Sometimes people can get too caught up in a GTD mindframe. Each and every task which comes in they will write down on their to-do list, and take the appropriate steps to complete it. However some tasks can be done right away, avoiding stress at a later stage.

For me, if something actionable will take less than 5 minutes to do I will do it right away. The task does not get added to my to-do list. Instead, it gets done as soon as it reaches one of my data collection points, and it doesn’t cause me to procrastinate - which means no stress.

However, some tasks are too large to apply the “Do it and it’s done” method to, which is why I enjoy publishing productivity related posts - to help you manage these larger projects and tasks and get them done in an efficient manner.

Do it and it’s done. The phrase to keep in mind - I recommend you print it out and stick it on the wall behind your workstation.

I’ve had a few discussions recently with some close friends on the topic of the Apple Cinema Display vs Dell Displays.

Before I get started, I want to make a statement that I totally agree with the fact that the Dell is a better display in the terms of ports, minor specs, and the ability to hook up a games console to it. The Dell is also the cheaper display, so in my eyes looking at its technical aspects, it’s the best.

However, if I was deciding between the two displays I would purchase an Apple Cinema Display. This is causing people to question me a little. One thing I value as an Apple customer (okay, fanboy) it their sense of style among their products, especially in the “Pro” line.

The Apple Cinema Display design is much superior to the Dell. Forget everything else for a minute and focus on which you would prefer - price aside. The black plastic casing of a Dell display, or the silver aluminum casing of the Apple display?

When you’re at the computer, I guarantee the thing you have your eyes locked on is the display. Which is why I would pay the price premium for Apple over Dell. I want to be happy with my display which would be made to last many years. Looking at it that way, the difference in price to pay is small if you factor it in over a three or four year period - whats $80 a year extra for the extra style?

Which display would you choose and why?

Thanks to Gedeon Maheux, the Principal / Designer from the Iconfactory - I have my hands on the latest beta version of Twitterrific, version 2.0.

The new features on the latest version are plentiful, though instead of listing the 25+ changes to the application, I’m going show off a few new UI changes in the way of screenshots.

Continue Reading »

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

This weeks wallpaper was taken a few months ago while I was on a short break staying with relatives in Auckland, New Zealand. The image was taken before I caught a flight home, around 5 minutes from the Air New Zealand domestic terminal.

New Zealand Flag

Continue Reading »

You’ve chosen a domain name, launched a blog, and decided on a stat tracking application - now’s the time to put Mint into use and start building up your RSS subscribers.

Link To Other Related Blogs

It doesn’t matter if you write about Apple technology, dogs, or life at university, there are always going to be blogs covering similar areas. Find these sites and spend some time browsing their archives, looking for articles of interest.

When you stumble across interesting pieces, don’t just read them, but blog about the article you stumbled on. Do more than just leave a link, write a few hundred words providing your views on the matter in hand, and adding some helpful related comments to stretch the discussion. Continue Reading »

It’s only when you’re handed a mouse as great as the Logitech MX Revolution that you realize what you’ve been missing. I’ve been so accustomed to Apple’s one button wireless mouse for so long that I had no idea what a different mouse could do in helping me in my daily workflow.

The Logitech MX Revolution is labeled as the worlds most advanced mouse. Inside is a rechargeable li-ion battery run over a 2.4Ghz cordless connection and has 7 buttons, two scroll wheels. Outside, it features a great erginomical design.

Continue Reading »

Twitter is one of the latest and most popular Web services for the masses. The basic object of Twitter is to let people know what you are doing, in order to eliminate the dreaded message saying “What’s up” over IM.

This morning I stumbled across a website via Technorati called Twitterholic. Twitterholic basically scans the Twitter public timeline for new users to watch. A few times a day, they calculate individual statistics for each user user in their database and compile a “Twitter Top 100″ list based on the statistics tracked. Continue Reading »

Blog reader Jeremy recently wrote to me with a couple of blogging questions. One of them was asking how can someone find a lot of news and info right when it’s been announced to blog about. I decided a blog post would suffice as an acceptable response to help him out (and hopefully a few others) with finding things to blog about.

If I’m stuck on ideas, I generally head to a social news site, or other similar blogs for ideas and inspiration. I like to come up with creative content myself, but sometimes it can be refreshing to blog about current news in my (your) industry. Here are four ways to find fresh content ideas. Continue Reading »

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

This weeks wallpaper was taken about 5 minutes from my house, shot through the fence to a neighbors property. I got down low to capture the grass in the foreground and have the sheep hidden behind it.

Sheep In The Tall Grass

Continue Reading »

Throughout the last week I’ve had problems with my network connection. I currently connect via an ADSL modem connected up to a Belkin wireless router which sends signals around the house to my Mac. It was relitavely reliable up until recently, where it’s started to fade and had problems connecting.

