The Zen of Tech: 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful

“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” - Alan Watts

I’m a tiny bit geek, I admit. Not hugely so, but enough that I do everything on the computer and use technology to do everything from communication to tracking to publishing to writing to networking to finances and more.

And still, it’s important to me that I keep things minimalist and peaceful.

I think that’s the true challenge of technology: how to get the most out of it without letting it overwhelm us. How to keep things simple but powerful. How to master technology without letting it become our master (to paraphrase Stephen Covey).

I’ve had a number of readers ask me how I do this, and so today I thought I’d bring together some concept I’ve written about before.

A Word on My Setup
My setup won’t work for everyone, or even a majority of you. It’s simply what works for me, but I thought you might find it useful nonetheless.

First of all, almost everything I do is online. Now that I quit my day job (with the horror of its fax machine), I no longer keep paper files. I can access all of my information and documents online, so I can work from anywhere, from any computer. And there’s no longer any time spent on organizing, as I use Gmail’s philosophy of archiving instead of filing.

I use an iMac, first of all, just because it’s so beautiful and nice to use and aesthetically minimalist. I have an iMac on my desk (really, it’s just a table) and nothing else. No drawers for filing or papers. No desktop tower or fax machine or scanner or anything. I’ve ordered a printer, but that’s more for my wife.

Software I use include Gmail for email and IM, WordPress for blogging, Firefox for everything, Google Docs and Spreadsheets for all my document needs (although I do use TextEdit, WriteRoom, NeoOffice and a few others), Google Reader for feeds (yes, I’m a Google fanboy, but only because their programs do what I want the best). I favor Open Source software if possible.

Now on to the tips.

Focus on the essential. It’s important to take some time to think about what’s essential to your tech work (and play). What do you really need? What gives you the most benefit for your time? What’s not so essential? What takes up a lot of time without making much of an impact? What gives you the most enjoyment? If you can identify the activities, sites and software that is most essential to you, you can eliminate or at least reduce the non-essential. And from then on, focus almost exclusively on what’s essential. This applies to your work tasks as well - what tasks are extremely essential? Focus on doing those each day.
Do one thing at a time. I know. This is super hard when it comes to tech. Browser’s on, a dozen tabs open at once, switching between reading and email and work and IM and Twitter … we live in a multitasking world. But it doesn’t have to be this way. While there’s nothing wrong with having multiple tabs open, it can be very helpful to focus on one task at a time. Have 10 tabs open, but do one tab until you’re done, then close it and move on to the next, and so on. If you’re going to do IM, just do IM. If you’re going to do email, just do email. Sure, you can do more than that at once, but it adds to the stress of your day and decreases your effectiveness because of all the switching. Practice doing one thing at a time and you’ll find your work to be much more peaceful.
Have periods of disconnectedness. While I do most of my work online, I find it extremely useful (and calming) to close my browser and just work offline for awhile. This post, for example, is being written in a text program, and when I’m done writing I’ll go and post it in WordPress. This really allows you to get much more done, because there’s no temptation to go check something just for a sec.
Don’t live in your inbox. I’ve done this, and if you do it you know who you are. Email is everything to many people. It’s communication, it’s a task list, it’s where you do your work, it’s your organization system. But if you work from your inbox, you are constantly being interrupted by new messages. Get your task list out of your inbox. Do email only at pre-appointed times. Do your work with your email closed.
Schedule your IM time. Same thing applies to IM. I’m not a huge fan of IM, especially if you have your IM program open all the time. That’s because it encourages people to interrupt you whenever they want, instead of you valuing your time. If IM is important to your work, then schedule IM meetings, or have certain times of the day when you’re available for IM and tell your colleagues and friends about it. And have it for a limited amount of time and then end it.
Turn off notifications. Again, email and IM and other notifications encourage interruptions and multitasking. Instead, turn everything off so that you check your email when you choose, not when others decide to send you something.
Set limits on what you do. For example, check email just twice a day. Write emails of only 5 sentences or less. Only check Twitter once a day. Only respond to 4 messages on your favorite forum. Or whatever works for you. Limits force you to choose the essential, instead of trying to do everything.
Create a morning routine. I’m a fan of morning routines in general, and the same concepts apply to tech. The Morning Coffee extension for Firefox is a great way to set up your routine with a single click. It opens all your essential sites in tabs, so that you can work through this routine one thing at a time and be sure that everything is finished.
Create a weekly routine. With Morning Coffee, you can also set up routines for different days of the week. This allows you to check a certain site or inbox once a week, for example, instead of every single day.
Clear out your inbox. I’ve written about this before, but clearing out your inbox is a very calming thing. It also prevents the overwhelming feeling of having hundreds of emails in your inbox — some read and some not.
Pare down your feeds. I used to have well over a hundred RSS feeds to read in a day. The need to go through them all, every day, was very stressful to me. So I eventually cut them down, one stage at a time, until I got down to 10 essential feeds. Now it takes just a few minutes each day to scan through my feeds, pick out a few articles I’d like to read, and mark the rest as read. Much simpler.
Simplified filing. As I mentioned above, I use Gmail’s philosophy of archiving instead of filing. I used to be a compulsive filer, as I like things to be organized. I had folders and subfolders, and I’d spent a bit of time each day filing every single email. What an effort! Instead, I archive everything and just search for what I need (I don’t even use tags or labels anymore). It takes seconds to find something. Seriously, there has never been a time when I couldn’t find something through search. I do this not only with email but with all my documents (through Google Docs and Spreadsheets).

