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Sean Buckley, writing for Gizmodo:
It started as an offhand brag, but turned into a dare. I was telling my Gizmodo colleagues why I loved my Windows 8 tablet: it’s fast, it’s cheap, it’s a fully fledged PC. Hell, I said, I could probably hook it up to a monitor and use it as my workhorse for a week.
Now I’m doing just that. It’s not as bad as you’d think.
There’s no reason why this wouldn’t work, even though it’s no Surface, but still an interesting read for tablet curious people.
There’s a lot of talk about how the iPad is almost the PC replacement that we all seem to crave, but not quite there yet. Famous tech writer MG Siegler broached the subject recently, stating that although he would like to not buy any more computers, he didn’t think the iPad (his primary tablet of choice as far as I can tell) was ready yet. In fact, he thinks the iPad’s years away from replacing the computer for all tasks, obviously painting i very broad strokes.
In some cases he’s right. I don’t see myself developing high end websites on my iPad anytime soon, although it is theoretically possible already. Siegler’s example, what a nuisance it is to publish (primarily) text content online using the iPad, compared to using the web browser, is a moot one. The comparison with the web browser workflow is also moot, because the tablet offers a different view altogether.
Good evening. At least it’s evening here, bordering to night actually. The wind’s doing its best to shatter the windows, but it’s not even close. This is, after all, cold and damp Stockholm, capital of Sweden (the land of kings). Here wind rarely ruins civilization, although it can be a nuisance, and occasionally something more than that.
But not tonight, not here.
It’s been a while since I published something here. There are reasons for this of course. Work has kept me occupied, we’re doing really cool stuff for one of the major publishing houses in Sweden, or rather, with their Swedish properties, using WordPress and ingenuity. Wrapping up Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, 4th Edition (a mouthful if there ever was one) has taken its toll too, it’s in author review now and hopefully it’ll launch in the first quarter next year. I’m excited about that.
It should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of the iPad. There are so many reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that it’s a unitasking device. Yes, it multitasks, much like a bunch of other tablets and smartphones do, but although you have a fairly large screen at your disposal, most apps let you do just one (1) thing at a time.
Compared to the 27″ Thunderbolt Display I hook up my retina MacBook Pro to every day at the Odd Alice office, that might not sound so great. The 27″ screen gives so much screen real estate it’s almost silly, I can stack windows all over the place, and tend to do so. There’s the Mail app, Reminders, HipChat, Tweetbot, Skype, Simplenote and/or Notes, and more often than not a few Finder windows on top of that, and it’s still just the first screen of four…
Sometimes it’s great to be able to monitor everything, but it’s not the way to stay productive. I tend to produce more code when I’m sitting by my 13″ MacBook Pro, without the Thunderbolt Display. That’s because I have my relevant apps in fullscreen, something I’ve written about previously.
The iPad offers me the same unitasking experience. I can jump between apps easily enough, but I’m not tempted to open Mail or Tweetbot when I’m writing, because they’re not there, at the edge of my vision, begging for attention, as they would be on my 27″ screen. I just see the app I’m working in (this is written in Simplenote on my iPad mini, by the way), and the only thing that can possibly disturb me are notifications, so I tend to limit those severly. It’s the same as running fullscreen apps on the Mac, which I do regularly on the MacBook Pro, but never when connected to a 27″ screen because it looks like shit.
Unitasking is about doing one thing at a time. Finish what you’re doing, which could be a part of a task or the whole thing itself, and then you can go procrastinate on Twitter.
Compare that to taking a sneak peak at whatever’s your procrastination poision while working, and you’ll soon realize that’s not the perfect work environment.
This is why I love the iPad as a writing tool (which sparked me to write The Writer’s iPad in the first place), and this is why I think fullscreen apps are awesome.
Now if you’d excuse me, my Twitter feed needs my attention. So, you know, THE END and all.
Back in the day I used to manage all (!) my todos with post-its. I had a very simple system, which in part was derived from other people’s ideas, as most things are.
This is how it worked:
It’s a simple system, meant to keep you focused on the tasks at hand. I’m sure others have done the same, with post-its or other tools. I added some rules though:
This system worked very well for me. It can easily be replicated using a simple text file, or an app (Begin more or less does exactly this, except it lets you add todos to the Today list), but it never really felt natural to me in digital form. On paper however, this was magic, an excellent tool, in many ways refined thanks to the limitations of the post-it’s size. The same can’t be said for apps or text files, which tend to give you unlimited space, with no thought as to what’s reasonable for you. The post-it size is a lot nicer in that sense.
