Starting a Media Diet

Today I’m starting a “Media Diet” as proposed by Tim Ferris in his book ”Four Hour Workweek.” Just for one week I can’t watch more than 1 hour of TV per day (which I don’t do anyways). I can’t read any non-fiction books, magazines, or newspapers. I can only read 1 hour of fiction every night and I have to stay away from compulsive web surfing (This is something I do all the time).

The whole idea is to become selective of what you put in. There’s only that much input you need, to be able to give forth good output in life. You can’t read all the time and expect to write tons at the same time! If you want to write tons, then just write tons!

So anyways. I’m in. For one entire week I’ll stay away from my Google Reader and my RSS feeds.

Capture complete screenshots of websites using your Mac

The perfecto tool to get complete screenshots of any webpage is Paparazzi. It’s easy to use: just write down the url, press capture, and save.

And it’s free.

Gelato CMS

I’ll download and check the Gelato CMS. Seems like a small, cool and easy tool to use.

It’s apparently more of a Tumblelog than a full featured Blogging tool. I like the simple Tumblelog approach to posting and maybe I’ll even switch to it sometime.

How do social network sites search your email contacts?

Social networking sites usually have a feature once you register in which you’re asked to give your password to your email account (for ex. Hotmail or Gmail) and they browse through your contacts to perform certain actions (for ex. invite them to the service).

How do they do that? What type of script goes through your contacts? Has anyone done this that can point me in some direction?

The best book about GTD, besides Getting Things Done

At the very beginning of the 8 part podcast series of David Allen and Merlin Mann, David mentions a book which he describes as “fantastic”. The book’s name is ”The War of Art” and as you can see from this site’s footer, I basically attribute most of what’s done here to the book.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a must have for anyone who wants to really beat procrastination and get something done in life. If you’re sick and tired of getting to the end of the day with a feeling of “I didn’t get anything done” (and worst of all, you didn’t get anything done!) this book is for you.

The War of Art teaches that no matter what plans you make, you will always encounter a force of resistance that will stop you from executing your work. The more important it is to get the job done, the more resistance you will face. And only by becoming aware of this force of resistance can we plan ahead and make sure that we don’t get stuck in procrastination.

It’s really easy to implement the GTD system with such perfection, that your keeping of neat to-do lists and next actions will actually become a source of procrastination. (This has probably been mentioned hundreds of times in productivity blogs, but it’s always good to remember that it’s the #1 source of self-sabotage for the GTD practitioner). You keep adding things to do to your list, but you never do a single one of them. Resistance is beating you to the ground and you don’t even know it.

So go to your nearest bookstore and get the book. Or just get it from Amazon or Powells. Or if a friend of yours has it, steal it. The book is so important that it’s worth loosing your friend. (And I’m only half-kidding).

The backing up lesson

When will I learn that backups must be made all the time. I wonder why I assume that crashes or problems won’t happen. It’s just stupid of me.

This week I lost a lot of information and it’s no one’s fault but mine. That’s the tough part, not being able to blame anyone.

So guys, make sure you’ve got a copy of SuperDuper! and that you use it daily. (At least once a week).

Use your completed tasks as a morale booster

I often feel like I haven’t been doing much. Like I’ve got tons of stuff to do and I’ve been a lazy sonofabitch. Those sort of days it’s really easy to end up not doing much for real.

If you keep your to-do lists on pieces of paper, kgtd, iGTD or some sort of software that keeps track of the things you have to do, make sure to at least glance at your completed tasks every once in a while. It will be a healthy reminder that even though you still haven’t developed super human powers to do all you’d like in one day, you do get things done.

Review your completed tasks for a morale boost

Be proud of each completed task. They might not be such a big deal individually, but after all, it’s the accumulation of completed next actions that lead you to marking an entire project as complete.