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” - Shunryu Suzuki

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or on Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

The Zen of Tech: 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful

“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” - Alan Watts

And still, it’s important to me that I keep things minimalist and peaceful.

I’ve had a number of readers ask me how I do this, and so today I thought I’d bring together some concept I’ve written about before.

A Word on My Setup
My setup won’t work for everyone, or even a majority of you. It’s simply what works for me, but I thought you might find it useful nonetheless.

Now on to the tips.

Focus on the essential. It’s important to take some time to think about what’s essential to your tech work (and play). What do you really need? What gives you the most benefit for your time? What’s not so essential? What takes up a lot of time without making much of an impact? What gives you the most enjoyment? If you can identify the activities, sites and software that is most essential to you, you can eliminate or at least reduce the non-essential. And from then on, focus almost exclusively on what’s essential. This applies to your work tasks as well - what tasks are extremely essential? Focus on doing those each day.
Do one thing at a time. I know. This is super hard when it comes to tech. Browser’s on, a dozen tabs open at once, switching between reading and email and work and IM and Twitter … we live in a multitasking world. But it doesn’t have to be this way. While there’s nothing wrong with having multiple tabs open, it can be very helpful to focus on one task at a time. Have 10 tabs open, but do one tab until you’re done, then close it and move on to the next, and so on. If you’re going to do IM, just do IM. If you’re going to do email, just do email. Sure, you can do more than that at once, but it adds to the stress of your day and decreases your effectiveness because of all the switching. Practice doing one thing at a time and you’ll find your work to be much more peaceful.
Have periods of disconnectedness. While I do most of my work online, I find it extremely useful (and calming) to close my browser and just work offline for awhile. This post, for example, is being written in a text program, and when I’m done writing I’ll go and post it in WordPress. This really allows you to get much more done, because there’s no temptation to go check something just for a sec.
Don’t live in your inbox. I’ve done this, and if you do it you know who you are. Email is everything to many people. It’s communication, it’s a task list, it’s where you do your work, it’s your organization system. But if you work from your inbox, you are constantly being interrupted by new messages. Get your task list out of your inbox. Do email only at pre-appointed times. Do your work with your email closed.
Schedule your IM time. Same thing applies to IM. I’m not a huge fan of IM, especially if you have your IM program open all the time. That’s because it encourages people to interrupt you whenever they want, instead of you valuing your time. If IM is important to your work, then schedule IM meetings, or have certain times of the day when you’re available for IM and tell your colleagues and friends about it. And have it for a limited amount of time and then end it.
Turn off notifications. Again, email and IM and other notifications encourage interruptions and multitasking. Instead, turn everything off so that you check your email when you choose, not when others decide to send you something.
Set limits on what you do. For example, check email just twice a day. Write emails of only 5 sentences or less. Only check Twitter once a day. Only respond to 4 messages on your favorite forum. Or whatever works for you. Limits force you to choose the essential, instead of trying to do everything.
Create a morning routine. I’m a fan of morning routines in general, and the same concepts apply to tech. The Morning Coffee extension for Firefox is a great way to set up your routine with a single click. It opens all your essential sites in tabs, so that you can work through this routine one thing at a time and be sure that everything is finished.
Create a weekly routine. With Morning Coffee, you can also set up routines for different days of the week. This allows you to check a certain site or inbox once a week, for example, instead of every single day.
Clear out your inbox. I’ve written about this before, but clearing out your inbox is a very calming thing. It also prevents the overwhelming feeling of having hundreds of emails in your inbox — some read and some not.
Pare down your feeds. I used to have well over a hundred RSS feeds to read in a day. The need to go through them all, every day, was very stressful to me. So I eventually cut them down, one stage at a time, until I got down to 10 essential feeds. Now it takes just a few minutes each day to scan through my feeds, pick out a few articles I’d like to read, and mark the rest as read. Much simpler.
Simplified filing. As I mentioned above, I use Gmail’s philosophy of archiving instead of filing. I used to be a compulsive filer, as I like things to be organized. I had folders and subfolders, and I’d spent a bit of time each day filing every single email. What an effort! Instead, I archive everything and just search for what I need (I don’t even use tags or labels anymore). It takes seconds to find something. Seriously, there has never been a time when I couldn’t find something through search. I do this not only with email but with all my documents (through Google Docs and Spreadsheets).

