Slate’s special issue on procrastination. - - Slate Magazine

Slate is running a special issue this week on procrastination, a series of stories on why we waste time, what we do when we waste time, and how different types of people waste their time.

My favorites of the bunch so far:  read more »

N S G C D | Home

I’m still in a de-cluttering mode these days (more on that soon), so I was intrigued by this resource, which arrived this morning via Mrs. Folders.

While primarily a trade group for “professional organizers,” the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization site has some handy documents and links to help with identifying and solving pathological problems with clutter and hoarding.

If you can tolerate the site’s gruesome ardor for PDFs, you’ll find some informative and eye-opening stuff. From their fact sheets page:

• Are You Chronically Disorganized? - The obligatory self-test. Mmm…yeah, I am guilty of #17: “Is it difficult for you to part with things even though they have outlived their usefulness?”
• Time Management for the Chronically Disorganized - “Remember that you are procrastinating if you work on a trivial task while a more important one remains undone.”
• Tips for Communicating with the Chronically Disorganized - “Avoid what does not work…Don’t say: ‘Just do it!’”

I really liked some of the Tips for Overcoming Procrastination for the Chronically Disorganized Individual or Household (excerpted):  read more »

I’ve been working on a bunch of (non-43 Folders-related) stuff lately, but I started feeling that hankering to come back and write something new here. To get the engine started, I went through some old posts and turned up a few (oddly self-inspiring) ideas that I want to re-share. The topic? “Getting unstuck.”

• Hack your way out of writer’s block - “Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.”
• Solve problems by writing a note to yourself - “Seriously, open up your email program, type in your own email address, then choose a brilliant subject line that perfectly encapsulates your particular problem.”
• Do a fast “mind-sweep” - “And as long as you let that stuff accumulate as chunky deposits on the edges of your perception, it’s very unlikely it’ll get done since — well — they won’t get done until they’re been captured and properly started, right?”
• Cringe-Busting your TODO list - “Per cringe item, think honestly about why you’re freaked out about it. Seriously. What’s the hang-up? (Fear of failure? Dreading bad news? Angry you’re already way overdue?)”
• Patching your personal suck - “Every patch that fails teaches you a little something that might come in handy some day. Mistakes, as they say, can be a buddhist gift.”

I guess all I’d add — since it’s on my mind today — is that I’m learning how much it pays to listen whenever you hear yourself mentally whining.  read more »

I thought y’all might be interested in this little tool:

http://dot3labs.com/procrastitracker/

it delivers the most detailed time usage statistics of any such tool yet, all automatic. Allows you to tag anything afterwards for per-project stats and such.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! :)

James Clarke – No Links Please!

Here’s a fun one. Our old pal (and the coiner of “life hacks”), Danny O’Brien, passes along an extreme attention aid that might be regarded as the heir apparent to his wonderful “Webolodeon” script for GreaseMonkey.

No Links Please will do its part to keep you from mindlessly surfing the web:  read more »

Now I’m not suggesting that I am the first one to think of this, just suggesting an effective hack; a tool in my utility belt. Like a good procrastinator, at times I find myself confronted with a daunting list of “to-do’s”.Things add up, and before too long, even the simplest chore ends up on my list, adding to my log jam.

So here’s a hack that I like to call “The Easy Way Out”:  read more »

Hi folks,

time for some shameless self-promotion ;-)
Since I work on a couple of different machines at work and at home, I need a tool that I can have with me at each of those places and that is a bit less dorky than having a stopwatch next to the keyboard.  read more »