independence.

”My War on Clutter: Inspiration for Independence Day” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 03, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Business 2.0 interview with GTD's David Allen

Merlin Mann — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:13:50 -0400

David Allen: The master of getting thing done - July 1, 2007

Terrific article on David Allen and his company. Although the perspective is heavy on the business and money (well: after all, it is Business 2.0), there’s lots of interesting history and insight in here as well.

David Allen sits in his small office in a cottage behind his house in Ojai, Calif., talking business with a visitor. Suddenly he stops. “That reminds me,” he says. He scribbles the words “bird feed” on a piece of blank notebook paper and tosses it into his inbox.

It’s an ordinary moment in an ordinary day. But for Allen and his legion of followers, it holds the key to salvation. He has emptied his mind of a nagging task, placed it into a trusted system for processing, and casually returned to his conversation.

I hung with David when we were doing our podcast together (download the mp3), and I’ll tell you what: that is exactly how the man works, and it’s inspiring to watch.

Via: kedrhodes’ bookmarks on del.icio.us

”Business 2.0 interview with GTD's David Allen” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 28, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Link gratitude: Where I find my best stuff

Merlin Mann — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:45:10 -0400

I always try to credit the source for stuff that I link to when I’ve learned about it from other sites. In addition to helping my readers connect with voices they may not have heard before, I believe it’s just the classy thing to do. (I’m looking at you, “A Listers” — a lot of you have started dropping vias for everyone but your highest-profile buddies: tacky, tacky).

Anyway, I admit that I’m not 100% either, but in the interest of trying to make good, here are a few of the sites that I find myself reading and linking to a lot. Thanks to their authors and contributors for sending me (and you) to so many interesting places.

Anarchaia - Christian Neukirchen’s tumblelog is a must-read for his mix of deep programming nerdery as well as an appreciation for life’s lovely and delightful little bagatelles.
A Whole Lotta Nothing - I’ve read mathowie’s weblog since Christ was a corporal, and when he can steal time from his bazillion other web properties (including the excellent new Fortuito.us), he still brings the good stuff.
Boing Boing - Yeah, I know: you’ve heard of them too, but I’m grateful for the years of wonderful things they’ve brought to me. BB’s frequently still first with the best, plus they’re great about crediting sources for their links.
Cool Tools - Kevin Kelly and friends have an eye for useful, handy, and fun hard goods, showing an affection for well-designed products for the real world. I’ve learned about some of my favorite consumables from the mighty KK.
Daring Fireball - John Gruber is a cranky little man who also happens to have the sharpest, most critical mind in the Mac game today. The care and rigor he puts into every pixel of his site is inspiring to me.
del.icio.us esp. popular and mbwideas - The hive mind often has great stuff to share. Non-stop posters of “Top n [whatever]” lists? You’re all dead to me. Dead.
Hawk Wings - Tim Gaden’s been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but his archives bulge with super-useful pointers on Mac applications and tricks. O, ye hacky shovelers of secondhand Digg-bait, do yourselves a favor: read and learn from Tim.
Metafilter and Ask Metafilter - The Blue and The Green have something to satisfy every interest, obsession, and curiosity. On its best days, Metafilter makes magic. These days, AskMeFi is probably my favorite time sink, and it’s arguably the best place on the web to get your weird question answered.
Nelson Minar - Nelson’s so smart he kinda freaks me out. Geek news bits and commentary from one of my favorite ex-Googlers.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog & MacUser - Two great resources for all things Mac that I read religiously. Like all network blogs, they sometimes seem to suffer from what feels like a daily post quota (hate daily post quotas), but the contributors on both sites are whip-smart Mac dorks and pals. Go, team(s).

I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone and will be back to add more folks the minute I hit “Submit,” so please bear with me.

But, what do you think? Did I miss anyone? Who do I glean links from all the time? Got a great resource I might be missing? (No self-links for this one, please)

”Link gratitude: Where I find my best stuff” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 18, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Jason DeFillippo's 90-day program: "Just Start"

Merlin Mann — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:55:04 -0400

Jason P. DeFillippo : 90 Days

My pal, Jason DeFillippo, has recently begun a project to clean up his act over the next ninety days. In preparation for hitting the big three-six, he’s planning to tidy up, lose some weight, and start shedding the nonsense, clutter, and distractions in his life. Go, man, go.

Personally, I’ve had mixed to terrible results with things where I tried to invert too many habits at one time, but Jason is nothing if not a hardass and a man of firm resolve. I’m looking forward to watching his progress over the summer and learning what I can from him.

I’ll tell you one thing we agree on; it’s all about getting started:

I saw this over at Boris’s blog the other day and it really triggered something in me. I tend to think a lot about project and plans. I think about them so much I get paralyzed with option paralysis and stuff doesn’t get done. In an attempt to do something right the first time through it invariable almost never gets done at all. Thinking something through is an important part of the creative process but it means dick if you don’t ever start. And if you don’t start you don’t finish.

Good on ‘ya, Jason. Rock it.

Here are Jason’s “90 Days” posts so far:

Don’t think, just start… - “I’ll be documenting my progress as daily as possible for the next 90 days, hopefully beyond, sharing what I’m trying and how it works out so maybe some other folks will get inspired to get the hell out of their doldrums and just, ya know, start!”
Day 1. Reduction - “But the point is if I get rid of things that I’d worry about then I don’t have to worry if something should happen to them.”
Weigh in #1 - “Youch.”
Day 2: This Party Sucks! - “What was I thinking? I’ve schlepped this goddamn button around the country for 10 goddamn years! “
Day 2: Round-up - “You can read all the books you want and get all the theory you can swallow but sometimes you just have to put the book down and walk out the front door.”

”Jason DeFillippo's 90-day program: "Just Start"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 18, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Pmarca productivity: Excellent tips for getting through the day

Merlin Mann — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:18:10 -0400

blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity

What a fantastic post. And so many great suggestions that I’m hesitant to choose a sample…so I’ll limit myself to three:

Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.

And then, the next day, do those things…

Don’t answer the phone.

Let it go to voicemail, and then every few hours, screen your voicemails and batch the return calls.

Say, twice a day…

Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.

In my experience, it takes time to tell the difference between your head saying yes and your heart saying yes.

I think the key is whether you’re really excited about it.

If you get that little adrenaline spike (in a good way) when you think about it, then your heart is saying yes….

Most of the tips on this page strike me as being very practical, real-world, battlefield advice that works. And even if you can’t totally avoid a schedule or totally keep email checking down to twice a day, it won’t hurt to soak up the spirit of these ideas and let them move by osmosis into the places where they can do you some good. Shake it up a little.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes 43-folders-esque stuff.

(And triple credit for the Robert Evans reference. Did it make me happy? You bet your ass it did.)

”Pmarca productivity: Excellent tips for getting through the day” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 05, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2008 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"