Opinion: Desk Space and Time
In this age where online space and computer space are relatively easy to come by, many fail to see the need to clean up the access files. Sometimes, our habits from our virtual life “overflow” to our real, physical life, resulting in a very messy physical desk space.
I too, fall prey to such untidiness sometimes. Weirdly enough, I think my Windows desktop (screenshot) is more organized than my physical desktop (no pictures here). It’s much simpler to clear your virtual clutter compared to real life. You could just drag your unwanted files in your virtual desk space to the “Recycle Bin” (with a click of the mouse), as compared to the real world, where physical work is needed to compile, bag and dispose your stuff at a common bin somewhere outside your house. Sigh… I guess these are nothing but mere excuses. Just for the record, I do clear up my physical desk space once every two months while my virtual desktop about once to twice a month.
On that note, I wanted to highlight the following montage, which consist of photos taken from a BBC News “picture showcase” on chaotic work spaces…
Cluttered Desktop Collage (Original Images from BBC News Website)
Looking at those pictures, I really wonder how they manage to work with that kind of environment. I can honestly say that though I am not an extremely tidy freak, I definitely would not reach that degree of cluttered-ness. I would lose my sanity working through that….
Reading the write-up on each of the pictures, one common factor among all of them is the lack of “Time”. Needing more time is definitely an issue every one of us have to grapple with. In certain occasions, I do wish that I would have more time… But, its my opinion that, the act of wishing for more time is actually a sign that my time management needs more work…
What do you think?
[via BBC News]
Opinion: Can you give up your email?
According to BBC News, the new U.S. President Elect, Barack Obama may be giving up his email during the course of his presidency as “transparency laws would open his correspondence to public view.” In fact, I was surprised that that neither Bill Clinton nor George W Bush used their email duing their presidency.
Reading that report, I wondered how things would be like to actually give up your email. This question got me thinking for quite a while…
Would I be able to do it?
My Conclusion: It is possible… Only for a short while.
I thought of a few possible scenarios after giving up email. Yes, we can stop using our emails and depend solely on new web trends like Facebook Private messages, Twitter or FriendFeed messages. Going one even further, we can create a private blog on services like WordPress.com or Blogger and get your friends to direct any messages there. WordPress.com also has a theme like the prologue theme which would be perfect for such usage.
However, if we look further into all the “solutions” I came up with, the essence of all these “solutions” is still the act of sending and recieving of messages a la email..
So, physically, you might seem to have given up on using the email, but psychologically, you did not…
At this juncture. one may start to ask about other services such as Instant Messaging (IM). However, unlike email, IM does not have the benefit of allowing the recipient to be absent at the point where the chat is being initiated. Sure, you can use offline messaging, but email is still more suited for large amount of text per message compared to IM.
Reading through this post, it seems that I am just finding reasons to hold on to my email… This may be true to a certain extent, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is an addiction. Rather. it is because email is just crisp and simple.
So…. What do you think?
Articles mentioned in this post:
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FTI: Compact Calendar Creator
In September, I posted an entry about the excellent Compact Calendar from David Seah. Well it seems that the compact calendar also caught the attention of another blogger.
In an email sent to David Seah about a month ago, Yoshiomi Kurisu said that he had created an Online Compact Calendar Creator based on David Seah’s design.
The online creator is quite a neat little application, allowing you to find your country’s holiday from Google Calendar and then generating PDF files for printing… If needed, you can add in additional dates which may be set aside for holidays or maybe events. For students, you can add in the dates for your school holidays etc.
FTI: Google Reader, Mail and Calendar integration
For users like me who depend a lot on this three Google services, finding all in one page saves a lot of “Ctrl-Tabs” or mouse work.
One solution is to create an igoogle page at http://www.google.com/ig and link the three services in your main tab. Since Reader just got integrated as an igoogle widget, this may be a good solution.
The second solution requires the use of Firefox with the greasemonkey extension. With the extension, it is also possible to integrate all three services in one page without the use of igoogle.
