Autohide Your Inactive Apps with Spirited Away
By Grey | May 2, 2008
Spirited Away is a free program that will autohide your inactive applications. If you haven’t used a program for a predetermined number of minutes, spirited away will hide the program — the icon will still be in the dock, but when you use expose, it won’t show up. I’m a big fan of spirited away, because it’s a gentle way to encourage you to monotask rather than multitask.
[Click here to download Spirited Away]
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Header photograph by peasap
Topics: monotask, reducing clutter, os x, tools | No Comments »
Why ‘Next Actions’ Make Big Projects Easy to Tackle
By Grey | April 28, 2008
One of the key ideas of Getting Things Done, is the ‘next action’. Like much of GTD it’s a simple idea that makes a big difference.
Next actions are the steps you take to complete a project. For example, your project may be ‘sell my old CD collection. That’s a typical to-do list item, but it’s not something that you can do in one go — so it lingers on your list. Forever.
To decide what the next action is, you need to think of the next physical step required to move the project forward. For selling your CDs, you need to decide how you are going to sell those CDs. On the Internet or at a store? Your next action is ‘find the phone number of local music shops’. After you complete that, your next action is to call music shops to see how much they pay for old CDs. Then you may want to ‘research eBay and Amazon auctions online’ to see if they are better options.
Next actions improve upon the idea of breaking down a project into small steps for two reasons. First, you’re only need to think of one next action at a time. This way you don’t get overwhelmed by trying plan every step from start to finish. Second, by thinking of the next physical step, you force yourself to clarify exactly what needs to be done — and don’t end up with a nebulous, undoable to-do list.
So take a look at one of your big projects, define the next action and get started.
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Header photograph by visualpanic
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Topics: workflow, Getting Things Done | 1 Comment »
Dilbert on Time Management
By Grey | April 24, 2008
Dilbert author, Scott Adams, has kicked off a very long discussion on his blog with a simple observation: there isn’t enough time to live a relaxing, health life. There’s a lot to read in the hundreds of comments from people talking about how they try to balance their life, their work and their health.
[Click here to read ‘Time Management’ on the Dilbert Blog]
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Header photograph by Ol.v!er [H2vPk]
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Topics: links, how others work | No Comments »
The Mess Box
By Grey | April 21, 2008
On your desk live a bunch of miscellaneous objects: scissors, coins, a stapler, hole punch, etc. These are not objects you use every day, but you do use them frequently enough that putting them in storage is inconvenient. Slowly they spread across your desk, cluttering the space and annoying you in worst way possible: just below the threshold of doing something about it.
The solution to this desk detritus? The mess box. To reign in my desk clutter I took the lid from an old shoe box, turned it upside-down and decided that all miscellaneous desk stuff would live in there from now on.
The mess box makes a surprisingly profound difference. First, it gives a clear border to the mess — it will never be more than a square foot of space. Instead of slowing creeping across my desk when I’m not looking, the hole punch and its friends are confined to that box. Secondly, the mess box discourages me from carelessly leaving random things on my working space. With undefined stuff on a surface, adding one more item makes little difference. By having a mess box to hold cluttery items, the desk is always clear for whatever needs working on.
Instead of just letting the mess happen without thinking about it, consciously put boundaries around it. This lets you stop repeating the thought: ‘my desk is a mess’. You can let go of that constant, nagging thought because you’ve made a decision about it. I suggest looking over the mess box during your weekly review and decided what objects you want to keep in there.
Go flip over a box top and get your desk mess under control.
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Header photograph by Syntopia
Topics: tips, reducing clutter, tools | No Comments »
How to Make Your Laptop Battery Last Longer
By Grey | April 16, 2008
On Apple’s website there is a page where they go into detail on how their batteries work and how to keep them lasting as long as possible. There are a few useful tips, and they’ll even schedule into your iCal the regular maintenance you should perform.
[Click here to go to Apple’s Battery page]
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Header photograph by Demion
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If you live in London and would like personal help, please check out my workflow and organizational coaching services.
Topics: apple, tips | No Comments »