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.

Recaps

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."

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TOPICS: Recaps

Make #5 is out; "Smarter To-do" posts still available

Make Volume 05: Science

Make no. 5Another quarter, another sexy-ass issue of O'Reilly's Make Magazine. And that means another Life Hacks column from Danny and me. (Amazon.com link)

This time around, I laced-up for a knockdown, drag-out, one round intro to "Building a Smarter To-do List." The two posts from which it was inspired are still two of the most popular items on 43F.

While you can argue for the flavor and approach to task management that best suits your style, it's hard to disparage the benefits that come from getting task commitments out of your brain and captured in a consistent location. The Life Hacks research showed that most all of the alpha geeks had a "todo.txt" sitting in their home directory -- often comprising thousands of items covering every aspect of the geek's life, both past and future. In this case, we're focusing more on the to-do list as tactical game plan; until you get really good at this stuff, try thinking of your to-do list as the evolving strategy for focusing your effort and attention in the immediate future.

If you're saving your pennies, or liked the column and would like to learn more, you might want to cruise back through the original posts from last September. I still really like how they turned out --- and I actually do re-read them myself when I'm having trouble getting my stuff together. Yes, I'm actually that unproductive; I have to look to myself for advice. Pathetic, really.

Anyway, reintroduced here, "The Smarter To-do List":

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Recap: Becoming an Email Ninja

Here are a few of my favorite (and the site's most popular) posts on that heated topic of email -- how to better deal with email as a recipient, and how to improve the lives of others as a better sender. Email is a subject that invigorates (and occasionally infuriates) me, so get ready for plenty more in the future. But if you're one of the seemingly innumerable people who's snowed under by email or unsure how to deal with it at a responsible level, flip through a few of these oldies, and see if any ideas jump out at you.

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Recap: Turning procrastination into action

Monday's the perfect day to climb back on the horse; if you've been feeling behind and guilty about the crap you've been putting off, have a quick browse here. And when you're done, try a fast dash to get back your confidence and knock down a few "mosquito tasks."

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Recap: Overload and the interrupt-driven lifestyle

Clive's excellent article from Sunday's New Your Times Magazine has brought us a lot of new folks looking for ways to adapt to the overloaded, always-on, interrupt-driven world in which most of us are living. I've bubbled up a few older entries on these topics that you might find useful:

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Recap: Procrastination hacks, email overload, "Kinkless GTD," and a visit from the Word Spy

A quick round-up of some recent 43 Folders posts people have enjoyed:

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TOPICS: Recaps

Recap: Ben Franklin, interstitial time, to-do lists, dashes, and sensible email

It’s been a busy last few weeks here, and, since I see so many new faces out there (waves to the new people), I wanted to recap a few of the posts that visitors seem to have enjoyed this month.

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TOPICS: Recaps

Recent Side Links: 2005-09-20

Crazy experiment. For the occasional benefit of the RSS-only visitors (and maybe even you): the last 10 links posted to the 43F siderail.

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TOPICS: Recaps

Top 10 RSS clicks

(Speaking of Feedburner...) As much as a stats nerd as I am, I’ve never paid too much attention to the data Feedburner provides on which items have been most “popular” among the (now ~10k) people who read 43F through the RSS feed. In fact, I only realized the other day that I can actually see which items have gotten the most “clicks” since day one.

If you’re curious about which posts were a hit in their time with the XML-enabled geekerati, read on.

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TOPICS: Recaps

43F Summer Catch-up

Labor Day’s over, campers. Time to put away your espadrilles and start trying to look busy. With Summer symbolically behind us, here’s a fast overview of some favorite 43F posts from the past 3 months.

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TOPICS: Recaps
 
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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. »