Over the last couple of weeks, I have added a new tool to my writing arsenal. Google Docs. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s Google’s latest attempt to gain space in the Office market. It’s a free web based Office suite entailing a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation app. It is currently still in BETA (would you expect anything else from Google?) and it originally was formed from the purchase and collaboration of the web app Writely.

Since then Google has added both spreadsheet and presentation functionality.

But what makes it so great?  Why should you uninstall Microsoft Office from your Mac or PC and embrace Google Docs? - here are five reasons.

Collaboration

One of the most interesting features of Google Docs is the ability to collaborate on documents and share them with ease. So, say you were working on a report and needed to share a few points or even do a communal edit. With Google Docs it is as simple as clicking a button to make someone a collaborator, which then gives the new user the ability to edit and add new collaborators. Therefore, you no longer make the mistake of having the old version of that document.

Very simply, you can use Google Docs as a simple Wiki - something a lot of companies are starting to embrace.

Easy Access

Google Docs is obviously web based.  This means that you can access a lot of your documents online wherever you are. This can be incredibly important if you’re jumping between multiple machines, or don’t have your personal computer with you. Now some may say that with something like Sky Drive you are able to upload the documents and then download them when you want to. But with that there are two extra steps that really aren’t needed - the downloading and uploading.

The whole point to this state of mind is that if you want it, it’s there.  If someone else wants it…it’s there.

Simplicity

It’s ridiculous how many features a program such as Microsoft Word actually has, especially when most average users probably use what? 5% of the power that Word has. Whose fault is this? No one’s.  People expect new features with a new release, so it is expected that over time applications are going to become more “busy”. Of course there will be those that complain that this is a bad thing and detracts from how simple writing a document should be.

Google Docs has a very clean and intuitive interface which makes it easy and simple for even the novice user. That’s what I like about it. My grandparents get lost in Word, but in Google Docs, it is much simpler for them to get things done.  Sometimes less is better.

The user-interface is also reminiscent of the Office apps, just with less items on the menus - you won’t find yourself digging through every single feature looking for the blockquote option.

Security

You can’t afford to loose your data and neither can Google. By having your data off site, things are less likely to go wrong.  If your laptop is stolen, no problem because all your documents are on Google Docs.  Some might say (just to be the Devil’s Advocate) that there could a problem, like a fire at a Data Center.  Though this is possible, Google probably has far more protective measures then your office does.

So basically, thanks to storing all your data with Google, you’re protecting yourself from any unforeseen problems.

Integration

When using Google Docs you are able to integrate everything that Google offers around the internet into your word processing. So you could have your iGoogle showing all of your newest documents, then you could send a file from Google Docs with your Gmail account. The possibilities are endless.

Also on the point of integration, for all you yet to be converted Word users, Google Docs also allows documents to be saved in the .doc format.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, five good (in my opinion) reasons why you should at least consider giving Google Docs a try. There may be a couple of things that Google still have left to incorporate (like page formatting), but all these things are easily remediable.

Do you use Google Docs?  If so, why?

Back in 2004, Realmac software released the first version of its popular RapidWeaver web development software.  Since its initial release, it has won many awards from Mac publications all around the globe, and still continues onward with that trend.  Just a couple months ago RapidWeaver 4 hit the streets, and is already changing the way consumers create websites.  From its more professional iWeb-like templates to its ease of creating pages, RapidWeaver 4 is sure to be an instant hit for people who want a simple way to create professional looking websites.

Make a Site.

It couldn’t be any easier. You simply click file > new project, and a new project will form. Once you complete that, whenever you want to add another page, you simply click the button in the top left hand corner.  It will ask you what kind of page you want - From Blog and Photo pages, to Blank and Contact pages as well. Simple as that. You can now choose from the abundance of themes that RapidWeaver has to offer, or you can download more themes form the Realmac website. Editing your site is also very easy and straightforward. You simply hit the edit button to edit the photos and text on the current page, and if you want to see a preview of your site, just click preview to see a version of your site as it were already online.

Publish a site.

To publish your website you created with RapidWeaver, you press the publish button.  From there you are presented with two methods of publishing. You can ether publish using your own domain name, or using your MobileMe account (previously dot Mac). You then fill out the form, and click publish.  Within a few minutes you have a professional looking website.

Features.

You can adjust almost anything you want about your website, whether it be the font, or coloring a section of a theme.  It’s all at your fingertips. Navigating through RapidWeaver is a breeze. It’s so simple, straightforward, and professional. The buttons are laid out perfectly, and the menus are super easy to use and customize.

Overall.

I love RapidWeaver 4. It’s so simple to use, and it gives me better results than iWeb ever will. With RapidWeaver 4, you can finally make sites with ease, and have them looking as if they were designed by a professional graphic artist. I would definitely recommend giving RapidWeaver a try, and seeing just how well your website comes out. You can try RapidWeaver for free for up to 30 days. My only gripe is that RapidWeaver 4 can only be used on a Mac running OSX 10.5 Leopard. RapidWeaver 4 retails for $79, but can be found on Realmac’s website for $59 for a limited time.

Happy Weaving!

Ever wanted to know which applications or websites you spend the most time on? Well, look no further. This handy service can help solve your problems.

Rescue Time (for Windows and Mac), is one of the simplest, easy to use, online services, helping you see what your biggest time suckers are on your computer. You first have to download the free software, which runs as an application; basically monitoring your every click.

Analyze.

Once you have logged onto their site, you can then get access too all the data it has collected, laying it out in simple to read bar graphs.  This allows you to see the apps/sites you are using the most and also, how much time you’re actually spending on your computer.

Process.

You then have the ability to go back throughout the day and see exactly when you were on your computer and what you were doing. There are also charts for the day, week, month and year to help you look back at those productive and unproductive days, weeks and months. Tying into that, there is a tab labeled goals and alerts where you can set up reminders to yourself for general things in life, or to remind yourself of the apps or sites you are using a little too much.

One feature which I find extremely useful is that you have the ability to tag multiple apps or sites. So let’s say, you tag Textmate and Mars Edit (two wonderful text editors) with the tag “Blogging.” And then you put Safari and Mail under a tag called “Personal.” This is a great way to see how much time during the day which you spend on work versus play.

Implement.

Personally, I check Rescue Time once every 2 days, taking points of the things that consume the most time for me. I then gradually try and cut back at least 20 minutes a week, on these time consuming apps/sites. While this service might not be for everyone, I do encourage heavy computer users to take a look at it. Productivity and simplicity are two key traits in living a happy life.

Best of all, this is available as a free service for individual use.  Signup can be found here

Computing has come a long way since it really kicked off back in the ’70s. We’ve come from giant, ugly boxes of circuitry that could do very little, to slim, elegant machines of style that can do a whole lot more. And in all that time, the mouse has pretty much been the standard method of user interface navigation. But now - as with most things technological, things are starting to change.

