Open Loops 2/21/2010: Articles I Think Worth Passing Along

Posted on February 21, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Open Loops
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Our regularly scheduled Tuesday open loop has been moved to Wednesday this week at SimpleProductivity blog.

Over at Art of Great Things, “3 (Unexpected) Laws of Simplicity” is a great read. Simplicity is not a simple thing (how’s that for ironic?) Simplicity means “no more than I need” and the article talks about how it in turns implies purpose. Also interesting is the second point: simplicity is not just about subtraction. And the final point: “When we achieve simplicity, it is not because we have eliminated complexity, but because we have conquered it.“

Sometimes my office space seems a total nightmare. Unclutterer has a great band-aid tactic in “Five uncluttering things you can do in your office right now“. I had to laugh, though, as number 1 is “Grab all those post-it notes off your screen…”, and it’s right next to the picture of the Unclutterer book, which shows post-its all over a computer monitor.

I expected something completely different from the headline “Sometimes Getting Organized is a Big Fat Waste of Time” over at Small Notebook. But the article was a good one: organization isn’t about appearance. It’s about being more productive, and sometimes organizing things can masquerade as productivity.

Daily Blog Tips had an unusual item in “10 Tips to Create To-Do Lists Like a Pro!“. Besides making lists and keeping them visible, they recommend to “list the stuff you are NOT supposed to do“. Also a good reminder: Take breaks between tasks, not inside of tasks (or you will prolong your work).

I love reading. But I find that I am not consistent with it, particularly with non-fiction reading. The Remember The Milk blog had a great idea in “Catching up on reading”: put a “chapter” reminder on your task list and have it repeat until you finish the book.

Photo by quapan

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