September 8, 2008 was an important date in the world of self-improvement writing. Yet almost no one knows this.

To understand what happened on this date we should return, briefly, to 2004 — the early days of blogging. It was then that a web programmer named Merlin Mann stumbled onto a powerful formula: blogging about becoming more productive. He called his site 43 Folders, a tribute to the tickler file from David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.

43 Folders’ timing was good. A new generation of tech-savvy knowledge workers needed help navigating a work environment defined by information overflow, and Mann offered them a tantalizing promise: with the right combination of high-tech productivity tools, you could find your way into a utopian state where work becomes effortless.

Being device independent means being able to code in any device or platform. One of the things you might want across devices is access to your code libraries. One way to do it is using a couple of macro tools combined with Dropbox.

There’s so many web apps today, it’s hard to keep up with them all. From the apps we’ve all used for years such as Gmail to newer apps that just came out this year such as Flow, web apps have increasingly become a part of our daily lives.
Whether you’re just getting started using web apps, or are a longtime fan of web apps and would like to find more exciting apps, you’ll be sure to find something interesting here. There’s no way to include every web app, but we’ve included the apps that we think are the very best in their categories. If you’ve got a favorite app that’s not included, feel free to add it in the comments below.

Feng Office Collaboration Platform enables you to: Manage your projects and business services Collaborate with your team and your customers Organize and share documents and files.

Have you ever wondered exactly where all your time goes while you're working away at your Mac? Wonder no longer…Time Sink will show you exactly what you've been working on.

In order to be successful, we have to work hard, no matter what. We can’t always be at the mercy of our motivation.

I am lazy. But that’s okay, because I have some tricks for fooling myself into working, every single day. Actually, I’m quite productive thanks to these tricks. I’m going to share the tricks with you now.

I will mention my own software, a task and notes organizer Swift To-Do List, in 2 of these tricks, but these tricks can be done with other programs (or pen and paper) too.

When I have a large deadline looming, I like to keep track of how many days I have left.

I've tried Dashboard widgets, iPad apps, and just about anything else you could think of, but they all have failed for one simple reason: they require me to check them. I can go days or weeks without triggering the Dashboard, and an iOS countdown app still requires that you check it. I could use something like Due app but I really don't want something actively distracting me, I want something passively reminding me. Nor do I want these cluttering up my iCal.

I found my solution by cobbling together several bits of free Unix utilities that are essential to any true geek's tool belt.

Every day, we have little pockets of time that get wasted. We're not using them to accomplish anything productive – and we're not using them to relax. These pockets of time generally come along with feelings of boredom or frustration.

For today’s knowledge workers, every distraction is a drain on productivity and sanity. Every ringing phone, instant message, flashing email reminder, pile of papers, cluttered sticky notes and phone messages and knick knacks and memo posted on the wall — each of these things slows you down, wastes your time and energy, and stresses you out.
To achieve calm, and simple productivity, create a Zen-like working environment.
Imagine for a minute that your desk is completely clear, except your computer monitor, keyboard and mouse, your inbox and phone, and perhaps a framed photo of a loved one. Imagine the walls around you are free of visual clutter, except for a photo or painting or two of a serene nature scene.
You are able to focus, you can crank out your tasks, and you can lower your level of stress.

Given a task, there are essentially two ways we can approach it. Either, we can work as hard as we can until it is “done” or we can fix the amount of time we have available and do the “best” we can. The latter approach is known as “Time boxing“.

OmniFocus Essential Training

The easiest way to send yourself reminders!

Doesn’t the title say it all? There are a wide variety of tools and techniques which can drastically improve the speed at which we code. Particularly during time-sensitive settings, even a savings of a few seconds per iteration can add up substantially over the course of the month. I’ll show you ten of my favorite methods in this article.

There is never a moment at which you could do everything you’ve decided to to, simply because most of those actions require a specific tool or location. Context is also the first criterion that limits your options and keeps you from being reminded of things you simply can’t do.

The fabulous Patrick Rhone from Minimal Mac instructs Mac users how to make their e-mail program less cluttered in his guest post today. Thank you, Patrick, for sharing your talents with us!

I’m finally giving TaskPaper a fair tryout. I first got it as part of the MacHeist 2 bundle, and although it had many features I liked, I wasn’t ready to replace my LGTD TextMate bundle, which is mostly described here. Then I moved on to OmniFocus and left TaskPaper sitting in my Applications folder, unused.

Instead of solving problems, nurture solutions.

Here’s the difference between the two: one focuses on doing less of what’s wrong, but the other focuses on doing more of what’s right.

I’ve been free of email and twitter updates on my phone for the last few months and haven’t missed it. Why did I do this? To save money, focus on my art and end my email addiction.

Awhile back I (a bit ironically perhaps) tweeted this message:
Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.
This seemed to strike a chord with many people, who I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.

The idea that time is your most valuable commodity is not new, but it is often overlooked. I’ve done a lot of research on the importance of focusing your attention in the last year.

Lack of time is the number one complaint I hear from other small business owners regarding social media marketing. The owners feel like they don’t have any extra time to invest in activities that do not produce guaranteed results.

Imagine everything you do could fall into one of three buckets:
1. Bad Work.
2. Good Work.
3. Great Work.
I’m not talking about the quality of the work you deliver – I’ve no doubt that’s fine. I’m talking about the meaning the work has for you and the impact it makes.

Today, I am issuing the 20 Minutes A Day Challenge (and also publicly committing to a new project that I am going to be working on as part of the challenge over the next few weeks and months).

Fear is an emotion that’s always present. I try not to let the emotion hold me back from new opportunities and options. I have to admit this week has been hard. My lizard brain is on overdrive

Freelancers are more likely than most people to love Moleskine notebooks. We need to keep and manage our own schedules and to-dos. We’re creative, so we need a place to store and expand ideas. We need to take notes at meetings with clients–or at least look like we are. We need to appear productive and busy in coffee-shops–even when we aren’t.

“If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this is the best season of your life.” ~Wu-Men

We are faced with unlimited choices in modern society.

There are millions of paths we can go down. One of the biggest questions inevitably is: which path do I choose?

Choose the one that is most important.

Welcome! This is beta version 0.2 of focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction. Read more about the book.

Please note that this book is far from being finished. This version contains just the start of the book, and even these chapters are short at the moment. More chapters will be added in later versions, rather quickly I hope, and these chapters may be expanded and revised.