After becoming sick and tired of my Airport connection dropping in an out dozens of times on a daily basis, I bought an Apple Airport Extreme (yes, one of the slick new ones). Continue Reading »

As much as I love my Apple Wireless Keyboard, the moment I unpacked the Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard I had a new found love with one of the best designed products I’ve ever held in my hands. The Logitech diNovo Edge is the keyboard from the future, its features are polished so well, it’ll have you wondering how they packed so many functions into such a slimly finished keyboard. Continue Reading »

Design matters - as much as people argue against the face, it does. Blog design is no different. A poorly designed blog with amazing content will not receive as many readers as a beautifully designed blog with equal content.

As promised here’s “Take Two” of the ten most beautiful blog designs, this time including a few of your suggestions. Continue Reading »

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all of you readers to have a change of scene, and get a different perspective of life through your LCD monitor. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.

The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!

Download it here.

Paul Stamatiou is a 20 year old blogger who writes at PaulStamatiou.com, and previously worked as an intern for Yahoo!. This is the first interview in a series which will run it’s course over the next month (one interview per week).

Firstly Paul, when and why did you venture into the blogosphere with PaulStamatiou.com?

I started blogging back in the summer of 2005. It started out as curiosity about various blog CMSs. I started playing around with WordPress, thought it was pretty cool and bought the PaulStamatiou.com domain. I’ve been blogging ever since.

You recently served a stint at Yahoo! working as an intern, what’s was the best experience you took out of your time there?

I’m not sure I can narrow down my Yahoo! journey to one particular experience but I got to meet tons of great people, enjoy California for the first time, as well as learn how things work at a big internet company. After the first week I was in California, I knew I had to
move out there as soon as I graduate.

Your personal blog has only been running for just under two years, but has over 4000 RSS readers. What three main factors have combined to make that happen?

Actually, my blog is closer to 1.5 years old but it’s still been around a while, in one design or another. I’ve gotten to where I am now with pure dedication, a passion for learning as well as a passion for sharing that knowledge. I try to blog every day and I hope to have a “big post” once a week.

Are there any tools you have discovered over the time you’ve been running your blog which help you create and write posts with higher efficiency.

Not really. I’ve pretty much been doing the same thing now that I was a year ago. However, I couldn’t blog nearly as fast as I do now without live spell checking in Firefox 2.0 and my dictionary widget in OS X. Sometimes my dictionary widget can’t find words so then I resort to Ninja Words.

Your blog is part of the 9rules Network, what noticeable advantages have you gained being part of the network?

I thoroughly enjoy being part of 9rules because of the community surrounding the network. Everyone in 9rules has been a great help and I know I can turn to them when I have a question - technical or not.

Do you have a set posting schedule, or do you just write blog posts when one strikes you?

I don’t have a set schedule at all. My posting frequency and time depends on whether there is any urgent tech news, such as an Apple announcement, and on how much school work I have at the moment. Generally, I’ll have an idea about a post but be too busy with school work to do it then so I’ll put a Post-it on my iMac. I have about 7 Post-its on my iMac right now.

What’s your process. and what tools do you use in the process off finding something to blog about, through to writing and publishing the post.

If I find something interesting I want to cover online, whether I first hear of it from Digg, TechMeme, Etcetera, I generally make a draft and throw a bunch of relevant links in there. When I have more time, I go back and read/research through all relevant information and
come up with my own way of presenting the news or issue to my readers.

I like getting the big picture before blogging about things. I use the WordPress admin panel for posting pages as I can’t live without the post preview. The first thing I do is write up a rock solid introduction paragraph with a few sentences that fully describe what the post will be about.

I always use the more tag after the intro so on my homepage people can get a quick feel for what each post is about.

What provides your energy, your drive, and your inspiration to keep blogging on a daily basis?

Redbull! Haha, that may keep me awake at 5am when finishing up computer science projects, but I get my blogging drive from my readers. I thrive off of comments. They let me know that someone’s listening to what I have to say. I could careless about the traffic I get or the money I make, which at this point isn’t anywhere near enough to pay my rent.

But more than all that is my desire to learn about new things. I absolutely love discovering new services and products that impact me and others like me in some way.

What on piece of advice do you have to those who have already started a blog, and want to make it a success?

Keep blogging, regardless of the numbers of readers you have or your traffic. It took me many months to get what I would call a decent level of traffic and dedicated readers that would comment on posts. If you have lots of readers but not many comments, perhaps you’re not blogging about the right things or talk about your personal life too much. I always like to make posts open-ended and ask for responses by asking related questions.

What are your views on the Full RSS Feeds vs Partial RSS Feeds debate? Which do you support?

Full feeds are the only way to go. As long as I have a full feed, I don’t care how many advertisements it may have, I’ll still be happy. End of story.

Ten blogs you love reading are..?

Oh wow, I don’t think I can come up with 10 blogs right on the spot..there are just so many. But I do check out UNEASYsilence, TUAW, The Apple Blog, Jeremy Zawodny’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal, Torrentfreak, and Valleywag almost daily.

While browsing a few forums this morning, I stumbled across a link to FlowApp.com. Flow is a new FTP application in the works for the Mac.

Flow is a little different than other FTP applications available on OSX. One prominent feature which is taking the spotlight is the ability to edit files directly on the FTP server, other apps do this, but Flow will take it a step further and put you in control, making it much easier to edit files remotely.