Little things called Graphics tablets are starting to creep their way in to day-to-day use. The first home computer tablet was introduced in 1984 - called the KoalaPad, it was originally designed for the Apple II but later spread to other compatible machines. Even then, the main idea behind it was all to do with drawing. In today’s world, that original idea remains, with a few added extras.

But which is better for day-to-day use?

Being a hopelessly addicted tech addict, I love new things. I decided that, after receiving some money for my birthday, I’d buy something. After I eventually narrowed it down, the choice was between and external hard drive and a graphics tablet. The sensible option, of course, would be the hard drive. I never back up, and I should. But where’s the fun in the hard drive? I went for the tablet - it looked ‘cool’ and I was sure that I’d find some use for it. The tablet I chose was the highly popular Wacom Bamboo - not only is Wacom a brilliant make (the industry leader, I think we can safely say) but it was the cheapest one that I could find that looked decent. At £45 (or $57 in the US) there really was nothing (much) to lose.

Getting used to the tablet is hard. The Bamboo uses absolute positioning (any point on the tablet surface relates to that same point on the screen). Once you’ve mastered that, you’re all set to go. General navigation is in my opinion is slightly sped up, as you can go directly where you want to go in one tap, although I do find myself dragging my hand all the way, like you would with a mouse. You also don’t get the surface problems like you would with a mouse, as, rather obviously, the tablet is its own surface. The field where the advantages of the tablet shine most is image editing. In Photoshop, using the extract tool and lasso tool (to take two examples) is much easier as you’re drawing in a much more natural style. Skitch also becomes twice as fun when you add a tablet into the equation. If you’re the adventurous type, you could even give handwriting recognition a go, but for the 10 minutes I played around with it, the keyboard wins hands down.

A problem that I have had frequently with my graphics tablet is the pen. Misplacing it is so easy. I do honestly think that Wacom, or any tablet manufacturer, should make the pens a bright yellow so they never get lost. Places my pen have ended up include on the floor, in the bathroom, under the bed, in the wardrobe and even in my bowl of cereal. And it’s still going strong.

And if you’re a “I’m-not-clicking-anything” kinda guy, most tablets come with buttons on them for functions that you can set, although I hardly ever use mine.

So where am I trying to get with all this? Well, if you are the casual internet surfing, iTunes listening computer user, you will probably be fine with a good mouse. For those of you with Photoshop on your computer (or indeed Pixelmator) a cheap tablet such as the Wacom Bamboo is something that it’s probably worth investing in. And even me, the casual use, have never plugged my mouse back in in the whole time I’ve had this (except from when people use my computer and don’t know how to use the tablet) and I feel it does help reduce the risk of Repetitive Strain Injury and helps with your hand-eye coordination.

Since Leopard’s launch last October, one new feature that I’ve found myself using on a regular basis is Spaces. Spaces, otherwise known as virtual desktops among other platforms allows you to group your applications and be rid of annoying desktop clutter. In addition, Spaces can prove immensely useful in providing priceless screen space. While Spaces is a great resource on its own, I’ve found that the methods in which it is used (especially on a laptop) can occasionally slow down my workflow.

Kent Sutherland (ksuther.com developer) has recently released his latest version of an add-on for leopard called Warp. Warp is aimed at eliminating that slow down and making Spaces all the more productive and efficient. When installed, Warp adds a preference pane to the system preferences menu which allows you to navigate through Spaces using your mouse.

So, how does Warp work?  Warp is activated by simply moving your cursor to the edge of the screen.  In doing so, you will move to the space adjacent to that edge. To avoid accidentally changing spaces, there are optional modifiers and the ability to change the activation delay.  I find this much easier than reaching for that key combination.

Kent has incorporated many options into Warp’s preference pane, allowing you to customize it in a way that suits you best. This is where the added functionality comes into play. He has left no base uncovered, providing options such as warping the mouse when switching spaces, and warping on edges with the menu bar/dock. However, the features that I feel really make this add-on shine are clicking the screen edge to warp (providing a preview of what is in the adjacent space), and Wrap around spaces, which allows you to move to the opposite side of the spaces grid in the same row or column (very useful for grids larger than 2×2).

To put it simply, Warp adds a new level of functionality to Spaces. While Spaces was a big change to get used to and incorporate into daily tasks, Warp adds a new sense of usability and makes it even more worthwhile. Don’t let its simplicity fool you, it hasn’t only increased my productivity, but changed the way I work all over again. If you find yourself looking down at the keyboard every time you want to change spaces, give Warp a try. Changing spaces can be as easy as a flick of the wrist.

This is a problem that many Mac users have debated over for years. It’s not exactly a problem more as a personal preference, but where you do keep your dock?

Like most, I started with my dock on the bottom. In fact nearly the entire time I used Tiger I left the dock untouched, just sitting at the bottom of my screen. It didn’t exactly bother me until I really thought about the dock and its relation to UI and productivity.

With the update of Leopard though, I moved my dock to the left of my screen and it’s amazing how such a simple move can make such a difference, especially for those with limited screen real estate. The decision to give the dock a “stylish” reflective look actually steals precious vertical space that could be used for other purposes. 

Think about it. How often do you need to use horizontal space? When it comes to design and page layout, you don’t usually see horizontal space being abused. Actually, take a look around you. Books, magazines, and paper all have the same concept; they read down in a narrow column. It’s only natural that applications reflect their real-life counter parts.

The trend of technology generally tends to support this also. As widescreen becomes more and more popular, vertical space becomes limited while horizontal expands. 

So, give a try. Most tend to hate it at first, but the benefits are worth it.

OSX Leopard is such a compelling and creative platform that many times I find myself sitting at my laptop for hours on end working on a project for a client without realizing the day has passed and I haven’t even had time to get some fresh air outside. Recently, I found an app that changed all of this. Time Out has one main objective - to get you to take timed breaks away from your Mac.

Time Out has two different kinds of breaks, a micro break and a normal break. A micro break is a very small break which allows your eyes to adjust to something other than your display for a few seconds, while a normal break is slightly longer and often a good time to grab a bottle of water or take a quick walk outside.

In the Time Out preferences you can easily customize the time of breaks. During both micro and normal breaks, Time Out fades over your screen with a selected color and indicates the time left in the break with a progress bar. If you have to finish a very important task and Time Out goes into break mode, you can postpone the break by either 1 or 5 minutes. Time Out also gives you the option to skip a break.

Time Out is very customizable. In the preferences you’re able to set many different properties for the timer and appearance of the application. A preference that is often under looked is the ability to run Apple Scripts or Automator workflows at the end or beginning of each break. For example, you could have Coda automatically save and upload a HTML document to your server each time you go on a break.

Time Out is a very useful app to anyone that needs a helpful little reminder to take a step away from their Mac every so often. I’ve found that after taking a break from my Mac, I can come back to a project with some fresh new ideas. I’ve also noticed that I enjoy the time I spend at my Mac even more, because I’m always taking short breaks away from it. Best of all, Time Out is absolutely free and you can download it from Dejal Software.