Give it a go if you like, steal it and tweak it. Whatever gets the job done, right?
Simplicity is often the key to getting things done. For some, that means fleshed-out todo lists and subscribing to covert religions such as Getting Things Done. For others, it’s just a list of things that need to get done.
Begin is for the latter. It’s a simple iOS app that’s basically a list for today, and for tomorrow. When something’s not done, it’ll end up on the list of unfinished tasks, and you’ll have to move it back up to the Today list if you want to. There’s one simple alert (“hey, do stuff!”) that you can trigger once per day, and there are two color themes (more available as in-app purchases) available.
That’s about it. No sync, no iPad version, no nothing but this.
It’s eerily close to my post-it system that got me through the days way back. I’ll do a proper write-up on that later.
Today, Tomorrow, and you fucked up and didn’t finish your todos. What more can you ask for?
A ton of things, as it turns out. I’ve found that I need the timed reminders these days, not for my general tasks (finish this chapter, publish that piece, research something, buy that and sell something else), but for the things in my day that are tied to specific periods of time. Most things aren’t (by design), but it feels overly complicated maintaining two lists, one in Begin and one in Reminders, for example.
I’m giving Begin the benefit of a doubt, using it at the moment. I suspect I’ll quit for the same reasons I quit my post-it system, but we’ll see. For now, if you’re even the least interested in a minimalistic Today/Tomorrow todo list app, by all means check out Begin. It’s well executed and a nice little example of an app that does one thing well.
Hey friend, how’re you doing over there?
Feeling happy, thrilled, psyched, annoyed, tired, irritable, tired? Starting to wonder why the fuck it matters, or why it doesn’t? Having trouble sleeping, getting into fights with your significant other, kick your dog, snarl at your cat, want to throw that bloody smartphone through the fucking window because you haven’t heard back about that thing, or the internet’s down, or you can’t play GTAV yet, or Apple did something or they didn’t – and fuck! – everyone on Twitter’s telling you things that are wrong and how the hell can’t they understand that you’re right and they’re morons?
It’s a bit much now, isn’t it? You’re stressed, society forgives you, tells you to chill out a bit, your friends accept your apology. You vow to be better, to get better at dealing with your shit, and you tell it to the world.
You hit the wall. You get sick. Your heart gives in.
You’re dead, but you’re not.
It should come as no surprise that I write on my iPad. This is the setup I’ve been enjoying most of the time this summer, in my summer home.
The bookshelf features a desktop that you can pull out, fitted to a regular dining room chair, which is what I’ve been using too. I put the iPad mini on the first shelf to get a better angle. My keyboard of choice have been the Logitech Tablet Keyboard, covered previously. I’m not sure it’ll be what I use when I leave my summer home, but I decided to give it a fair shot and thus I left my trusty Apple bluetooth keyboard and its Origami casing at home. Just as well, as we picked up this combined bookshelf and cupboard this summer, and it would’ve worked less than great here. I think it’s good to be able to detach the keyboard from the stand, most of the time, and obviously that’s the case here.
Here’s a productivity tip for you: Disconnect the internet.
“Well DUH!” might be your response, and rightly so. All the online opportunities of wasting time are well known to anyone working in the creative field. The web’s a great tool, but if it’s just means procrastination, then it’s your enemy.
I recently found myself without online access, involuntarily. The 3G was out, wifi too, and there I was trying to get some work done. I had three things on my todo list that didn’t require online connectivity, but did I tick those off? No, I was too irritated and stressed out by the outage that I didn’t get anything done at all, resulting in rescheduled tasks and rushed duties during the afternoon and evening.
There’s a huge difference in turning off internet access, and being forced offline for reasons beyond your control. I regularly use the flight mode feature for blocking out distractions when writing on my iPad, and my computer has almost all notifications hidden. There are so many things going on in our online lives that it’s easy to get distracted.
I think that’s why being forced offline is so stressful. Suddenly we’re not connected to the world anymore. I urge you to consider what that obsession means to you and how you live your life.
I would also like to repeat my initial productivity tip: Disconnect the internet. When you can, and need to – never involuntary.
“How do you manage to work all the time?”
“Stupid brain, focus! My free day is going to waste!”
