I have, however, done a lot to smooth out my moment-to-moment work process, to help me do things more quickly & easily, and to help me avoid distractions where I can. I can only hope that I win more time using this stuff than I spent setting it up.
So if you’ll indulge this lifehacking moment, here’s my top 5 list of personal productivity tools / hacks:
1) Quicksilver — Quicksilver is a launcher for mac, which gives you a quick keyboard shortcut for jumping to any app. For example, if I press control-space (to open quicksilver), and then press “p”, it prompts me to open photoshop. It’s also awesome at remembering your choices and learning from them, so it always presents the thing you want as the first option. It can do way more than I use it for, but even for what I do (just opening apps), I use it hundreds of times a day and feel lost on a mac without it.
I have, however, done a lot to smooth out my moment-to-moment work process, to help me do things more quickly & easily, and to help me avoid distractions where I can. I can only hope that I win more time using this stuff than I spent setting it up.
So if you’ll indulge this lifehacking moment, here’s my top 5 list of personal productivity tools / hacks:
1) Quicksilver — Quicksilver is a launcher for mac, which gives you a quick keyboard shortcut for jumping to any app. For example, if I press control-space (to open quicksilver), and then press “p”, it prompts me to open photoshop. It’s also awesome at remembering your choices and learning from them, so it always presents the thing you want as the first option. It can do way more than I use it for, but even for what I do (just opening apps), I use it hundreds of times a day and feel lost on a mac without it.
2) Jumpcut — Jumpcut is a clipboard buffer for mac. In other words, a history for things you’ve copied. In practice that means I can copy multiple things in a row, without without about which one I need to paste first. Copy as much as you want, then press command-shift-option-V to cycle through the things you’ve copied and choose what to paste:
3) Quick Compose — this is something I’ve written about before — what I found was that often when I wanted to write an email, I would get distracted as I passed through my inbox on the way. What I wanted was a way to skip straight to the compose window. Luckily, this is possible using Quicksilver — I have a “Custom Trigger” set up, so that wherever I am, Command-Shift-M will pop open a new browser window with the gmail compose screen on it. I use this all day long.
4) Chrome search shortcuts — One of the lesser known features of Chrome (and I believe firefox, and maybe safari too) is the ability to customize your search engines. Of course, this means setting a default for regular web searches (I use DuckDuckGo), but you can also set up more specialized keyword-based searches. For example, if I go to the chrome bar, and type in “t nickgrossman”, it will take me to http://twitter.com/nickgrossman — because I’ve set up a custom twitter shortcut with the letter t. I also have one for Crunchbase, which I use all the time — so I type “c tumblr” to get a quick link to the Tumblr Crunchbase page. And the one I use the most is the Gmail Search extension, which lets me go directly to searching my email by entering “gs ” in my address bar. Similar to Quick-Compose, this keeps me out of my inbox when I don’t need to be there. To customize your search queries in chrome, control-click (or right-click on PC) the address bar, and choose “Edit Search Engines…” 5) Jing — I use Jing all day long to take and share screenshots. I hit command-shift-J and the Jing screenshot grabber pops up. You can then draw on the screenshots if you want, and also post them to share — either to Flickr, email, or FTP (which is what I use, posting them to my own web server) Bonus!) Bookmarklets and Chrome extensions. Everyone who works with me knows I love these. So much. I use them for everything, and have even recently learned how to make my own. My favorites are: post to tumblr, post to delicious, add to pocket, add to feedly, send with gmail (maybe my all-time favorite), and many many more (even a few top-secret ones). As I look through these, the obvious theme is “shortcuts”. Keyboard, chrome button, etc. I guess really like things that let me go straight to the thing I want to do. And maybe it drives me nuts when I can’t. I like the fact that the computers I use are hackable / open enough to make this stuff possible, though of course, that is changing.