Three months ago, I sold a top of the line workhorse machine, the Apple Mac Pro. Six weeks later, I sold the 4.1 million pixel wonder I had connected to it, more commonly known as the 30″ Apple Cinema Display. Why? The move to a complete portable platform had become more and more attractive as weeks past, while all four million pixels of the Apple Cinema Display sat cold and unused.

4.1 Million To 1.3 Million

Pixels, that is. When I sold the 30″ Apple Cinema Display, I sold the large canvas I had become so attached to when the Mac Pro was in my possession.

Have I missed it? Not at all. The MacBook Pro paired with Spaces has been a perfect solution to losing my large display. I feel so much more comfortable knowing everything is in one place, in one machine. I don’t have as much cash tied up in technology that’s sitting unused.

It’s surprising to myself that I haven’t once regretted my decision. This could be reinforced by the 2 week period I had leading up to listing the display for sale. I told myself I’d not touch it for another two weeks, and see if I missed it. I didn’t, so off it went. Out of sight, out of mind.

Adapting With Spaces

Spaces, one of Leopard’s ‘innovative’ features has shaped the way I use my notebook. When playing with a screen measuring 1440 x 900 pixels - things are bound to change compared to a 2560 x 1600 canvas.

I set up three Spaces on the 15″ MacBook Pro to organize various applications. The first Space been the active work area, for Safari, blogging, writing, editing, etc. The second space is set aside for communication (Mail, iChat, Twitterrific), while the third is my reference Space (iTunes, NetNewsWire).

High Resolution Future

The High-Resolution 17″ MacBook Pro currently sports a display measuring 1920 x 1200 pixels (133ppi), equaling that of the current 23″ Apple Cinema Display (98ppi). The iPhone and iPod touch both boast screens with a pixel density around the 160ppi mark - compared to the 15″ MacBook Pro’s 110ppi display. Where does this leave us for the future of Apple notebook displays?

An addition of the high resolution option in 15″ model would be well received in the next revision of the MacBook Pro line. I don’t expect to see 1080p, but 1680 x 1050 (same as the 20″ Apple Cinema Display) would be a significant move in the right direction. Displays with a high pixel-per-inch density are in our not too distant future.

Take Away The Unnecessary

Keep asking yourself, does this “something” add anything to my life? If you have to think about an answer to the question for more than a few seconds, it doesn’t. Remove it from your life. Throw it away. Clear out the space visually and mentally.

There’s no use keeping around a piece of digital material (RSS feed, song, file, bookmark) if it’s not adding anything to your life, or helping you in any-way. Try to simplify things down and keep only the essentials, both in the material world and the evolving digital world.

Moving from a desktop computing setup to a notebook based setup comprising of a MacBook Pro helped my digital cleanliness propagation a few months ago, I migrated over 1TB of data into under 100GB.

Living For Now

Stop living for the day where you will own the faster computer, sexier car, bigger home. Start for living for today where you have the computer you’re reading this text on, the car you have parked in your garage, and the roof you have over your head.

It’s important to have these things in your sight, but don’t let them be the focus of your life. Let this minute, this current day be your task in hand. Enjoy it for what it is and what you have. Stop being materialistic and live for experience.

Goals Are Essential

Where would you like to be in six months, one year, five years away? While focusing on the current day, it’s important to have things to aim for, to have plans of where you’re going in life rather than simply living year in and year out. Set yourself goals on what you’d like to achieve in a certain period of time. Keep these somewhere where they can be openly viewed, and set time to reflect upon them.

Easing Workload

Keeping on a relative point to the first point mentioned, there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways you can make your life more simple. Find workarounds to tasks which you don’t enjoy. Find ways to delegate and remove tasks which you dread thinking about from your daily life. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Hate doing the housework? Hire a cleaner. If it’ll make you happier and improve your life, it’s worth the money - or as it could be otherwise called, it’s worth the investment.

On the back of an article I read recently via Khoi Vinh’s archives at Subtraction, I’m taking on the much needed task of de-cluttering one of the most important information sources in my daily realm, RSS feeds.

Over the past few months since my last cleanup I’ve accumulated hundreds of new feeds, picking up more and more as each day passes. I’ve finally come to my senses that one can have too much information coming in at once. It really isn’t a good feeling.

How about keeping it simple and just subscribing to fewer feeds? Do we really need to ingest content from 100 sources? And do we really need more software to make managing our addiction easier?

It’s about priority. Come on, these are feeds—they aren’t children. You can toss a lot out without shedding a tear. You won’t miss them once you make the effort to forget them.

JF over at 37 Signals states an inspiring fact as pulled above, do we need content coming in from so many different sources, many just re-stating what others have already said? Probably not. Are we going to miss feeds if we make an effort not to? Surely not. He makes a great point which really inspires me to remove not only unessential RSS feeds, but clean up other aspects of my life.

RSS feeds don’t need to take up hours of your life each day, they can easily be slimmed down without much loss on your part. Do you really need all that extra stress of knowing you have dozens of unread posts to catch on from Engadget when you wake up, after your lunch, and then again before you head to bed? Think about it hard, if something really is important in the news, you’ll hear about it elsewhere.

I’ve been asked time and time again why my desk is so clean when I post a picture to Flickr, people tell me I should leave it the way it is and not ’stage’ the desk shots. Well, uhh, folks - that’s how my desk looks in a normal situation.

How I manage to keep such a tidy desk is something even I don’t know. It would be so easy to let things pile up and be working under a cover of books, paper, and stationary, but I don’t. I manage to keep the workspace clean and tidy and it usually stays that way. I think it could be down to my OCD problem, everything has to look right, be right, and fit in right.

There are a few things I can comprehend which I do to keep the workspace tidy. These include putting things away as soon as I’ve used them. Finished with a book? I put it away right away. When I’m packaging a parcel to send in the post, as soon as it’s done the tape and excess bubble wrap get put away in the cupboard. If my desk is not tidy, I find it difficult to work comfortably. A clean environment is critical for me to be productive and work well.

A reader by the name of Peter asked me this exact question last week, I think a shortened version of the answer to how I keep my workspace so tidy is my problem, that little problem called OCD.

Are you much like me? Is your workspace clean and tidy or messy and cluttered? How do you like to work?

I wrote this post for excellent design and life tips blog LifeClever a few weeks back. Thought I’d spread the ‘wisdom’ and cross post here.

1. Set Times & Plan Your Day

Not many people are going to work well without some structure. Waking up in the morning without any sense of direction for what needs to be done, or what you’re going to do that day is a recipe for disaster.

Start scheduling or setting daily milestones. If you don’t work best on a “hour based plan’�such as writing a guest article from 1PM to 2PM, set milestones for the day—one guest blog post, two blog posts on my personal site, complete client design, etc.

