RSS Zen ;)

Two summers ago, I had started actively following a few tech blogs, through which I learnt about Google Reader. And soon, was in an infinite loop of discovering new blogs and subscribing to them. For months I was on what felt like a learning high, particularly in terms of free software, web apps and some tech news. With time my subscription list began to grow to include personal blogs and blogs about productivity, happiness, simplicity, science, news, apples, oranges and lemons. And obviously, it didn't take time for the process to become counter-productive and give me mini-panic attacks to see upwards of 500 unread items every day.
So, now finally I have almost achieved RSS zen by cutting down the list. Here's what I did:

1. Reduce the number of tech blogs on my list
I had found out about most tech blogs on my list via guest/shared posts on Lifehacker and MakeUseOf and had started following them. Soon, I was mostly just getting the same information from multiple sources. Unproductive. I traced the route back and have now unsubscribed from most tech blogs but these two and a few other favourites.

2. Unsubscribe from blogs that would look good on a list, but weren't getting read
Having realized that some of the blogs on my list weren't actually getting read, I unsubscribed. The names are stuck in my memory well enough to guarantee an occasional visit to the web log itself.

3. Refer to stats for starred items
I use starred items mostly to bookmark posts that I will keep wanting to come back to. Looking at the blogs with the least starred items gave me a good idea of which ones I don't want to follow.

4. Split followed blogs across platforms
Unbelievably for me, I now follow mental_floss only on Twitter. Likewise, TED.com and IBNLive are only on my Facebook pages list. This actually helps, and makes reading more interesting because now I don't have to read all my posts with the same UI.

5. Keep Reader for "forgettable" blogs
I might miss a tweet or Facebook update, but it's hard to just not notice an unread item in Reader, so I've made sure that smaller or low-frequency blogs stay on.
Reader's unread posts counts had become a scary number. With # 4 and 5, that number's smaller, without a change in the amount of information I'm fed.

I have now effectively come down to a few tens of posts everyday, which can be easily navigated through in under an hour, and many more posts get actually read now. :)

(This post was typed in Bend, a text editor worth at least a test drive. For now I'm keeping it for concurrent use with Q10.)

No, I Don't Miss Wi-fi

For almost two years now, I've been used to living near a laptop, connected to the internet till eternity, with at least a couple of browser windows and some apps dancing around my screen when I press Win + Tab. (Yes, I'm a Windows person. Sigh)

And now suddenly, sitting in a cutely gorgeous house in Chandigarh, having been here for a month and intending to bug Uncle and Auntie for another half (at most), I'm actually relieved that my life is so offline.

I use the internet a few days a week for a few minutes. Well, not really my kinda internet—just blogger, google reader (only to mark all items as read), gmail and a few seconds on facebook.* And you know what? I was seriously, honestly satisfied with that. Now it is purely by choice that I almost avoid going online. Some of you who know me well might be giggling right now, mostly in disbelief. The others would think this is natural, or crazy or anything in between. Whatever it is, I'm totally serious here. There's suddenly so much more time. I still cling to this laptop a lot, but end up doing lots of offline stuff, invariably very productive or happiness-generating activities. I've been reading and writing a lot more than usual lately, and catching up with some movies.

And yes, I am missing out on truckloads of things that I enjoy doing, but those can wait. It's good to be relatively disconnected at times. Wonder if I can ever survive without a cell phone. (Now you must be laughing your heads off. :P)

*Although on my weekends home, it's hard to not go back to the same old routine.

10 Software Tools Every Computer Deserves

Before I'm off to the list, let me tell you that you don't need any "qualification" to like these softwares. The average computer user might not feel the need for any of these, but I highly recommend each one. I'm not including any security software here, because I expect even the average computer user to feel the need to have them. :P

1. CCleaner
This nifty tool was actually named "Crap Cleaner", and does everything the name promises, and more.

2. Defraggler
Way better than the default Windows defragment tool.
Defragment your hard drive a couple times a year to keep it running fast and well. However, as I recently learnt (Thanks, Karan Kantoor), do not defragment too often, because moving large chunks of data on your drive needs lots of setting and resetting, and is therefore not good for the drive's health.

3. Google Chrome
No matter what browser you primarily use, (I hope you don't say Internet Explorer :P) you should have Google Chrome installed. It's very fast, and comes with a generous set of features despite the minimalist approach, the "Incognito" mode being one of my favourites.

