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What Andy's Doing
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Recently Written
- Passionate People: Get What You Deserve, Become a Career Renegade!
- Featured Blog: Patrick Rhone and His Journal
- Ask The Readers: Can You Disconnect And Still Be Productive?
- Why Working Long, Hard Hours Gets You Behind (?)
- How to Help Great Productivity Blogs Get Discovered
- My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD
- On New Beginnings (And More About Your Host)
- Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
- How to Use Basecamp and Backback In Perfect Harmony
- How to Chill Out
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Categories
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Archives
Why I Sometimes Choose Living Over Sleeping
I’ll tell you right now, I rarely get enough sleep (assuming “enough” sleep is 8 hours per night). On the average night, I’ll get 5-6 hours of sleep, and sometimes it’s less than that. And It’s not because I can’t sleep - I hardly ever have trouble falling asleep. No, whenever I stay up past my bedtime, I’m usually doing it for a very specific reason…
I don’t know why, but this is how I’ve been for as long as I can remember. Sleep was always a necessity, but never in a very immediate sense. I’ve been willing to forgo sleep in favor of other things for most of my adult life, a practice that (gone unregulated) can cause some serious problems. Poor performance at work, adverse health effects, etc. just to name a few. Why do I do this to myself?
Off-Topic: Defining Irony
So yesterday I got this book from Amazon called “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi (which I bought with an Amazon gift certificate I won from Blingo - yay!). It’s about building personal relationships and how it’s your network of friends and colleagues that will really make the difference between success and failure. So far, I’m really enjoying it!
The funny bit is this - today I sat at a local burger joint reading it while I ate. Alone.
That made me laugh 
Technorati Tags: funny, never eat alone
5 Things You Need to Know About Having a Toddler
A big part (perhaps the biggest part) of many peoples’ lives is being a parent. Some of you are probably seasoned parents, some new parents and some not even thinking about that sort of thing yet. Well, for the latter two groups, I have a few things you might like to know.
But first, you might be wondering what makes me the expert. Well, my son (pictured) is quickly approaching 2 years old (this July) and I get to watch him discover things and learn about the world first-hand. It’s seriously a blast, the most fun I’ve ever had. But it’s been my experience that every really fun activity involves some ground rules; a few things that will help you experience the fullness of enjoyment while participating in the activity. Parenting is no exception (save the bit about having to support them until they’re 18 or somesuch - you’d better ask Leo about that part) - and here are a few of the things I’ve picked up along my merry path, and I think you’ll find them useful.
Disclaimer: Obviously I don’t live with every toddler in the world, so some of these tidbits might not be universally true. If nothing else, hopefully it’ll make for an entertaining read…
5 Slick Ways to Abuse Lifehacker’s Texter Application
For those who aren’t readers of the venerable Lifehacker (and if this includes you - for shame ;)) - Adam wrote a little windows application awhile back called Texter that allows you to create hotstrings that expand to longer pieces of text. For example, when I type ‘cwb’ and hit Tab, it replaces ‘cwb’ with ‘http://blog.crankingwidgets.com’. Basically, you just create a short representation of a long piece of text that you type regularly and let Texter do the heavy lifting.
Obviously, the benefits of an application like this are immediately apparent and are virtually without limit. As such, there are some more esoteric uses that I’ve implemented that I think you all will enjoy (beyond things like email signatures and URLs)…
Productivity Infused with Style: Behance Action Products
(Disclosure: Behance is a sponsor of Cranking Widgets - but that doesn’t mean I am obligated to give anything but my honest opinion regarding their products. The following review is comprised of my untrammeled thoughts and reactions - nothing more, nothing less)
The first thing I noticed about the sample product I received from Behance was the almost Apple-like attention to detail. Everything came in high-quality plastic packaging (no shrink-wrapping for these folks) and simply looked great. Even the stationary looks awesome. It’s the kind of thing that makes you excited to be more productive (much like Moleskine products, especially for me). You can tell that a good deal of hard work and thought went into the design of products like this, and you feel like you’d almost be insulting them if you didn’t use their powers for good.
Off Topic: Google Mac Blog Oops
Google Mac Blog Oops
Originally uploaded by inkedmn.
Nothing like coming across a fun little nugget of woops while browsing feeds late on a Sunday night.
I guess this person was able to register the blogspot URL used by the Google Mac Blog and got a single post off before being shut down.
Nothing really informative here - I just thought it was entertaining
Technorati Tags: google, mac, blog, blogspot
Friday Fun: What’s Playing on My iPod
For this edition of Friday Fun, I thought I’d let you in on a little more personal information about yours truly. I’m something of a music nut (though I have virtually no musical talent whatsoever) and my job affords me the opportunity to listen to my iPod for the better part of most work days. I also have what some might call ‘eclectic’ tastes when it comes to my tunes (though my wife would describe much of it as ‘headache-inducing noise’).
Here’s a quick rundown of what albums have been getting serious play on the old ‘pod this week (and this isn’t based on any sort of statistics or hard data, it’s just what I can think of off the top of my head):
Another Way Index Cards Completely Rule
Index Cards Make Decent Funnels
Originally uploaded by inkedmn.
So, this morning on my way to work I realized that my car was running a bit funky and needed some transmission fluid. I stopped at 7-11, grabbed some napkins for wiping the dipstick and realized - I have no funnel…
The Two Types of Web-Based GTD Systems
I have a confession to make. I get way too enamored with new and fancy ways of getting my crap in order. Which means I’m regularly transitioning between GTD implementations (and this frustrates me to no end, I assure you). I’m not kidding - when a new GTD app shows up on my radar, I’m like the only Eskimo in the ice cube store. I guess the silver lining is that I can pretty accurately describe why most of the new kids on the block won’t work (at least, not for me). But that’s another topic for another post - I’m just bringing all this up as a way of introducing my experience with many different types of GTD setups and systems.
When it comes to managing your projects, etc. using something digital, you’re faced with two options:
The Single Biggest Enemy of Workplace Productivity
If you asked 100 people what keeps them from accomplishing their goals, completing tasks at the office, etc., I imagine you’d hear answers like “procrastination”, “interruptions” and the like. And while those things are definitely formidable foes in their own right, I believe there’s a single object that, for all the benefits it brings, hampers our overall effectiveness more than any of the aforementioned, abstract notions.
This object is one that veils itself in a shroud of almost magical power. It can take you around the world, show you things you’ve never dreamed of seeing, teach you just about anything you could possibly want to know - and even tell you when your prescriptions are ready to be picked up…