2. Keep An Organized To-Do List

When you’re juggling half a dozen projects at once, you’re just asking for trouble by keeping a to-do list in your head. Don’t you want to be able to sit down in the evening and have a few worry-free hours from your workload? If you’re not keeping a to-do list somewhere other than in your head, you’ll be heading straight for burnout.

The solution is simple. Buy a moleskin notebook or pop open TextEdit on your computer, then spurt out all the tasks and actions you need to achieve. Don’t worry about the order, just pump out everything that needs doing. Once these are on paper, focus on organizing them. It’ll feel much better having a visual action list you can look at to see what needs to be done.

3. Set Goals & Milestones

In addition to your newly developed to-do list, start setting goals and milestones. For instance, if you have a blog, a goal might be publishing 5 entries per week for four weeks straight, while a milestone might be hitting 2,000 readers via your RSS feed.

Goals are very important, not enough people set them. I for one have set goals to keep me focused, to keep me looking straight and ahead, and they are perfect to use as motivation for something to work toward.

4. Disconnect Yourself From The Outside World

This falls under focusing on a single task. When you’re writing, the last thing you need is to be distracted by Twitter messages, or emails. It disrupts your overall flow and makes starting your piece again hard to do. On occasion, one simple email can ruin hours of your work day.

You don’t have to close your email program, practice ignoring notifications. If you hear the new email sound ignore it, keep working, and keep in the flow.

5. Focus On A Single Task

Multi-tasking can be fun, and can be rewarding. You think you’re getting a lot done at once, killing two birds with one stone when all you’re really doing is dragging out both tasks longer. Spend some time on a single task or project and focus. Don’t try to write an article while also dealing with marketing related emails. Keep them separate. When you’re doing one, ignore the other - allowing you to work more quickly and efficiently in the long run.

Just a few quick notes which don’t warrant a full post of their own, but I wanted to make a quick mention of.

I’ve sat down with a few other Mac fanatics and recorded the first episode of the MacFocus podcast. The team of Nick Danforth, Alex Killpatrick, Wesley Yendrys and myself produced the first podcast yesterday evening. Oh, and before you mention something - I’ve already told Wesley the show needs an iTunes feed before any further episodes are made.

Chanpory Rith from the popular blog LifeClever which focuses on helping you design, work, and live better, asked me to write a guest post a few weeks back. My article, 5 Simple Steps To Greater Productivity is now live on the site.

Last but not least, up-and-coming Mac blogger Shawn Blanc interviewed me on his personal weblog. The interview was conducted over dozens of emails and more than three days last week, and is now live for viewing on his blog. I was very pleased with how the interview evolved, very detailed and fun to be a part of.

On a final note, writing this post has left me considering integrating a link blog into the blog where I can post little rambling much like this on a daily basis. Kind of like the Daring Fireball Linked List. Any thoughts on this idea?

Over the past 6 months I’ve worked out a very streamlined workflow for use inside Apple’s Mail application. No longer do I file each email under a specific folder, I have just one main folder setup, called the “Archive”.

Along with the Archive, I have three sub-folders.

- @ Reply
- @ Hold
- @ To-Do

When an email arrives in my inbox I file it straight away into one of these three folders. If it needs to be replied to, I file it in the “Reply” folder, if I need it on reference it will be filed in the “Hold” folder, and if it requires action other than replying, it gets filed in the “To-Do” folder. Continue Reading »

I’ve been a little overwhelmed recently with all the projects I’ve taken on. With these projects my email load has increased. Along with this increased email load, I’ve also become overwhelmed with RSS feeds, tweets via Twitter, and Skype calls coming my way.

In a few months time I’m likely to drop a lot of these projects and focus solely on this blog, though at the moment I’ve felt the need to get into a slightly better shape before I make any changes down the line.

Last weekend I sorted through my entire machine, applications, and web services in order to try and cut down on “digital noise & clutter.” Continue Reading »

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.

Author of 43Folders, and co-host of MacBreak Weekly, Merlin Mann is finally starting up his own video podcast, on a topic we cant get enough of - productivity.

The show which is titled “The Merlin Show” is set to be launched on Monday, February 26th, at thirty theoretically productive frames per second.

This looks like it could be fun, I don’t know if I can get too much more productive with my time, but this show looks really interesting due to the fact it’s hosted by productivity whiz of the blogosphere, Merlin Mann.

Look out for it Monday morning, I’ve already subscribed in iTunes, awaiting the first episode.

What blogs and podcasts related to productivity or time management do you read/listen to?

8apps is a new startup company which is aimed at productive people, or people trying to become productive via their suite of online applications, which will help you to work better.

Currently three applications out of the planned eight are live. Handshake, Orchestrate, and Blueprint.

Handshake allows you to connect with friends and buddies, to open up a world of collaborative functionality. You can join groups, and discuss topics with people with similar interests, and send private messages to your buddies.

Orchestrate is a full functional to-do list manager. The way Orchestrate is laid out with the use of Ajax is very innovative and clean looking. Create a new to-do list in one click, and add items to it in another. To display a certain to-do list, simply click on it in the sidebar, and it will appear in the main area of the page. You can open as many to-do lists as you want at once, and there’s a nice visual notification when you check off a completed task.

Blueprint is a way to collaborate and brainstorm together with friends, business partners, or clients. It makes it easy for both parties to get ideas of our your heads and onto a white board, where the information is all collected and can easily be browsed.

Overall I’ve found 8apps very useful so far, and I’m busy incorporating it into my daily workflow to further see if it works for me. I cant wait to see what the other apps do, but for now, I give it a strong rating, you should definitely check it out.

I have 15 invites to give away to the exclusive Invite Only 8apps, if you want in, simply leave a comment below.

The prestigious 9rules blog network (in which I am a member of) is based around 9 main rules. I decided to take the 9rules and apply them to things you can all relate to; things which will help you improve your life and become a better person.

1. Love What You Do.

No matter what you are doing you need to enjoy it to be any good at it. Start to enjoy what you do, don’t just do it for the sake of it. Immerse yourself in the task in hand and take any opportunity you get.

2. Never Stop Learning.

People learn from their mistakes, and in turn learn from experience. Take note of these things, if you find out a certain type of post is working well on your blog, note it down. If you are at work, or school and are really not enjoying what you are doing, read rule one and start making the most of your time and opportunities.

3. Form Works With Function.

Make sure things in your life and house serve a function, and serve that function well. Don’t furnish your home based on what looks the best, research and furnish it to work well for how you live your life. Keep the two balanced.

4. Simple Is Beautiful.

Things dont need to be over complicated, keep them simple. If you are assigned a task to do, if it takes less than a few minutes do it right away. Keep your life and routine simple, dont take on too much at once, but do your absolute best and put in as much effort to what you have on your plate.

5. Work Hard, Play Hard.

Dont spend all your time focusing on work, mix up work time and play time, and make sure they are defined well. When you are doing one, you are only doing that.