Flow developer, Brian Amerige (of ExtendMac Software) has posted a screencast demonstrating the difference in speed between Flow and Transmit. The results are astonighing, with Flow uploading the directory of 300 files minutes quicker than Transmit.

Check it out and sign up for the public beta here.

Recently I have far too often been browsing blogs, responding to email, and chatting to collueages over Skype in the late hours of the night.Let me tell you this is not a good routine for someone who is waking up at 6AM every weekday morning. It doesn’t put me in the best position to be focused on studying the next morning.

I haven’t been hard enough on myself, I have a morning routine set in stone, but evenings just seem to linger. I find myself browsing through the blogosphere, picking up inspiration to create content and be creative, and the hours simply pass by while I’m completely oblivious to the fact.

Though the late hours of the evening yeild great results for my blogging, they are far less productive per hour compared to the early morning. I’m making a pledge to shut down my Mac by 9:45 PM each and every night so I can get into a better evening routine.

How will I use the next 45 minutes before I go to bed? I’ll use it to read, to jot down notes in my notebook, draw design sketches, and be productive away from the stress of my email beeping every minute.

What time are you usually off your computer at night?

As of recent I’ve had to keep away from my WordPress install, due to the fact that I’ve increasingly been wanting to write more personal opinion posts about topics currently (and currently not) in the news. This inspiration to get more personal has mainly been pushed into my head from one blogger, Khoi Vinh of Subtraction.

I love creating feature content which appeals to everyone - yet I’d love to be able to throw a few posts in here and there about my life. About personal experiences and ramblings on technology, blogging, photography, design, and the web in general.

What do you think about this? Would you mind if I started getting a little more personal and starting to blog about my perspective and opinion on things, or should I keep the same flow and routine which has drawn you to this post?

Design matters - as much as people argue against the face, it does. Blog design is no different. A poorly designed blog with amazing content will not receive as many readers as a beautifully designed blog with equal content.

Here’s my opinion on the top ten most beautiful blog designs. Click on a picture to be taken to the site. Continue Reading »

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper for all of you readers to have a change of scene, and get a different perspective of life through your LCD monitor. The image is taken using my Canon 350D DSLR. Photography really interests me and this gives me a nice way to showcase some work, while giving readers something for nothing.

The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Feel free to leave any comments about this wallpaper below, it’d be nice to get a comment or two from people who decide to use it, have a great weekend, and enjoy!

Download it here.

The iMac and the Mac Pro - two top quality desktop machines from Apple. Now that Apple have a 24″ iMac in their product line, the gap has started to close between both machines. This article will help you pick which one best suits your computing needs, based on a few deciding factors.

There are a few questions you need to ask yourself which will help make or break your decision on which machine suits you best - so let’s get started choosing you a new Mac.

How long do you normally keep the same computer for?

If you keep the same computer for 4 or more years, the Mac Pro is the obvious choice, as you can take advantage of it’s expandability to extend it’s lifeline.

If you don’t normally stick with computers for too long, go with the iMac. When the latest and greatest Apple consumer Mac comes out, you can sell the iMac and upgrade to a newer one for a very minimal amount due to the resale value Mac’s hold.

When buying a new desktop Mac to use for the next 3-5 years, choosing the iMac limited to a max of 3GB RAM is a poor choice, so go for for the Mac Pro.

Rule Of Thumb: 1-2, years iMac | 2-4 Years, Mac Pro

What kind of work are you doing?

This is one of the main deciding factors in your decision. What kind of work are you going to be using the Mac for? If it’s just email, chatting, and web browsing - stop now. Go out and get the iMac. But if you’re starting to take up a few more things such as graphic or web design, video editing, or photography, you need to think a little harder.

Both machines will suit all of these tasks relatively well. For video editing, if it’s your profession, the Mac Pro is the best machine for you. Down to the faster processor, and the 3TB storage ability.

For the other professions, they don’t require as much power as video, so either machine will work for you, it’s time to consider the other questions to help aid your decision.

Rule Of Thumb: Video Editing, Mac Pro | Other Work, iMac or Mac Pro

Are you likely to spend money on upgrades?

Think of it simply. A Mac Pro is a long term purchase. You will need to be happy with the machine for a very long time. With the iMac, it’s a more short term machine - when it’s too slow, you have to sell it and move on as there are no upgrading options.

Upgrading an old Mac Pro in a few years won’t be as sexy as getting the latest and greatest from Apple. Think about if you’d prefer to upgrade the machine, or buy a new one directly from Apple.

Rule Of Thumb: Yes I will upgrade, Mac Pro | No I won’t upgrade, iMac

Conclusion

What about me, a few months ago I covered this topic on which Mac I should buy. I’ve pretty much decided on purchasing a 24″ iMac once they are shipping with Leopard.

This way I can get a maxed out iMac, sell in 18 months, and buy another maxed out iMac (or consumer Mac equivalent) without any major loss of money. It’s the best way for me to keep up with the latest and greatest technology, at an affordable price.