Productivity Power Links 07-21-09

Mr. obvious strikes again!

You know what you need to do. You know why you need to do it. You even know what steps you must take to get it done. But there’s one small problem: you can’t seem to get moving. It’s a common problem. Maybe it’s chronic procrastination or maybe you’re just so overwhelmed that you feel paralyzed.

link: 10 Ways To Give Yourself A Procrastination Inoculation

Darren please tell us how you gtd with Evernote?

I have been using Evernote as one of my capture tools recently. I set it up with 3 and only 3 Notebooks. Simple. My default is INBOX. This is where all my incoming notes, emails, photos etc go. This is my collection bucket and is completely unprocessed. I get this INBOX to zero daily most of the time.

link: GTD and Evernote | darrencrawford.com

Skype for OS X is updated…thats good right?

Mac OS X only: Back in January Skype released a beta version of the popular VoIP application that added screen sharing tools, integration with Wi-Fi access service Boingo, better audio and video, and several other improvements.

link: Skype 2.8 for Mac Adds Screen Sharing, Wi-Fi Access, and More – Skype 2.8 – Lifehacker

How us home bound info workers can be better slackers…

But we do all need mental breaks to recharge. I can’t just not take breaks because taking them is too much work. So to cope with this challenge I’ve developed a system of being able to partially dial back my level of work activity. This gives me some of the mental feeling of taking time off without the break itself causing a stressful workload.

link: How to Take Mini Mental Breaks

What is productivity in the light of our post modern reality????

There has been rising concerns that “productivity is dead” and that people are moving on to new things. The conditions have changed that created the initial excitement around “productivity.” Most people are now comfortable with the internet, their computers, and the associated “knowledge work” that they no longer need ways to help them cope. In that sense, “productivity” is no longer needed.

link: On the Horizon: The New Productivity

After 12 years of waiting….

Many, many months ago, it looked like an official solution for syncing BlackBerry devices with the Mac (including media and iTunes playlists) was right around the corner. Now, almost a year later, RIM is finally making it official. But don’t get too excited. You still have to wait until September before the new software will be available for download.

link: Official BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac Coming in September

Hacking your sleep? Riigghhhhhttttt….

One of the ways to force your brain into REM sleep and skip the other phases is to make it feel exhausted. If you’ve gone 24 hours without sleep, you might notice that you drift away into dreams straight from being awake. This because your body goes instantly into REM sleep as a protection mechanism. The way to hack yourself into entering REM sleep without being exhausted is to trick your body into thinking you’re going to get a tiny amount of sleep. You can train it to enter REM for short periods of time throughout the day in 20-minute naps rather than in one lump at night. This is how polyphasic sleep works.

link: How To Hack Your Brain, Part 1: Sleep | Dustin Curtis


Creative Workspaces


The Economist takes a look at some creative workspaces…

The laptop is a part of me. Everywhere you travel, everywhere you go, it’s part of you. It’s a very strange object because a laptop is something where your private life and your friends meet your working life and stress. It’s all on one object now, and it’s the centre of my little world. I’m a writer, that’s what I do most. My ideas happen while I’m typing.

The Economist: Thinking Space


Getting Rid Of The Leaks…


So I work from my home office for a local University. My job requires that I use a email client that supports Exchange Server which my OS of choice does not support at the moment.

So I finally gave up trying to get Apple Mail to work with Outlook Web Access and just installed Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro using Bootcamp. At first it seemed like the perfect solution, I could install all the junk I needed for work on the Bootcamp partition and still enjoy the simple elegances of OS X.

But what I noticed is that after I installed Windows 7 I started installing a bunch of games to you know, help me unwind after work. I mean everybody needs a little a playtime after sweating over a burning hot keyboard all night… right? But what happened is that after making all these grandiose plans for world domination during my weekly review I was spending hours playing Topspin and Tiger Woods.

What was suppose to be a little fun turned into a big time leak.

So I deleted the Bootcamp partition and installed Entourage and guess what? I’m getting a lot more stuff done.

You can have the best plans in the world but if your not willing to get rid of the time leaks it may take you longer than necessary to actualize them.


What Is The Deal With Slow Hotel Internet?

So I get about 12 Mbps at home and am getting 0.35 Mbps on the road in a hotel. This is a fairly decent business dude type hotel, so how is this in anyway acceptable?

A few days ago I was at another hotel and they made me pay 15 bucks for their high speed internet and when I did a speed test I was barely getting dial-up speeds.

This outrage most be put to a stop! Business dudes and info workers must unite and demand our God given right to have free high speed interwebs wherever we go!

originally posted on productive life


Xpad A Simple Text Editor For Mac

Xpad is a really simple text editor for Mac…

According to the developer, “xPad is a single solution replacement for Stickies, NotePad, Scrapbook and TextEdit.” Although the latter claim might be a stretch, given TextEdit’s advanced functionality in Tiger, xPad is indeed quite flexible. The latest version lets you create notes with full RTF support, paragraph formatting (including styles, tab stops, spacing, and lists), and character-level formatting. You can also perform non-contiguous selections—select some text in one part of a document, hold down the Command key, highlight text in another part of the document, and then perform actions on both selections.

via macworld

I use it to store all my serial numbers and to do lists. It’s best feature is it’s simplicity. You can download it here


What Is MiFi?

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The mighty Andy Ihnatko reviews the new Verizon MiFi mobile broadband adapter.

The MiFi is an ingenious concept. It’s a black, iPod-sized device with its own battery. It has just one button. A green light comes on when you press it, indicating that the MiFi is powered on. A second green light starts blinking, indicating that it’s working on something. When it goes steady, presto: the MiFi has transformed itself into a bog-standard WiFi base station, capable of supporting up to five users simultaneously.

via suntimes

 

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