“Zone” out and keep at one task at a time, dont mix homework with TV, complete one, then move into the other once you are completed.

6. You Get What You Pay For.

Dont go buying a cheap DVD player and be overly disappointed when it stops working 3 months later, if you want top quality, you will have to pay top notch for it. Dont go thinking you can skimp short and still receive something top quality.

Pay a reasonable price, and you should receive a good or service of reasonable quality. This goes for buyers and sellers.

7. When You Talk, We Listen.

Talking, writing, or blogging, no matter what it is, do it for a reason, with intent, and with passion. Be confident, people will take notice.

8. Must Constantly Improve.

Keep working and striving for improvement. You might be the best cook in the world, the best tennis player in your city, or the best blogger in your niche, there are always things you can improve on. Dont stop at success, find things you can work on to keep striving for improvement.

9. Respect Your Inspiration.

If you stumble across a cool idea, make it known where it was found. Dont just stop there, improve on that idea to make it your own. Even better than that, set your own trends, and watch others follow.

I spend around two hours each and every day in my RSS reader, what do I gain from this? I get the latest news in my favorite industries, and a few good articles to read, but nothing more. The time spent in my RSS reader is wasted in my opinion, the less time I’m behind NewsFire, the more work I can complete.

I recently just sat down and cleared out my RSS reader, removing over 200 feeds to a new count of under 50. In the past I woke up to around 500 new RSS items, now it’s around 100. The time it takes to clear the new items has decreased ten fold, doing wonders for my productivity.

How did I choose what to remove and what to keep? Firstly, I went through all the blogs which are updated more than 10 times daily, and choose which ones were important to me, TUAW was the only one.

Next I went through blogs which hadn’t updated for more than a month, and un-subscribed from all of those. The final step was to go through and pick out 30 of my favorite blog feeds - ones which I always get excited when I see the unread icon next to. I kept all of these blogs and removed the others which I was less fussed about.

The result? 50 feeds, less updates, less time in RSS, and more free time to blog.

Download my OPML file.

Reading blogs is a fun and time consuming hobby, which with a few tips, can become even more enjoyable whilst taking half the time.

1. RSS Groups By Importance

Love reading TUAW posts? Find some of the Engadget posts a waste of time? Create a few groups in your RSS reader - Very Important, Important, Less Important, Least Important. Then spend some time sorting your feeds into these groups. Then when you only have 5 minutes of time to check up on blogs, go straight into the “Very Important” group to find the content you are most interested in reading.

2. Cut Down To The Essential Blogs

You are always going to learn more, enjoy more, and have much more free time if you are reading 20 blogs rather than 100. Go through your blogs and choose which ones are producing the most original, fun content that you really enjoy, and delete all the other blogs that you find semi-interesting and are mostly “re-distributing” the news.

3. Take The Content In

Spend time to read and absorb every word of your most important feeds. Try and spend more time reading the content rather than browsing and sorting through it. Spend some time with the blogs you really enjoy or those that you find real value in. You will find you learn more by taking your time to read posts carefully.

How much time do you spend reading blogs daily, and how many blog RSS feeds do you track?

Presently, I am using KGTD + OmniOutliner Professional (I’ll soon use OmniFocus) to keep track of my to-do list. But there is one other thing I do each and every day, to make sure I’m on track to knock things off the un-nerving to-do list.

In the morning, before I do anything else (including waking the Mac), I grab my notepad and pen, and write down all the things I’d like to achieve on that day. Sometimes I write different kinds of tasks in different colours, but all you need to do is get down the things you want to do in the day onto paper.

Okay, you’re all thinking, why do I need to write it on paper when it’s already on my digital list? The answer is simple, because it feels good to cross off tasks when you complete them, seeing the task on paper makes it more likely you will get it done. In the evening, I don’t go to sleep until everything on the list is complete.

Having your list on paper makes it easier to see what you need to do, and once the day is over you can throw it into the trash knowing the day was a success.

Keeping focused in the 21st century is not an easy thing. For one, we have the internet which is full of distractions. Think about all the time you spend pointlessly and aimlessly browsing the web, chatting to friends, sending emails, and browsing your RSS reader daily. I for one know the time begins to add up, and thats time you will never get back.

Recently I have started disconnecting from my Airport connection when I am trying to knuckle down and focus on writing or image editing. It’s no surprise my productivity levels have increased ten fold due to the eliminated distractions in my workspace.

I can no longer click on NewsFire and see if there are any new posts on DevLounge or Warpspire. I cant click on iChat and see what my friends are up too, and I dont have my new email sounds buzzing every minute. I can just knuckle down, and focus on what is in front of me.

When you need to get things done, disconnect from your network connection - the work you will complete is worth the pain of not having RSS updates for a few hours.

Wow, in two days 2007 will have come around and another year in our lives will have passed. Our lives are stressful enough without having the computer creating even more stress, so here is a quick New Years checklist to get yourself organized, ready, and prepared for 2007.

Clear your inbox to zero messages

You can use some of my tips to get organized with your Mail application in this post. This will help reduce stress and the only Mail in your inbox will be from the New Year.

Tidy your desktop, leaving only devices

Clear up all the clutter on your desktop by filing items to their applicable folder/s. This will give you a clean working space to begin the year with.

Organize your dock

Scan your dock and drag out any applications you use very rarely. If you have applications in your dock that you dont use much, but still want super fast access too, consider installing OverFlow. Another task to complete is zapping un-used applications with AppZapper.

Review your contacts

Pop open Address Book, Adium, and iChat; to review all your contacts, deleting ones you no longer need or are not in contact with anymore. In iChat and Adium, create groups for your contacts based on importance, which will make it much easier to scan and see who’s online.

Clean up your iTunes playlists

Most iTunes users will have dozens and dozens of playlists, these are very handy at times but can slowly clutter up your sidebar. Sort through each and every one of your playlists removing what you can. Another cool thing to do with iTunes is create a “Best Of 06″ Smart Playlist. The criteria being: Year 2006, Rating 5. This will group all the tracks in your library that were released in 2006 and are rated 5 stars.

RSS Reader tidy up

Go through your RSS reader and delete any blogs you dont particularly like anymore, or ones that haven’t been updated in a long time. If you dont have too many items to delete, create a folder system for your feeds which will help you sort through them more quickly.

Backup your data

On a final note, the worst thing that can happen to you is data loss - so backup now! Buy yourself an external hard-drive and archive/backup all your documents, pictures, movies, and sites from the previous year using a tool such as SuperDuper! If you dont want to fork out for a new HDD, connect your iPod to your computer and drag your most important data onto it’s icon; this will create a copy of it on your iPod to use as a backup.

To celebrate the New Year let’s have a little fun, once you are finished organizing, upload a picture of your desktop to Flickr and post a link in the comments below.

I’ll randomly select someone to win a free copy of a training video for an Apple application (thats all the details I will provide..) which is currently in the works.

