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Need a Labeler? Read This…
This is a Sponsored Post
It doesn’t take long for any GTD neophyte to realize that an essential tool in their productivity toolbox is a good labeler. While it may seem superfluous to the uninitiated, it’s one of those things that adds that extra bit of polish to your productivity system, as well as feeds the little fiend inside of you who loves a little productivity pr0n.
My new friends over at cableorganizer.com have an excellent selection of quality label printers to fit any need (and just about any budget). Sitting beside me on my desk is a lovely Dymo RhinoPRO 5000 label printer, courtesy of CableOrganizer. It’s one of those tools that screams durability - the kind I’d feel comfortable having on my belt looking at an unlabeled cluster of network or telephone cables. The unit arrived quickly and in perfect condition, ready for my strict evaluation - so you know the folks at CableOrganizer know how to get the job done.
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How Do You Recover From a GTD Disaster?
Hey, everyone. I am not Brett, but I play him on TV. No that’s not it!!! I am Jason from Black Belt Productivity, and today I am pinch hitting for the new father.
I want to congratulate Brett and family on the birth of their new daughter. I also want to thank him for the privilege to be a part of this forum of GTD discussion. Thanks, Brett for the invite. I am honored.
WOW, as they say in the commercial, life does come at you fast. Sometimes, if you are not on your GTD game, you can really allow yourself to get behind.
Whether it happens as the result of you just getting mentally lazy for a period of time, or you just get overwhelmed, every one of us from time to time allow our systems to get a little out of control. If you are like me, this goes to bed with you. Inevitably, you end up keeping track of some things in your head if you allow your system to get…not so air tight. This is not good. I, personally, lose sleep when I am in this condition. The whole idea of GTD, of course, is to achieve a “mind like water”. So carrying around stuff in your head is certainly counter productive to achieving that.
So when you get off track, and you get out of control, what do we do to recover some sense of sanity and peace of mind?
FileHamster: Version Control for the Rest of Us
Ahem. Cough. Cough. Testing. 1. 2. 3.
Well hello there gentle readers! My name is GTD Wannabe and I’m standing in today for Brett, who’s about to give birth. Well, my name’s not really GTD, and he’s not really going to be doing the heavy lifting 
but you know what I mean.
I want to introduce you to a version control system today. Given that the Cranking Widget’s tag line is “GTD, Productivity and Life Hacks for the Rest of Us”, I shall make a bit of an assumption that you’re not all keen users of version control systems.
Prepare to Be Very Jealous of My Killer GTD Setup
Disclaimer: Buckle up, this is a long one!
When Jennifer of Lifemuncher tagged me with this little meme, I have to admit, I was a touch apprehensive. Not because I’ve fallen off of the GTD wagon or anything (which I sort of did a few weeks back), but because I have changed my GTD implementation about as often as I’ve changed my socks in recent weeks. But, being the community-minded nerd that I am, I decided to oblige in spite of myself.
So, to follow the prescribed order of things, we’ll start with my current set of tools (and their particular GTD application, just for clarity’s sake):
Quick Winstikker Update
Just a quick update regarding WinStikker (a little Windows desktop application I wrote to quickly and easily create new Stikkits from your desktop). One of the biggest requests (read: complaints about it was the 500-character limit on the main input field. It was written this way because, per Stikkit’s documentation, the Stikkit engine will only process the first 500 characters of text that it receives.
But, a great many of you emailed me asking to remove this limitation, so I did.
Meet My New Secretary
In my eternal pursuit of the “mind like water”, I’ve noticed certain aspects of my productive life are, how shall I say, somewhat lacking. As much as I like to think I have a handle on my responsibilities and obligations, sometimes things fall through the cracks (and we all know what a no-no that is). So, having come to terms with my fallibility, I’ve made an executive decision…
I’ve gone ahead and gotten myself a secretary.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Sir! Aren’t you a lowly programmer with a budding family and a tight budget? How can you afford such an expense?!”. Well, yes, that’s true. I’m not exactly rolling in it right now, certainly, but it doesn’t matter because my new secretary costs me nothing. In fact, she’s not even a real person (just a technicality, really). Folks, meet Sandy…
How to Construct the Perfect Email Subject Line
How many times have you received an email with a subject line that said something like “Question” or “FYI”? Or, worse yet, had no subject at all? For all the millions of email messages that traverse the Internet every day, the ability to effectively formulate an indicative subject message seems to be fairly unimportant to most people. A quick skim of the last 100 or so email messages you’ve received will likely support my claims.
It is because of this seemingly global issue of email subject apathy that I give you this (what I consider to be) definitive guide to creating the perfect email subject.
