Yearly Archives: 2008

Weekend Self Promotion

Since it is the weekend, I thought I would take a little to to point out some of the places that my little blog has been popping up:

* This site, patrickrhone.com, was featured in the February 2008 issue of the UK magazine .Net ( branded as Practical Web Design on this side of the pond). That’s right. An actual dead tree publication. The particular article we are featured in is a focus on minimalist web design and, if you could not tell, it don’t get much more minimalist than this. I can’t begin to tell you how honored we are by this. Totally stoked is more like it. If you are wondering why I keep saying “we”, my web design partner, Michael Armstrong, gets credit for doing most of the “heavy lifting” around here web wise. I mainly point to where I would like him to put the boxes down.

* Speaking of Michael, he has recently started a fantastic photoblog featuring pictures he has taken in and around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul – MyTwinCities.net. Some beautiful photos there. Show him some love.

* This site was also mentioned among the Top 100 Productivity and Lifehack Blogs by CollegeDegree.com. I’m at #22 under the Life Organizers section. Very cool.

* Remember, not all of the action pertaining me is happening here. For other topics of interest, make sure to check out The Random Post. There I cover, link to, quote and prognosticate on a iety of topics that just don’t seem to fit here but otherwise may be compelling. For instance, have you heard of Muxtape yet? No? Well, I did a little write-up on it over at The Random Post.

Also remember that I can be found all over the internet. I am very active on Twitter. I ghost write a blog for my new baby daughter, Beatrix. Of course, there are my photos on Flickr and well as my FriendFeed. I am easy to find.

Remainders 03.28.2008

Another round of the ious items that have caught my eye while traversing the deep caverns and the the twisting rivers that we collectively refer to as “The Internet”:

* My current favorite little pocket notebooks, Field Notes, have themselves a whole new redesigned website. They even have a nice little call out to my friend Ryan’s review. Check these things out if you have never heard of them. I know I have mentioned them before. Really good stuff.

* My friend Brad Blackman at Mysterious Flame reminds us all to do the right thing by keeping your Inbox the Inbox. Mark it clearly for you and the whole world to see if you need some help.

* I can’t say enough good things about this review at Lifehack.org of David Allen’s “Weekly Review” Audiobook. As a matter of fact, It might be too good. The review is so comprehensive in covering the main topics and ideas expressed in the Audiobook itself, you may not even need it after reading the review. There is a metric ton of goodness here for any of you GTDers out there. A must read… There, have I said enough good things yet?

* Speaking of “The David“, did you catch the wonderful three part interview with him over at Web Worker Daily? No? Clear a little time and work your way through it. Time well spent.

* I can seem to go a month without posting something about the 37 Signals guys but, hey, it is not my fault. Tell them to stop being so damn cool. Take some of the workspace experiments they are trying out amongst themselves. Four day workweeks are standard, paying for peoples hobbies and passions, liberal discretionary spending policies. Every business, especially the small ones, should take serious note of this. Happy, less stressed, content employes mean more productivity – not less.

* Need a little more focus from your meeting participants? Go topless. No, really, it is not what you think.

In Defense of Fiddling

Some one sentence thoughts in defense of fiddling with your system…

I often find that switching things up a bit, to a new task/productivity application or cool new paper product, often brings the “interstingness” in my productivity system back to life for me and gives a whole new spark to my productivity.

In other words, I am so excited by the shinny new car that I tend to drive a little faster, turn up the radio and sing along with a joy an exuberance I have long since lost.

While the basics of the system (capture, review, do) never really change, and neither do some of the tools that just plain work for me, I like changing things up a bit for freshness.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly people who are more interested in searching for the “perfect productivity system” then in actually implementing and sticking with one.

There are also people who think that the perfect piece of software or someone else’s methods will solve all of their productivity problems like the holy grail.

I am not defending this behavior.

What I am defending is people who have a system in place who regularly change out the tools they may use to implement that system just to try out new things and keep it all fresh.

It is all about developing a system you trust after all, if you have that then the tools should be fairly interchangeable.