Build the Business of Your Dreams

Welcome to the Cranking Widgets Blog. We exist to help you get more done by showing you ways to be more effective and let go of the stuff that doesn't make you awesome. Be sure to subscribe to our feed and follow us on Twitter here.
iPhone

Not so long ago, cell phones were reserved for society’s wealthy and privileged. Yes, carrying around that small suitcase only for the pleasure of spending $.50/minute to call your stock broker or nail salon – that’s what separated the haves from the have-nots.

Thankfully, those days have ended. Everybody and their freakin’ mother has a cell phone these days – and why wouldn’t they? They’re ridiculously cheap to acquire and use (relative to just a few years ago) and even the freebie models come with more features than a stock install of Windows 95™.

(more…)

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

It gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of a new venture (along with my good friend Glen of LifeDev.net), the LifeRemix blog network. Glen and I have hand-selected what we feel are the best and most well-written blogs around. They all deal with the notion of making life a little better (in one [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

Everybody’s favorite productivity guru/wordsmith gave a Tech Talk at the Googleplex on getting your inbox to zero. If you’re a 43f reader, this will likely be a rehashing of some older material, but still worth the time. If you’ve never heard of this man(n), you’re in for a treat. Have a great weekend, everybody!

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

Let’s face it – GMail is pretty much the coolest webmail application in existence. It’s simple design and slick interface (not to mention it’s unparalleled search capabilities) make it a pure joy with which to work. Having said that, there’s something to be said for standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. A [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

A few months before my son was born (about 2 years ago), my wife had her first baby shower. She received a plethora of gifts from family and friends – baby clothes, diapers, you name it. I went and picked her up and brought all of the crap home so we could sift through it [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

One area where I find myself disagreeing with many of the community gurus is the area of breaks and the taking of breaks. Many will say that one should work n minutes per hour and take a 60-n minute break, like clockwork. I disagree. Attempting to shoehorn humans into a robotic schedule when their work [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

Just a quick one, kids. I was recently invited to test drive the new Twitter-ish web app, Pownce (from Digg-founder Kevin Rose and others). It uses the new AIR interface stuff from Adobe, and it’s pretty slick. My only complaint thus far is the inability to send messages from my cell phone. Otherwise, it’s pretty [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

…your “Delete” key. It is in a three way tie with for the best productivity tool ever with the Trash Can and the word “No”. – Org-Fu Überpost – Productivity Whitepaper by Patrick Rhone. This statement is the inspiration for this series of posts called The Productivity Trifecta. Of all the things you can do [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

One of the first things I notice about many new GTD converts (says the guy who has been doing it for all of 8 months now) is how ready they are to try to recruit their friends and family (myself included). I would venture to say that Getting Things Done is lent out more than [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading
 

As some of you may already know, I’m a big fan of Law & Order. It’s by far the most Tivo’d show at my house, hands down. I’ve been known to plow through 4-6 episodes on a lazy Saturday night – I’m not joking about this, I’m a fan. So, as any avid fan would [...]

ShareThis! buttons goes here
continue reading