Tools for Thought

Before we can manage our options, we need to have options. By default, the brain organizes learned experience into stable perceptual frameworks and common response patterns. It needs to do this. We wouldn’t want to consider every possible way of crossing the street; we just look both ways and walk if we see no coming […]

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This week I’ll be finishing up the Pattern Language for Productivity series, making some non-trivial edits to it, and turning it into a PDF for download. I’ll leave the series on the blog as-is — I wouldn’t want to edit it retroactively — so you’ll definitely want to take a look at the e-book version, […]

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Our priorities are based on our time frames. When we eat an ice cream, we’ve made short-term enjoyment a priority over long-term health and vitality. When we postpone dinner with family and stay late at the office to complete a project, we’re making another priority choice. These may or may not be the right priorities, […]

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Many activities can be batched, not just repetitive ones. We have context lists that group like activities by the location or resource required — an @Computer list for tasks requiring a computer, an @Home list for tasks that can only be done at home, and so on. We can batch the processing of paperwork and […]

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A complete review of projects and next actions held once per week is critical for keeping your tasks management system trustworthy, preventing “stuff” (unprocessed agreements, intentions, information) from piling up in mind to the point of distraction. Weekly reviews can be empowering, but they can be too empowering. From the repose of the weekly review, […]

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A common problem with task management systems is the length of time that entries remain unexamined. Action lists contain items that no longer reflect current reality. Things that seemed like good ideas at the time they were written down are no longer priorities, no longer practical, or simply no longer interesting.
Hard landscape items on calendars […]

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Sometimes procrastination stems from anxiety over the unknown. I lost hours yesterday in trying to adopt Google Documents for my article writing. A simple product review turned into an all-day affair. It took me most of the day to pinpoint the source of my procrastination; then it became obvious that I was splitting my attention […]

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When we’re undecided on whether or not to commit to a project, one option is to shelve the project on a Someday/Maybe list. But sometimes indecision stems from insufficient information. We need to get enough data to make sure that deciding not to do something is a proactive choice, made from reason or informed intuition, […]

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Freeware Windows app Free Music Zilla was designed to catch music streaming through sites like Last.fm and Pandora in your Downloads folder. Though unpublicized, the function works equally well for Flash videos like those found on YouTube.
Launch Free Music Zilla prior to playing the video you want to save. By default, FMZ will show the […]

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The flip side of managing commitments is managing options. There’s a subtle but fundamental difference between choosing not to act on an option and not choosing to act on it. The former is proactive triage, the latter is indecision. Some things are not worth doing now, but possibly later. Some things, though interesting, are not […]

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