The Omni Mouth » OmniFocus demo at the San Francisco Apple Store

My peeps at OmniGroup mentioned this, so I’ll slide it in as well. I’ll be appearing with my OmniBrethren at the Stockton Street Apple store on Thursday June 21st to demo OmniFocus. Huzzah:

[Merlin will] be talking about productivity tips in general and discussing how OmniFocus fits in his workflow, so it should be more fun and interesting than your basic software demo. You should definitely come by and say howdy.

Be there.

Second, I heartily second Linda’s suggestion that you email (omnifocus-wwdc at omnigroup dot com) if you’re interested in doing an informal OF meet-up at WWDC.

If you don’t come, Ken and I will have to sit there and stare at each other and maybe talk about D&D. Please, don’t make us talk about D&D.

blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity

What a fantastic post. And so many great suggestions that I’m hesitant to choose a sample…so I’ll limit myself to three:

Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3×5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.

And then, the next day, do those things…

Don’t answer the phone.

Let it go to voicemail, and then every few hours, screen your voicemails and batch the return calls.

Say, twice a day…

Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.

In my experience, it takes time to tell the difference between your head saying yes and your heart saying yes.

I think the key is whether you’re really excited about it.

If you get that little adrenaline spike (in a good way) when you think about it, then your heart is saying yes….

Most of the tips on this page strike me as being very practical, real-world, battlefield advice that works. And even if you can’t totally avoid a schedule or totally keep email checking down to twice a day, it won’t hurt to soak up the spirit of these ideas and let them move by osmosis into the places where they can do you some good. Shake it up a little.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes 43-folders-esque stuff.

(And triple credit for the Robert Evans reference. Did it make me happy? You bet your ass it did.)

The Merlin Show

Over on my video podcast, The Merlin Show, we recently wrapped up our epic 4-part interview with John Roderick from The Long Winters (n.b.: part 3 is my favorite episode of the show so far). And, just yesterday, we posted the first in a six (6) part visit with America’s Radio Sweetheart, Jesse Thorn, who’s the host of the nationally syndicated public radio program (and, arguably, the best podcast [iTunes] in America), The Sound of Young America. (And now I can’t stop saying “webmobisode” — damn you, Jesse Thorn).

I hope you’ll stop by if you haven’t visited with us in a while. Plus — thanks to the generous nerd skillz of our friends over at Blip.tv — you can now watch each and every episode of The Merlin Show from the comfort of this handy dandy Flash viewer. (Note that you can jump to any episode by clicking on “GUIDE“). And, yes, please do feel free to “SHARE” this far and wide.

And, finally, please consider subscribing to The Merlin Show in iTunes or via the podcatcher of your choice. As of our latest episode, the Apple TV version of the feed goes out at full-on HD 720p (thanks, HV-20s!).

Subscribe to The Merlin Show…	iTunes	Democracy	Others
Standard, iPod-compatible version (320 x 176 pixels)
Hi-resolution, Apple TV-compatible version (most eps: 854 x 480 pixels, later eps: 1280 x 720 pixels)

(Disclosure: I am a contributor to the OmniFocus project)

According to OmniGroup, about 2,500 people are now participating in the “sneaky peak” beta of OmniFocus, and new folks will continue to be added as capacity for support allows. But even if you’re not yet using the app and are just waiting to get your hands on a finished version, it’s not too early to start thinking about making a smooth transition from wherever you are now.

Moving your world of action into a new application is like moving into a new house (and can be almost as stressful). This is your chance to throw away crap, rethink how you’ve been doing things, and just give yourself a fresh start. So before you ever fire up OmniFocus for that first time, do yourself a favor and get sorted out with your current system first. Believe me, you’re much more likely to handle this well before the temptation of having the app in your hands sends you diving into using it full-time.

In short, I recommend you start by conducting a thorough review that’s focused on bringing all your tasks and projects up to date and in line with reality.

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iPhone will be released on June 29th. Here’s the ad from tonight’s 60 Minutes.

(added a better version of the video, via Gizmodo

[Original news via: iPhone: yours on June 29th - Engadget]

Added 2007-06-03 16:48:46: Commenting on the Engadget story, Jake points to three new iPhone commercials on Apple’s site. Check out “Never Been an iPod.” Lovely.

