LogSense

December 14, 2005

Re-organization: 1 month later

It has been a little over 1 month since I decided to re-organize my projects, and drop or significantly reduce the amount of time dedicated to a few projects so I can dedicate myself to high priority projects. I have to say that it really had an effect on my level of stress and also on the progress of other projects. I highly encourage others to try to do the same, and figure out how to best spend your time. Prior to that I was just doing what I had to do, without any significant planning. But now with very little planning I can get much more meaningful work done, I wish I had done it before.

 

December 13, 2005

Overcoming the RSS avalanche (part II)

I have mentioned here before how I managed my RSS feeds, and how it helped me cope with the amount of information that keeps flowing in at an ever-increasing pace. Basically I had to methodically read all my feeds at least twice a day to stay up-to-date, but I just could't keep up with it. I needed a break.

So what did I do ?Very simple: I placed all the feeds that were not crucial in a "storage" folder, and just read them when I feel like it. Now I have less than 50 feeds that are really important. Sure, I may not be aware of the latest link, but if it is important enough it will get to the most important blogs eventually. So I am counting on other people to "filter" the important items for me. We all wish we had more time, but what I really need is to spend *less* time reading feeds and *more* time being productive.

 

December 07, 2005

Share MS Excel spreadsheets

Very interesting site for uploading and sharing Excel spreadsheets. JotSpot Tracker apparently lets people upload spreadsheets with copy/paste and share them with multiple users, everything done online.

I strongly believe that this is the future of all office applications. No downloads, installations; just surf and use right away.

 

Being honest with people

I have always tried to be as honest as possible with everyone. I thought that just being sincere and exposing my views and opinions would take me further. But I am realizing more and more that this is a very naive choice, and that people sometimes do not want to hear the truth, mostly because truth is far from ideal.

For example, when you ask "how do you do ?" in the morning, how many negative answers do you get ? It is far more comfortable to say "fine" and move on. The same applies to many personal and professional relationships. I am of the opinion that complaining is not good when done just for that - complaining; it the complaint comes with a solution or suggestions for improvement, there is effectively something being discussed about whatever the issue is, and the initiator of the complaint is truly interested in making things better.

Having discussions in small groups is a great way to improve things. To do it right, one should set the background that everyone is free to say whatever they want, and that the goal is to improve and/or solve a problem. I don't think it will solve everything, but I still believe that honesty and sincerity should be encouraged, but out of context honesty can be seen as "whining" and will not please others.

 

December 05, 2005

Firefox 1.5

Do yourself a big favor and update your browser, especially if you are using Internet Explorer. Firefox 1.5 is faster than previous versions and continues to be a relatively small 5 mb download. Go now.

 

The semi-connected worker and productivity

Lately I have been trying to be a bit less connected. I think too much connectivity can be a source for distractions, so I have been running this experiment for a few days: closing my personal email client and checking it 3 times a day and closing all my IM clients. Also, I am not leaving Firefox open, unless it is work-related.

It is impressive how much more I can accomplish. I am still tempted to open these applications, but I think I am getting the idea that it is just better to leave it where it is, and work a bit more. Of course you don't have to be so obsessive about this, but I am quickly learning that having some self-discipline is wonderful.

The single most important factor in decreasing my productivity is interruptions. Things like a phone call or a page, especially if I am rounding, it is just not very easy to resume what I was doing prior to the interruption. Some people just do not seem to be able to prioritize things, so for any small thing I get paged/called. So it is just beyond my reach to try to improve on that end.

What have you done to decrease interruptions and improve your productivity ?

 

November 29, 2005

Make your Treo even more useful

I am sure many LogSense readers own and love their Treos. Just found this very nice little application for the Treo that adds very cool functionalities. For example, it will erase user-information such as calendar, contacts, etc by sending an SMS message with special commands to it. Central for the Palm OS has this and many other useful features, including better alarms, a Do Not Disturb function, integrated News and Weather, and great options for controlling the cellular radio. At US$14.95, I'd get it if I owned a Treo.

