Life Hacks

From Eugene Eric Kim
Revision as of 05:45, 5 July 2011 by Eekim (talk | contribs) (Lexan sheets)

Goal Tracking

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin, who was inspired by Benjamin Franklin, I've started using a Google Spreadsheet as a dashboard for tracking personal goals and resolutions. It's similar to stuff I've used for work projects, only applied to my life.

Work Big

Dual monitor setup: Samsung SyncMaster 204BW (20" widescreen) and an old Sony Multiscan G400 (19" CRT). Would like to experiment with a standing desk. Ideally, I'd like to replace the legs of my current desk with something motorized. A compromise possibility is one of the Ergotron products.

Whiteboards are expensive. I ended up buying a barely used, magnetic whiteboard, which I love. I seriously considered this hack, but the whiteboard paint got poor reviews. Jessica recently pointed me to this whiteboard paint, which sounds better. I also considered "Bath Board," but it was too much trouble, and I wanted magnetic. Recently read about Go Write Dry Erase paper. Mixed reviews, but seems like a good option for portable, even temporary whiteboard surfaces. Another option is lexan sheets.

Task Management

I use a combination of Chandler and Gmail with multiple inboxes and superstars.

I used to use todo.txt, which I still really like. I hope to write a todo.txt clone using Chandler as the backend.

The Big Picture looks really nice. Integrated task management and calendar with sharing, plus a clever visual interface. Probably doesn't have Chandler's import/export capabilities, though.

I'm starting to move away from Chandler. I am highly conflicted by this, because Chandler is still a great tool, it does things others still do not, and I'm on the board of OSAF. However, development has stalled, and there's no ecosystem right now. Specific issues:

  • Poor collaboration support. Sharing is hard with anyone other than other Chandler users, and it's hard for them too.
  • Poor mobile support. There's an Android client but it's add only, which is useless.

I looked at a lot of other tools, and I'm starting to settle on Remember The Milk and Google Calendar. Remember The Milk as a tool is okay, but they have done an amazing job on building an ecosystem. There's a great Android client, there's integration with a lot of tools that I use, etc.

I used to use todo.txt. I would sync the data files between my home server and my laptop. It consisted of a single to do list, and each item could be mapped to projects and contexts (as prescribed by Getting Things Done).

I don't use that many contexts. Things like "@computer" aren't useful for me, because I'm almost always near my computer. My main contexts are:

  • @call
  • @email
  • @write
  • @errand

I use aliases for each of these contexts, so that when I'm near my phone, I can quickly type tocall to see a list of people I need to call across all my projects.

When I'm not near my computer, I keep lists on good old paper, which I eventually transfer to my computer. I like index cards, but not for managing tasks, as the stack would quickly become unmanageable.

Time Management

Spend the first hour of your workday email-free. Finish a high-priority task first thing in the morning, then check your email.

Schedule a post-work appointment to prevent post-work lingering.

I have rudimentary calendaring software -- no meeting maker or anything of the like. When I propose a meeting (both business and personal), I'll enter it in my calendar delimited by parentheses so I don't accidentally overbook.

Time Tracking

Using Hamster on Linux. Experimenting with Lumina on the Mac; would need to write some scripts to merge the information. Or, I could use SlimTimer.

RescueTime for Mac/Windows is intriguing. May be worth it, even though there's no Linux support. Should also look at TimeSnapper for Mac.

William Croft recommended the Invisible Clock timer.

I'm experimenting with the Pomodoro Technique using the open source Pomodoro app on my MacBook Pro.

New People

When I meet someone new in a biz context, I add them to my Forge:CiviCRM database. If I'm curious enough, I'll find their blog and add them to my aggregator under "Recently Met."

Travel

I used to put together a text file itinerary for all of my trips, which gave me a one page sheet that I could fold up and keep in my pocket. It was nice, because I could add notes, it was portable, etc.

