It seems there are a lot of people bringing back the familiar cry that “Email is dead” … mostly pointing to the rise of social networks and IM among the younger generation (see also: is email dead?). Many of those who are … Read More »
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Leo Babauta
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The holiday season is upon us, and you’re beginning to get stressed out. There’s just so much to do during the holidays: decorating, gift buying, gift wrapping, getting a tree, baking cookies, scheduling family get-togethers and preparing for any get-togethers and so on. And you’ve still got … Read More »
Last week, we talked about ways of eliminating the file clutter in your life. Now let’s take care of the mess online: 1. Read It Later. A very cool Firefox extension from the Idea Shower, Read It Later sits in Firefox’s toolbar with two simple … Read More »
Let’s face it: there are times (days, weeks even) when we don’t feel like working. We just aren’t motivated, or we’re exhausted, and we just want to goof off or take a nap. Unfortunately, also means that you won’t get paid, and when the bills come … Read More »
We’re nearing the end of the year, and with the holiday season upon us, many web workers will be getting pretty busy. But with 2008 approaching, it might not be a bad idea to clean out the clutter in your paper and digital files, and start … Read More »
While the news of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader could signal a changing trend in the way that readers consume their information, unremarked upon is how the rise of the e-book reader will eventually change the world for writers. If readers can download books into their Kindle … Read More »
The best way to be productive with instant messaging (or chat)? Don’t do it. Seriously, IM can take up your entire day if you let it. Those who stay away from it can get a lot more done. However, if done right, IM can be a great tool … Read More »
More Must Reads
There are dozens of tips out there about how to be more productive in your RSS feed reading … how to organize the feeds better, how to make time for the hundreds of posts you need to read each day, how to read them faster. Except … Read More »
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. … As if the main object were to talk fast, not sensibly.” – Henry David Thoreau This comment from Thoreau’s Walden … Read More »
A job is that thing where you go to work in the morning, work in somebody’s office, report to a boss, leave by the end of the day, and get a regular paycheck. It’s that thing we’re supposed to get when we grow up, when we’re … Read More »
You’ve probably read a few articles on how to get your email inbox to empty (if not, read David Allen, Merlin Mann, or even a couple articles by me). Clearing your inbox and keeping it clear is just a tremendous boost to … Read More »
Piles of paper on your desk, a full email inbox, clutter in your home, anything that’s piled up really, are all results of a lack of decisions. While indecision can have many costs, from lost revenue to a suffering reputation to hindering your career, one of … Read More »
If you keep a projects list (and I recommend it), you probably have a few projects that have been lingering there for a little while, nagging you to either finish them or banish them from the list. I hate those kinds of projects. How great do you feel … Read More »
While Internet connections are undoubtedly more reliable now than they were a few years back, you’d be hard-pressed to find a connection that’s up 100 percent of the time. And for a web worker, those rare down times can be extremely frustrating. No email! No checking your … Read More »
Every one of us has a day when the demands on our time are high, when we feel the anxiety and pressure of all that we have to do, when we are so rushed that we can’t get any bearing on our day, when the phone … Read More »
While many of us are almost completely digital, and do just about everything on the web, there’s a growing movement to go back to analog. Paper is retro, it’s portable, it’s quick and dirty, and even aesthetically appealing. And of paper systems, along with my Moleskine … Read More »
As email is the prevalent form of communication for many web workers, it’s gotten a lot of attention: how to handle your email, how to empty your inbox, email etiquette, and more. But perhaps not enough time is spent learning about how to communicate with … Read More »
This week I haven’t been able to work because my 1-year-old daughter has had the flu and she won’t let me put her down long enough to get any work done. While I have no complaints about taking care of my children, when I got back … Read More »
Recently Get Rich Slowly did an excellent article on Getting to Now: How to Beat the Procrastination Habit, with good tips on doing things immediately instead of putting them off. While the article doesn’t address this directly, the Habit of Now is one of the … Read More »
Logging whatever is important to you can be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal, whether it’s logging the time you work on any project, online activities, spending, progress towards a goal, reading, exercise and food consumption, or anything really. But developing the habit of … Read More »
I don’t think I’m alone among web workers in my love for Gmail for its speed, ease of use, spam filtering, searches, conversation threads, filters and more. It’s the go-to email program for many people. However, as great as Gmail is, it can be made better … Read More »
Those of us who use the web all day long, every day, probably have signed up for at least a couple dozen different information services, all with different login information, all storing different information for us. We might have a to-do manager, a contact manager, a bookmarking … Read More »
One of the problems with being a web worker is that the lines between work and life have been so blurred as to be non-existent. The Internet is always on, accessible from just about anywhere, and our work and play are often both in the same … Read More »
