Green Oasis

In my continuing quest for simplicity on my computer desktop, I have found a new tool: Emerge Desktop. Essentially, I have removed everything from my desktop—this includes the Start menu and the taskbar—except for an unobtrusive text clock and a couple of icons from the system tray. When all windows are minimized, this is what I see.

The reason the image is so wide is because I have dual widescreen monitors at work. (Don’t hate me because of my screen space.)

This also has the salutary side effect of almost completely obfuscating the use of my computer. I get boyish delight at the thought of a coworker’s befuddled look when they sit down down to my computer and grope around for their precious Start menu. Tee hee.

I’ve recently found a secret to getting myself to do stuff. The idea of cringe busting my to do list has made me aware of the sneaky feeling of panic that makes me want to procrastinate.

Not only does each item on my task list threaten to freak me out, the whole assemblage drives me to fiddle with addictive games and madness. I take one look at my task list and my eyes glaze over: I don’t know where to start.

The obvious strategy is to start at the top. You know that and I know that, but my gut reactions don’t. They tell me to head for the life rafts and abandon all hope. “The list is too long!”

I have a homebrew task management system (cobbled together using big ass text files, Bash scripting, and Vim). I recently programmed it to be able to give me exactly one task at a time.

The effect is magical.

My task list has lost its power to intimidate. “Sure, I have 15 minutes to create that spreadsheet. Easy-peasy!” I find myself ripping through my tasks so fast that I don’t know what to do with all the time left over.

Multitasking is a moral weakness. One task at a time. One. Task.

Why do I long for free time yet feel lost when I achieve it?

Merlin Mann is a smart guy who spends a lot of time thinking about how to accomplish the important things in life (as opposed to checking your email inbox every five minutes). Here’s his presentation called Who Moved My Brain? Revaluing Time & Attention.

I know you’re all waiting breathlessly to hear my New Year’s resolutions. Please resume respiration because they’re never coming. If I have a New Year’s resolution, it is an anti-resolution resolution. I hereby swear off resolutions for all New Year’s Days, present and future.

Every year, I go through the same self-deceiving charade of making resolutions as if my efforts were going to last past President’s Day (Martin Luther King Day, maybe). Resolutions did nothing more than make me feel crumby for failing at my self-appointed goals. In the ultimate end, I will probably still end up a little chubby, a little disorganized, a little poor, and a lot dead regardless of how many good intentions I gather up on the doorstep of another year. I’d rather die a little happier for not having made so many ineffectual and guilting New Year’s resolutions.

This doesn’t mean that I won’t set goals, of course, but there is a better way.

So here’s to some healthy perspective (and knowing when it’s better not to even try)! Oh, and I wish you all the best on your resolutions!