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” - Shunryu Suzuki

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or on Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

Posted on 2 March 2008 in Simplicity, Technology |
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Comments (79)

Eric Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 21:49 pm

Excellent article!! I’m already using some of your suggestions, but plan to incorporate the rest!! Thanks, Leo!

Mej (Fashiolution.Com) Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 22:11 pm

This is just what I need right now. I recently put up a fashion blog/site and it’s not exactly an easy thing to have. I haven’t set a normal time to blog so any open time that I have is spent either blogging or reading other blogs. My time isn’t very well-spent and I have yet to delegate tasks and assignments. One good thing that I discovered about having a site is I have something to look forward to at the end of a hard day’s work and I’m just so hooked on it. I research as to how I can improve it (haven’t made any major changes yet though, maybe you guys can help me on this, anyone?) and even recently learned photoshop basics so I can make my own collages instead of just posting dozens of huge pictures. Okay, I guess I’ve shared too much about me now. =)

The most important on the tips for me (personally) would have to be Focusing on the Essential (as most things in life should be done), Do One Thing at a Time (hmm, I’m multi-tasking at the moment so minus points for me on this one), and Set Limits on What You Do (as most people, myself included, try to do so much all the time and end up accomplishing little or less-than-satisfactory results.

Thanks for this post Leo. It’’s very helpful, not to mention timely for me.=)

Mej http://fashiolution.com

Albert Ng Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 22:14 pm

When you had over 100 tabs, how long did it take you each day to go through them?

Leo Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 22:15 pm

@Albert: Just to clarify, that’s more than 100 RSS feeds. I wouldn’t read every single one of them, but would scan quickly and just read a dozen or two. Still took me 30-60 minutes each day. Now I spend just a minute or two scanning, and maybe 10 mins reading.

Brett Legree Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 22:21 pm

Leo - as always, good and simple concepts that in my experience can be applied anywhere. I use practically the same suite of stuff myself (a few differences, due to using Windows as the platform, but otherwise…)

I use these techniques at my day job (nuclear engineering) and as well in the off hours, as I work away at my dreams and goals for life change.

The combination of focus and planning works everywhere.

Thanks for the words and inspiration.

David Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 22:43 pm

Hey Leo - Where (or do you) store your PDF files? I wish GDocs stored them, so I have to keep them on my local machine or email them all to myself, which I don’t really want to do. Thoughts?

Amber Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:23 pm

Great tips! I especially like “have periods of disconnectedness” and “set limits.” Every half hour or so I just have to disconnect and take movement breaks. It’s amazing how leaving the glowing screen for a few minutes to walk around and stretch can regain your focus and prevent stiffness. Some times I’ll whip out the old pen and paper to mix it up. Like other bloggers, I have a hard time setting limits, since the computer is always there. I have to set work hours and stick to it. Thanks!

Marelisa Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:23 pm

Technology can either make you more effective, or it can make your life complicated to no end. I think this post is very good.

I would add that you should choose carefully what software to download unto your computer. Furthermore, when you do download a program, take the time to learn to use it immediately or schedule a time in which to do it. If you decide that the software will make your life easier, incorporate it into your routine and start applying it right away. The key is immediate implementation. Otherwise you just end up accumulating a whole bunch of software programs that you don’t use and that just clutter up your desktop.

blogrdoc Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:25 pm

Great tips. One tip for digital simplicity I’ve learned from using unix is the power of coming up with a filing system and sticking to in. No amount of ‘tags’ or metadata can beat a well organized electronic directory tree structure. It’s amazing how much more fast, reliable and convenient a structured human memory is compared to any electronic search program. Don’t just dump stuff in ‘My Documents’ or downloads. If you put stuff on the desktop, throw it into a folder named by date so you know when it’s stale.

Suzie Cheel Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:29 pm

I love the Morning Coffee Extension so timely. I am making Planning my habit to develop for March and this could be just the thing.

