A blog about not getting things done
Posted in getting things done, gtd, productivity on Apr 24th, 2008
IT TAKES, IT TAKES A BUSY MAN
he hadn’t made a dent
in his list for weeks.
one of the items was “call z.”
then one day z’s wife called to say
that z had died.
he was ashamed to catch himself
indulging in a feeling of accomplishment
as he crossed “call z” off his list.
(a poem by Gerald Locklin, from Children of […]
Posted in getting things done, heroes of sloth, idling, productivity, relaxation, slow, tea, unproductivity on Apr 2nd, 2008
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
I have started this occasional series with a post about Lin Yutang. After all, he’s given this blog its tagline quote, (”If you spend a perfectly useless afternoon in […]
Posted in getting things done, gtd, idling, procrastinating, procrastination, productivity, sloth, slow, unproductivity, work on Mar 24th, 2008
Is that the time? Really?
Ah well, eight months since the last post might be a disaster if this blog was concerned with maximising your productivity, or how to be a millionaire by the time you are twenty, or how to achieve a three hour work week (a simple plan: undercut the four hour work week […]
Posted in "business bullshit", "work ethic", getting things done, productivity, slow, unproductivity, work on Jun 2nd, 2007
“In other words, what looks like wasting time from where you sit, could be a whirl of creative thought from where I sit. And, with due respect to Mr. Gilbreth, all the energy that’s been poured into trying to force everyone to work at the same pace and in the same way — it […]
Posted in idling, moleskine, productivity, unproductivity on Apr 29th, 2007
Everyone’s favourite productivity tool is a moleskine notebook. But they can also be equally useful for not getting things done.
(photo thanks to Lost In Scotland)
Moleskines are wonderful quality notebooks. So wonderful, in fact that it is a crime to despoil the silky cream opulence of the paper by anything so mundane as writing in them. […]
Posted in productivity, sleep on Apr 15th, 2007
Power nap.
If ever there was a phrase that took one of life’s great delights and reduced it to a brutal, utilitarian, joyless stump, it is that one.
And it’s everywhere. The success of the power nap. Computer-aided power naps. The science of sleep. Bludgeoning your brain into submission with binaural beats. How twenty minutes can make […]
Posted in gtd, lifehacks, productivity, unproductivity on Apr 10th, 2007
Think of the five most important things that you have to do. Write them down on a piece of paper. It will be useful if you try and prioritise these tasks – write them down, most important task first. Make a real effort to express each task as a single action that can be done […]
Posted in meetings, moleskine, pigs, productivity, sloth, unproductivity, work on Mar 13th, 2007
You need three things to take effective notes in meetings: a large black sturdy notebook clearly marked with your name (a Moleskine is perfect for this: stylish, practical, and with a pocket to hide biscuits in), a pen, and a chair positioned so that no-one can see what you are writing.
Having all three of these […]
Posted in idling, productivity, sloth, unproductivity, work on Mar 11th, 2007
Most people would think of Robert Louis Stevenson was a productive man. He wrote book after book of compelling stories that are perfect for passing slow childhood Sunday afternoons while rain drops chase each other down the windows. But Stevenson was no fan of the treadmill, and he loved his sloth enough that he wrote […]
Posted in idling, productivity, sleep, slow, unproductivity on Mar 11th, 2007
There’s a worrying cult at work in the world. It proselytizes at seminars, and through innocent looking web sites. It spreads its insidious message through books that are shelved in ordinary bookshops, where even children could see them.
You can tell its adherents by their pallor, their bleary eyed thousand yard stare, the stains on their […]