Archive for the ‘gtd’ Category
How to read 728 new feed articles in less than one second
August is a slow month for everyone. I wasn’t lucky enough to have week-long holidays like most of you, but I felt it too: August is a slow month - one doesn’t really feel like working, nor do anything else than the bare necessities. August being such a slow month(did I say that already? 
), the main consequence was that I didn’t feel like blogging - you faithful Hack the Day readers noticed it. What’s more interesting though is that I didn’t feel like reading blogs neither, and here’s the proof:
Top links list for a Productive Desktop
Your computer productivity is directly influenced by the ease with which you are able to launch applications or find, organize and retrieve your internet downloads. A cluttered desktop only makes you lose time and focus trying to find the things you look for among the zillions of icons.
You might remember my article on turning your desktop into a productivity tool which is one of the most popular articles on this blog so far. At the time I wrote it, I was finding it strange that no other productivity blogs had tackled this subject yet. Boy was I wrong - the subject of organizing one’s desktop proves to be a favorite topic of discussion for a lot of productivity-oriented blogs and bloggers. Talk about insufficient research - 
Since the subject of the perfect “productive” desktop is far from being closed, I decided to give you the
Top links list for a more Productive Desktop
- introducing you to the best ideas around the web about setting up your computer desktop for improved productivity.
Can the iPhone get YOUR things done?
Hack the Day is probably the only blog never to have talked about the iPhone. I decided to change this now that the iPhone has launched. Everyone is claiming that it will make their lives more complete and more productive, two justified reasons to pay the price.
But is the iPhone the ultimate productivity tool, as some have been hoping? I take a look into how this device will impact your working style (disclaimer - I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in the iPhone country, so all information below is based on blog reviews and Apple’s documents) and what applications to use for your organizing and productivity purposes.
Turn your Desktop into a Productivity tool
Like most knowledge workers you probably spend more time in front of my computer than in the living room (that is if you’re not a work-from-home freelancer as I am - in this case you spend ALL of your time in front of your computer… 
). Cleaning up your desktop becomes even more important than housecleaning. After all, you can hire someone to clean out the mess in your living room, but it’s you and only you who can clean, sort and organize your hard drive and computer folders.
One of the most obscure parts of the GTD-like productivity systems is the “Research” part. David Allen’s method calls it the Collect bucket - the place where you collect anything that’s of interest for your current or future projects. He even describes a physical way to do it - the “tickler file” - mostly known as the 43 Folders technique. I won’t go into further details on that, as it seems a pretty nice way to organize your physical paperwork.
But having 43 Folders just for organizing files becomes extremely complicated to use on your computer. We need something different.
I introduce you to the way I’ve recently reorganized folders on my Mac OS X MacBook, in a manner that maximizes my productivity, making my daily information collection process a simple, organized and efficient one. This kind of setup can be made on any computer’s desktop(Windows or Linux) - it’s the method that matters, not the design.
The article has
one response