I'm starting to experiment with TripIt integrated with Dopplr. The nice thing about this is that I can just forward my travel info to TripIt, which will automatically read it, and I have a TripIt app for Droid.

Since 2008, I've used a Tom Bihn Brain Bag and a TravelPro rollerbag. I use Eagle Creek packing cubes, which are a lifesaver. I have a Tom Bihn Medium Cafe Bag which serves as a day bag, both for regular life and travel.

Gadgets

Mobile phone: I currently own a Motorola Droid running Android. I used to own a Motorola KRZR.

My parents got me a Kindle for Christmas 2010.

I use a homemade hack for my earphones, but I'd like to get a Smartwrap.

Real Things

Turn 3-Ring Binders into the Ultimate Small Parts Storage.

Filing

One file per hanging folder.

Two-thirds rule. This applies to all containers, not just file cabinets. For example, your refrigerator (for those inclined to fill those up).

Use a label maker. It really does make a difference.

Managing Paper

I own a Fujitsu Scan Snap, which works with Linux. There's also OfficeDrop, which will scan your docs for you and export them into Evernote.

I'm also going to try Scan Cafe for preserving my film photographs.

"How to digitally encode home movies."

Snail Mail

Catalog Choice lets you easily unsubscribe to unwanted catalogs.

Digital Things

See Digital Video, Digital Images, Digital Photography, Digital Music, and Note Taking.

Possibilities for digital workflow management:

Hardware:

Software:

Blog Reading

Organized by:

  • Frequently (check at least once a day)
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Wikis
  • Software Development (Subversion commit feeds)
  • Recently Met
  • Old Blogs (inactive blogs with bookmarked entries)

See my Blogline feeds.

I got the idea for this organization from Bill De Hora's post. It's worked very well for me; my blog reading is much more efficient. It's important to prune regularly.

Email

Thunderbird. Extensions:

Getting Things Done:

Microblogging

I want to post to both Identi.ca and Twitter simultaneously. I want to be able to queue up posts. I also want to be able to follow both (on all accounts) without getting completely overwhelmed. The solution has to be compatible with both Linux, Mac, and Android.

For Android, I'm using Twidroid, which is great.

For posting from my computers, I'm converging toward the command-line twidge. I've got the following aliases:

alias tweet="twidge -c ~/.twidgerc-twitter-eekim"
alias dent="twidge -c ~/.twidgerc-identica-eekim"
alias recent="(tweet lsrecent -su; dent lsrecent -su) | less -EX"
alias replies="(tweet lsreplies -su; dent lsreplies -su) | less -EX"

I also have a script called tad, which lets me post to both accounts simultaneously:

#!/bin/bash
echo "---------|---------|---------|---------|--------=|=--------|---------|---------|---------|--------=|=--------|---------|---------|---------|" 
read TXT
twidge -c ${HOME}/.twidgerc-twitter-eekim update "${TXT}" 
twidge -c ${HOME}/.twidgerc-identica-eekim update "${TXT}"

I'm planning on using at to queue posts.

For following posts, I was inspired by GNOME Do's Twitter plugin, which shows new posts using GNOME's notification system. If I glance at it, I'll see a tweet, but otherwise, I'm not checking old posts. However, although the plugin works with Identi.ca also, it won't work with both simultaneously. Plugins are written in Mono/C#, which means the likelihood I'll get around to hacking it is low.

I was able to recreate a similar feature on my MacBook Pro using a Perl script called trowel. I have one instance set up for Twitter and another for Identi.ca. It works great, and my plan now is to hack it to run on Linux using libnotify:

Synchronizing Data

My Motorola Droid automatically syncs with my various Google services, which is great.

I have Apple iCal synchronizing with both Google Calendar and Remember The Milk.

I used a hack to get Apple Address Book synchronizing with Google Contacts, but I don't have it working.

Still exploring good syncing solutions.

Gift Giving

Maintain a list and add to it as you think of ideas. Don't wait until the last minute.

See BurdensLanding:Gift Ideas.

Other