Having just switched to a macbook, with no microsoft outlook etc, I find your simple approach something I am working towards.

I love the Allan Watts quote

Heather Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:38 pm

Dude, thank you so much for this article! There is so much good info that I plan to start applying to my life right now.

Peace.

Corey - Simple Marriage Project Says:

March 2nd, 2008, 23:46 pm

Leo-

Thanks for the Morning Coffee tip, I just loaded it on to Firefox and will be using each morning. Thanks for the other tips as well. Do less and do it better.

Strength and honor.

Chris Austria Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 0:42 am

Leo–Since I just started my blog and I need to get it out there, how many comments or how many forum visits should I make?

Is there an alternative routine for a person who is new to the blogging world?

Leo Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:09 am

@Chris Austria: Hmmm … actually, just to clarify, I wasn’t specifying how many forum posts you (or anyone else) should write … that was just an example. Everyone has to find their own limits. For some people, forums are not an integral part of their lives. For others, they might be spending too much time on forums, and need to put limits.

My suggestion is to first make a guestimate of how much time you spend on the forums or how many posts you do. You could even track this for a couple days if you want. Then, cut that amount in half and make it your limit, and test that limit for a few days to see if it helps you. If you think you could cut that limit down even more, test it out. Limits have to be tested for each person’s life — there is no single prescription.

However, to address you question a little better … I never really found that forum posts did very much for me. I tried it out in the early days of Zen Habits and found a few visitors, but too often people see that as spam and your posts will actually have a negative effect. I found guest posts to work better. So I would limit your forum posts to just a few per day, if your experience is anything like mine. If they work for you, however, you might increase that limit a bit more.

banji - LessonInLife.com Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:16 am

nice list Leo, having limits on things we do is great since we will have to do the most important things first.

There are a lot of information on the net, and sometimes we cant help it but to read through as much as possible. This itself will hindered any productivity work. Also, you will end the day with a massive headache :)

“So much things to do, so little time” …

Kelly Rigby Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:20 am

Great ideas Leo, but my tech life seems to be the one where I am sad to say I know it, but I can’t seem to practise it.

Just had a thought. using your “make one change at a time” philosophy, I’m going to fix just one area of my increasingly chaotic online life.

Here’s my vow: I am going to admit that I don’t read all my RSS feeds and cull them back to the ones I feel I can’t miss.

In fact, I’m going to do better than make a vow. I’m going to cut back my feeds RIGHT NOW.

How’s that for progress hey? (hear me patting myself on the back)

Kelly

Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah) Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:45 am

Great post, Leo! I’ve been embracing a lot of what you’ve mentioned ever since my holiday in Egypt. I was away from news and internet for ten days (mostly because I didn’t feel like forking out a small fortune to connect at the hotel). Lo and behold, the world didn’t end!

Now, my routine is quite simple. Every morning I check the weather and the few feeds that survived the mutiny on excess info inspired by ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’. That involves an article or two from The Economist everyday and the three blogs I consider essential (this being one of them). That’s it! I don’t do instant messaging and I only check my personal email once a week.

It’s actually quite rewarding and refreshing not to be so dependent on technology. Yes, it makes our lives so much easier, but it can make them a nightmare too. I really hope more people take this advice because there’s nothing like a little unplugging to make life that much better.

(http://www.varsityblah.com/need-for-speed/)

dani Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:48 am

I’m really excited to learn about the Morning Coffee extension. I hope it can handle opening a ton of sites at once, because when I try to open everything I need by hand half the time I crash something.

Mel T Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 1:56 am

Oh great article Leo - I particularly like the idea of using the Morning Coffee extension with Firefox, thanks for the tip.

Also, have you come across Rescue Time? This is something I’ve just started using, and it’s great. It tracks all your online movements so that you can find out what’s been taking up your time. They email you a weekly report too, so you don’t even have to log into the site to find out how you’ve been doing.

Edwin Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 2:45 am

Yet another great article there. I think I kinda messed up my online life. There are just so many things I must do the moment I switched on my desktop.

I guess I will be following most of the tips here! Thanks.

Zack Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 2:54 am

What are the 10 feeds that you do read? If not all of them just the few that you enjoy the most?

It is suffocating how much there is to read out there. Seems as if so many information based websites have a lot of the same stuff. IE Macrumors, AppleInsider, Macdailynews, etc.

It would be great to hear what places you go for your RSS feeds.

