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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.

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 to be reckoned with.

Behind the behemoth sits Gina Trapani. Powered by a staff of stellar writers and a love for all things lifehackery, she keeps the music playing. And being such a fan of their site, I was especially excited to get the opportunity to ask her a few questions. Enjoy!

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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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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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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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I’ll be honest – before I became a parent, I had a hell of a time interacting with small children. Kids who were still in the midst of learning to talk, but had learned a few words and used them frequently (and, not surprisingly, sometimes incorrectly). Tell me if this situation sounds familiar… You show [...]

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Being born and raised in southern California has its benefits. I can be at some of the most beautiful beaches in the country in less than an hour by car. I can also (during winter) spend a couple of hours on the road and be in just the right spot for some pretty respectable skiing. [...]

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Let’s be honest – part of the reason most of us drank this GTD Kool-aid in the first place was that we were tired of forgetting things. Meetings, lunches, dentist appointments – all the crap that we were too busy (and, frankly, ill-equipped) to recall exactly when we needed to do so. So, we got [...]

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It’s rather funny to me that I write all this stuff about productivity, GTD and the like – the truth is, I’m probably one of the poorest practitioners of this stuff that there is. My system is constantly a mess, I’m always trying new little tricks and whatnot to get things working better (which typically [...]

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