Inbox Zero and the GTD Prayer

Merlin Mann has just finished up his 43 Folders series titled Inbox Zero, which contains some really good advice on getting your email under control. Here's a link to the wrap up post which contains the pointers to all the articles in the series.

Merlin has also linked today to the GTD Prayer. If you're not a GTD person then this will be pretty meaningless. For those who have embraced GTD you should find this to be pretty hilarious....

The GTD Prayer

Our lifehacks, which art in contexts,
Inbox zero be thy aim.
Thy Kinkless done.
Thy Mind Sweep fun, in @work as it is in @honeydo.
Give us this day our next action.
And forgive us our open loops, as we forgive those who delete our email.
And lead us not into web surfing.
Deliver us from IM.
For thine is the Moleskine, the Project and the Due Date
For someday/maybe,
Allen.

Tags: GTD, Merlin Mann, 43 Folders, LifeHacks

Second Life substituting for real life?

Halley Suitt poses a good question....

do the people who are all excited about Second Life actually have a first life, or any life at all?

Given that Robert Scoble, Kent Newsome and Eric Rice are three names that spring to mind immediately as people excited about Second Life then I'd have to conclude the answer is that at least some of the excited people do have a first life.

On the other hand I've always thought there's an element of addictive personality traits involved in being a geek and I'm sure there will be some who cross the line. In these cases Second Life will be a substitute for real life. Life, all life, is like that. There's the majority who tend to find a balance but at the ends of the spectrum there are people who get it all horribly wrong.

Tags: Halley Suitt, Robert Scoble, Kent Newsome, Eric Rice, Second Life

Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the latest in the JK Rowling series, has been named Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.

J.K. is quoted as saying....

"I am enjoying writing the last book in the series and it's coming along nicely."

Thank heavens for that, we are all having to wait long enough as it is!

I was a little suprised to find a link to a story that Gary Oldman hasn't been picked up to appear in "Order of the Phoenix". I wonder what that's all about?

Tags: Harry Potter

Google to disrupt Web 2.0?

Newsweek covers the growth of the "new web". The article picks out MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, Craigslist and YouTube as key examples of sites that exemplify the empowerment of communities.

"The fact that our site is almost completely self-service and community-moderated allows our tiny staff of 19 to manage the seventh largest Web site in the world," says (Craigslist) CEO Jim Buckmaster.

YouTube, a year-old start-up whose 25 employees work in offices above a San Mateo, Calif., pizzeria, is competing toe to toe with giant media conglomerates by having its millions of users supply it with the 35,000 videos added to the site each day; visitors to the site view 30 million videos a day.

MySpace is preparing to pass Yahoo as the No. 1 site.

And then I spotted this fascinating quote from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google....

...(Eric) doesn't understand why people think his company wants to be the next Microsoft. "Everybody thinks we're building operating systems, PCs and browsers. They clearly don't get it," he says. So where does Google want to go? "Look at MySpace," he says cryptically. "Very interesting."

Fascinating because....

(1) There is a LOT of speculation that Google are into operating systems, PC's and browswers. I must admit I always thought they are more into attention, because if they can grab your attention they can serve up advertising.

(2) MySpace and the other social communities offer huge platforms through which to serve advertising but interestingly Google have let Yahoo get in first to acquire a number of the leading sites, with the obvious exception of MySpace which was picked up by Rupert Murdoch.

I keep waiting for Google to disrupt the social web arena and Eric's quote is the first evidence I've seen that they might be up to something. I wonder what Larry and Sergey have in mind.

Tags: Web 2.0, Google, disruption

The power of American Idol

Speaking of American Idol, here's a little factoid for those that think that the program isn't credible.

Kelly Clarkson just became the first artist in the history of the Adult Top 40 to score five top 10s from the same album!

Link [via the American Idol News Feed]

Tags: American Idol

Polishing my crystal ball

In our household you have two choices. You either enjoy watching American Idol and the X Factor or you grin politely, and quietly blog in the background.

Actually that's not entirely fair, because I do usually enjoy the closing stages of these shows and I enjoy laughing at Simon Cowell's better quips. Simon was interviewed recently by Larry King. You can find a transcript of the interview here. During the interview Simon gave his prediction for the final three of this season's American Idol as....

(a) Taylor, the guy with the grey hair
(b) Chris, bald guy (rocker)
(c) Kellie Pickler, southern girl

I don't completely agree, but we aren't far apart. Here's my view of the final three (in no particular order) :

(a) Taylor
(b) Chris
(c) Mandisa, diva

If you twisted my arm for a winner right now, I'd go for Chris. However I reserve the right to update my predictions when we get a bit closer to the finishing line.

Tags: American Idol, Simon Cowell

Are you always on?

Working smarter, not harder has always been an aspiration, although I'm not always successful in making it a reality. I was immediately drawn, therefore, to read Anne Fisher's article "Be smarter at work, slack off"

Scientists have only recently begun to realize that people may do their best thinking when they are not concentrating on work at all

... immediately resonated with me. That's one of reasons I always have my Olympus Digital Voice Recorder handy. I have a one hour commute to work by car, and that time is generally my best, and most productive, thinking time. The fruits of that thinking get recorded as they happen, and get thrown into my GTD collection process when I'm at my computer.

