43 Folders

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

Dr. Johnson on reminders

Dr. JohnsonThis morning I’ve been starting to put together an “Introduction to Mindfulness” post, and I ran across this wonderful little quote that’s been attributed to Dr. Samuel Johnson:

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”

Yep. That right there is pretty much the whole bag of donuts in 13 words.

When people – sometimes understandably – howl and moan about the blinding “obviousness” of everything we talk about on 43F, somewhere in the back of my head a Johnson-esque voice whispers, “Yeah, but do we always do the things we already know we should do?” And I have to say “No, we don’t.” Or at least I don’t.

I think most of the time you guys just happen to get whichever lecture I’ve most recently needed the most myself; like a fretful mother, I make you put on a sweater when I feel a draft. Which is kind of funny I guess, but hey, ideas gotta start someplace.

Even all the blindingly obvious ones.

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, MacBreak Weekly 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 a short essay entitled, “Better.”

 
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An Oblique Strategy:
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The Podcast Feed

Inbox Zero

The original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation.

Making Time

3-part series on attention management for artists and makers. Read Bad Correspondence, The Job You Think You Have, and One Clear Line.