43 Folders

Back to Work

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.

Recap: Podcasts, Setups, Appending, Freshness & Modesty

It's been a while since we've done a 43F "best of," so here's a few of the posts and podcasts from the past few months that have generated the most traffic, comments, emails, and linky love. Also, if you're new to the Mothership, don't miss our January series, "Fresh Starts & Modest Changes."

  • 43F Podcast: Weekly Wrapup - 2005-10-21 - "A marathon wrapup of the week, including: redesign notes; popular posts; interesting stats; and a promise to you, the home podcast listener." (undoubtedly our most popular podcast to date)
  • Open Thread: Your best tip on doing presentations - "What’s your best presentation tip? What’s the 'never break it' rule for PowerPoint/Keynote decks? What’s your favorite site, article, or link on great presentations? How do I get that Lessig-, Jobs-, or Veen-like fu that makes audiences so giddy?"
  • 43F Podcast: How to Leave a Voice Mail Message - "Make it short, leave your number, and tell ‘em if they need to call you back." (also features the popular "robot outgoing message")
  • Quicksilver’s Append: An updated appreciation + Robert’s troubleshooter - "It’s jaw-droppingly useful, and is the single best way I know of to ensure that 'ubiquitous capture' can always occur without causing disruption or unnecessary modal change."
  • My kGTD setup - "While I’m not prepared to do a major sales presentation, I am happy to oblige the folks who wanted to see how I’ve set mine up. Also gives you a little window into my current contexts (as well as my atrocious personal habits)."
  • My txt setup - "I use applications like OmniOutliner, iCal, and (formerly) Entourage to organize the relationships between silos in my life; but text files are the living repositories for as much of the actual information as I can manage."
  • Modest Change: Cancel something - "The hack isn’t how big a change it brings in your life — remember these are modest changes — it just matters that you mindfully elect to turn something off for a little while. That little scrap of time or attention you gain back is then well and truly your own."
  • 43F Podcast: Modest Change: Honor Thy Energy - "Learn the times you’re most energetic and productive, and adjust your schedule and your work accordingly. Also: please just let the teenagers sleep, for God’s sake."
TOPICS: Recaps

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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Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »