KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid or Keyboards In Simplicity Success
Posted by Jered | Filed under Recommended
Michael and I started the Simplicity Habit to break through the “top 10 list” syndrome that permeates the lifehacking ethos. While this post will have numbers and will be a list, it is only because these are programs which have been very helpful in my quest for productivity. Please consider this not a “top 10 list” but a series of personal recommendations.
- Mail Act-On
I am a keyboard shortcut guy. The less mouse work I can do, the better. As a Mail.app user, I want a way to manipulate my messages without having to drag-and-drop them to my Archive folder (yes, just one folder).Mail Act-On, from indev software, allows me to hit the ` (reverse tick, just below the Escape key), followed by a letter or other key and my mail is moved, colored or added to my GTD application.
Setup is simple, just create Mail.app Rules with special prefix and best of all, Mail Act-On is free.
There is a difficult Windows work around using Outlook and some scripting, if you want to try it out, go here: http://justgeeks.blogspot.com/2007/04/outlook-keyboard-shortcuts-or-button-to.html.
- Quicksilver
Being a keyboard shortcut guy, Quicksilver is invaluable. I can get to or do most of the things I need to do on my computer by simply invoking Quicksilver by a two key combination, start typing and abracadabra, I’m getting that though completed.Quicksilver can / is a huge program, it feels like I am continually just scratching the surface. The best way to learn about it is to read some of Merlin Mann’s posts or go to the developers website: http://www.blacktree.com/
Quicksilver is free and now open-source.
Launchy is a Windows alternative: http://launchy.net/
- OmniFocus
Michael and I went back and forth a little bit about the use of a dedicated Getting Things Done application. OmniFocus, from the OmniGroup is my application of choice. I have tried a lot of them. GTD Apps are like breakfast cereals, every person likes a different one. I could write about why I like OmniFocus, but it all depends on how you want your system to work. The ability to invoke a “Quick Add” window with a keyboard shortcut, makes it very convenient.OmniFocus is $79.99 from the OmniGroup: http://omnigroup.com.
The closest windows alternative to OmniFocus would be David Allen’s Getting Things Done Outlook Integration from davidco.com.
- 1Password
I have hundreds thousands of passwords to remember, email, logins, etc. A password manager is really useful and for the Mac 1Password is the best. 1Password allow me to automatically fill and sign into sites with a single keyboard shortcut (sensing a theme?).The added ability to fill forms, sync to multiple computers and putting those same passwords on my iPhone in a simple list and login script makes 1Password in valuable.
1Password costs $34.95 from http://1password.com/.
Roboform is the suggested Windows alternative: http://roboform.com
Tags: 1password, GTD, keyboard, keyboard shortcut, launchy, Mail Act-On, Mail.app, Merlin Mann, omnifocus, omnigroup, quicksilver, shortcut
The Simplicity Habit Podcast Episode 3
Posted by Michael | Filed under Featured, Podcast
Show Notes
For the week of April 27, 2008
We received our first listener email seeking some advice, so we decided to make it the topic of the entire episode. We offer some advice on approaches to productivity, keeping the focus on defining projects, rather than getting lost in the tasks. For the more visual among you, we suggest finding the biggest whiteboard you can, grabbing a few colored pens, and mindmapping your projects to literally get the bigger picture.
We’re going to try a new format, featuring weekly quick bites of productivity from the Simplicity Habit apple; just enough to get you ready for the main show now every other week.
People Mentioned
Gary Vaynerchuk - How to cut through the Noise? Great video on managing all the noise, from email, and Facebook, to Pownce, Twitter, and all the rest.
Merlin Mann - Merlin Mann on Time and Attention (Getting Things Done) Terrific video of a talk Merlin Mann gave at a Google TechTalks event.
Products Mentioned
Mindjet MindManager - Commercial application developed by Mindjet Corporation. Available for Windows and Mac.
FreeMind - Free alternative to MindManager. Java-based and open source. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Enjoy!
Tags: David Allen, Gary Vaynerchuk, Getting Things Done, Merlin Mann, mindmapping, Podcast
Making sense of stuff with Twine and the Semantic Web
Posted by Michael | Filed under Site
Interesting article by Clive Thompson over at Wired.com about “New Web Apps for Coping With Information Overload.”