Anne goes on to suggest that in a knowledge work culture the companies that succeed might be those that facilitate the time for workers to think strategically. Google is already ahead of the curve on this issue with it's 20% time.

The CNN article also touches on another of my favourite themes: the always on, always connected, interruption driven, culture. One of my best lifehacks of recent times was to end the tyranny of email notification.

The "time cost" of refocusing your attention may be only a few seconds with each switch, but the researchers found that, over time, it reduced people's total efficiency by 20% to 40%.

And that's one of the ways I kick ass when compared to your average crackberry addict.

Tags: GTD, Lifehacks, Productivity

I don't want a list, I wanna know how I kick ass with Vista

In a follow up to my question: "Why is Vista better than XP?", Robert Scoble has written two comments on his blog (here and here), which form a 30 second pitch for Vista. Farhan Ahmed took a similar approach here.

The problem with these lists is that they aren't telling me a story about how I'm gonna kick ass with Vista.

I don't say that to offend Robert (who I think is a true gentleman of the blogosphere), or anyone at Microsoft. I'm suggesting that Microsoft has some time to get the story right and turn me into a customer evangelist.

Tags: Vista, Microsoft, Robert Scoble

I knew there was a reason I work in IT.

Apparently computer nerds have been voted Britain's most popular people.

Are Blogs like sharks?

I'm a big fan of Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen blog.

Garr recently published a post that contained this fab graphic:




...and it was accompanied by this sample narration:

Blogs are like sharks. Sharks have to keep moving...or die. A blog has "to keep moving," keep progressing, be consistently updated...or it will die (as many blogs have)....

I loved this for two reasons:

(1) It's a great lesson in the zen of PowerPoint

(2) It speaks to one my constant internal questions about blogging. Is it worth blogging if I can't be as consistent as I'd like, for reasons which are largely outside of my control?

Update: Shel Israel over at Naked Conversations suggests consistency is not as important as posting when you have something to say.

Tags: PowerPoint, Blogging, Shel Israel, Naked Conversations

I'd be dooced

If I commented on this, there's every chance I'd be dooced.

Tags: Crib Ceiling, dooced.

Goblet of Fire DVD release date

Anybody mind if I'm momentarily ticked off that Goblet of Fire was released on DVD in the USA before it released in the UK? I mean, for heaven's sake, the film even premiered in the UK.

Tags: Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire

30 seconds on: Quitting Blogging

David Allen is halting his personal blog (for now). Dave Winer announced earlier this week that he will quit blogging by the end of the year. I have to say I found their need to make an announcement a tad egotistical. Why not just let their respective blogs tail off naturally. And just say something when they have something to say. I can't believe Dave Winer will have nothing to say, retired or not.

Now if only the other 280,000 members of the A-List would follow suit I might get to be a gatekeeper!

Tags: 30 seconds on, David Allen, Dave Winer, Blogging, gatekeepers

30 seconds on: Why is Vista better than XP?

Reading this post on Mini-Microsoft my immediate thought was that Robert Scoble and the many Microsoft Bloggers had better get the story straight pretty quickly on why Vista is better than XP. "...more stable, safer, and faster than XP" is not gonna have me queueing up for a copy. I thinks it's safe to say that the gauntlet has been thrown down.

Tags: 30 seconds on, Vista, Robert Scoble, Mini-Microsoft

Blogging for Traffic

Kent Newsome makes some compelling arguments in the ongoing debate about traffic and linking behaviour.

I've made some of the same points myself recently here, here, and here but Kent wraps the whole debate up in a way that's difficult to take issue with. It's hard, for example, to argue with the following logic:

(a) Would I blog in a vacuum where no one reads my blog or links to it? I'd have to be very sad to say yes to that.

(b) Therefore readership (aka traffic) and links to my blog are a legitimate goal.

And Kent comes up with a clever counterpoint to those who argue that we shouldn't have at least a passing interest in traffic and links:

To tell someone that traffic and links don't matter at all is a little like a rich guy telling a poor guy not to be so concerned about money. I don't obsess about money, but making some is certainly one of my goals when I head out the door each weekday morning.

I wish I'd said that!

Tags: Blogging, Blog Building, Kent Newsome

On the M List it's a little bit about traffic

My personal bit of news is that I've picked up a link from memeorandum. I don't know how long I was on tech.memeorandum and given that I don't seem to have had any traffic as a result then it can't have been long.

Dang.

It's okay for Steve Rubel and Robert Scoble to say that it's not about traffic but down on the M List, as Brian Clark points out, it's at least a litle bit about traffic.

Tags: Memeorandum, tech.memeorandum, Steve Rubel, Robert Scoble, Brian Clark, Blogging, Blog Building

Requiem for Technorati

I'm basically a fan of Technorati. I think Dave Sifry is one of the most responsive CEO's I've ever come across. The functionality that Technorati advertises is functionality that I want. And I can see why I'd want to use [at least some of] the new features that keep coming along.