The past three weeks have been really busy. First a trip to SF with the USV team, then to Austin for SXSW to put on We Heart Wifi, and finally to Iceland where we have been helping establish a new institute for internet policy at Reykjavik University. So as is typically the case, I have fallen behind on everything — email, blogging, seeing my kids… But I am psyched to be back home and to have a few weeks free and clear to recenter and get organized. The busier my life gets, the more I’m impressed with folks who are able to keep their heads above water despite ridiculous schedules and fractured time. It’s not something I’ve mastered yet, but I’m working on it. For the past two months Frannie and I have been taking yoga, and it’s been incredible. Totally changes my outlook on everything. We are lucky to have a really great studio and instructor very close to our house. Perhaps the thing that has stuck with me the most is the idea that the practice of yoga doesn’t end when the session is over. That, with practice, you can bring the yoga with you wherever you are, to whatever you’re doing. Sounds hokey, I know, but it’s pretty profound. Anyway, the point is: I think there is something in there — about how to keep calm and carry on and stay disciplined when things get hectic. Easier said than done - but a worthy goal.
Happy MLK Day everyone. I just spent the last half hour reading MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. To be totally honest, I don’t think I’ve ever read it in its entirety before. It is incredibly powerful and moving. I encourage anyone reading this to take some time with it today. I pulled a few quotes here. King’s letter makes the case — in exceedingly eloquent and persuasive terms — for nonviolent direct action in the face of injustice. And discusses the historical precedent and moral imperative for distinguishing between just and unjust laws (including a framework for drawing that distinction), and for disobeying unjust laws. It hammers home the point that we can’t blindly accept “the law” if we don’t take into account the context in which it was created or the morality and justice of the ends it seeks. Part of the beauty of it is the guided tour of the history of changemaking, conflict and progress that Dr. King takes us on — all the way from Socrates, to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution, to the Holocaust, to of course the Civil Rights movement. It’s kind of incredible the extent to which we have to learn and re-learn the dynamics of societal norms and the process by which we arrive at and live under the rule of law. At the heart of the letter is tension between a moderate “take it slow” approach (embodied at the time by the white southern church, whose leaders the letter was addressed to) and more extreme “force change now” approach (embodied at the time by Elijah Muhammed’s Muslim movement). King’s articulation of the rationale for a measured and pure — yet intentionally impatient — nonviolent approach is incredibly thoughtful and reasoned. It’s part inspiration and part how-to for anyone working to create positive change in the face of resistance from the status quo. I can’t equate the civil rights movement with the digital rights movement, and I won’t do that here. But that is the corner of the activism world that I sit in, so it’s the lens that I’m reading this through. And I can’t help but think about the passing of Aaron Swartz, and the path he charted in the pursuit of social justice, as I read Dr. King’s words. So many of the conversations I’ve been having this past week have revolved around this question of how we view and respond to acts of civil disobedience. More importantly, I want to use today to reflect on both the (incredible yet entirely incomplete) progress that we’ve been able achieve as a nation since 1963 when this letter was written, and the profound and powerful moral foundation for change that Dr. King’s letter provides.
2) Jumpcut — Jumpcut is a clipboard buffer for mac. In other words, a history for things you’ve copied. In practice that means I can copy multiple things in a row, without without about which one I need to paste first. Copy as much as you want, then press command-shift-option-V to cycle through the things you’ve copied and choose what to paste:
3) Quick Compose — this is something I’ve written about before — what I found was that often when I wanted to write an email, I would get distracted as I passed through my inbox on the way. What I wanted was a way to skip straight to the compose window. Luckily, this is possible using Quicksilver — I have a “Custom Trigger” set up, so that wherever I am, Command-Shift-M will pop open a new browser window with the gmail compose screen on it. I use this all day long.
