43 Folders

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Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

April Power Hacks!

How about a roundup of some hot new 43 Folders “hacks” for starting your new month off right?

  1. Pencils are a great way to write things down.
  2. Sharpen new pencils soon after you’ve bought them, so you can use them to write things down more easily.
  3. Make sure you put gas in your car, or it won’t run very far after you’ve bought it, and then you’ll have trouble getting to work.
  4. When you get letters from people, you can send a response by using some paper and one of the pencils I mentioned a little earlier. (Just make sure they’re sharpened!)
  5. If you have a long list of things to do, make sure to do some of them sometimes. Make pencil marks by the ones that are “finished.”
  6. When people ask you how you’re doing, it’s okay to say “Great! How about you?” They’ll probably have some kind of response, though, so be ready.
  7. You can put recipes on your computer and look at them later to make food you like. Tip: You can also write down recipes using the pencils I mentioned earlier.
  8. If you’re having trouble getting inspired about something, it’s probably because you’re temporarily lacking inspiration. That’s what you need. You need inspiration.
  9. If you keep forgetting your house keys when you go out, you shouldn’t do that any more, or you’ll eventually lock yourself out.
  10. It’s easy to remember how many teaspoons are in a quart (192) with this simple mnemonic:

    Over nearly every hamburger, under nearly dead raccoons—every delayed nanosecond inculcates nearly every teenager you think wears oranges.

  11. Cut your hair when it starts getting long or you’ll eventually have trouble wearing the hats that you enjoy.
  12. Try putting your shoes on before you go to work in the morning. The ground is cold and sometimes there are sharp things on the sidewalk. Try taking the car if it has gas in it.
  13. If you don’t like the song that’s playing on your stereo, you can put a different one on. This goes for television too, but with pictures.
  14. When you get a check from the place you work, you can cash it to buy groceries, soda, and more of the pencils I mentioned earlier.
  15. If you have a car, use some of the money you got from your check to buy gas, too.
  16. Consider using a desk.
  17. If you hear a weird scraping noise when you’re writing something down, make sure that your pencil is still sharpened.
  18. Once you’ve sharpened your pencil, give yourself a reminder about the scraping noise.
  19. If you forget to wear shoes to work and accidentally get a rusty nail in your foot, you should probably take it out eventually.
  20. If you’ve bought pencils and already sharpened them, don’t use them to sign the check you got at work. Pencil marks can be erased fairly easily, then people can steal your money and you wouldn’t be able to buy groceries or soda or gas or more pencils. That’s a hack!

Do you have any good hacks to start off the month? Leave a comment or a trackback!

TOPICS: Heh

About Merlin

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Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who created the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He’s writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he’s had this life. So far.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written in the past few years is an essay entitled, “Cranking.”

 
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