Thanks.

rootlock Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 4:00 am

Hi All,

Not long ago I made a decision not to accept essays or exercises from my English students at the college where I taught. It seemed outrageous to some. I even got a call from the dean. Students complained. I quickly built my case that students needed to learn to work from a computer. When he got my point that as a society we are quickly approaching a place where there is no longer a need for paper documents, that paper only causes disorganization and inefficiency, he agreed and let my policy stick. After a semester passed, he too no longer accepted paper.

Still, I’m not sure if I’ll ever get my life as paper free as you describe!

Thanks! Brad

Edwinek Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 4:14 am

Almost exactly my setup. One more tip: I’ve started using Google Notebook for contacts. I have no need for a dedicated app and the contacts part of GMail is just too basic. Here you get tags and search and extra space for notes.

Marcus Voellmy Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 4:20 am

I have a killer tip to this article.

I am constantly bookmarking sites that interest me. They qualify for bookmarking way too easy, and the result is a mess of different bookmarks with misleading names. Eventually I used to end up cleaning the bookmarks folder and organizing, and that felt really good. But once it was cluttered again I would have to clean it fo feel good again. On top of that I have a computer at home and a computer at work, with different bookmarks. So I joined the two archives online at del.icio.us and the problem is solved. There are no longer folders (and sub-folders for that matter) to sort everything in, but I use tags that I can organize the sites with in multiple ways. And I can have both my work- and private bookmarks online at one place. I can even access them from other computers through the web if I am somewhere and want to check something, but when I’m at work or at home I use a Firefox extension that integrates both bookmarking and browsing the bookmarks perfectly. This has been the biggest positive change for me in my online life since Firefox came out. Try it, your bookmarks will be imported and you can always keep them inside your browser if you’re scared of change. You can even keep them private on this site, I do. And the best part is that if you don’t have any idea on how to tag your bookmarks you will get suggestions from the site telling you what everyone else has written on their bookmark of that site!

Thanks for a nice blog, I read it daily and it’s nice to know how much we share :)

Rearden M at ExtraordinaryBlog.com Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 4:28 am

Leo,

Just one thing to bear in mind though is what would happen if you suddenly lose your Google account.

I’m afraid I can’t recall the actual link to the article, but I remember reading about someone who suddenly found their Google account suspended. It turned out that their account had been confused with another user whom Google felt was misusing the service.

When his account was suspended, he was unable to get email, all his documents, addresses… you can imagine the list.

The issue was resolved, but only after a long, slow process of him trying to prove who he was. All the while he was totally out of communication.

So while I use most of these services, I think that not having copies of everything out of Google’s all encompassing service, is taking a risk, albeit a smallish one.

Jasko Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 4:39 am

what a great advices, thanks so much for sharing

banji - LessonInLife.com Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 6:15 am

Rearden M - that would be a nightmare especially when I myself is depending on google for most of my online work..

need to have establish some backup system then.

Brett Legree Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 6:16 am

@ Rearden M - a good point.

I would suggest as a back-up that anyone using Gmail could set up a local email program with IMAP access to the Gmail account (just about email program works, I use Thunderbird myself in this way).

Just remember to run the local email program once in a while to “sync” up everything. Then, if the whole house of cards comes tumbling down someday, you still have your mail.

It works the other way too, if you had a hard drive crash, Gmail still has copies of your mail that you can retrieve once you are back up and running.

If you worry about copies of your documents (of any sort) then just email them to yourself at your Gmail account.

Edwinek Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 6:30 am

@Rearden, @Brett:
Something else you can do: create a second Gmail account with an unrelated name (just in case your lock-out should be name-based) and set up its POP-access so that it gets all mail from your main Gmail account (leaving it where it is of course, don’t delete the original mail).

Initially it takes a little while for it to make the complete back-up, but then it will have an almost real-time backup of your main mail account.

That way in case of a lockout you at least have access to your older mail while you’re wrestling Google.

Brett Legree Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 6:41 am

@ Edwinek,

That is a great suggestion - never hurts to have an extra layer of protection.

The main message is that these online services are great tools, and as long as you have a simple backup strategy that works for you, things will be fine.

Anita Lewis Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 8:06 am

I like the archiving instead of filing tip! I was using google docs a lot, but have since gone back to using only my laptop for those things. I use Linux and have installed Tracker (http://www.gnome.org/projects/tracker/) to search on my computer for things. I have a directory with subdirectories for the letters of the alphabet and I file things alphabetically. Of course, I still can’t always recall what I filed something under. With Tracker I can add tags as well since it does indexing of words and also searches on metadata. Archiving would be perfect with my system. At work I have installed a microsoft windows search that does very well, too. I forget where I got it, but it is not the regular search thing and allows me to specify the type of file I’m looking for.