We web workers tend to focus on our computer setup and our online work setup, naturally. That’s where we do the majority of our work. But we don’t work in a vacuum — there’s always a real desk and papers and other work tools around us. And … Read More »
While Gmail is a favorite with many web workers who love its ease of use, its quick archiving, its keyboard shortcuts and its storage capabilities, the problem many people seem to face is an archive that seems to get more and more full every day. It’s … Read More »
While there are still many who love Netvibes, iGoogle has its share of fans in the start page world. And with more than 25,000 gadgets available for iGoogle, the array of choices is sometimes overwhelming. Choose wisely, and iGoogle can be a great tool for … Read More »
In a Microsoft productivity survey done in the last couple of years, workers around the world said they only consider about two thirds of their working hours to be productive. If workers could cut those wasted hours, they’d work less and get the same amount … Read More »
The ever-popular productivity book Getting Things Done, by David Allen, caught on fire within the last few years through the power of blogs. And while many a blogger has fallen in love with GTD, and in fact many GTD blogs have been created, it’s time that … Read More »
In recent weeks, we’ve talked about the useful concept of a Not To Do List, allowing you more room to focus on what to do. But still that leaves the question of what’s left on your to-do list, and how to manage it. It’s a question … Read More »
News of a recent study has been making the rounds, showing that email is the top cause of stress in most workers’ lives, and that people are increasingly addicted to checking email constantly, two facts that are not surprising to many web workers. Email … Read More »
As we’ve noted before, if you read a lot of feeds, or go for speed or feed organization, Google Reader is the best in its field. Many people have tons of feeds, check them often, and spend a lot of time reading blog posts. So … Read More »
One of the problems with opening your inbox and finding 20 new messages is that it can be overwhelming. The work required to sort through it all, delete unwanted messages, skip over unimportant ones, and finally get to the urgent ones, can be very daunting. You don’t … Read More »
The problem with being constantly bombarded by information, as we web workers are, is not so much that we can’t deal with it, or that it distracts us from our work, or that it shortens our attention spans or stresses us out. It’s that we have allowed … Read More »
Not all web workers are the hip, trendy, just-out-of college types — quite a few of us have rugrats running around, making noise, spilling juice and demanding attention at the same time as our email and IM demand that same attention. I’ve got a 14-year-old daughter who … Read More »
There’s no doubt that for most people who do a lot of online work (and play), the numerous amounts of web tools, blogs, social media, incoming messages, files stored and just general information can be quite overwhelming. Sure, we’ve learned to cope with it all, but there … Read More »
There are times in many a web worker’s life when a group chat is the best way for a bunch of people working on a project to get together. Recently, for example, I got together with a bunch of others about working on a collaborative project. A … Read More »
We’ve written about creating your personal brand and an online persona before, but given the importance of that branding in the world of today’s web worker, it’s important that you understand the underlying laws of branding. It’s not enough to write prolifically, to have a … Read More »
While bloggers are just one of many types of web workers, any web worker can start a blog. And even if blogging isn’t what you hope to do for a living, it might be a smart idea to get one going … because if used correctly, a … Read More »
As web workers, we know that the very medium that makes us so productive — the web — also interrupts our work and slows us down at the same time. The solution, of course, is to batch process … but it isn’t always as easy as it … Read More »
A few of the things that are emerging about web workers is that 1) we do just about everything online; 2) we want to be able to access it from any computer, anywhere; and 3) it’s hard to organize all the stuff we use and do, … Read More »
If there’s any area of personal organization that web apps haven’t gotten right yet, it’s the contact manager. As web workers, we need to be able to quickly add contacts, and pull them up from anywhere, on any computer. An online contact manager that works smoothly would … Read More »
It’s perhaps the greatest challenge of all web workers: how to productively get work done on the web without getting distracted. Because while the computer and the Internet are two of the greatest productivity tools ever invented, they are also the two biggest distractions ever invented (not … Read More »
Recently, Google rolled out a new look for its Google Docs & Spreadsheets software application … not exactly a major upgrade, as the tools themselves remain the same, but it’s still a new interface for organizing your documents. Google Docs is beginning to emerge as … Read More »
There are times when all we need to do is write. Really crank out the text. (For me, that’s most of the day.) We don’t need distractions and we don’t need a bloated, expensive word processor with way too many features and way too slow a … Read More »
If the number of requests to join LinkedIn, the business networking network, that clog your email inbox is any indication, then you know it is becoming a legitimate business tool, and one that most professionals need to effectively leverage to boost their professional prospects. LinkedIn, … Read More »
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