Archive for productivity

Om Malik’s re-birthday

Take it from someone who’s been down the rabbit hole, you should read Om Malik’s post about his re-birthday. That is, the day shit happened and he had to revaluate what was important. We all should experience such a day, sans the shit part obviously, but I’m afraid most of us are too thickheaded to really understand without something hitting us hard from behind.

So there, do yourself a favor for the new year and take a breather, think things through, and get out of the negative maelstrom parts of whatever kind of life you’re living. We all have that, we all need to rethink and redo the parts of our lives that just aren’t working out. Work, relationships, whatever – it is all the same and it adds to what could be a problem.

Happy re-birthday Om. I know, I know, I’m a bit late but it is the thought that counts, right?

Two things

I have two things to say today:

It is important, nay, crucial that you do what you believe in. Don’t get stuck with or distracted by things that are anything less but means to achieve your true goals.
If you feel and fear that you are on the wrong path, take a break and reassess the situation.

It is easy to forget these things, and I have done just that the last few months.

Circumstances

I have ended up in my (well, not mine but anyway) lakeside home for the week, due to a broken down car that’s in the shop right now. This isn’t all bad, although I’m not looking forward to the mechanic’s verdict and what it’ll cost me. Since my lakeside home is free of anything resembling real broadband, which in my world is 100 Mbit in both directions, this means I’ll have to adapt to a different working style. I’ve got a decent 3G connection (1-2 Mbit) so I can get just about everything done that I otherwise would’ve done from home or the Odd Alice office in Stockholm, so no worries there. However, I don’t have all the equipment I usually rely on.

No Apple 27″ LED display for massive screen real-estate
No Wacom Intous 4 drawing pad for logos
No ergonomically correct chair nor desk
No 120+ GB of music
No movies, TV series, nor the will to download it over 3G
No Nespresso coffee machine

Continued →

In response to David on 52 Tiger, yes I do plan tomorrow’s work the evening before, and have done that for some time. It’s a great way to let everything work-related go until the day after.

My focus mode

While I can struggle to get started writing stuff, no matter if it is a book, an article, or code, I am extremely focused when I actually write. I love fullscreen when it makes sense, otherwise I just keep one app open (on the space I’m in) to keep me focused. Distractions are a thing of evil, so no Twitter apps open, no alerts, no inbox folders on the desktop that might draw my attention.

I don’t stop there. Continued →

What I use the iPad for

I’ve had the iPad since the US wifi launch. I bought the 3G version when it came out, and I upgraded to the iPad 2 with 3G at launch. When Apple releases iPad 3 I’ll get that too. In the short lifespan of the iPad it has gone from web browser to reading device to an actual tool.

Or to put it more plainly, the iPad is by far the most used device, for both work and pleasure.

So what do I really use it for, and how well is it working out compared to the almost always more fully fledged Mac alternatives? Continued →

The MacBook Air, redux

I have owned three MacBook Air models. Luckily I skipped out on the first one, which had serious issues with heat and sudden crashes. The minor update that led to the second MacBook Air was the first one I got, and then it struck me. This is the perfect typewriter, way beyond any laptop I had ever owned, and those are numerous I can tell you that.

I loved that Air, all its 1,6 GHz of low voltage processing power, the touchpad and even its awkward two buttons, the whole package. It was underpowered with its 2 GB of RAM and the 4200 rpm hard drive, combined with heating issues that firmware updates and some sensible usage sorted out for me personally. Still, best typewriter ever, thanks to its wonderful keyboard and the form factor. Love it. Continued →

Using different fonts when writing two stories at once is a nice way to keep things separated in your mind. A nice little mindhack you can steal from me, as well as Joelle Charbonneau who wrote about it recently. It is the same principle as writing different things on different devices, or even using different mediums.

Just the iPad

I’ll be out of town for a bit, visiting friends and enjoying some hard earned vacation, which is to say that I won’t be working this weekend. It’s not a long trip or anything, but I won’t be home for a little while.