2006 was a great year for myself, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you all and hopefully teaching you a few things along the road. 2007 will be a big year, not only for me but for Apple. I cant wait to see whats in store - see you in 2007. Happy New Year.

Update:The three winners for the copy of a secret training video are: Mike Vitoroulis, Smaran, and tomnook10.

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Nowadays search engine optimization is the hottest game on internet. Many SEO companies are offering their services. Even some professional hosting companies are offering the services of SEO. These companies also sell domains and offer affordable affiliate marketing services. When it comes to PPC search engines, these companies also offer good service package for their clients. In this entire game client must have a PC backup for any future mishap.

Often when I am sitting at the computer and have to work, I get distracted by all the other things going on in life and this often drains away all my motivation and inspiration from writing the masterpieces I know I can.

How do you get inspired to write? I personally didn’t know, until I found that reading others sites generally gave me the drive and determination to keep churning out top notch content. Thats when I realized, all I need to put words onto paper is to put words into my head.

I sat down and made a stack of cards with motivational phrases on them and sat them in a little card holder on my desk. Every time I lack inspiration I take a glance at the card of the day, and it provides me with enough drive to get started. From them on I’m alone and the rest just flows.

How do you keep inspired?

I have Mail set up with many Smart Folders which help me sort my Mail by specific rules without moving the original message. All of my original messages are stores in one big folder called “Archive” (which currently is home to 3146 messages).

Whenever I am finished with an email, either reading, replying to, or taking action with it, I just drop it into this big archive folder. If I want to find something I use my Smart Folders or Spotlight. Using this one big folder scheme saves me time when I’m filing my messages in Mail.

How do you have folders set up in Mail to store your messages? Do you drop them all into one place and use Tiger’s revolutionary technologies to access them, or do you sort them as you go into different folders?

You have an overloaded inbox, many messages need replying to, many need reading, and many just need filing. This is where Flagging your mail can come in handy.

Go through the messages in your inbox and for each message that requires action or you need to reply to it, flag it. This will display a neat red flag icon next to the message, making it easy to spot when scrolling.

While you are at it, set up a smart folder in your mailbox which displays all of your flagged messages. This will make it even easier to sort through the stacks of messages you need to get through.

When you are sorting through thousands, if not tens of thousands of email messages, finding the exact one you want gets a little difficult. Sure, you have Apple’s amazing Spotlight technology waiting on hand to help you out, but if you want to compile large lists of messages with a certain similarity, Smart Folders is the best option.

The image to the right of this paragraph is the list of the current Smart Folders I have set up, I plan to ad more after this very post is finished, but this is my basic setup. The “Today” folder is very handy so I can see all the messages I have received today, and I have many other folders like “WordPress” which shows all the comments posted on my blog.

Here are a few ideas for smart, Smart Folders.

• All Flagged Messages

• Unread Mail

• Today’s Messages

• Current Year

• Current Week

What smart folders do you have set up?

I decided it was time for a reader project, so we can get our email inboxes sorted for the Christmas holidays. The last thing anyone wants over Christmas is to be stressing over their email overflow.

As a team we are going to help each other out to clean out our inboxes and get our Mail application sorted and cleaned. Over the course of this week I will be posting tips and tricks on how to manage your Mail application, your workflow, and more.

Your job is by the end of the week to be happy with the state of your Mail application, and have it set up so you can be much more organized. The first step is to start by taking a snapshot of the current state of Mail, upload it to Flickr or other sharing site, and post a link in the comments so we can see your mess.

The before you get started, read this extremely popular article I write a few months back on “6 Ways To Organize Your Mail Application”

Watch out for many tips and tricks coming this week, let’s get our inboxes sorted!

Want to help me announce this project? Then copy and paste the following text to your own blog to help spread the word and extend our knowledge around the blogosphere.

“Want to get your Mail inbox sorted and organized before the holiday season? Then head over to GlennWolsey.com where he is running a Reader Project to clean out your Mail inbox and get organized. He will be posting tips and tricks over the course of the next week to help you on your way. To get started, hit up this introduction blog post, and then read this initial post full of tips and tricks.

Reader Christian Kuttruff sent me an email a few days back after my post, How Does Your Mac Look?

He wanted to know how my file system was organized on my Mac because he was looking for the perfect way to sort his.

My file system is perfectly organized, I know where everything is, and can bring up anything in seconds using then Finder, let’s take a look with a few screenshots of the folders in my home folder.

Here is my home folder. It’s setup the exact same way as the stock Apple configuration, except my custom “Agua” icon-set by David Lanham.

I created folders inside the documents folder that store my main type’s of documents.

- “Blog” holds files that have something to do with this site.

- “iChats” is the folder created by iChat to store chat logs.

- “Magazines” is for such things as the iLounge buyer guides.

- “School” holds all my essays and reports.

- “Serials” is for applications which store their serial in a specific file (such as The Potion Factory apps)

- “Templates” is for cool WordPress themes I come across.

- “The Crate” is a dumping ground where I put files that I have to sort.

- “Work” is where I store work that I have done for magazine’s like Macguide, and sites such as ProBlogger.

The movies folder is quite simple. The Apple folder is used for keynotes and episodes of shows such as ScreenCastsOnline. My Projects is stuff I have worked on in iMovie. Others is just like “The Crate”, but for video content. Revision 3 is a folder for shows like Diggnation and Pixel Perfect, and TV Shows is for just that.

My Music folder is plan simple. With just two folders, GarageBand and iTunes. Most of the stuff I create in GarageBand gets exported to iTunes, and my iTunes library is currently 33GB in size.

In my pictures library, I have three items. My Aperture library where my image library is stored. My iPhoto library, where I store desktop backgrounds and Photo Booth images, and Photo Booth which is required by the application - I clear the Photo Booth folder each week into iPhoto.

Sorry for the lengthy post which didn’t contain too many tips or tricks, but hopefully it will answer a few of the people who have been emailing me about my file system. Until tomorrow, bye!

This following tip is so simple and obvious, yet no one that I have talked to ever puts it into action.

I’m the type that has to check his email every time I hear it beep, I cannot leave it there sitting unread. It has to be read the second I receive it, otherwise it bugs me to the point that I end up checking it anyway. But what happens if I dont receive email..? Simple, I get work done.

When I’m trying to get work done the first thing I do is close my Mail application, This way I’m not getting bugged every few minutes with new mail to read. It’s such a simple tip but it works like a charm. Especially if you receive a high volume of email each day.

If you cant part with your Mail, set it to check every 15 minutes, instead of every minute. You’ll at least get some work done before been interrupted.

We all know the feeling. We wake up, jump on the computer and open Mail, where we see 43 new emails, many needing action to be made. Then we open our favorite RSS reader (in my case NewsFire), and have over 400 unread items waiting for our attention, even when we have sorted through all of these we have over 50 items flagged of interest to check out.

By the time we’ve even checked a few of these, the mailman turns up with three new magazines, and the newspaper. Your almost ready to scream, so many unread things, not enough time in the day. What can you do!?

