43 Folders

No one is as focused on "shipping it out the door" as a news editor, according to Paul Ford in this essay (http://www.ftrain.com/editors-ship-dammit.html) posted to HN yesterday: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891392 Merlin Mann at http://www.43folders.com/ started out writing about David Allen's GTD system, but then turned away from "productivity porn" and started writing more focused essays about creativity. This isn't necessarily related to shipping products, but I love this Jeff Atwood quote: "If you can’t come up with at least one interesting thing to talk about every day, you’re not trying hard enough! The world is just full of fascinating stuff." from this interview: http://community.devexpress.com/blogs/aspnet/archive/2010/10/24/video-…

Merlin ran 43folders.com[1]. That domain name was a reference to GTD's tickler files[2]. Merlin did not have anything to do with Lifehacker.com. Gina Trapani[4] founded Lifehacker[3]. But, Lifehacker often covered and was inspired by Merlin's work. 1. http://www.43folders.com/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickler_file 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehacker#History 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Trapani

Here ya go, one of my all time favorites of his: https://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking

Maybe, but also http://www.43folders.com/ would fit the narrative too

I agree with you. I've been listening to Merlin Mann's podcast Back To Work and he talks a lot about things like this and things like "distraction-free writing environments". His philosophy (that I tend to agree with) is that if these tools work for you - great. But you might be solving the wrong problem. Procrastination might be your brain telling you something about the task you're putting off doing. http://www.43folders.com/2010/02/05/first-care

While I'm as much a fan of productivity pr0n as the next guy, every time I look at an org.mode customization walkthrough or something similar I'm reminded of this classic blog post by Merlin Mann: http://www.43folders.com/2005/05/18/because-buying-new-running-shoes-i…

BTW, a great source of information about Quicksilver is Merlin Mann's 43 Folders blog: http://www.43folders.com/topics/quicksilver.

The Holy Trinity of Making Backups: 1) If it's not automated, it's not a real backup. 2) If it's not redundant, it's not a real backup. 3) If it's not regularly rotated off-site, it's not a real backup. Doing any one of these things by itself or in tandem produces "a copy." A copy is handy, and it may really save you, even a majority of the time. But, making casual copies is optimistic at best. Someday, you will need the benefits of all three layers. http://www.43folders.com/2010/03/15/yes-another-backup-lecture

Great read. This is something you come to assimilate as you get older -- unless you are very wise, very young. Or perhaps it's cultural. But it something you are aware of from very early on. And so, so many folk fight it. To put a geek twist on it, this behaviour always reminds me of kipple; the concept coined by Philip K Dick. I remember first reading about it -- in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- and being quite struck by the idea. There's the First Law of Kipple... 'Kipple drives out nonkipple.' http://www.43folders.com/2007/12/12/dick-kipple

One of my favorite pieces from Merlin is his 'To Have Done List' podcast. The short version is to mentally transform that todo list that isn't getting done into a list that includes the benefit and your emotional relief once those items are done. http://www.43folders.com/2005/10/16/43f-podcast-the-to-have-done-list

I didn't know Derek, but reading this I'll miss him, but thank him for this. Between this post, "Cranking" (http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking) and the fact I have a second child probably coming Very Soon Now, I have to admit I'm sitting back and thinking hard about where I've spent, and am spending my time. I'm thinking about all the wasted time and opportunities I've accrued over the past 31 years. I'm thinking about all the time spent arguing with people on the internet and giving up my free time to change some small part of the world, and not playing with my almost four year old daughter, or talking with my beautiful wife. Take stock in your life and make sure you're following your passions. Make sure you try to remember and capture every moment before it's gone. Change the world while you're still here. Appreciate the world while you're still here.

I bought this book on Merlin Mann's recommendation. See: http://www.43folders.com/2009/01/27/creativity-patterns http://www.43folders.com/2009/01/13/twylas-box http://www.43folders.com/2008/11/26/twyla-tharp-failing-well http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/27/book-heuristics The book is very good and well worth buying. I'd also recommend the War of Art by Pressman. Both of these books are great for cultivating creativity in a systematic way.

Merlin Mann - http://43folders.com - creativity, productivity A List Apart - http://www.alistapart.com/ - html, css, webdesign Kottke - http://kottke.org - cool links Subtraction - http://www.substraction.com - print design, web design Some things that aren't blog but I Think provide great things and have rss feeds http://delicious.com/network/tikva http://delicious.com/cshirky http://ffffound.com/ I read over 100 blogs, not all are in the super duper cool level, but I share what I think is the best stuff using my google reader @ http://www.google.com/reader/shared/06434253323852871046