 

 

November 28, 2005

Del.icio.us Firefox extension

Del.icio.us is certainly a great tool to keep and share favorite sites. To make it even better, the staff at del.icio.us just released an official Firefox extension, with great features. It is on my must-have list. Get it while it's hot. [via TipMonkies]

 

By the way: I hate typing del.icio.us, so I recently learned that you can get to it by using delicious.com instead.

 

Macs and productivity

Wonderful topic of discussion on the 43 Folders discussion group. A few members are very encouraged with the rise in productivity associated with the Mac OS.

My opinion about this operating system is that it is great. It is indeed a very stable operating system, and the major advantage over Windows-based machines is that it is easy to install and configure. People with little or no computer experience can simply get a Mac, and start using it right away. Otherwise, there is no much difference from Windows, as it can be tweaked to get rid of all annoyances (viruses, spyware, security issues), but it requires the user to be more tech-savvy.

Another important point is that the perfect operating system is the one that suits its user. People can be productive regardless of the operating system, IMHO.

 

Resisting impulse buying

The holiday season is just starting, and there are many people out there charging their credit cards like crazy. One of the strategies of sales events is to lure the customer with low prices on a few popular items, hoping that they will also shop for other items at not-so-good prices.

So this is impulse buying. Something that you thought of getting before, at a price you think is reasonable, presented in a nice way to you. Maybe it is an accessory for your home theater, or just candy by the cashier. I admit that it is very difficult to resist these offers out there, particularly the ones that have some form of "pressure" attached to it: "today only", "buy 1 get 1 free", incentives to close the deal right away, this type of stuff.

I have gotten into the habit of simply not making any impulse buys, especially of things that are not very cheap. "Sleep on it" is probably the best piece of advice. I have definitely benefited from taking a break, thinking about it at home more than once.

So during this holiday season, think that no product will simply vanish. No matter how good the deal is, there will be other sales and other deals. Resist the urge.

 

November 26, 2005

Improve your web searches

If you use the Firefox Browser, a great way to improve your searches is to add search engines. Mycroft is a page that contains more than 4000 search engines that can be added to the top-right bar in our favorite browser, from Wikipedia to Internet Movie Database to Craigslist. Putting your favourite search engines in your browser toolbar is a real timesaver.

 

November 25, 2005

Ten Tips To Keep Your Computer Running Smoothly

These tips are for you who just got introduced to the world of PCs:

1. Never, never, turn your computer off with the power switch until Windows has shut down.

The one exception to this rule is when your computer locks up and your hard drive is not running (hard drive light is not blinking). In this situation, you can turn the power off without harmful effects to the hard drive. As cutting the power can also result in lost data or Windows files, you should only do this when you have to.

Following this rule will prevent permanent hard drive defects caused by the hard drive heads contacting the surface of the drive disc, and it will prevent a host of Windows problems.
Whenever possible, recover from crashes by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time. Press them again to reboot your computer.

2. I highly recommend that you purchase an UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for your computer. This will keep your computer from crashing during power outages, and will protect your computer from low and high voltage occurrences.

An UPS is far superior to a surge protector and will save your computer from almost any power type of disaster.
(See #1 above for what happens when your computer crashes.)

3. Backup, backup, backup, any data you cannot afford to lose to at least two separate physical drives. So backup data to floppies, Zip disks, CD-RWs etc.

The time to backup is when you create something you can't afford to lose. Don't wait until tomorrow.

4. Run Scandisk and Defragment at least once a month. This will keep your hard drive healthy and prevent crashes.

Alternatively, purchase Norton Utilities and use it to keep your hard drive healthy.

5. Never unplug peripherals from the computer when it is powered up. Unplugging with the power on can short out the connector socket or the motherboard.

The only exception to this rule is if you know a peripheral is "hot pluggable". If you do not know what "hot pluggable" means then ignore this exception.

6. Do keep at least 100 MBs of your C: drive free for Windows to use. If you use Windows Me or Windows XP then you should have 200 MBs of free space on your C: drive.

