Thord D. Hedengren

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Tag: productivity

  • The MacBook Air, redux

    I have owned three MacBook Air models. Luckily I skipped out on the first one, which had serious issues with heat and sudden crashes. The minor update that led to the second MacBook Air was the first one I got, and then it struck me. This is the perfect typewriter, way beyond any laptop I had ever owned, and those are numerous I can tell you that.

    I loved that Air, all its 1,6 GHz of low voltage processing power, the touchpad and even its awkward two buttons, the whole package. It was underpowered with its 2 GB of RAM and the 4200 rpm hard drive, combined with heating issues that firmware updates and some sensible usage sorted out for me personally. Still, best typewriter ever, thanks to its wonderful keyboard and the form factor. Love it. (more…)

  • A nice little mindhack

    Using different fonts when writing two stories at once is a nice way to keep things separated in your mind. A nice little mindhack you can steal from me, as well as Joelle Charbonneau who wrote about it recently. It is the same principle as writing different things on different devices, or even using different mediums.

  • Just the iPad

    I’ll be out of town for a bit, visiting friends and enjoying some hard earned vacation, which is to say that I won’t be working this weekend. It’s not a long trip or anything, but I won’t be home for a little while.

    So what will I bring? I’m thinking just the iPad, to keep me from getting some real work done. No designing, no editing, no serious writing – that sounds pretty great to me actually. But how will it work out? Will I feel limited and regret my decision, or is the iPad powerful enough to sate my needs.

    We’ll see. After all, I still feel that there is something beautiful over the “writing station” below. I haven’t decided whether to bring the bluetooth keyboard though, we’ll see how well it fits in my bag.

    I’ll report back and let you know how it worked out, and if I actually got something done. There are, after all, quite a few possible tools for me to be productive if I really want to.

  • The blank screen

    The blank screen. Just the cursor blinking, mocking you. Painful, oh so painful, and yet full of potential. That’s what makes it so hard to start filling the screen with words, sentences, and things that make at least some sense. Things that are worthy of publication, of sharing, and of your reader’s time.

    The blank screen scares me. It didn’t use to though, and I wonder if I ever will feel the same amount of confidence and possibilities as I did as a teen. It’s a shame that same confidence didn’t adhere to all parts of my teenage years, but I’m happy for what I got. (more…)

  • Switching to Simplenote for todos

    I’m a big fan of Simplenote, and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been using it for my todo lists. The new list feature in the iOS apps (but not on the web, why?) is great. I’m sticking too Simplenote for my list needs, it seems.

  • The iPad as a blogging tool

    A lot of us are comfortable writing on the iPad. I am in fact writing this post laying in bed, on my iPad, and while my MacBook Air certainly beats it in both writing tools as well as speed and input feedback, they represent two different things. The Air is the most portable real computer there is, but it is still something I want to put on a table or, worst case scenario, in my lap. Meanwhile, the iPad is a lot easier to just prop up and hammer out a few words on. They are two different things, which is good. I’ve yet to write a book on my iPad, something I’ve done numerous times on my Air.

    But as a blogging tool on the go, that should be the perfect use for the iPad, right? (more…)

  • The grab and go iPad setup

    What if you didn’t need a fully fledged computer all the time? Let’s face it, most of the time we’re just browsing the web, checking in on Facebook, send tweets and write emails anyway. Not exactly tasks that merit a powerful computer in your home.

    Does this merit a workstation at home? Do you really want one? Wouldn’t you rather do these casual things from the comfort of your living room couch, for example? Sure, you can bring a laptop but it won’t be ideal for longer periods of time, and sometimes you have a ton of things you want to read up on. (more…)

  • iPad: What I really need

    Sometimes I want to jot down thought on things to work them out. Some of these things make for excellent blog posts since others are in similar situations. I bet this is of of those, so here goes.

    I’m a big iPad fan and avid user, having had it since weeks after the wifi model launched in the US. Currently, I have an iPad 3G with 32 GB storage. It’s almost always packed, but the culprit isn’t movies, music (that’s just some 6 GB of essentials) or even photos. No, the problem is apps.

    I have lots of apps, and I keep them way too long.

    This got me thinking. What kinds of apps do I really need for my iPad? (more…)

  • Write every day

    Want to become a good writer? Want to battle writer’s block? Want a serious challenge?

    Then write every day.

    I’m not talking about twittering or posting comments on blogs, I’m talking about original pieces. If you want to be an online journalist (aka “blogger”), then you should blog every day. If you want to write fiction, then write some fiction every day.

    It doesn’t have to be much. A lot of it might not be good. The whole idea is to get used to writing, to do it in regular intervals, and to make it less of an obstacle when you really need to perform.

    So write every day if you want to be a writer.

  • Fullscreen as a productivity booster

    Usually when I write a blog post on a computer I do so in a text editor. I prefer software like OmmWriter, WriteRoom and Scrivener, rather than full-fledged word processors like Pages, OpenOffice or Word. In fact, I could go on about why that last one is a trojan from Hell, but that’s a completely different matter.

    OmmWriter (my most recent favorite when it comes to text composing) shares one thing with WriteRoom and Scrivener: It has a fullscreen mode. It also does one thing better than the other two, and that’s automatically shutting off Growl, the notification service most diehard Mac users find indispensable for interruptions during the day. Smart thinking there. (more…)

  • Getting productive with change of scenery

    I’ve been told I’m crazy, in the “you’re stupid doing all that” way. You see I’m not only addicted to words, I’m also addicted to projects. I love firing up something new, I get ideas and jot them down, revisit and suddenly I find myself building something.

    You might say I’m a doer.

    But that doesn’t mean I don’t hit walls, getting bogged down with what is commonly referred to as writer’s block (I’ll save my thoughts on that for another post), and just get the feeling that I don’t want to do what’s necessary. A ton of projects will do that to you, it’s a mental battle.

    A change of scenery will help. I’ve been meaning to get Notes Blog ready for the public beta for two weeks, but I just haven’t been able to pull myself together to actually do it.

    Today I am. In five minutes time I’ll have a Talisker single malt by my side and I’ll be watching the 17″ Macbook Pro fire up, leaving the Air for the first time in a long time. The change of scenery is my tool – which Macbook I’m working on – this time around.

    But it helps. Change is good.

  • Evernote for Mac gets sharing

    Maybe this update to Evernote is what is needed to get me to give it another go?

  • Productivity tips on my Twitter

    In case you’re not following @tdhedengren on Twitter, I’d like to let you know that I’ll be tweeting daily productivity tips for a while. In fact, I have already started.

  • Two hours online per day – will that do?

    I’m in France at the moment, and apparently they don’t know how to make a decent city wide wifi network work in Chamonix. Sad really, because I like being online and it messes up my work. Luckily I’ve solved it for the time being at least, although it is at some expense, both monetary and work-wise.

    I’ll be online two (yes, that’s 2) hours each day starting next week. That’s it.

    Or rather, it doesn’t have to be, because sometimes this thing that they call broadband here works, although never good enough to get anything done. Maybe shoot out a tweet or something, but that’s about it. That is one of the reasons to why I’ve been so quiet the last week, although I did warn you before. (more…)