If you're expecting me to say "but" about now you'd be quite right. As self-appointed evangelist Kent Newsome puts it, the reliability factor is hurting Technorati.

The problems that I keep experiencing are:

(1) Disapearing Links: this morning Technorati reports that I have 11 links from 8 sites. The page then lists only 4 links.

(2) Assuming my Technorati ranking is related to the number of sites that link to me, my ranking hasn't moved in weeks, despite the fact that all my still visible links are less than a week old.

(3) Search and Tag Search are frequently unavailable at peak time as demand outstrips the site's capability to supply. Tag Search is very important to me when I'm writing and tagging my posts.

I think the Technorati blog should be keeping us in the picture about what's in the pipeline to address these issues. It's not like Technorati doesn't know about the tools to keep abreast of what the blogosphere is saying about them. They can't argue that they don't have the tools to respond to what is being said. So why the silence?

I really like what Technorati have done, what they have achieved and they are an important part of my daily experience of the internet and blogosphere. To stay that way they will need to get it together soon.

Tags: Technorati, Kent Newsome, Dave Sifry.

Who watches the watchers?

Boing Boing has gone to war with censorware in general and SmartFilter in particular. At the bottom of it all is the decision to classify Boing Boing as a "nudity" site, and when the team at Boing Boing made the case for re-classification SmartFilter, unwisely in my opinion, stuck to their guns.

Not a group famed for taking it lying down, Boing Boing have struck back with a guide to defeating censorware. The issue is important because of the number of readers and potential readers who are no longer able to access Boing Boing content, and given that Boing Boing is ad supported there is a revenue implication.

The thread has been interesting to me because of my own problems at work with Websense, which was implemented at the beginning of the year. Don't get me wrong, I understand why we would use a product like Websense. I don't mind that I can't get to adult rated material at work. Keeping us away from gambling sites seems like common sense. As we should get our entertainment fix at home. That all seems kind of right.

And then something like this happens:



Kent Newsome is a blogger I've mentioned a few times in recent weeks. I enjoy his blog and in the weeks I've been reading him he's picked up links from some A-listers, including Robert Scoble.

Newsome.Org is the site that hosts his blog and in my view it's been incorrectly classified, but what can Kent do about it? Kent's blog isn't ad supported so there is no revenue implication but this will impact his readership. If you argue it won't impact his readership then my question becomes why Websense would classify it at all. The fact is that when I hit the restriction today, it affected his readership today.

The decision to classify Kent as entertainment has been made by a Websense appointed censor. And here we get to the nub of any censorship argument. What qualifies this person to act as a censor? Not everything is black or white and what happens to all the sites caught in the grey area if the censors act in a heavy-handed way.

Who watches the watchers?

Tags: Boing Boing, SmartFilter, Websense, censorship, Kent Newsome

Would I want to be dooce?

So Krisco and I are having a cosy chat about the state of blogosphere and then she asks would I want to be dooce? While I was crossing my legs at the mere thought of all the surgery that would involve, Krisco clarified the question as: would I want that level of popularity?

The upside: It would absolutely change my life. That level of popularity and, let's be honest, the level of income that it brings would enable me to approach the old hierarchy of needs in a different way. I'd get to be my own boss and stay home a lot more. Sidenote: I haven't the first clue as to what that income is, but by their own admission it is sufficient that neither dooce or her husband currently need to work what you might call a "normal" job.

The downside: It's a huge risk. It's alright if you have a handle on what it is that makes your blog successful and are able to sustain the formula, but what if you can't. How about a couple of months of writers block. Let's face it, no one would notice if I didn't post for a couple of months, but it would wipe dooce off the map. Whilst there are no consequences for me if I fall out of the Top 350,000 blogs on Technorati, the same cannot be true for dooce if she falls out of the Top 100. Tristan Louis recently posted a clinical analysis of the Technorati Top 100 which proves just how dynamic the list is, and by extension how tenuous anyone's grip is on a position within it (unless, it would seem, your blog is named Boing Boing) .

The other thing that comes with a successful blog appears to be the detractors. I've seen a little of that side of things from reading the comments on Scoble's blog and I've seen dooce refer several times to what I'd label as hate mail. I wouldn't underestimate how difficult it might be to handle that on a daily basis.

On balance, no I wouldn't want that level of popularity. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want my blog to have higher traffic levels than it does today. An interesting question is: where is the happy medium?

Tags: Crib Ceiling, Blogging, dooce, Technorati, Robert Scoble

Blogging peaks?

The esteemed Washington Post appears to have bought into some of the recent twaddle that somehow blogging has peaked. Personally, I don't think we've even reached breakfast in the blogging timeline.

The article quotes a Gallup pole titled "Blog Readership Bogged Down" that reports that only 9 percent of those polled said they regularly read blogs. I wonder how many people have read a blog in it's online form and never realised. The poll goes on to claim that 66 percent never read them. I wonder how that will change when Vista and the next generation of Office with embedded RSS brings the technology front and centre.

Update: Kent makes a more reasoned argument as to why the blogosphere is still a growth area.

Tags: Washington Post, Gallup, Blogging, Kent Newsome