Rhoneisms – Page 526 – by Patrick Rhone, Master Generalist

A glass half-full of pessimism. – On punctuation.

I’m not moving my periods and commas for America; I’m leaving them where they are for America.

Writers have always been at war with Editorial.

Mule Design Studio’s Blog: The Chokehold of Calendars

The problem with calendars is that they are additive rather than subtractive. They approach your time as something to add to rather than subtract from. Adding a meeting is innocuous. You’re acting on a calendar. A calendar isn’t a person. It isn’t even a thing. It’s an abstraction. But subtracting an hour from the life of another human being isn’t to be taken lightly. It’s almost violent. It’s certainly invasive. Shared calendars are vessels you fill by taking things away from other people.

So. Very. True. This is a great examination of why traditional calendars don’t work and what can be done to fix them.

Until you have developed the mental or emotional muscles to power through this stuff, there is not a tool in the world that is going to help you out. If you’re a runner, put your shoes on, go out and run. Don’t sit there reading about lacing patterns and stopwatches. If you’re a writer, write. Don’t play with apps, write

Merlin Mann – There’s an app for personal productivity | The Guardian

Desk – Music and Sound Design (by Aaron Trinder Film:Motion:Music)

I have to link to this video, which is wonderful, but mainly so that people will stop sending me the link to this. Watching this much desk porn is a dangerous thing for me. Like tossing a loaded crack pipe into a rehab.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

I’m Not Writing About Politics

You and me, partner, are pretty much screwed when any rich and powerful interests dominates what should be a simple conversation about how we want to live together.

Preach it, Brother Randy!

Why are you so petrified of silence?
Here can you handle this?

Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines?
Or when you think you’re gonna die?

Or did you long for the next distraction?

Alanis Morissette – All I Really Want

A Most Important Question

Hey. You. Yes, you! Come over here. I’m going to tell you a secret. OK, well, it’s not really a secret. It’s more of a question. A most important question. One that, when asked, can provide a wealth of productive power…

“Where does this belong?”

Want to know how to organize a messy desk? Take everything off, put it in a box, then take each item out, and ask that question. For some items, the answer is obvious. For other items, maybe they don’t have a place – find one. Maybe the answer is not “on the desk” or even “in the room”. Maybe the answer is not even “in the house” or “in my life”. Answering this question can not only make the clean up quick but also ensure quick work when things get out of control again. Because, everything belongs somewhere and now you know where that somewhere is.

The thing is, this question works with more than just clutter.

Want to make your task list more powerful? Ask that question of each task. Sometimes the answer is “as an immediate action”. Sometimes the answer is “on a context specific list” or “broken into smaller chunks”. Sometimes, the answer is “as part of a greater project or goal”. But, sometimes, the answer is “with someone else” or “done at some future date” or “not done at all”.

Want to get your email inbox under control? Never look at another message without asking the question. Does it belong in the inbox now that you have looked at it? No? Perhaps in a separate folder of things you need to take action on or respond to. Perhaps in a folder for reference on a project you are working on. Perhaps read and archived. Perhaps in the trash.
But, where the question becomes truly powerful, is when you apply the question to everything. Because if something does not have a place in your home, in your relationships, in your job, or or in your life, perhaps it should not be there.

So here’s my suggestion to you: find a system that works for you; don’t place yourself into someone else’s system. If you find your brain works better while you doodle with a pen in a notebook, embrace it. Write your ToDos by hand instead of using a computer or an iPad. This is the system that works best for me, and I don’t expect it to work best for you.

The GTD app for the rest of us: Pen and Moleskine? | Macgasm

Words to live by.

How Analog Rituals Can Amp Your Productivity :: Tips :: The 99 Percent

For Greenberg, it’s all about feeling the granularity of prioritization. By manually bumping a certain task every day, he feels that it is incomplete. He is faced with the reality and forced to either complete the task, delegate it, or bump it again.

That’s the same thing for me. It’s why, no matter what task system I’m using at the moment, my Today Card is what gets me through life.

The Fall of the US Empire – and Then What?| Otto Scharmer’s Blog

So, looking at how the US shows more and more symptoms of a third world country, and looking at the paralysis of the current political system and how the financial oligarchy is tightening its grip on our beautiful country, the question on the table is what keeps us from changing this? Why do we continue to move trillions of dollars to bankers, billionaires, and ill-conceived wars? Why not redirect the same streams of money to areas with where it could have a profoundly positive social impact: conditional cash transfers to poor people and communities (which Brazil has used with major success), massive investments in education, green technologies (which China does with great success), and hybrid social and business entrepreneurship, which could move urban and rural communities from despair to social, economic, and ecological well-being. What’s holding us back?

Good question.