Brett Legree Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 8:34 am

For Windows I use Copernic Desktop Search http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/ or Google Desktop http://desktop.google.com/ depending on where I am working.

(My workplace blocks installation of Google Desktop, but not Copernic.)

So if you are looking for this sort of instant search on Windows, both of these are good. (Vista has built-in search of course but it is also a bit different, so even on Vista I use Copernic.)

Lorayne Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 9:12 am

Texto bem interessante!!

Lorayne Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 9:14 am

I just discover your blog today and simply love your suggestions!!! Keep up the good work!!

Futuratronics Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 9:39 am

Hello Leo,

Could you please share your 10 essential feeds with us?

Many Thanks,

Futuratronics

Tara Kelly (PassPack) Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 10:52 am

Under “Simplified Filing”, I’d add a password manager too.

Passwords are critical data, so they can’t go into Google, but using a dedicated tool will keep mind clutter down to a minimum:

Declutter with a password manager

Cheers, Tara

David Parker Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 11:01 am

Good stuff. I hadn’t heard of the morning coffee extension, so I’ll be sure to check it out. I

Caron Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 11:23 am

nice post leo.
that morning coffee add-on was a really nice tip, thanks. :)

DavidJ Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 11:29 am

One thing I’ve been doing recently is to have a distractions list. Say I’m doing A, and I think “Hey, I wanna do B”. It goes on the list, and I go back to A. The list grows, until I finish A, then I figure out what on the list should be done next. I also tend to have a couple of sections on the list: one for lunch and one for 4pm, times when I do putter-around stuff like read RSS, make Twitter posts, surf regular websites, etc. Sort of like downtime, but scheduled. Makes it a lot easier to stay focused on what I’m doing, and not just ramble around, accomplishing nothing.

Dave

etavitom Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 11:36 am

great advice! this is the only way to live online…

Stephen Martile Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 11:55 am

I’m with you Leo.

I’m all about a morning routine - it’s nice because after a while it runs on automatic. I don’t think as much in the morning; I’m pretty much running on autopilot because I’m accustomed to my routine. It’s habit. Here it is in a nutshell:

Shower
Dress
Make Lunch
Deep Breathing
Visualization
Journalling/Writing

To morning routines,

Stephen Martile
Personal Development Made Simple
http://www.stephenmartile.com

Allena Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 12:36 pm

wow…at the risk of appearing unprofessional…I heart you…or, well, I heart your philosophies. PS your interview is now up at freelancewrite.about.com. Thanks!

francetales.com Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 13:13 pm

I remember saving your blog to my del.icio.us bookmarks and thinking this is exactly what I needed but then I got overwhelmed by my online life and it took me a while to come back. I love your tips and hope I can strike a balance of coming here once in a while to see more suggestions but not using it as I am currently using it, to procrastinate. I should be finishing one more site. I get things done but not efficiently, I console myself by telling myself that at least I get things done, others spend their whole days doing nothing.

Crystal, from jewelfaerie.com Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 13:34 pm

I have to say “hallelujah” to #4. I used to think I was being efficient by stopping whatever I was doing, looking at that new email really quick, addressing it, then going back to my work, but it’s not true! I lose my “flow mojo”. I close mine now.

How clever is that morning coffee extension? What a great idea.

Proseac Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 13:48 pm

Yet another great post, Leo!

I’m not half as “connected” as some people (I don’t own a Blackberry, and I don’t spend much time on forums) but I still find keeping the technology as servant rather than master to be a huge challenge.

E-mail is the biggest problem, as I’m sure it is for most people. In a corporate culture that demands instant replies to e-mails, I’m struggling to teach people that they need to find another way to reach me if it’s urgent. I only just started leaving Outlook closed when I’m not actively reading e-mails, and I still catch myself wanting to check to see if anything’s come in recently (like in the last 5 minutes! LOL)

The Morning Coffee extension sounds great - is there anything comparable for IE? We are not allowed to use Firefox in my office.

Tom Marsh Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 14:11 pm

I’m a graphic artist (also an iMac user, props) and currently managing an Art Department… thank you for putting words to feelings I’ve been wrestling with the last several months. I’ve been working on my daily routine effort & schedule… just to get all my “potatoes peeled”… so I appreciate you creating some dimension on something as vast, interruptive, and complicated as “the workspace.”

Peace.

KC Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 14:31 pm

Nice post, Leo. Thanks.

See #2 on my list - regarding cleaning up your In Box:

http://lifeapps.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/stop-answering-the-phone-other-essential-productivity-tips/

We all need to aggressively manage email; otherwise it can become oppressive! Thx again.

