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Posts Tagged ‘Ideas’

GTD for writers

I’ll admit it: everything I do, I do it for my fiction. I honor writing as the art with the biggest powers, when considering its effects, and the degree of intimacy, elevation and sometimes “possession” it grants (writing, in its finest hour, becomes invisible, the words stop being “black boxes” with a meaning inside and become something similar to music). (more…)


How to become optimistic with very little effort

I have a retarded mind: I very often go through the best ideas in books and posts without noticing them right away. They usually become some sort of “seed” in my head and take 3, 4 days to fully grow, without me having the least intention to do anything about them. And then one day, as a flower that opens after a delicate nurture, I say: “wow”, and do something about it.

Writing the successes of the day was one of those great ideas. Simple, non-coded, very little time-consuming, it pays off in a way that is almost scary. (more…)


What to do with yourself when you’re mad

Here is the analogy that one of my teachers used to describe the human brain: he lifted his right fist and said: “this is a lizard’s brain”. Then he (more…)


“May you have a good life”

Inspirator #1

I recently heard the story of an actor from a small town in the country who moved to the capital in order to promote his career. At first, he tells, everything in the city was so new to him, that, whenever he entered a subway car, (more…)


Use verbal icons for your projects

Yeah, right: metaphors, images, similes… I am talking about poetry here, about making your personal computer really personal. The using of original names for your computer folders and control lists can do a lot to stimulate your creativity and improve your focus. (more…)


Keep your brain at hand (part 2)

In addition to my previous post, here come a few more tips, taken from my back-to-basics experience using (suffering?) a vintage Compaq Presario 1200. (more…)


Productivity the Spartan way

These reflections come as a consequence of a period using my replacement computer -the regular one had a keyboard problem that the tech service spent ages to fix-. More precisely, they are due to the fact, quite shocking, that, during those days revisiting my old, faithful Compaq Presario 1200, (more…)


A car? Make it an elephant!

In his classic work “De Bono’s thinking course”, the master of creative thinking Edward de Bono (of the “Six thinking hats” fame) exposes a series of techniques to improve reasoning, as a sort of exhaustive “thought gym”. One of his exercises consists in (more…)


Titles are your friends

…to enhance lists

“Man gave name to all the animals”, sang Bob Dylan, and he knew what he was doing. From tribal cultures who honor the magic power of language (with their taboo words that cannot or can only be spoken under certain conditions) to high culture products like Borges’ short stories (more…)


The GTD First Aid Kit (and 4)

…”but I used to have a calendar!”

Don’t worry: you still do. It is just that it is not going to be that populated anymore. Allen’s methodology reduces its using to:

a) events with a fixed date (dentist, birthday, deadline set by somebody else) (more…)