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.

Life Hacks

Remainders: Coin envelopes, sprints, binder clipping & more

Our usual Friday skip through the meadow of Merlin's marginally-productive brain.

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Quick tips on processing your email inbox

Follow-up to the email productivity post. Short overview of how I process my inbox.

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Subscribe to Make Magazine for 40% off

One year delivered to your fetid little house for only $35/year (cheap). Order direct from O'Reilly to have your subscription start with Issue #1.

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Random rules of thumb

Bunch of guides and tips gleaned from the Interweb. Finally, you will learn to estimate how big your next church should be.

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Five fast email productivity tips

There’s been a lot of great discussions about email productivity going around on sites I enjoy, so I thought I’d throw in five no-brainers that I’ve seen help a lot of folks.

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Friday remainders, 2005-02-11

You know the drill--items that never or shouldn't find their way to a full post. Digital Chow Mein.

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Systems, ciphers, and the dirty little secret of self-improvement

My theory is that the secret code for most self-improvement systems—from Getting Things Done through Biofeedback and the Atkins diet—is not hard to break; any idea that helps you to become more self-aware can usually help you to reach a goal or affect a favorable solution. That’s pretty much the entire bag of doughnuts right there.

Self-improvement juju works not because of magic beans or the stones in your soup pot; it works because a smart “system” can become a satisfying cipher for framing a problem and making yourself think about solutions in an ordered way. Systems help you minimize certain kinds of feedback while amplifying others.

Also, when you’ve undertaken most any kind of program, there’s usually a built-in incentive to watch for change, monitor growth, and iterate small improvements (think: morning weigh-in). While I don’t doubt that some systems empirically work better than others, I suspect that success with any of them has much to do with how we each think, behave, and respond to our environment.

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_Make:_ and new Life Hacks column premieres

O'Reilly's Make: Magazine premieres with Danny O'Brien and my first "Life Hacks" column.

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Friday night remainders, 2005-02-04

It’s been a while since we’ve had a round of remainders—good stuff I've wanted to mention that never found their way into a full post. Here's a few to chew on over the weekend.

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Mark Taw on Procrastination

Mark's article gets to the core problems that cause people to get derailed, distracted, and perpetually off-target.

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An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


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The Podcast Feed

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. »