“If I get up an hour earlier I can write another 2,000 words and finish the novel in two months…”
“Did I tell you about my startup? We’re making an app on weekends!”
The silly things we hear, say, think, and push ourselves to do. The term overachiever is thrown about, but every time it comes up I cringe. So you’ve got your career, and a bunch of other projects to top it off. So you think you can balance your workload. So you count the hours and figure that if you’re really productive you could finish ahead of schedule. So you’ll just have to be really focused and extremely productive and all will be well. So you want to do everything at once. (more…)
That’s not the most pleasant realization you could come to, but it is interesting nonetheless. I’ve been reading a lot the past few days, and reading always gets me thinking. This leads to questioning things, which is very healthy in my book.
I’m thinking thoughts like: Is my focus where it should be? Am I working on, and with, the things I truly want? What’s working out for me, and what am I doing to remedy the things that aren’t?
Am I doing it wrong?
These are not moments of doubt, but of contemplation. I treasure them, because they are constructive and interesting, leaving me elated and hopeful.
It’s better to know about all the hard work you have in front of you, to see the road ahead if you will, than to just trod along in uncertainty.
Maybe that means I’m doing it right?
I have this problem, maybe you do too. I like to make things. Start projects. Develop stuff. Break rules. Create new publications. Establish companies. Publish.
Write shit.
I’m quite mad, that’s what some keep telling me. Others have tried to find a diagnosis, some sort of psychological branding that would explain my inability to actually cash in on every thing I do, no matter how successful they might be in the end.
I never claimed to be a businessman. There are others better suited for that.
I just get bored. (more…)
I’ve been home sick since Friday last week, not being able to speak due to throat issues, with a dash of fever and a spot of mucous to go with that. The week before that started with me getting back from another stint of some sort of hyper flu, hyper being a time element in this case. It would seem I got back to work too early, pushing myself too hard, since I got sick again so quickly. I usually don’t get sick.
Despite not usually being susceptible to whatever flu that’s bothering Stockholm at the moment, I’m not of the habit of working myself towards illness. I did in the past, to an excessive degree one might say, and learned my lesson. Still, there are times when taking it easy is hard.
Let me rephrase that: Taking it easy is always hard, but sometimes it is really hard.
I’ve got 2 minutes so let’s keep this short and sweet.
Inspiration is difficult. It is not something you just find, or that you induce in a certain kind of situation. It is not dependent on a muse or any other mythological creature. It is not even about experience, or about a greater good of any kind.
Inspiration is about hard work.
You open up your computer, pick up your pen, press play on your recorder, and then you create something.
The harsh truth is that anyone can do this, at any time. Everything else is just your disillusioned self trying to make what you do more important, and trying to protect you from being hurt yet again when reality hits you.
Because, you know, not everything anyone does is great, or even good enough. Don’t blame that on inspiration, just pick yourself off the floor and try again.
Now that’s inspiring.
I’ve been away from home and office for about two weeks, my first trip after swapping my trusty iPad 3 for an iPad mini. I also brought my 11” MacBook Air for occasional work and necessary book editing.
This is my first longer trip in quite some time where I choose not to bring a bluetooth keyboard, for use with the iPad mini. My reasoning was that I wanted to travel light, and since I brought the Air I’d rely on that one for any unplanned writing.
That failed miserably. To me it is so much easier to get started writing on an iPad, it is more accessible. I’m even tapping this on my iPad mini, rather than pulling out my Air. Peculiar perhaps, but not really news to me.
The reason I thought this would be less of an issue with the iPad mini is that the screen is far from ideal for editing. I go through and edit everything I write, and I’ve found that selecting words, inserting the cursor on a specific place and similar actions are a lot more cumbersome on the iPad mini compared to the full-sized alternatives. With that in mind, I figured I’d consume on the iPad mini, and whatever I felt like creating would be destined for the Air.
I learned three things from this pseudo-experiment:
So how did I do? Well, despite me not opening the Air for anything but client work and the necessary editing to meet my deadlines, I still managed to write a few blog posts, an essay, an article, and three short reports, all on the iPad mini. It would’ve gone a lot faster with a bluetooth keyboard, or using the Air, but the best tool is the one you’ve got with you, and want to use, so there you go.
On the plus side, I’ve gotten pretty good writing on this small bugger, getting close to the speeds I have on my iPad 3. At least that’s something.