02/25/2005: "The Hipster PDA"

music: Autechre
mood: Sunny and warm.

This week, I was going to write about a topic that is sorely missing from the naming blogs - band names. But, per usual, I got sidetracked while looking for unlined yellow pads (I remember reading that Elmore Leonard admitted to writing on these with his Mont Blanc), didnít find them and instead found 43folders.com - "a bunch of tricks, hacks and stuff."

First of all, I loved the name. Turns out 43 is the number of manila folders in a tickler file. In his FAQs, Merlin Mann, the guy who runs the site, mentions that there are a number of other sites out there with 43 in their name, but they are about losing weight or kicking crystal. I donít know anything about those and this is only site, the only brand that I know uses 43 in its name. The name is a winner.

Second, when I read the Hipster PDA entry, I was hooked. Iíve been a longtime user of filecards and binder clips for staying organized, and Merlin goes into some detail on how to use these as opposed to a PDA. (I eBayed my Palm Pilot years ago after it crashed and lost all my addresses, went old school, and now use the 3x5s, a binder clip and a 2005 Moleskine Pocket Diary.)

Third, here is actually a lot of useful stuff here if youíre obsessed with personal productivity without wanting to resort to using Franklin Covey or whatever method is the trend du jour. Merlin is a disciple of Getting Things Done and his intro to the book is damn funny. Especially his reasons for why GTD appeals to geek nerds.

But 43folders isn't just about personal productivity. There are a bunch of useful creativity and productivity hacks, a seeming obsession with Moleskines (which we share) (plus itís the only place Iíve ever seen that mentions the bright orange cover Engineer Notebook). As you might expect, 43folders is Mac obsessed.Thanks to 43Folders, I learned about and downloaded Quicksilver and am finding out that it is a useful tool for us Mac users. (More on this later).

Kudos to Merlin for a great and useful site.