If you do not have enough free space you will choke Windows and it will start dumping data to your hard drive, or it will just get really, really, slow.

Use the ADD/Delete tool in the Windows Control Panel to delete unneeded programs from your drive.

You can also use Cleansweep included in Norton Utilities to clean up your drive. If you do use Cleansweep or another hard drive cleaner, do not delete shared files unless you back them up. The cleaners do a rotten job of knowing if another program uses shared files.

7. Do not let a lot of programs load up when you start your computer. They use valuable memory and Windows Resources (Windows internal workspace).

All programs in your Windows System Tray (in the lower left of your screen) are running on your computer. Close them if you don't need them or run them and configure them not to load when you boot up.

Other programs running in the background can be found by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete at the same time.

8. Do use a virus checker regularly. Everyone should use a virus checker. The best type of protection is continuous monitoring from a dedicated anti-virus program.

9. If you have a high speed Internet connection you need a firewall program. A firewall program keeps those who want to hijack your computer from gaining access to your system.

You really do not want someone else running your computer.

I suggest you purchase and run Norton's Personal Firewall program. Your firewall should boot up with your computer to protect it from invasion.

Do not think you are safe from hackers!! Hackers use search programs to seek out computers at random. Get a firewall program and use it.

10. Keep track of the software disks you receive with your computer and new peripherals. These disks contain valuable software drivers and programs for Windows and are needed when Windows must be reloaded. Keep these disks and your Windows software disks in a safe, dry, place -- you never know when you will need them.

 

Multiple Desktops

A great way to enhance your productivity is by uncluttering your desktop and taskbar, as there are programs that you do not need to see running all the time, such as your e-mail program or some utility that does backgroud work.

A cheap (or free!) solution to that is by enabling multiple desktops. Just imagine having four desktops. In one of them you keep your word processor and web browser, in another you keep your e-mail program, an antivirus in the third one, etc. And you can exchange between them with 1 click or a key combination. It may take a while getting used to, but it definitely improves your usage of the computer when you do it.

There is a number of utilities that do that in Windows, but I found this one that is freeware, Virtual Destop Toolbox. I haven't tested it since I'm a Mac user.

For Macintosh, I heartily recommend the freeware utility Desktop Manager. It's very powerful, I just tested it and it allowed me to created 100 desktops! Ok, usually I only use two, but it's a sweet app anyway.

 

November 24, 2005

Restructuring my life projects

I am no longer able to dedicate as much time and effort to all my projects as I wished I could. It is just impossible. That said, I have decided to sit down and re-establish priorities, and basically something has to go. I think that with little effort I can free up some of time time and really dedicate myself to the projects that I feel are more important to me at this time. This website is one of them. Even though we are in the initial stages at LogSense, I get a great sense of accomplishment from what I write here.

Anyway, many years ago I restructured my projects for the first time, and it really helped me become more productive and focus on what really matters. There are many things in life that I really enjoy doing, and I have to say that there is not enough time for all of them, so I had to pick a few. This time it is the same thing.

Durign this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a lot of things. My first baby is coming, we're healthy, and work is going well. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

 

November 23, 2005

The feeling of "new"

People just tend to enjoy looking at new stuff. Anything. New as in news, new as in products, new as in friends, relationships and communities. It is quite interesting how the feeling of something "new" gets so much attention. When I accept a task, I am usually excited about it, I do my research, think about it, etc. But later on, when the "newness" is gone, this enthusiasm fades. It happens with everything, especially now with the Internet bringing us new stuff every second the duration of the feeling is even shorter. My iPod was cool and nice 2 months ago, now it is old and obsolete.

What can we do to enjoy things for a longer time ? I don't think ignoring new items is worth. One way or the other, it will get to us. What I think is a healthier solution is to try to examine and enjoy things from different angles. Using any given product as an example, there are so many things to explore other than the most obvious aspects. As another example, a project can be also examined from different angles, for example involving other people, discussing with experts, even blogging about it. LogSense is my project, and I want to keep it fresh and interesting for me to come here daily and write about something. I don't focus on the blogging aspect of it, I focus on "how can blogging here benefit me". It certainly helps me to meet new people, learn things about myself, read about other stuff, and grow as a person.