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These are lower threshold links to stuff I’ve recently enjoyed.

• The Macalope On MacBreak Weekly - “Yes, it’s true. The Macalope will be on next week’s edition of MacBreak Weekly.” The MBW crew seems to remain convinced that I am the Macalope. Tune in this week, and we shall see…
• Daring Fireball: iPhone SDK, iPhone SDK! Wherefore Art Thou iPhone SDK? - Gruber’s analysis seems spot-on to me: with a product this big, it pays to manage expectations and hold out the possibility of an unpromised lagniappe or two.
• How to talk to the press | fortuitous - Mathowie talkes to the press a good bit more than I do, so I learned a lot from this. Love the tip about listening for frenetic typing.
• Jonathan Coulton » Blog Archive » How I Did It - JoCo tells the story of how he got where he is with his music and the internet. Essential reading for those who want to go indie on the web today. Would love to see more of these from other folks as well.
• Rosetta Stone for Unix - (PDF) - Ginormous table that lets you compare commands between different flavors of Unix. (via: adurity’s bookmarks on del.icio.us)
• MailTags 2.0 leaves beta, goes official - The sine qua non Mail.app plugin goes 2.0. Can’t imagine using Mail without this guy plus Mail Act-On.
• Twitter Blog: Are You Twittering @ Me? - “In other words, if somebody Twitters “@biz liking the new Replies tab!” it will get saved at Twitter.com/replies.” I love this feature. I can’t keep up with the (gulp) 2,300 folks who’ve been kind enough to “friend” me, but at least now I can see when they’re saying something in my direction. Very cool.
• Facebook | Merlin Mann - In related news. I succumbed. Largely because of this awesomeness. (links require Facebook membership)

Submit your ideas for links to del.icio.us, and be sure to include the tag “for:43folders.”

Kinkless | Productive Creativity

My pal, Ethan, is a photographer who’s probably best known in the Mac-o-sphere as the author of “Kinkless GTD,” the AppleScript for OmniOutliner Pro that caused a sensation last year among Mac productivity nerds and helped lead to the development of the OmniFocus task management app (disclosure: it’s a project to which Ethan and I both currently contribute).

Well, if you haven’t visited Ethan’s Kinkless.com site in a while, you’d do well to pop by for a fresh look, because you’re in for a treat.

In addition to doing a re-architecture and redesign that’s one of the most eye-catching I’ve seen on a Drupal site, Ethan has begun writing some very useful tutorials (in addition to the screencasts for which he’s becoming well-known).

For example, he’s recently completed his “Five Steps to a Kinkless Desktop” series, focusing on how to “clean up, prettify and streamline the usage of your desktop.” He starts with “The No-Mercy Cleanup“:

So we have an undifferentiated mass of stuff on the desktop. This is the point at which a lot of organization self-help tells you to sort through it file by file. I am not going to tell you this. Why? Because I am lazy and realistic. You are just not going to clean up your desktop right now. Why? It’s overwhelming. So we’ll use a trick I call the “No Mercy Cleanup”

If your Mac and your brain need a dose of strong medicine, don’t miss this.

I’m really enjoying seeing Ethan contribute his thoughts on productivity — I’ve learned from working with him over the past few months that he’s very thoughtful and deliberative about this stuff. Despite being a taxonomical animal, he’s always focused on sharing first-person changes that will bring real, non-fiddly benefits to the lives of creative types. Looking forward to seeing where he takes this.

iTunes Plus (iTunes link)

For help getting set up with “iTunes Plus” (giving you access to buying/upgrading EMI’s DRM-free tracks), don’t miss this handy helper from MacUser.

The DRM-free features are being billed as “iTunes Plus”: in order to turn it on, you have to click on your account name in the top right corner of the iTunes store. You’ll be prompted for your password, and then brought to the account information page. The top button on that page now reads “Manage iTunes Plus.” Clicking on that will let you choose whether or not iTunes will show you DRM-free tracks when available. Click the checkbox and hit “Save Changes” and you’re ready to rock.