Francine Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 14:48 pm

This post couldn’t have come along at a better time. I just today started an Art Journaling challenge to try to develop the habit of a good morning routine, and one of the things I struggle with is managing my online time. I will definitely be employing these tips, in fact I have already installed the Morning Coffee plug-in. Many thanks Leo :)

Corky Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 15:13 pm

I’ve found that one of the biggest time-burners when I’m online is reading comments on blog articles. Even worse if I decide to respond to one or more of those comments in addition to the original blog entry! So my new discipline is to read the blog entry and skip the comments. ;-)

Leszek Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 15:37 pm

I would like to have more specific informations. Like - how did You gave up reading 100 RSS channels’s? I always got this feeling that there is so much informations that could be usefull and limiting myself in finding them could be a mistake. I got exactly the same thing with books and films ;)

James Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 15:57 pm

This pretty much validates my approach as I use almost all the same tools. I must admit to being a bit of ‘jump between tabs’ kind of guy. A bit of an occupational hazard when your work is online.

I think one of the ways to avoid burning out is to be selective for your feeds. Find good sources which are already aggregating what you want so you don’t have to follow several hundred feeds.

Second, don’t get caught up in too much commenting. Certainly do it if you’ve really got something to share, but you can still contribute to the value of a well thought out post by bookmarking it, just as I am going to do with this in a moment :-)

Keep up the good writing.

Leo Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 16:39 pm

Regarding sharing my 10 feeds … I don’t think it would be wise of me to do that, for fear of offending people whose friendship I value and whose blogs I actually enjoy but just don’t read on a daily basis. I’m sorry, I know it would be useful.

However, if you’re looking for a list of essential feeds, I would recommend liferemix.net … I’m a member of that network, and the blogs in LR are excellent. There are other great blogs out there that aren’t in LR of course.

Mud Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 18:12 pm

I am sorry but I really disagree with your “archiving versus filing” choice. Do you really know how to go back and find all of what you might need? Do you ever go back and pull stuff out of your archive? How often? Does that outweigh the enormous data center requirements we’re putting on Google?

Do you have a method to cull old data? Or is it just supposed to live on forever on Google’s servers? Their data centers pull huge amounts of electricity. Electricity that is getting in shorter and shorter supply. If we saved what we needed and everyone did that we’d save a pile of energy. If everyone archives everything with Google there are three huge issues 1) energy usage 2) privacy and security 3) end of life of data issues.

This strikes me as abdicating responsiliity for the information you need and want to keep.

mark Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 18:52 pm

I took your advice and got rid of one feed. Yours. Honestly, most of this is so so advice and only goes with certain philosophies. In other words, it works well for you, but there’s nothing about it that is so special it becomes what everyone should do.

Also, I’m afraid your next article is going to be “how I drink a glass of water without getting it on my shirt”. You write to the lowest common denominator, and that’s a shame because you write well.

Leo Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:40 pm

@Mud: Well, archiving instead of filing won’t work for everyone. It’s worked well for me for well over a year (almost 2 years now). I’m able to find everything I need by searching. I cull old info mostly in the form of large files — pictures, pdfs, audio and video files, etc. I do a search every few months and delete.

Marc Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:42 pm

Regarding multi-tasking: at work I am often working on a few tasks at the same time because some tasks have long wait times between steps (such as installing software, running updates, backing up and restoring hard drive images).

While I realize it is hard to juggle where I am in each task (and I’m trying not to have too many on the go at the same time), if I wait for a step to finish before I work on anything else, I will be wasting time. Any tips on how to deal with tasks such as these, especially how to keep track of where you are in each one?

Often another problem is waiting on others for information (if I am working on a document and need someone’s input). That simply makes me feel less in control of my day.

Ramon Castillo Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:43 pm

excelent

Leo Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:44 pm

@mark: I appreciate your feedback. I realize that my writing won’t please everyone, and I understand that some people will unsubscribe each day because I haven’t made them happy.

However, I should clarify that ALL of my writing is based on what I do and what I’ve learned from my experiences, and is not a prescription for every other person. I usually explicitly state this, as I don’t want people to think I’m giving them advice that will work for everyone. I’m merely sharing it in hopes that it will be useful in some way.

I’d also like to say that while my writing won’t make everyone happy, I don’t write for the lowest common denominator. I write about what interests me, what I’m passionate about, and hope that it will be of value to others.

