The Cranking Widgets Blog

Thing to Remember When Your Kids Are Driving You Frickin’ Insane

photo by lobstar

Watching a small child slowly grow into an actual, real-live person is an interesting thing. They watch you so intently when you speak, drinking it all in. This gives way to imitation as they take on your specific habits and behaviors (which they’ll then mold to fit their own personalities and [...]

The Secret to Mastering the iPhone Keyboard

I won’t bore with another diatribe about how amazing the iPhone is – the product speaks for itself. I will, however, address one of the more common complaints about the device: the keyboard. For the most part, naysayers seem to prefer the tactile response of a hardware, Blackberry-style keyboard. I can absolutely [...]

Parents: You are Their Best Friend

As many of you know, my wife and I have two wonderful kids. Our oldest will be 3 years old next month which is crazy. And as most parents of toddlers will tell you, they can be a bit of a challenge (to say the least). They can be defiant and stubborn, and the word [...]

Web Warrior Tools – Get Your Smart On

???????? ????? ????????
My very good buddies Glen (of LifeDev) and Leo (of Zen Habits) launched their brand new ebook store today, called Web Warrior Tools. Much like their awesome blogs, the main idea behind the books they sell is improving your life. And don’t let the name fool you – these precious volumes [...]

Productivity vs. Social Media

As many of you know, I’ve been immersing myself in some of these social media services lately (Twitter, FriendFeed, and most recently Seesmic and Vimeo). It’s been a lot of fun and I’m really happy to have started doing it, but something has been vexing me.
How does a personal productivity nut reconcile the (arguably [...]

Brand New Site by Cranking Widgets

There are times in life when you decide “enough is enough“. This past week was one of those times.
I get a fair amount of email. Not as much as some, but it’s a pretty steady stream. Sometimes, those messages are from well-wishing friends who thought I might enjoy an inspirational message from [...]

8 Ninja Uses for Binder Clips

I would be willing to wager that most people, during their first office supply shopping trip after having read Getting Things Done, pick up some binder clips. This is probably because they happened across the Hipster PDA at some point during their GTD travels and thought, “man, that looks like something I could really [...]

Reasons to Get a Tattoo (and Reasons Not To)

digg_url = ‘http://blog.crankingwidgets.com/2008/05/05/get-a-tattoo/’;

I have lots of tattoos. Something like 30 at last count, if memory serves. As tattoos have grown in popularity and social acceptance, it’s very likely that your average 20-something has one or more tattoos. And while I’m certainly not an expert on the art of tattooing, I’ve got a [...]

Getting Things Done with 37signals’ Backpack – Why I’m Switching Back

As some of my twitter friends noticed this week, I’ve made the switch back to Backpack as my primary GTD tool. Some found this surprising, given how heavily I’ve pimped Remember the Milk. This post will outline why I left RTM and why Backpack makes so much more sense (for me, anyway).

Let me [...]

11 Tips for Better Tech Support

We’ve all been there. Something’s dreadfully wrong with your trusty computer – you can’t print, you can’t get on the web, you can’t play Bejeweled. For whatever reason, the problem is major enough to warrant one of the most desperate acts you can imagine – a phone call to tech support.
Now, before we [...]