Why a Great Pen Makes All the Difference

At Stepcase Lifehack, David Pierce has written a short article about how great tools makes life easier:

I’ve started to realize that the particular pen you use, or any given tool, really does make all the difference, and has a huge effect on how you feel about what you’re doing, and how well it gets done.

I am a certified gadget freak, so buying a brand pen or notebook comes as second nature to me. However I have had that nagging feeling that discussing brands and makes of pens are slightly, well, over the top. But it can't be denied that David is right, it makes all the difference taking notes in a Moleskine than in a no-name notebook for instance.

There's always time to launch your dream

David Heinemeier of 37signals has written a short and to point article:

...I’m sick and tired of hearing “no time” as an excuse for why you can’t be great. It really doesn’t take that much time to get started, but it does take wanting it really bad. Most people just doesn’t want it bad enough and protect their ego with the excuse of time.

So true. I realized this a couple of years ago, and since then I have never used the "I don't have the time" argument. It's just a matter of priorities.

And also, don't let the task ahead daunt you. Every long journey starts with one step, followed by another. Focus on the single most important task that needs to be done now and do it. You will find that you have the time for it.

The High Priests of IT — And the Heretics

Image via CrunchBase

Cory Doctorow writes in Harvard Business an truthful article named "The High Priests of IT — And the Heretics":

The dirty secret of corporate IT is that its primary mission is to serve yesterday's technology needs, even if that means strangling tomorrow's technology solutions. The myth of corporate IT is that it alone possesses the wisdom to decide which technologies will allow the workers on the front line to work better, faster and smarter — albeit with the occasional lackluster requirements-gathering process, if you're lucky.

My own experience from my current corporate work only confirms (sadly enough) the article. I want an Apple iPhone as my company phone! But will the IT-dept let me?

Terry Pratchett: Making Money

Image via Wikipedia

I have just finished Making Money by Terry Pratchett. As usual, a great read but not as entertaining as the previous book about Moist von Lipwig, "Going Postal". As one reviewer at Amazon writes:

But for a Discworld novel, "Making Money" lacks Pratchett's usual shoot-from-the-hip-and-mouth-and-other-body-parts originality. Maybe Moist von Lipwig, former Postmaster General and current trouble-shooter at the Royal Mint, is too slight a character to have the weight of two Discworld novels resting on his shoulders. Maybe his antics at the Mint are too similar to his antics at the Post Office.

But then again, I always have very high expectations on a Pratchett book. I have already started on next book, Wintersmith.

100+ resources for GTD

Well, the years has passed by but Getting Things Done is still my major productivity tool. For those of you who like productivity p0rn just as much as me, the below link is a gateway to hours of unproductive browsing.

GTD Toolbox: 100+ Resources for Getting Things Done



GTD in 2009 (Flickr)

Ha! The corpse is alive!

Ok, my blog is now officially reanimated from the dead.


I promise to start bloggin again mother!

Moleskine sighting

While watching a Schweppes commercial I noticed a couple of, what seems to be, Moleskines on the bar counter. Here it is at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKZqLo7pTRA

And, if you want to get Moleskine inspiration, visit Moleskinerie and the Moleskine Flickr Photo pool.