There have been a number of articles about email and other technology interruptions/distractions lately. CNet adds their own to the mix. Of course, stepping back can be difficult: It’s all part of a culture shift that has accompanied all of the new modes of communications. These days, corporate culture frowns on those who turn off [...]
Today’s no-brainer: do not talk on your cellphone while driving. I don’t know why anyone would still do this, but CNN indicates that you’re four times more likely to have a serious accident while yakking away on your phone. Of course, the idiot industry spokespeople say everything is fine: The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, [...]
A Million Monkeys Typing has The Beginner’s Mind, a Zen riff on too much organization getting in the way of living an actual life: Why did I need to have several versions of a contact list, in three different forms? One is enough. Did I really need two ways of tracking projects, and did I [...]
Brighthand recently ran an editorial titled Handhelds vs. Laptops — How to Lighten Your Load in One Easy Lesson. Well, that’s an appealing premise – I’d love to lighten my load, but I still take my Thinkpad with me when I need something more than my cellphone. It isn’t because handhelds and PDAs aren’t amazingly [...]
AlterNet is running a Mother Jones interview with Tom Hodgkinson about his theory that idleness is a good thing. I was skeptical of some of his points, such as: I had lunch with these French people who said, “Travailler moins, produire plus.” In other words, the less you work, the more you produce. The problem [...]
Brighthand mentions a study about mobile technology vs. longer working hours. Yes, it is probably true that being more connected means being available for more work. But the real question for the worker is whether it increases satisfaction or reduces stress. Wouldn’t it make more sense to measure these variables? Well, not if you’re the [...]
There’s no better way to minimize the amount of stuff on your plate than saying “no” to the stuff that doesn’t make sense. LifeHacker points us to To-Done’s tips for saying no. Cool Hunting shows us gold-plated staples as a fashion statement. I suppose it looks very minimalist from a design perspective when used as [...]
Essay a few days ago from To-Done called Geek to Live. Unfortunately, I know exactly what Keith means when he is talking about new stuff like Backpack, the current darling of obsessive task and organization geeks (which is actually pretty cool, although I don’t use it myself): It’s quite often that when a new tool [...]