4. Evernote
This powerful note-taking app is a must-have for almost everyone. Sign up for an account, and download the desktop client. There's an online account where all your information gets synced, and there are iPhone and BlackBerry clients too. Write notes, make lists, take screenshots... and I'll tell you more as I discover. MS Office fans might like OneNote for its similar features, but I appreciate Evernote's generous free plan too much to not use it.

5. Recuva
This one can be a true life-saver, especially for fans of the dangerously useful Shift + Delete combination. Pronounced recover, this software does one simple job, and does it well—recover files from your hard drive once you've permanently deleted them but they have not yet been totally effaced.

6. Q10
Here comes my favourite text editor of all time. This is the software I'm using to type right now. There's a plain black background, covering my entire screen, green Matrix-style text on it, and a bar on the bottom that helps me track the time, number of words, pages, etc. There are lots of customizable features, and this tiny software is also portable, so you can even take it on a flash drive anywhere you want to.

7. Caffeine
This microscopically light app is a wonderful way to keep your computer active and awake. All it does is simulate a Shift keypress every 59 seconds, to make sure your computer does not sleep or activate the screensaver if you don't want it to. And for the curious, the Shift key is almost harmless, and indicates to the computer that a user is around.

8. JPEG Lossless Rotator
The name really does say enough. Lossless Rotator has a very simple purpose: it rotates digital pictures in a way that does very little damage to their quality, if at all. It's very user-friendly and integrates directly into the shell, so all you have to do is right-click a picture and select "Lossless Rotate Left/Right".

9. Foxit Reader
This is not really a must-have, because most of us use Adobe Acrobat Reader for pdf files anyway. But in case you're looking at better speed and features, Foxit is a quick answer. For a quicker one, check out Sumatra PDF, a light, portable and ultra-fast pdf reader.
Edit: Nitro PDF Reader. Period.

10. Universal Viewer
If there could be a Swiss Army knife equivalent of softwares, Universal Viewer would be a contender, if not the winner. Under one common roof, you can open tons of file formats that cover pictures, audio, video, and lots more.

Most of these come with decent alternatives, also free. These are just my favourites, and they do their job handsomely. Some of these are Windows-only, so feel free to recommend cross-platform/Mac/Linux alternatives, and also share your own favourite tools in the comments.

The Big Secret to Success

Okay... So the title's probably really got your attention. Good. So let's head off to the big secret, shall we?
But before that:
"There's some good news and some bad news...
The bad news is that there is no good news."
(From the Beau Peep comic strip in The Times of India many months back)
Disappointing for sure, and here's another one:
"The big secret of success is that there's no secret."
(From my crazy mind that's no good at comic strips)

I haven't done anything exceptional or achieved anything wondrous in my life yet. So I am nobody to be giving out success gyaan. But I do have some thoughts on success that I'd like to share. And I hope that one day I will have moved from Dream to Action and be moving from bigger dreams to better action.
That said, let's get back to the big secret, or rather the absence of it.

In whatever little success I have achieved so far, I've realized that it really was a direct result of focus, commitment, and hard work. So, my point in this post is that success isn't really that complicated. We tend to have the expectation of a shortcut, and waste a lot of time trying to find it, whereas the real need is to spend our time doing what we instinctually know. Really, my belief is that the actual basics reside deep within us--again, focus, commitment, hard work, and sometimes practice. And a big one--being consistent around your goals. Along with these, embracing failure as just a step towards success is also crucial. This might go against what we think, but is still a major part of nearly every success story. Unless we look at failure as something that has been sent our way to inflame us even more, we cannot succeed. I hate to use the cliché, but "Failure is the stepping stone to success."
Back to the instincts then: For students nothing is as important as sticking to the right path, and incessantly contributing towards achieving their (academic and other) goals. For a salesperson, I guess the biggest thing is to show empathy for the customer's needs and think from their perspective. And in case of entrepreneurs/managers, probably the biggest tip would be to treat the employees well and try to create a balance between concern for productivity and concern for people.
Nothing new, right? See! That exactly is my point. So, the bottom-line really is that success--personal, organizational, at virtually any level--mostly comes as a direct result of the things we know are its ingredients. And if possible, we need to garnish the dish with smart work (versus hard work), productivity tips, and life hacks. These are supposed to help; they can hardly do much just by themselves.
I hope you find this post inspirational. Hit back with comments sharing your thoughts on this, and your own little formulas for success.

