Quote for The Day

I have the following quote in the body section of the front “Today” page of my Backpack list:

Begin nothing until you have considered how it is to be finished

I have no idea who it is attributed to. I found it a few weeks ago in a fortune cookie. While it is not really a fortune it is good advice none the less. A good way to start prioritizing the daily tasks.

Inbox Zero @ 43 Folders

Merlin is up to his old tricks again. This time he is running a series on how to release your inner email-fu and get that inbox under control and down to zero… That’s right, zero e-mail in your inbox.

Sounds like a dream to some of you right? It did to me once as well. I thought the idea of processing 100% of e-mail that I received, being quick and nimble with that processing and keeping both my work and home e-mail inboxes at or very near zero all of the time was impossible. I am here to tell you that not only is it possible but it is very liberating and emotionally validating to have that zen like control over the center of your communicative world (For most of us, this is what e-mail is). Almost all of my tactics |were developed by practices I learned from other posts on the subject that Merlin has done in the past.

So, if you have ever wanted to achieve what I have, I could not think of a better place to start.

43 Folders Series: Inbox Zero

In the future, perhaps I will outline my own e-mail-fu, learned from many masters, which involves an IMAP account, 5 folders and a lot of hard line mercenary style choices made with split second precision. My e-mail fu is strong.

Remainders

Here are some of the things I have added to my del.icio.us list lately that I wanted to share with all:

Gladwell.com: The Social Life of Paper – “Had the computer come first — and paper second — no one would raise an eyebrow at the flight strips cluttering our air-traffic-control centers”

Fortune: Secrets of greatness: How I work – “E-mail and voicemail; yoga and personal assistants; structure and grooving: A dozen accomplished people tell what works for them.”

Writely Acquired by Google – “We like lava lamps and they’re pretty much standard decor at Google.”

What Google’s acquisition of Writely means – “Google knows that most people don’t need the full Microsoft Office collection. They don’t even need most of it. They don’t even need half of each product.”

If all that isn’t enough, we now know that…

Your Home Office Can Kill Your Brain – “I resolve to put on some Prince and dance for a good five minutes as a break today. Preferably to the songs ‘7′, ‘Gitt Off’ and ‘Sexy MF’ and while dancing with the cat who will think I finally lost that last marble.”