And uses a Mac! But she seems to be losing the war against clutter.
(Photo from an American Express ad.) See also: attack of the piles in Al Gore’s home office.
Getting Things Done author David Allen calls any kind of productivity trick or system “advanced common sense”—using the smart part of your brain to help out the dumb part in its most feeble moments. The Getting Things Done weblog lists some of its best “advanced common sense,” like writing things down, ubiquitous capture and setting up to-do’s in their right contexts. For me, hanging up the car keys on the keyrack is the advanced common sense that keeps my dumb future self from running around the house looking for them when it’s time to go.
Reader Harold has kindly informed us that our site’s link to the US edition of Lifehacker isn’t working, and it seems the other tool for Aussies wishing to navigate to the US site (us.lifehacker.com) isn’t working either. Please rest assured this isn’t a conspiracy to keep you from visiting Lifehacker US – it’s gremlins at work. We’re speaking to the Lifehacker US folk to work out the problem, and hopefully both those tools will be back and running soon. Apologies for any inconvenience. Update: I should also point out that anyone reading Lifehacker AU is getting *all* of the US content, as well as the extra Aussie content, so you’re not missing out on any of the US posts. But if you want to jump back to the US site for any reason, you’ll be able to do so once we get the gremlins out of the system. :)
Webapp TwitterNotes separates notes to yourself from all the other chatter on Twitter. Simply log on to Twitter and type a note to yourself prefixed by the + sign, and check TwitterNotes to retrieve it later. Organise your TwitterNotes with tags by surrounding tag words in the tweet with asterisks, or listing tags at the end of the tweet. For people who love and live on Twitter, this a great way to separate notes to self from other status messages and conversation. If you’re looking for a scheduled solution or a way to get consistent reminders, you can try the Twitter timer or Remember the Milk. Otherwise, TwitterNotes should do wonders for those who might be, ahem, tweeting during class or a business meeting.
TwitterNotesProductivity blog Lifehack.org lists thirteen ways to get motivated, including finding your itch, reading books for new ideas, partnering up with a peer and developing a mantra. What gets you motivated when you’re stuck in a slump? Let us know in the comments.
Thirteen Tricks to Motivate Yourself [Lifehack]You can remove a water stain from wood by spreading a mixture of mayo and cigarette ashes (yum) on the stain, according to the Wise Bread weblog. In addition to the mayo+ash trick, the post tackles rust, carpet, wine and teeth with homebrewed stain removers that the author claims to have worked for him. If you’ve had any experience with these unusual stain remedies, let’s hear about it in the comments.
Secret homemade stain removers that kick butt [Wise Bread via Dumb Little Man]The minimalist Wine Wedge creates a cheap, space-saving wine rack of any size anywhere and any time you need one. The two rubber wedges that make up the Wine Wedge actually look a little on the flimsy side, but according to the NYT review, “The Wedge may not look very robust, but it works surprisingly well.” If you’ve had problems with frail wine racks in the past, the $9.95 Wine Wedge is a cheap and sturdy alternative.
Wine Wedge solves need for traditional wine rack [Unclutterer]My fellow anal gadget owners will nod in understanding when they read this: The right power strip plug arrangement is essential for anyone with a few energy-sucking peripherals at their workspace. The rest of you shaking your heads, let me make my case. My cordless workspace includes a 12-outlet power strip mounted to the back of the desk, which is awesome. What’s not so awesome is that the oft-unplugged plugs weren’t easy to get to, and devices that I need always on (like the Wi-Fi router) made it impossible to just cut the power on my whole rig on shutdown in the interest of saving energy. Did I mention I had no way to tell what plug was what? Here’s how I perfected the setup.
Make a reversible laptop sleeve with Instructables’ easy to implement tutorial. This is pretty basic sewing and can be completed in under an hour (not counting your trip to the fabric store to dither over all the cool fabrics, however). Note: laptop sleeves are meant to cradle your machine when they are in sleep mode or completely off; otherwise, you run the risk of overheating. How to Make a Reversible Laptop Sleeve [Instructables]
Windows only: Shareware application ShrinkMyTunes promises to fit anywhere from two to four times more music on your iPod by shrinking your MP3s while retaining most of their quality. Hot on the heels of Apple’s announcement of the enticing yet light-on-storage iPod touch, this type of application could come in particularly handy. We hardly ever post shareware here on Lifehacker, but if ShinkMyTunes does work as well as they claim it does (or even as well as Wired’s review suggests), it’s an application that may be worth the rather hefty $40 price tag for some music lovers with small storage capacities. (Then again, who among us hasn’t been working to increase the quality of their MP3 library?) ShrinkMyTunes is currently Windows only, costs a whopping $40 (but offers a 14-day money back guarantee). Let’s hear your thoughts—including how you fit as much content as you can on your MP3 player—in the comments.
ShrinkMyTunes [via Wired]