The answer is pretty straight forward. Unsubscribe!

Really, do you need that Macworld magazine when you could, and are finding out the exact same information by reading your RSS reader daily?

What about your RSS feeds? Go through each and every one and see if they are all still relevant to your interests. If there hasn’t been anything on a feed which has interested you for more than a couple of weeks, chances are there will be nothing in the future, so unsubscribe. If something really greats gets posted you’ll find out about it elsewhere. You dont need to be the first to know everything!

For instance this morning I woke up and had 12 new email messages, 442 unread RSS items, 12 blog comments to moderate, last months D-Photo magazine, and 15 articles still to read that I had bookmarked to del.icio.us the previous day.

Unsubscribe from anything you can. Here’s a quick check list:

• RSS feeds, delete ones which have become off-topic
• Emails, unsubscribe from mailing lists & install a good spam filter.
• Haven’t read a magazine you received more than 3 weeks ago? Unsubscribe, it cant be that important to have left it that long.

Go crazy, unsubscribe from so much stuff that you begin to start to feeling lonely. Your stress will go down because of it.

Are you a frequent user of iChat, Apple’s IM chat application? If so, you know how hard it is to keep track of hundreds of contacts at once. Let’s get organized!

Organize By Groups

Grouped organizing is nothing new, but finding a convenient way to name and manage your groups can be difficult at the best of times.

Start by creating three groups with these names:

• Very Frequent
• Frequent
• Occasional
• Hardly Ever

Now go through each and every one of your contacts and add them to the applicable group. These groups are based on the frequency you talk to them.

So if it’s someone like your girlfriend who you are constantly talking to, you could add her to the Very Frequent group. But if it’s the manager of your web-hosting account who you only talk to when you have problems with your website could fall under Hardly Ever.

This way you can use the collapse feature in iChat to collapse all the groups apart from Very, and Frequent, allowing you to see the contacts who really matter to you easily.

Happy iChatting!

Apple’s consumer line notebook, the MacBook features an ultra-compact 13.3� screen. You need to make the best possible use of your limited screen resolution. Here’s 5 ways to maximize your working space and productivity using your small display.

5.

Hide the dock. If you hide the dock you open up a few extra pixels for yourself to extend the height of your screen.

4.

Switch on tabbed massaging in Adium. This way you will only have one chat window open to host all of your chat’s which are currently active. Use iChat? Then install Chax to group all of your chat together nicely and keep your chat interface organized.

3.

Make your desktop icons smaller by clicking on the desktop, selecting view, show view options in the menu-bar. You can change your icons to display as small as 16×16, which saves extra space on your desktop.

2.

Expose is there on your machine, so are hot corners, use them! Switch on Expose with hot-corners, you will have no idea how much this will revolutionize your OSX experience.

1.

Virtue Desktops. Cant wait for Leopard to arrive so you can try out Spaces? Install Virtue on your Mac and start creating some “virtual� desktops.

This way you can keep all your work related windows in one desktop, your music related stuff in another, and your Mail and IMs in another.

Flick between these desktops using keyboard shortcuts or your mouse, it will save you time, and make you feel like you have a line of ten displays lining your desk, minus the sore neck from moving from side to side.

Dealing with emails can be a nightmare, especially when you have hundreds of unread emails which keep growing by the hour, and dozens of flagged messages which need following-up on. Here’s a few simple actions you can take to clear your inbox.

6. Mail Checking

Change your mail checking preference to 15 or 30 minute intervals. Do not stop work to answer emails as they arrive, instead set aside time each hour to briefly deal with your incoming emails.

5. Actionable Folders

Create 3 folders and name them Follow-Up, Interesting & To Do. Then, as you check your emails file them straight into the applicable folder.

Later, when you have time you can go straight to these folders folder and work through them. It will be much quicker to see what needs attending to and you are more likely to might be motivated to spare a few minutes clearing your to-do folder.

4. Sub Folders

Organization is the key to accessing any saved emails. Having 2000 emails in one folder is a sure-fire road map to confusion and lost information.

Create folders, then subfolders residing inside these. For example for this blog I have this folder structure set up in Mail:

Do this for each different project you are working on, and as you get a related email file it right away. If it needs to be followed up move it into that folder, then to it’s normal resting place once it’s been actioned.

3. Inbox Clearing

Keep your inbox clear, do not be tempted to use it as a storage box. Each evening before you log off the computer make sure there is nothing left in your inbox. Go through each and every email and file it. Place it in its respective folder, or if it requires action put it in your Follow-Up, Interesting or To Do folders.

This allows you to start the next day fresh and organized.

2. Delete Old Messages

Get that delete button working. Sit down for an hour (or however long it takes) and sort through every single email in Mail. Press Delete on anything you will never need again. After this long deleting session it should be a lot easier to keep on top of the size of your Mail database.

Searching will be faster, and finding files will be more efficient.

1. Smart Folders

Receiving hundreds of emails each day? Filters, otherwise known as “Smart Folders�, are your answer.

Let’s say you run three blogs, create three smart folders with the rules:

This way you can keep different type of email in different places, and will have no confusion on what the email is related to.

Want more Apple Mail tips? Checkout any one of these articles for more tips and tricks.

RSS feeds can be your best friend, they can also be your worst nightmare when you wake up and have thousands of new items to scan over, hundreds which dont even interest you.

5.

First step, get NewsFire! NewsFire is the best RSS reader, hands down. Simple interface, just the features you need, fast and with a neat sound effect to let you know something’s been downloaded. NetNewsWire has been around longer and has many more features, but that requires more configuration and thinking.

NewsFire is hands down, no argument, the best RSS reader for the Mac.

4.

Go through all of your feeds and decide which ones you no longer read. The more you remove the more free time you will have, and less time stressing over unread feeds. I generally remove feeds which aren’t regularly updated, or have drifted off-topic from the time of me originally adding them to my collection.

3.

Change the option of checking feeds every “x� minutes to 13. Studies have shown the longest people can focus on one task at any given time is 13 minutes. If you set your reader to refresh every 13 minutes you’ll be able to take a short break from your work, search through the feeds, then get back to work and repeat for the rest of the working day.

2.

If you feel a certain feed has so much content soaring through it and it’s a constant distraction, simple set that one feed to check every hour, or every day, not at 13 minute intervals like your other feeds.

Distraction diminished.

1.

My number one tip to keeping organized with RSS is to create groups in your RSS reader based on importance. Set up a folder for very important, important, normal, low importance, and very low importance. Then assign each and every one of your feeds to a folder. This way you’ll be able to actually read your news and know you have found out the important stuff if you dont have enough time to clear through everything, you can just check out the important stuff.

Technorati Tags: application

When the time comes to get some serious work done on your Mac, you want to get it completed quickly with high efficiency, so you can spend your time doing better things - like adding artwork to your perpetually growing iTunes collection…

What applications can you install and use to reduce the time taken on everyday tasks? How can you make them simpler, and complete them more swiftly? Let us look at the top 10 time saving applications, which will save you valuable time…to play with PhotoBooth.

