Life hacks

There is a community of bloggers devoted to "life hacks," i.e. ways to make your working life more organized. One popular site is "43 Folders," which was mentioned in a recent New York Times article.

Inspired by their example, I am going to post my own life hack ideas or other people's ideas which work for me.

Problem
It's hard to get going in the morning.

Solution
Find a way to wake up first (for me, it's to use a randomly shuffling mp3 player clock on my computer). Then jump in the shower and plan your day while you shower.

Problem
You can't get any work done. Maybe it's because you have too much work, other people are driving you crazy, a hurricane hit your house, or you're plain lazy. Whatever the reason, you now have so much work to do, you feel intimidated and hopeless.

Solution
Find a friend you respect. Make yourself accountable to him or her. Email the person every morning with a list of goals, then email the person at the end of the day with a report on your progress. If you don't accomplish everything, explain why. The idea is to shame yourself into working.

Problem
You're having trouble being organized. You get 100 emails a day, have appointments with people, etc.

Solution
Keep your tasks centralized in one place. I use email. I have a work account and a non-work account. I check my work account constantly during the day since urgent emails will only go there. I also send myself email reminders about tasks I need to do (for instance, see "101 Reminders"). These go to my work account. Less important emails go to my non-work account. I check this account at the end of the day. If irritating, non-essential emails show up in your work account, forward them to your non-work account. The idea is to keep your work email inbox clean. Only important things are in there.