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Personal ProductivityLife hacks: Smarty Pants v. DumbassMerlin Mann | Dec 8 2006
The New, Soft Paternalism - New York Times A recent NYT Magazine piece considers the trend toward compulsive gamblers being able to self-ban themselves from casinos and considers the discussions around what this sort of self-imposed "paternalism" might mean. I don't have much of an opinion one way or another about whether this is good, bad, paternalistic, or what have you, but I was struck by a couple paragraphs that go straight to the heart of why many folks seek out garden variety "life hacks" in the first place: read more »34 Comments
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Productive Talk Compilation: 8-episode podcast with GTD's David AllenMerlin Mann | Nov 28 2006
Download MP3 of "Productive Talk Compilation" As promised, here's the single-file compilation of the Productive Talk podcast interviews I did with David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done. The final version's eight episodes clock in at a considerable one hour and twenty-six minutes, so this should give you plenty to listen to while you're in line at the DMV. read more »POSTED IN:
David Seah on wall-based productivity pr0nMerlin Mann | Nov 28 2006David Seah explores a treasure trove of lo-fi productivity pr0n, as provided by the vertical-surface-loving folks at Magnatag: read more »POSTED IN:
Bandwagon: Links not to miss, 2006-11-27Merlin Mann | Nov 27 2006A few of the links that have been pretty popular on other sites, which I’d be remiss not to mention in passing here: read more »POSTED IN:
Fun and functional ways to trick out your htaccess fileMerlin Mann | Nov 22 2006This is a terrific collection of tricks for hacking on your Apache htaccess file, including some very useful ways to save bandwidth, control site access, and generally wreck havoc. read more »POSTED IN:
David Allen on GTD's future (and why it just works, as is)Merlin Mann | Nov 21 2006
43 Folders and The David Allen Company present the eighth in a series of conversations that David and Merlin recently had about Getting Things Done. Summary
Grab the MP3, learn more at Odeo.com, or just listen here (after the cut). Merlin's commentsIf you bend David Allen's ear for more than 30 seconds about GTD, you'll hear some variation of a phrase that I heard a lot over the couple days we hung out in Ojai: "It's all in the book!" Say what you will about The David, but he is not a man who suffers from The George Lucas Complex. Much to the consternation of his publishers, his fans, and -- one suspects -- even some of his colleagues, David feels like he has already written the complete and definitive work on the Getting Things Done system. And he very clearly has no desire to futz with that basic system without a good reason; it's sound and complete, as is, and there you go. Next subject. And, I have to say, in a lot of ways, I've come to really admire this. read more »POSTED IN:
Vox Pop: Sell me on manual email filingMerlin Mann | Nov 17 2006Lots of the kids are excited about the arrival of MsgFiler, which is a neat litte app for helping you file away your messages in Mail.app:
Zesty. But I'll just play devil's advocate on this one: if you find yourself inordinately excited about the arrival of this (admittedly clever) application, there's an excellent chance that your email archiving system is unnecessarily complex and, in fact, is in need of a major streamlining. Discuss. read more »POSTED IN:
GTD: Project Verbs vs. Next-Action VerbsMerlin Mann | Nov 14 2006In implementing Getting Things Done, you're wise to understand that words are powerful things. And the king of words in GTD, as in life, is the verb. How you articulate an activity or how you choose to frame a project within the context of your larger life and work will say a lot about how successful you can be in turning all your "stuff" into atomic actions that will work in support of valuable outcomes. This starts with simple things like beginning next actions with a physical verb, but there's actually a lot more subtlety (and potential confusion) to it. In fact, one of the hang-ups that many people encounter in planning their work in GTD is that, no matter how hard they try, they can never seem to get the distinction between single-action verbs and the larger "look-into" style projects that may require sub-actions. This comes up a lot, and it can lead to frustration and untold friction. Well, if you've ever shared this affliction of not knowing your verbs from a hole in the ground, I have some rare and unexpected GTD gold. Buried in the companion booklet for the Getting Things Done FAST! CD set (currently out of print) is one of the more useful bits of GTD instruction I've seen outside the book. It's a list of "Project Verbs" versus "Next-Action Verbs" and, man, is it ever useful. read more »POSTED IN:
David Allen on best practices for implementing GTDMerlin Mann | Nov 13 2006
Productive Talk #07: Implementing GTD 43 Folders and The David Allen Company present the seventh in a series of conversations that David and Merlin recently had about Getting Things Done. Summary
Grab the MP3, learn more at Odeo.com, or just listen here (after the cut). Merlin's commentsMy favorite bit in this one (jump to 1:38) is where we learn that some of David's best stuff seems to have had a genesis in an unlikely place -- from his tenure as the manager of a gas station, back in the day. read more »POSTED IN:
Particletree: Excellent email guide roundupMerlin Mann | Nov 7 2006Particletree » A Guide to Email Roundup Over on the lovely Particletree, Chris Campbell has posted a valuable collection of links for tips on dealing with email.
What I like about his choices (including, I suppose, the 43f link *blush*) is the focus on _results_. Instead of being about simply the blah-blah-blahs of netiquette and style, these are suggestions on how best to get something accomplished -- and, yeah, sometimes that means just knowing how to keep it standard, simple, and easy to grok. Very good, tactical, battlefield stuff. I especially dug Kaitlin Duck Sherwoods exhaustive 'Beginner's Guide to Effective Email' (ca. 1995!), which was new to me, and which I do recommend checking out. Even for the veterans out there, it might be useful to read up on kicking it old-school -- from the days when a crap email would earn you a Clinton-era eBitchslap from all the beardy Pine users in your life. POSTED IN:
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