1. NetNewsWire

Don’t you hate the daily grunge, checking website after website each and every morning, on your slow dial-up Internet connection, checking for updates to your favourite sites, when nothing has changed on them at all?

NetNewsWire is an application, which stores and downloads all of your RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication). Most sites these days have RSS feeds, which let you subscribe to them in an RSS reader of your choice, and when any updates are made to the site, you will be notified in NetNewsWire.

This is a huge time saving application, as each morning, you only need to click one button to open the application, and all site updates are downloaded, ready for you to read the latest news.

Time Save Rating: 9/10

2. Wallet

How many times have you wasted time looking for a serial number to an application that you wrote on a piece of paper? How many times have you wasted time resetting your password on a forum, because you forgot the password? The answer is, too many times!

Wallet is your ultimate secure, password and serial number database. When you open the application, you are prompted for your password, so you will be the only one able to access your information.

This is an absolute must have application for any forgetful Mac user!

Time Save Rating: 4/10

3. Flickr iPhoto Plug-in

Flickr was one of the best ideas on the Internet in 2005. Flickr is developing at an astonishingly quick rate, and will be one of the largest growing sites in 2006; you can hold me to that prediction!

After a long day out with your camera, shooting hundreds of marvelous shots, you arrive home, connect the camera to your Mac, upload the pictures into iPhoto, and stare in awe at your beautiful shots; only wishing you could share them with others, so they could experience the same feeling as you. With Flickr, you can.

Flickr is an online photo service where you can upload your images, and show them off to the world. Nevertheless, the uploading process can be a slow nightmare if you have dozens of shots to post. The Flickr iPhoto plug-in turns this process into a dream.

Simply click on a photo you which to upload to your Flickr album, click on the Upload button, add in your title, description, and tags, and hit upload. The photo is now online; and your artistic side is ready to be discovered.

Time Save Rating: 6/10

4. Quicksilver

Quicksilver is just like a brother to Spotlight, except, Quicksilver’s speciality is application access.

When Apple released Tiger, they stated that Spotlight would be a lightening fast, displaying results as fast as you can type into the search system. If Apple can pronounce that about Spotlight, it is fair to say Quicksilver is a lightening+thunder fast search system. It is amazingly speedy; a noticeable amount faster than Spotlight.

Time Save Rating: 6/10

5. Dashboard

Dashboard is one of the ultimate time savers on the Macintosh. The time saving possibilities are endless, even with the included, pre-installed Apple widgets.

Check the weather with the weather widget, instead of logging onto a website, fending through all the advertising, and finding the forecast for tomorrow.

Use the Flight Tracker widget to see if the plane is on time, instead of going to the airlines website and customising a search; only then discovering the plane isn’t being tracked on there website.

Use the calculator widget instead of opening up the application. Use the Dictionary widget instead of going to dictionary.com. Use the Currency Converter instead of going through a slow, bank website. I think you catch my drift; Dashboard makes finding information fast, and fun!

Time Save Rating: 10/10

6. Spotlight

Spotlight is in my opinion, the biggest time saver on the Mac, and what’s better, is it’s bundled with Tiger!

Spotlight will save you hours searching, finding, and accessing documents, applications, and emails. Just click on the stylish glass magnifying glass icon in your menu bar, type your search term, and watch the results appear right before your eyes.

Spotlight will make your file access experience a breeze.

Time Save Rating: 9/10

7. Menuet

Menuet is a simple yet efficient iTunes menu-bar controller. It displays a next track, previous track, and pause buttons for iTunes, in the menu-bar. You can change tracks, or pause music no matter where you are, or what you are doing on your computer.

Menuet saves you time, from switching back and forth from iTunes, whenever you want to change a track. It also includes support for Last.fm uploading, and has an album art downloader built in.

Time Save Rating: 4/10

8. MainMenu

System maintenance can be a long, boring process of moving your cursor around the Finder, dragging and dropping old applications, preference files, caches, and documents to the trash. MainMenu can make this process painless.

MainMenu has dozens of different clean-up options, ranging from cleaning the cache, deleting log files, cleaning browser history, and even rebuilding the Spotlight database, for speedier search results.

Time Save Rating: 7/10

9. Sherlock

Sherlock is another great application that Apple bundles with its Macintosh machines. Sherlock is like a maxi Dashboard.

Check movie times, stock prices, eBay auctions, Flight times, the dictionary, and even translate text into different languages!

Sherlock is great to use if you need more advanced information than Dashboard would give you, but you still want to save time browsing around sites.

Time Save Rating: 4/10

10. MacPro…

Imagine if you could go ahead to WWDC and get a new MacPro; could think how much faster you could complete everything? The only problem is, the MacPro’s will cost a lot of money, so you better put some of these time saving tips into action; so you can work more, and afford that new MacPro with a 30� Apple Cinema display…

Writing can be extremely rewarding at times, but are you finding it hard sitting down with your Mac and actually getting the words out of your head and onto the digital paper? Here are 5 things that have worked for me and made my writing more productive.

5. Music

Pop open iTunes and play an album you like, it is much easier to work with familiar sounds around you. Don’t listen to fast pumping music like pop, heavy rock, or techno. Settle down to some soft or piano rock, like the Postal Service, The Fray, Mae, or Waking Ashland. Their music is all very slow paced making it calming to work to.

4. No chatting or browsing

Close down Safari, and quit iChat and Adium. The last thing you need when you have been writing for 25 minutes, churning out words and feeling in the zone, is your friend sending you an IM with a link to a video on YouTube, it will be a distraction and possibly put you off your line of thoughts, ruining the next paragraph you had figured out in your head from getting down on paper. Quit any applications that have internet connectivity, or even better, turn your AirPort internet off completely!

3. Environment

You should know the places in the world that make you feel relaxed, and those which you feel uncomfortable in, so take your laptop to one of those places that makes you feel relaxed and at ease.

Places like busy cafe’s and noisy parks should be avoided. But if you like the beach, a quiet back street cafe, or even a ball game, then take your laptop along and get writing. Your best writing will always be done when you are felling relaxed and your enjoying yourself.

2. Goals And Rewards

Set yourself goals, and when you reach them reward yourself. Give yourself a goal such as “write 1000 words this morning”, and when you reach it reward yourself with some chocolate, 15 minutes on Flickr or something else you enjoy.

1. WriteRoom

Some people believe the latest application from HogBaySoftware is a joke. Believe me, it’s not. WriteRoom is the single best thing that has ever happened to my writing. Didn’t you use to love that typewriter environment where there was only you and your text, with no distractions to keep you from writing a masterpiece. WriteRoom brings that environment right onto your Mac in full screen typewriter view, it will keep you from all other distractions and get you writing feature articles in no time!