My "Productivity System"

During the last many months I've been reading about productivity like crazy. Some of the great people around are coming up with highly effective systems for efficient time management and happiness. I'm lagging in the race and hardly know beyond the ABCs of Getting Things Done, Zen To Done, or Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Successful people. Recently I read an article on Stepcase Lifehack (one of my favourite blogs) on why you should learn a productivity system. The basic idea is that people who make these great productivity systems have loads of experience and knowledge to be sure their ideas are practically successful. This is what they do best, and we should leave this job to them.
The information overload on productivity was making me guilty somewhat, because I seem to be the only one not managing all my tasks according to a world-famous system. I'm still not perfectly convinced that this is a job best left to the experts. If something works for you, use it. If you can't decide what's best for you, the experts are always there to help. Makes sense to me! So yesterday I got thinking, and realized that, no matter how simple, I do have a productivity system after all. My very own! And here it is:

1. If you want it done, schedule it.
Every task that needs serious time and attention from me has to be planned. I don't have a fancy notebook or software that keeps track of these things. My to-do lists are usually in the form of a note to self on my cell phone, or as a new sticky, or penned down on a small scrap of paper that stays in my wallet. The idea is simply this: if something needs my time, it has to be scheduled. Maybe for "some time within this week" if I can't focus on the timing too well, but usually my to-do's are on a daily basis.

2. Acknowledge the importance of voids. (An idea originally Umberto Eco's.)
Even when I plan each hour or so of my day, there are always voids I keep in between. Rather than keeping time aside for relaxation, I use the voids. An example of this would be:
4-5.30 pm: Math
6-8 pm: Physics
9 pm: Revision
So after I'm done with math I know I have some time for a tea break. This also takes care of things that unexpectedly pop up, and there's some room for stretching in case math takes longer. Similarly, after physics I know I have enough time for dinner and walk and if I have time to spare it can be used for something unplanned.

3. Plan more than you know you will do.
My usual daily plan has about 110% of what I really want to achieve within the day. Goes with the idea of "Shoot for the moon, and you'll at least land among the stars." I make sure the more important tasks get higher priority, and at least those get done for sure. And sometimes I actually end up doing the extra tasks as well.
So this is how I (try to) stay organized. My system is far from perfect and I keep borrowing ideas from the experts to make it better. So far I'm managing just fine this way. If ever I think I'm overwhelmed, I know there's David Allen or Leo Babuata (among others) to help me out!

The Pleasure of Discipline

Every time I enter my room, a sign on the door stares me in the face and shouts out loud: "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret." The price of discipline, or rather the reluctance to pay it, is the reason why so many of us do not reach the heights of our potential. Discipline is often the difference between being successful and being regretful.
However, I think a more relevant concept is that of the pleasure of discipline. If that sounds foreign to you, you're not alone. The first time I developed this idea, it took some time to put pleasure and discipline together.

Before getting up this morning I'd been lounging around in bed for some minutes. Then I said to myself, "You have two choices--continue with the bad routine, or get the discipline juices flowing. Put mind over mattress." That was enough to propel me out of bed. I almost sleep-walked to my washroom, and happened to look into the mirror. What I saw was a sleepy face, with a slight hint of reluctance and irritation. I hardly paid any attention and took a shower--something that would ordinarily happen hours later. I cursed myself as the cool water made me shiver. That lasted a couple seconds, and after stepping out, I saw myself in the same mirror again. Spontaneously and impulsively I gave one of my biggest, brightest smiles. It was big and bright and most importantly a genuinely happy smile. I was so happy with myself, feeling utter delight at having snapped out of a bad habit (or at least having started the journey). And the happiness was anything but short-lived.
After getting ready, I went to the Gurdwara, took a walk around the block, and came back home, feeling great. The next few hours were enthusiastically productive--there was some revision to do before I wrote an important exam later in the morning--and I enjoyed the studying way more than ever. Not only that, the exam was great, and now, hours later, I'm still excited and happy (and it's rubbing off on the ones around me), not tired at all, and smiling days worth of smiles sitting here.

AND it doesn't get close to ending here either! Tomorrow morning when I think about how great today was, I'll have another reason to shoot out of bed and give myself the same experience all over again. Again, it doesn't end there. The chain reaction this day will hopefully initiate, will keep getting bigger and better and bring more happiness and contentment into my life!

The moral of the story: Once you overcome the initial resistance of trying out something new, or developing a new habit, or shedding an old one, you can't help thanking yourself for it. The circumstances we've always lived in have a way of trying to pull us back when we try to escape. It's painful to resist, but once you pay the price of discipline and overcome the force of gravity, the investment pays off and the profit is all yours--The Pleasure of Discipline.


* "Put mind over mattress." and "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret." are ideas from Robin Sharma. *