Moleskine Cahier Extra Large Notebooks, MoleskineUS    

                Just received my first test shipment of the new Moleskine Cahier notebooks from Moleskine US. I’ll write a fuller review when I’ve had a chance to use them more, but here’s a few quick impressions.    

This is the time of the year for everybody to make lame, half-hearted resolutions about how they’re going to lead a better life in the new year: lose weight, stop smoking, eat less fried cheese, take a ceramics class, etc. My gym is already full of flabby, confused-looking people who spend more time adjusting their iPod cases and checking out their new track suits in the mirror than actually doing reps. I usually treat January as my month to be lazy; I stay away from the gym for a few weeks until the interlopers poop out.

But it is a new year, and it’s not a bad idea to at least try to alter some of your bad habits, pick up a new skill, or do something to make yourself happier. My suggestion for this year addresses a problem I suspect many of the people who read this site have: the sheer number of online commitments--that is, blogs, social networks, message groups, IM accounts, Flickr, Twitter, and any other online time sink that ends with an R--that we try to maintain.

Cocoatech: Path Finder 4.6.1

Given the comments and emails I receive whenever I use Path Finder in a demo, it's clear to me that people are hungry for ways to improve and customize their stock Finder. PF's appearance in my latest MacBreak has been no exception.

So, for folks that haven't heard my pimping before or who haven't been following the recent additions to the inarguably crufty uber-app, here's a tricked-out Path Finder window, showing the new tab functionality, plus all the optional drawers, tchotchkes, and finials that can be displayed.

(Larger version on Flickr...)

For more on why I dig Path Finder, read 7 things I like about Path Finder for OS X. And be sure to check back soon on MacBreak (HD 1080 Podcast feed); Leo and I have a segment on Path Finder that should be airing soon.

Addition 2006-12-28 10:31:43 Neil makes a great point in comments. I have this terrible habit of only ever showing Path Finder with all of its features on, and all its optional frippery enabled. In fact, PF needn't look like a functional salad bar at all, and the enclosed is closer to how I configure it for my own everyday usage.

Thanks, Neil.

Restless Dreaming » Hipster Shuffle

The crickets. Awesome.

[ via Daring Fireball ]

Why is it so hard to say no? Why the heck do I find myself doing things I don't really want to do?

In the newsroom where I ostensibly work, I sit right next to that table - the one the people from other publications call "the table of perpetual indulgence." It usually features baked goods and junk food - great vats of candy, tubs of animal crackers, a living sea of bite-sized 3 Musketeers and Special Dark bars. It is, put simply, bad for me to be sitting here. I'm always walking off to the printer then realizing that somehow I've wound up in the opposite direction, lifting syrup-filled brownies toward my mouth. Well, I think I just found out the reason why.

In which I learn how to tidy the house in 19 minutes (and reluctantly confess my affection for Real Simple)

How to Leave a Voice Mail Message

43folders.com - Make it short, leave your number, and tell 'em if they need to call you back. (4:39)

More at Odeo.com...

How To Take Back Your Time And Attention -- Merlin Mann -- InformationWeek

Wow. Mitch Wagner did an ass-kickingly thorough job of summarizing my talk at Macworld about wrangling your time and attention. Really nice work, Mitch -- thanks, man.

"When the value of your times is set too low, or not at all, it leads to waste and abuse," Mann said.

This is a particular problem for knowledge workers. (How do you identify knowledge workers? "Look for someone with girlie smooth hands who can go to lunch whenever they want," Mann explained.) Knowledge workers have huge amounts of freedom in how they work, they aren't micromanaged, they just have goals to achieve. That freedom is dangerous. "You can find yourself at two in the morning staring at Wikipedia covered in pizza crusts," Mann said.

Up top is a snap of the slides from my talk, which I'll try to get up on Slideshare when I get a chance to tidy them up.

[Pimp: here's information on my speaking gigs and how to bring me in to speak with your organization]

update 2008-01-21 12:39:42: Okay, she's up. As ever, I'm not sure these'll make much sense without me standing there, yammering, but here's a clickable version of my slides:

List of animals (Borges) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've been enjoying a wonderful book that a reader thoughtfully sent to me a couple weeks ago. It's called Mindfulness, and it presents some fascinating evidence on the ways that we process and parse our world, as well as the peculiarly human things that can happen when we unintentionally (natch) embrace mindlessness.