So what will I bring? I’m thinking just the iPad, to keep me from getting some real work done. No designing, no editing, no serious writing – that sounds pretty great to me actually. But how will it work out? Will I feel limited and regret my decision, or is the iPad powerful enough to sate my needs.

We’ll see. After all, I still feel that there is something beautiful over the “writing station” below. I haven’t decided whether to bring the bluetooth keyboard though, we’ll see how well it fits in my bag.

I’ll report back and let you know how it worked out, and if I actually got something done. There are, after all, quite a few possible tools for me to be productive if I really want to.

I’m a big fan of Simplenote, and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been using it for my todo lists. The new list feature in the iOS apps (but not on the web, why?) is great. I’m sticking too Simplenote for my list needs, it seems.

The iPad as a blogging tool

A lot of us are comfortable writing on the iPad. I am in fact writing this post laying in bed, on my iPad, and while my MacBook Air certainly beats it in both writing tools as well as speed and input feedback, they represent two different things. The Air is the most portable real computer there is, but it is still something I want to put on a table or, worst case scenario, in my lap. Meanwhile, the iPad is a lot easier to just prop up and hammer out a few words on. They are two different things, which is good. I’ve yet to write a book on my iPad, something I’ve done numerous times on my Air.

But as a blogging tool on the go, that should be the perfect use for the iPad, right? Continued →

The grab and go iPad setup

What if you didn’t need a fully fledged computer all the time? Let’s face it, most of the time we’re just browsing the web, checking in on Facebook, send tweets and write emails anyway. Not exactly tasks that merit a powerful computer in your home.

Does this merit a workstation at home? Do you really want one? Wouldn’t you rather do these casual things from the comfort of your living room couch, for example? Sure, you can bring a laptop but it won’t be ideal for longer periods of time, and sometimes you have a ton of things you want to read up on. Continued →

iPad: What I really need

Sometimes I want to jot down thought on things to work them out. Some of these things make for excellent blog posts since others are in similar situations. I bet this is of of those, so here goes.

I’m a big iPad fan and avid user, having had it since weeks after the wifi model launched in the US. Currently, I have an iPad 3G with 32 GB storage. It’s almost always packed, but the culprit isn’t movies, music (that’s just some 6 GB of essentials) or even photos. No, the problem is apps.

I have lots of apps, and I keep them way too long.

This got me thinking. What kinds of apps do I really need for my iPad? Continued →

Fullscreen as a productivity booster

Usually when I write a blog post on a computer I do so in a text editor. I prefer software like OmmWriter, WriteRoom and Scrivener, rather than full-fledged word processors like Pages, OpenOffice or Word. In fact, I could go on about why that last one is a trojan from Hell, but that’s a completely different matter.

OmmWriter (my most recent favorite when it comes to text composing) shares one thing with WriteRoom and Scrivener: It has a fullscreen mode. It also does one thing better than the other two, and that’s automatically shutting off Growl, the notification service most diehard Mac users find indispensable for interruptions during the day. Smart thinking there. Continued →

Getting productive with change of scenery

I’ve been told I’m crazy, in the “you’re stupid doing all that” way. You see I’m not only addicted to words, I’m also addicted to projects. I love firing up something new, I get ideas and jot them down, revisit and suddenly I find myself building something.

You might say I’m a doer.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t hit walls, getting bogged down with what is commonly referred to as writer’s block (I’ll save my thoughts on that for another post), and just get the feeling that I don’t want to do what’s necessary. A ton of projects will do that to you, it’s a mental battle.

A change of scenery will help. I’ve been meaning to get Notes Blog ready for the public beta for two weeks, but I just haven’t been able to pull myself together to actually do it.

Today I am. In five minutes time I’ll have a Talisker single malt by my side and I’ll be watching the 17″ Macbook Pro fire up, leaving the Air for the first time in a long time. The change of scenery is my tool – which Macbook I’m working on – this time around.

But it helps. Change is good.