I am trying to keep other things fresh. Friendships sometimes need some extra push to keep enjoyable. Certainly marriages need it to keep couples together. Think about it. There are several things in our lives that can be revitalized with little effort.

 

November 22, 2005

Got myself a Moleskine

Well, after swearing by my PDA I have finally decided to get myself a small moleskine to capture my ideias and notes. So I just walked to my Barnes and Noble store across the street and got the one with squared pages, so my diagrams can be sketched with the help of a grid. Now I will finally have a better way to actually transform my ideas into tangible posts and projects. It feels like I just joined a fraternity :-)

 

Spellcheck your web forms

I use web forms quite a bit. All my e-mail is web-based, and I comment on other blogs and use forums frequently. So I wanted a way to check my spelling, and now with Firefox I got it. Google Toolbar has recently been made available for Firefox, and I hadn't installed it yet. It is just great, as it offers a great spellchecker and AutoFill. Of course it's also available for Internet Explorer.

 

November 21, 2005

Turning to IM for quick inquiries

Lately many of the people I work with are now becoming comfortable with IM. Suddenly it is no longer a teenager's past-time, it has turned into a really effective communications tool. I especially appreciate tools like Google Talk that are lightweight and down-to-earth in terms of features, there are a few things I am doing to make this productive to both parties:
- Most IM clients have a customizable "status" area, where you can write for example where you are or what you are doing. I like not to hide myself by being "invisible" or switching to "away" status when in fact I am in front of the computer, so I make use of the customizable "status" field: "important questions only", "blogging" or something to that makes the other person understand that you can be interrupted by important queries.
- Treat it like a phone call. You don't call work buddies to tell them a joke, why would you be IM'ing them jokes or engage in conversations about the weather ?
- Be concise and objective, so you don't waste people's time.
- Clearly end the conversation, so that both parties acknowledge that it's over.

Let's try an experiment here. I will make my IM identities available here, so for whatever reason you'd like to reach me, please do: Google Talk, Skype: leofaoro. MSN: leofaoro@hotmail.com

 

Enhanced clipboard

A simple utility to improve your windows clipboard is CLCL. It is free and keeps tabs on the items you copy to the clipboard. Take a look at the screenshot of CLCL in action.

 

Getting rid of "stuff"

"Stuff" is just everywhere. It is everything we have and see no immediate use for. So we store it. When I went looking to buy a new house, a very important feature was storage space. I found myself looking at house with a tremendous amount of stuff, often overflowing into the garage. So it got me thinking that no matter how much storage space we have, it will not be enough. Jump forward to this last weekend, when I decided to clean my storage area. The results were amazing. I got rid of so much stuff that I thought were going to be useful, and now I really have some space.

My tips for getting rid of and organizing my "stuff"
(1) Let go of the emotions associated with stuff. Important things like pictures being important, the rest is just in your mind. Realize that it will not be useful for anything, and will be forever inside a box. So just dump it.
(2) Establish an yearly routine to take a second look at your stored stuff. If after 1 year you haven't really used or needed it, it's time to let it go.
(3) Have levels of accessibility, and organize your things following it. Things that are more likely to be needed should be stored in a more accessible way: smaller transparent boxes that are in easy-to-reach areas are one example. Christmas decorations should be put in more remote areas.
(4) Donate stuff that you don't use and make someone happy. That helps take that emotion away, as you are not just getting rid of it... you're helping people.
(5) Use eBay and craigslist. I thought many things I had were a hard sell. One day after posting in craigslist I got several people interested. Don't underestimate the variety of interests out there.
(6) Label it. Labeled boxes=less time spent searching.
(7) Have someone help you sort through the items. This person will discuss with you the usefulness of individual items, acting as a devil's advocate.