Elegant example of technology making something complex very simple

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

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How to synchronize Tweetdeck across two Macs

I recently wrote a post introducing Twitter. That post ended with a reference to optimising your Twitter experience by using the excellent Tweetdeck in order to increase your productivity. Chris Spagnuolo wrote a great article on how to achieve this.

Many people run Tweetdeck across multiple machines. At this stage, Tweetdeck does not sync across machines (it appears that a future version will allow for this - see the release notes of the current version for more details). You will agree with me that it is a bit of a hassle to tweak Tweetdeck on each of your machines and in my opinion this is another example of a productivity paradox.

However, over the weekend, I managed to put together a hack that manages to synchronize Tweetdeck across two Macs utilising Dropbox and symlinks. I have not had the opportunity to test this on a PC, but I think it could very easily be done using the technique described below.

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Tools that show us a glimpse of e-mail 2.0. Part 3: Gist

In the first of this series I had a look at one of the pioneers in the inbox management area - ClearContext. Then I turned my attention to one of the young guns - Xobni. Today I am delighted to be writing about Gist - where your inbox meets the web.

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An introduction to Twitter - a cause of information overload and how to prevent it

This is the fourth post in my series of introducing you to the common forms of social media that can lead to information overload or infomania. In the earlier posts we had a closer look at social media, blogs and RSS, today we turn our attention to Twitter.

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An introduction to RSS

This is the third post in my series of introducing you to the common forms of social media that can lead to information overload or infomania. In the first post we had a closer look at social media and blogs, today we turn our attention to RSS.

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Is e-mail the opium of the masses? The psychological aspects of e-mail addiction.

Occasionally I stumble across a blog posting that sums up exactly what I think and how I feel about a subject that I am passionate about. I love such serendipity. Today is such a day.

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An introduction to blogs

This is the second post in my series of introducing you to the common forms of social media that can lead to information overload or infomania. In the first post we had a closer look at social media, today we turn our attention to blogs.

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An introduction to social media

This blog is about one of the great paradoxes of our time, the simple fact that an increase in technology does not necessarily translate to an increase in productivity. It is also about dealing with this problem by changing the way you use technology and tools and, more importantly, your behaviour. However, this approach depends on a key assumption: that you understand the technology.

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An introduction to GTD (Getting Things Done)

Whether you are newly interested in personal productivity or have been around the traps for some time, you will come across the acronym GTD at some point. I remember reading about it in 2005 and then it started hitting my radar with increased frequency until I relented and investigated it. After reading about the concept on-line I went out and bought the book How to Get Things Done, by David Allen. I read the book over a weekend - it felt like a bit of a homecoming to me - and I adopted the approach called GTD and within weeks I was hooked. That was years ago, and I never looked back.

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Tools that show us a glimpse of e-mail 2.0. Part 2: Xobni

Last time I had a look at one of the pioneers in the inbox management area. Today, it is the turn of one of the young guns and being young, this one brings (amongst many other features) social networking aspects to Outlook.

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Tools that show us a glimpse of e-mail 2.0. Part 1: ClearContext

Since so much of infomania and information overload relates to the influx of e-mail - and the main focus of my business is on how to manage this debilitating condition - I thought it a good idea to review some programs (or as Mac users call them, applications) that currently push the e-mail management envelope and provide us with a glimpse on how e-mail management will look in the future. First up, ClearContext.

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Is Information Overload a $650 Billion Drag on the Economy?

I have been reading a lot about information overload over the last couple of months. I posted about aspects of it in the past. A figure that is quoted from time to time is the cost to business resulting from the information overload suffered by their employees

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Thoughts on Productivity 2.0

Don’t multi-task — multi-project and single-task. Produce less, not more. Forget about organization — use technology.

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Update to my experience with OtherInbox

I posted - Hot off the press: OtherInbox - about a web application called OtherInbox a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was time for an update.

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How the markets really work

Just in case the market is getting you down, check out this comic sketch from LAST YEAR. Shockingly prescient …

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Remember the Milk’s Co-Founder on the Future of Task Management

Kevin Purdy over at Lifehacker.com recently published an interview with Emily Boyd. Emily is one of the co-founders of one of my favourite tools, Remember the Milk.

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The cost of constantly checking your e-mail

One of the aspects that I focus on in the E-mail Redux workshop is interruptions, the effect they have on productivity and a couple of techniques on how to handle them.

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The New York Times Mac ad

I thought it was worthwhile pointing you to the latest execution of their I’m a Mac campaign on the NYT.

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Hot off the press: OtherInbox

I just came across this new service. It looks very promising.

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Some fun: the new Microsoft ads

We all know and love the now-famous “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” Apple advertising campaign.

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Reducing Unnecessary Email Intake

The WebWorkerDaily blog have posted a good article with four tips on how to reduce unnecessary e-mail intake.

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Ten point manifesto on how to work better

This ten-point manifesto by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss on how to work better is worthy first entry to the category of personal productivity - and no technology in sight anywhere ;-)

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Hot Off the Press: David Allen Launches New GTD Channel on YouTube

David in conjunction with the David Allen Company have just launched a new YouTube Channel dedicated to Getting Things Done

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TED Talks David Pogue: When it comes to tech, simplicity sells

David Pogue, The New York Times columnist, takes aim at technology’s worst interface-design offenders

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The business of creating a business

So this is my first venture in to the realm of building a business.

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