4) Chrome search shortcuts — One of the lesser known features of Chrome (and I believe firefox, and maybe safari too) is the ability to customize your search engines. Of course, this means setting a default for regular web searches (I use DuckDuckGo), but you can also set up more specialized keyword-based searches. For example, if I go to the chrome bar, and type in “t nickgrossman”, it will take me to http://twitter.com/nickgrossman — because I’ve set up a custom twitter shortcut with the letter t. I also have one for Crunchbase, which I use all the time — so I type “c tumblr” to get a quick link to the Tumblr Crunchbase page. And the one I use the most is the Gmail Search extension, which lets me go directly to searching my email by entering “gs ” in my address bar. Similar to Quick-Compose, this keeps me out of my inbox when I don’t need to be there. To customize your search queries in chrome, control-click (or right-click on PC) the address bar, and choose “Edit Search Engines…” 5) Jing — I use Jing all day long to take and share screenshots. I hit command-shift-J and the Jing screenshot grabber pops up. You can then draw on the screenshots if you want, and also post them to share — either to Flickr, email, or FTP (which is what I use, posting them to my own web server) Bonus!) Bookmarklets and Chrome extensions. Everyone who works with me knows I love these. So much. I use them for everything, and have even recently learned how to make my own. My favorites are: post to tumblr, post to delicious, add to pocket, add to feedly, send with gmail (maybe my all-time favorite), and many many more (even a few top-secret ones). As I look through these, the obvious theme is “shortcuts”. Keyboard, chrome button, etc. I guess really like things that let me go straight to the thing I want to do. And maybe it drives me nuts when I can’t. I like the fact that the computers I use are hackable / open enough to make this stuff possible, though of course, that is changing.
The past three weeks have been really busy. First a trip to SF with the USV team, then to Austin for SXSW to put on We Heart Wifi, and finally to Iceland where we have been helping establish a new institute for internet policy at Reykjavik University. So as is typically the case, I have fallen behind on everything — email, blogging, seeing my kids… But I am psyched to be back home and to have a few weeks free and clear to recenter and get organized. The busier my life gets, the more I’m impressed with folks who are able to keep their heads above water despite ridiculous schedules and fractured time. It’s not something I’ve mastered yet, but I’m working on it. For the past two months Frannie and I have been taking yoga, and it’s been incredible. Totally changes my outlook on everything. We are lucky to have a really great studio and instructor very close to our house. Perhaps the thing that has stuck with me the most is the idea that the practice of yoga doesn’t end when the session is over. That, with practice, you can bring the yoga with you wherever you are, to whatever you’re doing. Sounds hokey, I know, but it’s pretty profound. Anyway, the point is: I think there is something in there — about how to keep calm and carry on and stay disciplined when things get hectic. Easier said than done - but a worthy goal.
Happy MLK Day everyone. I just spent the last half hour reading MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. To be totally honest, I don’t think I’ve ever read it in its entirety before. It is incredibly powerful and moving. I encourage anyone reading this to take some time with it today. I pulled a few quotes here. King’s letter makes the case — in exceedingly eloquent and persuasive terms — for nonviolent direct action in the face of injustice. And discusses the historical precedent and moral imperative for distinguishing between just and unjust laws (including a framework for drawing that distinction), and for disobeying unjust laws. It hammers home the point that we can’t blindly accept “the law” if we don’t take into account the context in which it was created or the morality and justice of the ends it seeks. Part of the beauty of it is the guided tour of the history of changemaking, conflict and progress that Dr. King takes us on — all the way from Socrates, to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution, to the Holocaust, to of course the Civil Rights movement. It’s kind of incredible the extent to which we have to learn and re-learn the dynamics of societal norms and the process by which we arrive at and live under the rule of law. At the heart of the letter is tension between a moderate “take it slow” approach (embodied at the time by the white southern church, whose leaders the letter was addressed to) and more extreme “force change now” approach (embodied at the time by Elijah Muhammed’s Muslim movement). King’s articulation of the rationale for a measured and pure — yet intentionally impatient — nonviolent approach is incredibly thoughtful and reasoned. It’s part inspiration and part how-to for anyone working to create positive change in the face of resistance from the status quo. I can’t equate the civil rights movement with the digital rights movement, and I won’t do that here. But that is the corner of the activism world that I sit in, so it’s the lens that I’m reading this through. And I can’t help but think about the passing of Aaron Swartz, and the path he charted in the pursuit of social justice, as I read Dr. King’s words. So many of the conversations I’ve been having this past week have revolved around this question of how we view and respond to acts of civil disobedience. More importantly, I want to use today to reflect on both the (incredible yet entirely incomplete) progress that we’ve been able achieve as a nation since 1963 when this letter was written, and the profound and powerful moral foundation for change that Dr. King’s letter provides.
