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In my line of work, having to stay at the office through the night in order to meet a deadline is a reality (albeit an occasional one for most of us). Well, my number has come up a couple times in recent weeks. A work project fell behind and required a borderline-unreal amount of work be completed in an extremely short time frame (as is usually the circumstance surrounding the “all-nighter”).

So, after having plowed this road yet again, I’ve had some time to reflect on what I had to do in order to not only stay awake, but crank out code of reasonable quality. While such circumstances aren’t ideal for “knowledge work”, sometimes you simply have no choice but to buckle down and not raise your head until the job is done.

Here are a few tips for making the most of your 24-hour shift:

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Photo by jimoconnell We all face challenges. I’m not talking about having to make a touch decision or anything like that – I’m talking about challenging tasks. Things like changing a diaper for the first few days of having a new baby, or learning how to change the motor oil in your car by yourself. [...]

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When somebody first start digging around for GTD and productivity-related websites, it won’t take long before they arrive at Lifehacker.com. A fine mixture of links to quality articles and products, as well as full-length features, how-tos and all sorts of other goodies. Like it or not, it’s hard to deny that LH is a force [...]

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At my house, we pay almost every single one of our bills using our bank’s online bill payment service. It’s fast, easy and I don’t need to buy stamps or deal with the disgusting flavor of envelope glue in my mouth. However, there are a couple of bills we must pay through the mail – [...]

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I wanted to start by saying that I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday season and new year! I’ve got a bunch of stuff in the hopper for this little blog for the coming year, so be sure to stay tuned to find out what’s ahead Social networking sites are popping up everywhere. Bookmarks, videos, [...]

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Let me be honest with you – last week’s drinking game (in honor of Friday Fun) that dealt with the television show House, M.D. was, frankly, a dud. I did my best, but it kind of sucked. So, I’m here to redeem myself with a little pre-Friday Friday Fun. That said, let’s get going…

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Since starting my current job about 7 months ago, I’ve garnered something of a reputation for being “the organized guy”. A couple of the higher-ranking people there had attempted to embrace GTD (with varying degrees of success) and were ecstatic to have somebody on-board who could attempt to convert the rank and file. I got [...]

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Better late than never, I suppose Many, many moons ago I wrote a tiny little two minute timer application for Windows as a free alternative to the $10 offering from the David Allen Company. I got more than a few emails asking for a Mac version. Well, ask and you shall receive! This is a [...]

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< ?php if(!is_home()) { ?> Like watching surgeons do their thing? You can watch a lot closer with a Surgical Technician degree. < ?php } ?> Some of you may remember the moderately popular Law & Order Drinking Game from a few months back. Sitting around with my wife coming up with marginally esoteric (yet [...]

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I spend a good deal of time in the car every day. Not as much as some, but it’s typically somewhere around 90 minutes round trip on a given work day. And being one of those people whose brain is pretty much always going, I tend to have many thoughts and ideas during that time. [...]

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