I had promised my editor that I’d send in a cool idea for my next column. So I was trolling through the thousands of news tips and blog posts I’d archived using services like del.icio.us. But I was drowning; I’d saved so much that I could no longer find the really good stuff. What I needed was some help — an assistant to do some sifting for me.
In my cursory understanding, Twine (currently in invite-only beta) takes the idea of social networks and moves them from being just about connecting with other people who share similar interests (a network that is somewhat inwardly-facing, mostly friends and friends of friends), to connecting to new content and collaborating within a network of other people (outwardly-facing) who share in your content interests based on the stuff that you feed into Twine. From there, Twine is able to provide more targeted recommendations about which you — and others within your network — may be interested. Or, as Clive states, Twine “…rifles through bookmarks and documents you feed it, extracts the core concepts, and then finds relevant new stuff for you to look at it.”
In terms of making life simpler, Twine seems to address the issue of deciding how and what to tag the accumulated files and bookmarks on your computer. Further, no matter how careful you are in organizing, your system only matters to you and is only as good as you can make it. Tagging helps you to identify files, but doesn’t do much in terms of helping you to articulate different content into more meaningful sets of information. And if you stray from your tagging system, the system soon breaks-down. Built-in search capability helps to locate files, but it cannot help you contextualize and build upon the things that are relevant to you buried somewhere in the blob of stuff on your hard drive.
With this said, why not let the cloud help you out? The cliche, “A thousand monkeys typing on a thousand typewriters…” works here; not that we’re trying to write the next great play, but as we’ve seen with Wikipedia, the more like-minded people you throw at a problem, the more likely we are to start making sense of stuff. In terms of Twine and your content, not only does Twine seem to help in sorting it semantically instead of arbitrarily, it has the added bonus build upon your content new sources of related information that you’d have otherwise missed (or just never know about).
I have yet to play with Twine, but it’s possibilities are intriguing, especially in the academic sector, where the sharing of knowledge and content among faculty and students is in desperate need of an overhaul.
Although I may be completely off, Twine seems to pick up from where del.icio.us leaves off (particularly with the idea of tagging) and smacks head-on into the untapped potential of social network services + the emerging Semantic Web (here’s how Twine approaches this). I dare make a comparison to Amazon.com’s recommendations tool (You may also like… / Other people viewed… / Other people also purchased…), from which I’ve purchased many items I’d had never seen otherwise (and my bank account reminds me of this abuse every month…). I’ve never met these “Other People,” nor would I call them friends, but based on what we feed into Amazon as we browse and purchase, it turns out that we have a lot in common. Put another way according to Clive, “But the truth is, sometimes social connections are less useful than semantic ones.”
Tags: del.icio.us, Semantic Web, social networks, tagging, Twine
Gin, TV and Productivity
Posted by Jered | Filed under Choice
I have never been to a “cool” tech conference, like SXSW or Web 2.0 Expo. After watching Clay Shirky’s presentation (transcript) today, it really makes me wish that I could go.
Clay gave a great talk about how we, as a society, manage to drink or lull ourselves into a group stupor, gin, during / after the Industrial Revolution, television now. Using some “back of the envelope calculations”, Clay says that the collective brain time we waste in watching the ads on any given weekend could create a new Wikipedia every weekend.
This collective brain power is quite an amazing thing to think about. With the launch of collaborative and social tools, we can now connect and combine our collective knowledge.
The same can be said for becoming productive.
When you start working with a personal productivity system, the same stupor can fill your spare time. Finding a way to fill the newly reclaimed time can be difficult. You can’t be productive 100% of the time. As much as we want to continually produce, downtime is needed in every system.
Finding a hobby or activity to fill your time can then create another project that can be worked on, and while it may not take the same kind of push to complete that cranking widgets or a normal day’s work does, it will allow you to continue your productivity practices when you are not working on “work”.
David Allen said in a Tech Talk he gave at Google, that there is really no distinction between Work (with a capital W) and work, the rest of the tasks that need to be done your life. They are all things that need to be done, whether they are changing light bulbs at home or completing a quarterly report for the boss.
During this week, think about how you want to reclaim those extra brain cycles by disconnecting from the TV and work, and find something to “work” on this upcoming weekend.
Tags: clay shirky, David Allen, hobby, video, web 2.0, work
links for 2008-04-25
Posted by Jered | Filed under Asides