I use several tools, but I try to keep the following system: The main (top level) groups are: * Personal (finances, insurances, gov, health, personal interests, etc) * Work * Church (I'm volunteering for some church-related projects, I keep those projects separated from the Work folder) I use those 3 main categories for my notes, my calendar events and my todolist. Then, in every one of those main categories, depending on the tool, I have folders for each project. For example, in my Work folder, since I am working on my startup, I have: NameOfTheStartup, Freelancing (contains small client project folders), BigFreelancingClient1, etc. Also, I have a naming convention for folders that are "meta" : they start with an underscore (so they show on top) and are named in ALL_CAPS. Example: * _EVENTS (for recurring things to do when something happens within those categories of my life. Those can refer to a _PROCEDURE) * _KNOWLEDGE (for storing information for those categories, such as PDFs, ebooks, etc) * _THINKING (for notes about things I think about in those categories. It can contain notes of books I'm reading.) * _PROCEDURES (for common tasks that I have documented) * _LOGS (contains text files where I put time-ordered events that occurred within those categories of my life) Tools I'm using (in order of prevalence): - Todoist for short term events/todos - The windows File Explorer. They contain Docx, PDF, md, Xlsx and txt files. (Lacking consistency with file…

That feels kinda familiar. My experience might or might not be helpful. I read about Getting Things Done, and I worked to track everything in one place, but I find that task tracking in two places work best for me: 1. Something like Evernote or Simplenote, for capturing notes on any device that's handy: phone, tablet, computer, etc. Being able to search really easily is crucial, to avoid duplicate topics. 2. Something like Trello for easier prioritizing and categorization. Moving around the index card analogies is much easier than moving text. Using email as an issue tracker is an anti-pattern. It means your work to prioritize can get casually jumbled, and for me, that flow can get interrupted more easily. Ditto for Slack. I like paper notebooks - I used one at work so I wouldn't drop any of the tasks I was juggling - but they're less portable than my phone. Before that, I had a Hipster PDA (index cards and a paper clip - http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda ) but I had lots of notes, and searching was awkward, meaning "just write it (again) before I forget it, sort it out later," meant there was curation involved, and that using 1. above was lower-friction and just overall better.

NNTR (or something similar) can be pretty useful: a lot of people send long, rambling emails that don't clearly state what they want. In cases like that, `NNTR' or `Just FYI' can be a God-send. I also like the idea of a checklist at the top of emails, as suggested in Inbox Zero[1]: This email is: [ ] actionable [x] fyi [ ] social Response needed: [ ] yes [x] up to you [ ] no Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [ ] soon [x] none I've never actually used them myself, but they seem like a great idea if you could avoid getting lynched for using them. I don't think they would go down particularly well in a lot of offices. (I also dislike the wording used, but that's a nit-pick more than a valid criticism.) EOM is pretty superfluous, though -- it's clear from the fact that there's no more text that I've reached the end of the message. [1]: http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/19/writing-sensible-email-messages

I use my own hacked version of GTD, albeit very simplified, partly because, well, I guess I don't have that much to do :D. GTD still has a cult following and has several sites that cover it a lot (http://www.43folders.com and http://www.lifehacker.com among several)... There have been several discussions regarding GTD at YCNews (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15450) and I am sure these should answer your question. My approach has been explained well at lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/practicing-simplified-gtd-33526… I came across another article (http://www.emaginacion.com.ar/cym/get-organized-with-hipster-pda/) and currently trying to build that into my system. If you were to use searchYC.com you will find several discussions regarding GTD (http://www.searchyc.com/GTD) At the end of the day, GTD is merely another tool that aids in keeping track of everything you do. But its __effectiveness__ lies in your ability/dedication to sticking to the system. Although over time my simplified system has served me well, I do occasionally find myself slipping. A little tweak here, a little tweak there, wash, rinse, repeat... Hope this helps.

Along those lines: Hipster PDA http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda

Reminds me of Merlin Mann's "perfect apostrophe": http://www.43folders.com/2006/06/11/perfect-apostrophe

Day planner, paper, hipster pda: https://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda [edit, another e.g.]

Time for a nostalgic link to 43folders.com as well, I guess. The whole todo-file geekery of 2005-2010-or-so was incredible actually. https://www.43folders.com/2005/09/12/building-a-smarter-to-do-list-par…

A binder clip works well too. It's the Hipster PDA! http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda

"One big text file" was a big deal a while back. Here's a post by Merlin Mann: http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file For notes, I keep trying all kinds of apps and approaches, but I always come back to a single big text file. It's surprisingly easy to search. The main thing is it's just so convenient. Edit: This is a better link https://danlucraft.com/blog/2008/04/plain-text-organizer/

This reminds me of the Hipster PDA, a small collection of index cards for daily use held together with a binder clip. Perhaps more relevant now than ever with our smartphones and their infinite capacity for distraction. http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_PDA

For several years, I used index cards extensively to track my to-do list and capture notes on the go, inspired by Merlin Mann's "Hipster PDA"[0]. The flaw in my system turned out to be that there was just no convenient way to carry the cards around in my jeans pocket. They always wound up getting bent or wrinkled, and I couldn't find a way to keep the cards together that was both pocket-friendly (a binder clip isn't; it pokes and scratches) and quick-releasing (undoing e.g. a rubber band is just too much work for a quick note). If anyone's still using a hipster PDA I'd be curious to hear what your physical system looks like and how you carry it with you. [0] http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda

Reminded me somehow of this: http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking

Is this a design, where the idea is that I make my own JamBook out of things found around the house (much like the Hipster PDA: http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda), or is this a product that I would buy from you?

I still believe in Merlin Mann's "First, care." http://www.43folders.com/2010/02/05/first-care All these little tips and tricks are fine. But they're usually treating the symptoms rather than examining the cause.