As I was entering the final rounds of detailed editing of my dissertation, a >400 page document, I needed some additional tools to help accelerate the editing process. I developed the following VBA code to highlight words. The goal was to audit verb tenses. However, this could be adapted to any set of words. Installing […more]
The Jump Bike, by Social Bicycles, is one of the crop of dockless bike rental startups in the area. I already have a stable of bikes and a Capital Bikeshare membership. I haven’t cared about the other startups, but this one got my attention because it’s electric assist. So, how does this thing hold up […more]
Freelance writing has its share of issues. John Lydgate was Henry Duke of Gloucester’s Latin-to-English translator of choice. Lydgate assiduously translated extremely lengthy Latin texts (the Fall of Princes itself was 26k lines of Latin). Humphrey was happy to make requests but didn’t understand payment in installments. When you don’t pay your writers, you get […more]
GTD isn’t complicated. This page proves it. I’ve been using David Allen’s original system since late high school, so, for the better part of 10 years. Parts of it have come and gone. I’ve been a slow adopter of many parts, especially the weekly review. I’m stubborn. Of course, any experienced GTD’er will tell you, […more]
(2017-04-03: Script has been Updated by Christian Grunenberg himself! The incredible user support is one of the best selling points for DevonThink.) I make and sort my reading notes in Devonthink Pro Office, but I write in Scrivener. The comments and tags do not transfer between the programs, unfortunately. Because I use tags for data […more]
Productivity software typically focuses on task management, information organization, communication, and tracking. The best task management software, though, is still… the direction of your attention. It is hard to manage in the age of internet and social media. I’ve written before about turning off notifications. I still rely on that critical ability to turn off […more]
Jamel Ostwald has a stellar blog for academics at Skulking in Holes and Corners. If you’re thinking about taking GTD or organization as an academic seriously, you would benefit from reading through his Methodology tag. I would like to reply to on comment in his post on GTD methodology. “GTD is probably less useful (given […more]
Start work, check phone. In meeting, check phone. These checks have only one purpose: Notifications are a small dopamine hit. My favorite is closing Facebook in one tab and immediately opening it in another. When checking our phones, Facebook, Reddit, etc, we are looking for an **external** source of dopamine. These short distractions provide fleeting […more]
Current Application Updates Here are the programs and subscriptions I’ve been using a lot recently: ##Evernote As much as I’ve tried to “break up” with Evernote, it is simply too indispensable of a program. Being able to search within images and PDFs with no OCR overhead is incredibly useful. I don’t even bother to put […more]
Using Evernote More Effectively (Adding Order to the Chaos) The issue I have with Evernote is that the notes just pour into the void. It takes positive work and creativity to bring organization to this system. Here is a way that I’ve discovered: Table of Contents notes. When selecting multiple notes, there is an option […more]