Original Pac-Man pencil and graph paper sketches
June 24, 2010
Printable Paper Productivity: A Resource Guide
March 20, 2010Here’s a collection of resources for printing your own note paper, lists, etc.
DIY Planner – The best choice for printable planner pages. Check out their beginner’s guide to get started.
Print Free Graph Paper – The name says it all. Customize the size, units and style of your graph paper.
re:Pocketmod – Pocket-sized, portable and customizable foldable booklet. You’ll get addicted to these.
Cornell Method PDF Generator – The Cornell Method helps you remember why you wrote down the stuff you wrote down. Check out this tool for generating your own personalized Cornell notepaper.
A Collection of Printable Sketch Templates and Sketch Books for Wireframing – Web work your thing? Check out this amazing collection of web-to-paper templates from Geek Chix.
Blank staff paper and blank chord sheets – For the musically inclined and instrumentally productive.
DIY: FREE printable Mini File Folder & Labels – Print your own file folders for those scraps of paper.
Moleskine MSK – Create custom pages that print out ready to fit inside your Moleskine notebook. You can import contacts, chunks of text, and several other options.
The Printable CEO Series – High level goal tracking, business planning, etc.
What are some other great printables for productivity?
Combining digital and analog
March 19, 2010No matter how much we might try to go 100% paper-based or 100% digital for our task and schedule management, it’s unlikely we can achieve either one. You’ll always have information scattered around your hard drive or your email, and you’ll always have some index cards or post it notes laying around with jots and times/dates. Combining analog and digital inboxes is a major obstacle to an efficient system. There are a few apps that try to bridge this gap for you right out of the gate.
Look familiar? Based on the Pocketmod format (now resurrected as rePocketmod), the Toodledo booklet prints out your tasks in a convenient foldable pocket booklet. If you have a Pro account or higher, you can customize your booklet to meet your specific needs.
Another Pocketmod clone. Scrybe got a lot of buzz several years ago, and it seems like the developers just gave up on it. The blog was last updated in 2008. However, one of its most unique features was the ability to print your tasks and calendars into a small and foldable booklet. Scrybe was the first app I came across that seemed to care just as much about your paper-based productivity as your digital task management.
What other suggestions do you have for productivity apps that make it easy to flow back and forth between paper and digital?
Please vote for LoveIsRespect.org
April 15, 2008I’d like to ask all readers of this blog to take the time to vote for LoveIsRespect.org in this year’s webby awards. My partner works for this charity and your vote would be much appreciated. It’s a great cause that’s worthy of your vote. Thanks!
Moleskine at SXSWi 2008
March 10, 2008
You’d think that South by Southwest Interactive 2008 would be the most wired place in the country. However, the wireless continues to reach max capacity and completely fold under the pressure during the most popular panels. My T-Mobile service on my Blackberry is also in SOS mode about 75% of the time. What does that mean?
It means that my trusty pocket Moleskine notebook has become note taking device, chatpad, and general capture apparatus. Talk about analog multitasking.
Pocketmod V2
December 21, 2007
After a long dry spell with no new innovations from the original creators of Pocketmod, we finally have an update! What a nice Christmas present for you pocket productivity fans. Check out Pocketmod V2.
The new version includes many features originally hacked into existence by dedicated devotees, including the ability to add pictures, information pulled from live RSS feeds, and more.
The best new features of Pocketmod V2 are the “Today,” “Tomorrow,” and “This Week” pages, which actively update with the correct dates to create a pre-populated calendar. Excellent.
via Pocketmod blog
Pencil of the Month Club, Vol. II
September 14, 2007Don over at Pencil Things has decided to resurrect his much beloved feature, Pencil of the Month Club!
This time around, there’s even a limited edition for special collectors:
We also may offer a Limited Edition, for $8.00/month. The Limited Editon will include a vintage pencil and/or a special pencil. American Pencil Company’s Venus Velvet is an example of a vintage pencil. Mitsubishi Pencil Company’s Hi-Uni is an example of a special pencil. I characterize a pencil as “special” if it is unavailable to individuals living outside the pencil’s country of manufacture, or it is unreasonably expensive to acquire. But PencilThings.com may purchase special pencils from foreign businesses and distribute one to each Limited Edition member — a co-op purchase, in effect.
Exciting news for pencil dorks everywhere.
Couch-to-meditation-practice program
September 12, 2007It seems like I’ve been reading about running for about as long as I’ve been reading about Buddhism, and up until about 3 weeks ago I hadn’t had the determination to practice either one. But once I started putting Cool Running’s Couch-to-5k running plan into action, I realized that reading doesn’t matter, only practice matters. The couch-to-5k program has been so inspiring to me (I’ve worked out every day since I began, even doing weights on the off days) that I began to wonder, “Why isn’t there a couch-to-meditation-practice program?
Most meditation instructions range from “just start sitting” (not that helpful) to detailed, complex guided imagery type things. I think almost every type of meditation has its benefits, but I realized none of these instructions provide a plan for building up a solid, active meditation practice. They don’t provide you with the tools and motivation to create the habit of meditation.
This program is designed for people who are curious about meditation but consider themselves too restless, ADD, or just too “active” to sit and meditate. By starting off with very short periods of quiet contemplation, you’ll feel satisfied that you’ve completed each step. Don’t do more than is required for each week. Overdoing it is one of the main reasons new meditators (and runners!) end up quitting. Just stick to the program and you will slowly build up a tolerance for stillness.
What this program is designed to do:
- Get you in the habit of meditation
- Increase the typical restless Westerner’s tolerance for sitting still
- Give you a plan to put into action
What this program is NOT designed to do:
- Insist on a particular type of meditation
- Insist that any particular posture is more “correct” than any other
- Promote a particular Buddhist school of thought (Please choose the path right for you prior to starting the program. Some common examples are counting the breath, goalless shikantaza, vipassana, loving-kindness/metta meditation, Tibetan visualization or tonglen – see the wikipedia entry about meditation for more information)
So, in the spirit of the popular couch-to-5k running program, I present the couch-to-meditation-practice program. This 10-week program will get you into the habit of meditating three times per week, each week increasing your Sunday “long meditation” by a few minutes. By the end of the program, you’ll be meditating for 30 minutes at a time.
Supplies needed:
- Zafu and zabuton or a pillow/cushion and towel
- Timer (either a watch or a kitchen timer of some kind)
- A quiet spot where you can be undisturbed (either in your home or outdoors in a shady spot)
Routine for each meditation period:
- Dress in comfortable clothing (but not pajamas)
- Arrange yourself on your cushion so that you’re comfortable
- Assume your preferred meditation posture (need help? check out Zen Mountain Monastery’s meditation instructions)
- Start your timer
- Begin your preferred meditation format
The follow chart gives you the 10-week plan for slowly and steadily increasing your meditation times. I’ve chosen Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (with the long meditations on Sundays) but feel free to choose whichever three weekdays fit with your schedule.
If you ever doubted the power of pencils…
August 20, 2007Learn how to turn a pencil into an emergency light source, via Lifehacker.
This looks like a great hack for roadside emergencies or amazing the kids.
Slow Burn Productions 