I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts, though, and I’ll try to use them to improve. More specific suggestions for improvement would be appreciated! :)

anonguy Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:54 pm

impossible when your ‘online life’ is also your job and the capitalists insist that you join in on the ratrace for 40 hours a week.

doing *one* thing at a time is quite unlikely even if you have nothing important to do.

dbp Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:56 pm

@mark:
I think mark needs to ask himself how *he* feels

Wes Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 20:59 pm

I like the post. I am most intrigued by the “archiving vs. filing” notion. There is no doubt this is more time effective. My question is whether or not this sort of electronic vault system could work in a more team-oriented work environment. That is to say, where document updates need to be seen by all. Implementing such a strategy could be quite efficient, albeit the challenge is making sure file titles are “intuitive” enough for all.

Joe Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 21:05 pm

Some good tips in here. People need to learn how to slow down, if even just a little bit.

Irmagination Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 21:21 pm

Great post! Love my Mac and can spend hours on it. Hey, I know that what may work for you, may not always work for everyone, but for me, you are always so dead on!

Keep up the good work!

Zack Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 21:50 pm

Another great tool to try is 8aweek (http://8aweek.com). It lets you track your browsing habits online and even set time limits for how long you wish to allow yourself on the most distracting sites. It aims to save you 8 hours per week!

zeep Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 21:59 pm

Correction: god IS the potatoes (and the peeler). Alan Watts rules.

deptaro Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 23:40 pm

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business person Says:

March 3rd, 2008, 23:42 pm

Thank you for this, especially for setting time limits. I’d spend hours on end with email, read my hundreds of feeds, then get mad cause the day is gone and I didn’t accomplish anything.

Matty C. Says:

March 4th, 2008, 1:58 am

What do you do about PDF files? As you can’t upload them to Google Documents.

Adam Says:

March 4th, 2008, 2:46 am

Needed to read that! Going to delete some feeds.

Also for file searching I have been using the Xobni add on for outlook. Amazing.

Ed Says:

March 4th, 2008, 6:07 am

Zen is the study of the Self, and about finding out what is ultimately true. This article has very little to do with that. Maybe you should consider renaming this article ‘12 powerful ways to enforce your ego’.

Jason Says:

March 4th, 2008, 8:40 am

I agree with you on the point about clearing out your inbox. I get anxious when my inbox is too full and it doesn’t go away until I’ve emptied it. In Gmail, with keyboard shortcuts enabled, it’s a lot of jxjxjxjxjxjxjxjx and then one big #.

Zack Says:

March 4th, 2008, 13:49 pm

Thanks Leo. That makes sense. I don’t want you to offend anyone. Keep up the excellent work and congrats again with leaving your desk job. I hope to join you in the near future.

Rick Says:

March 4th, 2008, 14:27 pm

Thank you Leo. I’ve been a reader for quite a while now and I’m always pleasantly surprised by the content. More often than not I come away with something either I hadn’t tried or that I’d never thought of. I’d never heard of Morning Coffee and it actually sounds like a great tool. I’ll check it out.

Rick

firewalker Says:

March 16th, 2008, 23:52 pm

I hope this works for me :)

(just downloaded Morning Coffee first thing in the morning)

melanie Says:

April 2nd, 2008, 9:54 am

I recently sorted through my feeds. I chose about a dozen and put them in a folder named Daily; those are the must-see ones for me. Then I set up a few folders by category and sorted those feeds that I don’t check daily or regularly but that I wasn’t ready to give up completely; they are there when I do need to reference them or I have a bit more time to allot to checking feeds. I gave up about half of the feeds I initially had, and gained so much more time.

Thanks for sharing what works for you… I have a habit of constantly jumping all around from task to task, tab to tab, when I am on the computer, and often feeling overwhelmed by information overload; some of your suggestions will no doubt be of benefit to me.

Shan Says:

April 5th, 2008, 1:44 am

With points 2,3 and 6 in mind, check out a piece of software I discovered a few days after getting my first Mac called Think! which fades all other apps & notifications into a blacked out background while you work.

http://www.freeverse.com/think/

I don’t know if they’re still developing it or anything, but I’ve found it totally invaluable when working on technical documents where you just have to zone out distractions.

jam02 Says:

April 16th, 2008, 21:07 pm

It is very useful and
I’d like to trackback and inform your article to my friends but I cannot find the address of it.
If you see this comment, please let me know :)

jam02 Says:

April 16th, 2008, 21:11 pm

I think the comment above isn’t clear. (because of my poor English skill)
I mean I want to trackback your writing and find its trackback address. :)
Thank you in advance.

Antonio Says:

May 5th, 2008, 19:53 pm

Leo,

This is a wonderful post. My teachers really appreciated it!

Many thanks.