Depending on which services you use, either two or 3 scripts are needed.. The links are as follows:
- GCal/GReader- Header Removal in IFrames [Userscripts.org]
- Gmail – Google Reader Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below
- Gmail – Google Calendar Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below
The first script is recommended if you want to install the two other scripts. A screenshot of the result (from Lifehacker) is shown below:
Integrated GReader, GCal, Gmail screenshot (via Lifehacker)
Alternatively, if you just want your Google Calendar agendas instead of the full calendar in beside your inbox, the Greasemonkey script, GmailAgenda [Userscripts.org] is also worth a try… A screenshot of the config is shown below…
Google Calendar Agenda and Gmail Integrated
However, I would suggest not to use the GmailAgenda script in a shared Firefox browser as some data is saved in Firefox’s about:config page.
As for me, I prefer using the Gmail and GmailAgenda combination while keeping my Google Reader separate. Although I need to switch a few tabs this way, I find it much neater…
EDIT:
The developer has updated his script. Now it is able to collapse your inbox for easy calendar and feed browsing, and work with Google Apps accounts. Furthermore, he has combined the reader and calendar script as well as add support for Picasa, Google Notebook, Groups, Sites, News, Maps and Finance.
FTI: Studying won’t be the same
After watching this video, I would think that studying in the future won’t be the same. Proabably the video would get technology savvy students who are into biology (or those in related fields) drooling over their keyboard.
Studying the Gray’s Anatomy has never been so interactive…
The real capabilities of tablet computing, harnessed and put together, especially in an academic setting, is very well illustrated in this video.
I look forward to such a future… Lifestyle and habits would definitely change.
Now to wipe my keyboard clean of drool before it short-circuits…
FTI: Eating Healthy at Social Gatherings
Was just looking through my RSS feeds and this one caught my eye..
“9 Fail-proof Tips for Eating Healthy at Social Gatherings”
by Zen Habits
I must admit, sometimes at gatherings, I eat rather unhealthily too. Though I cringe away from food with heaps of oil most of the time at home, the same cannot be said during gatherings..
This is especially true at gatherings where there are lots to talk about, and eating becomes a motor action where you “feed” yourself while talking, without paying attention to the fact that you are already full or pause to think about the type of food I am feeding myself with…
In fact, I am already doing points 1, 7, 9 and half of point 4 (below, all in bold) sometimes…
However, placing limits (pt. 2) or taking logs (pt. 6) are just not for me… haha.. Maybe it will apply to others though…
Originally posted at Zen Habits:
- Eat before you go. This was by far the most popular tip, and probably the most useful. Fill up on healthy foods at home.
- Place limits. Try a 2 plate limit, and a 2 drink limit.
- Plan ahead. Find out the menu ahead of time and make healthy choices, before you go.
- Drink lots of water and eat veggies and fruits. You can eat as many veggies as you want without consuming many calories. Just avoid dipping sauces and dressings.
- Have a big salad before the main course. Again, avoid too much dressing, and go for the lighter dressings.
- Log what you eat, so you’ll be more aware of it.
- Avoid alcohol. It’s just empty calories. You can have fun without alcohol — I do it all the time.
- Bring your own. If it’s a potluck-style gathering, cook something healthy and bring it with you.
And my favorite (too):
9. Just try to eat healthy most of the week, and relax when you are at social gatherings.
With that, I’ll end here…
and Its time for lunch! Haha…
Ciao!
FTI: Compact Calendar
Compact Calendar Screenshot
Was looking around for calendars on the internet when I found this little gem. Seems to be quite popular.. Wonder why I didn’t find this in the past… I guessed its only recently that I started looking at things to minimize the time I spend on the computer for work….
Anyway, For Those Interested (FTI): check out David Seah’s Compact Calendar which have already been updated for 2009. The download comes in the form of an excel spreadsheet.
Compact Calendar [David Seah's site]
.. Cheers!
