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Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time Culling personal possessions and other ‘distractions’ from your workplace could actually be a productivity killer, according to Charlie Pabst at Freelance Switch. He says he went freelance to get away from the “sterile cubicle” environment, and says keeping ‘distractions’ like his guitar close to hand help him in his work.
How does it work? He says keeping your favourite things around can actually be a motivator, rather than a distraction. First of all, he says keeping his favourite things around (like his guitar and his moleskine notebooks) make for a happy and inspiring environment.Being able to down tools for 10 minutes, or take a long lunch break as a reward for getting work done is a great motivator, he says.
“You can set little targets for yourself. “As soon as this CSS validates, I’m playing guitar for ten minutes!” or “As soon as I write 1,000 words, I’m going rock climbing!”
This gives me a reason to work hard, a reason that’s often way more valid than, “I need the money.”
Another benefit of being able to pick up Guitar Hero for 10 minutes, is that it means you take breaks during your work day – giving you a chance to refresh and recharge.Charlie’s writing from a freelance perspective but I know there are workplaces out there who provide space and tools for staff to chill out and recharge at work. So what personal items do you keep around the workplace, and how do you keep them from distracting you?
Your workspace is killing your productivity [Freelance Switch]
We’ve shown you how to stream DivX/XviD video to your Xbox 360, but here’s a hack for dealing with a much simpler problem – the 360′s noisy fan. ExtremeTech likens the sound of the Xbox 360 fan to that of a Cessna revving for takeoff, and gives a walkthrough for replacing the fan with a quieter one. The article does note that opening the console does void the warranty, and also that you’ll still get noise from the DVD-ROM. However you should have a quieter time when playing Xbox Live Arcade games or watching downloaded or streamed movies or music, since they don’t trigger the optical drive.You can buy a fan which is customised for the Xbox 360′s fan mount – for this exercise they use a green Whisper Fan. If you’re DIY minded and have the proper tools, you can unlock and open the console case yourself, but Extreme Tech says they opted for a Team Xecuter 360 Unlock V2 kit which cost $12.The article goes on to give a full walkthrough with pictures, and sums up by saying the new fan is “startlingly” quiet. It’s up to you to decide if the risk of voiding the warranty is worth it for quieter performance.
Hacking your Xbox 360 fan [ExtremeTech]
Online computer hardware vendor Tekfix has come up with a novel way of attracting customers – it’s offering a 5% discount to Firefox users. The discount is available when Firefox users enter “firefoxed” as the coupon code during checkout. According to computing industry news site CRN, Tekfix says its offering the discount to encourage people to try out Firefox.The discount offer excludes Apple products. As with any online retailer, check out the service and warranty details before buying, and check shipping costs too.
If you’ve taken control of your startup applications with the Windows stalwart, msconfig, you may have stumbled onto a new annoyance in Vista. When you block a program’s startup with msconfig, Vista displays a “Windows has blocked some startup programs” message whenever you restart the computer. The How-To Geek weblog details how to disable the annoying pop-up with a simple tweaking of the System Configuration Utility. Just right-click the blocked programs system tray icon, choose Run blocked program -> System Configuration Utility, and then tick the “Don’t show this message…” checkbox. Annoyance solved.
Stop the Annoying “Windows Has Blocked Some Startup Programs” Balloon [the How-To Geek]Weblog Serious Eats rolls up their sleeves and cleans out the post-holiday clutter from their overflowing refrigerator. While it’s easy to let your fridge fill up with all those leftovers, there’s actually no better time to declutter your fridge than during the winter, when you can normally find plenty of places to keep refrigerated leftovers cool if you’re not ready to toss them yet. Then again, don’t forget that the more you’ve got in your freezer, the more efficient it will be, so aim for a cleaning that gets rid of the clutter but doesn’t leave you with an empty fridge. If you’ve got a favourite way to declutter your winter fridge (besides binging), let’s hear it in the comments. Photo by Michael_L.
In Gear: How to Unclutter Your Winter Fridge [Serious Eats via OrganizedHome]AU – well, it may be stinking hot here but our fridges are probably overflowing with Christmas party leftover, so it’s probably still a good time for a fridge clean up.
Weblog Dumb Little Man offers tips for overcoming the stuff that sucks the energy right out of you: like lack of sleep and exercise, stress, sickness, dehydration, and toxic people. Just reading this list is draining, and it made me wonder what your productivity Kryptonite is.
Wine guy Dr. Vino demonstrates how to carry a pair of wine bottles using furoshiki, a traditional, Japanese decorative cloth. He says the Japanese use furoshiki to wrap and carry items in lieu of plastic bags. If you don’t have any authentic furoshiki around the house, any square cloth will do; Dr. Vino says his is 24×24 inches. This looks like something you want to arrive at the dinner party with in hand.
HOWTO: make a furoshiki wine carrier [Dr. Vino's Wine Blog]Searching public BitTorrent sites for that special torrent can be challenging, particularly if you’re looking for something more obscure. Web site YouTorrent simplifies the process by searching for torrents across the most popular BitTorrent sites in real-time, then dynamically returning and sorting the results by number of seeds. YouTorrent’s results are fast and its pages are ad-free (for now). YouTorrent is reminiscent of previously mentioned Scrape Torrent, which does the same thing but has since turned into a pop-up blocker’s nightmare. For the time being, YouTorrent is an excellent place to start your BitTorrent searches.
YouTorrent [via TorrentFreak]If you’re traveling with stuff you don’t want to lug onto the airplane, box it up and ship it ahead of time your destination’s local post office and mark it general delivery or “post restante.” Then pick it up there when you arrive. Travel site Upgrade explains: Poste restante is an old fashioned mail-pickup service that most countries’ postal services still provide. Mail is addressed to a person, but in lieu of an address for delivery, the mail is sent to a post office branch, where you pick it up. You’ll usually address mail to Name, Poste Restante, the specific name of the post office (usually the main, central office), that branch’s street location, city, postal code, and country. Of course, you need to KNOW the location you’ll be picking it up from beforehand.
You can also ship ahead to the hotel where you’re staying, or, if you’re an American Express customer, to the local AmEx Travel Service office. Poste restante: Avoid airport security hassles by mailing packages to your destination [Upgrade: Travel Better]
Weblog NoHeat details how they use previously mentioned Stick, a Windows-only app that sticks any application into a desktop tab, to easily access Gmail amidst their desktop clutter. In fact, since Stick provides hotkeys for accessing tabs without your mouse, you can even set up a shortcut to get to your inbox any time with just a simple keystroke (I’m using Win-G). The author also explains how to embed web widgets, like any of the popular Google Gadgets, into a “Stick”. If you like the idea of desktop widgets but have never found an app that was customizable enough, using Sticks as described at NoHeat is a good alternative. Unfortunately Stick uses IE instead of Firefox for the browser tab.
Gmail in a Tab at the top of your screen [NoHeat]
