Comments on: Creativity and Productivity at 43 Folders

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:37:09 +0000

Thanks for the recommendations everyone.

Mark — great list! Thanks for including Lateral Action and Wishful Thinking.

Amy — I agree Put Things Off is a standout.

By: Is the Productivity Movement Dying? | Lifestyle Project

Is the Productivity Movement Dying? | Lifestyle Project — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:59:38 +0000

[...] The excellent Lateral Action highlights a post by Merlin Mann on the changing route of his 43folders blog (perhaps a blog [...]

By: amypalko

amypalko — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:42:32 +0000

My favourite productivity/creativity blog has to be Putting Things Off:
http://putthingsoff.com/
Nick Cernis’ writing style is just phenomenal and his ideas are creative, innovative and inspiring. Definitely one to add to your feedreader!
Amy
xx

By: Zoe

Zoe — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:13:39 +0000

I think this is a fantastic direction, which is why I’ve re-focused my blog on creativity (esp. writing) + actually doing your creative projects (I’m trying to avoid sounding like an icky self-promoter!).

I prefer to think about “being purposeful with my time” rather than being “productive” — productivity has so many connotations of getting *more* done, and feeling like you *should* be doing something.

By: JayCruz

JayCruz — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:33:17 +0000

Merlin Mann is a little “manchildish” and snarky, but his latest posts at 43Folders have been awesome.

By: Glen Allsopp

Glen Allsopp — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:46:14 +0000

I’ve never read Getting Things Done (I definitely will) so didn’t know that’s where Merlin got the name from.

I’ve also never been too interested in the productivity side of things so it’s nice to see a change of direction on the site and it now might fit into my feed reader.

Sorry, no top blogs off the top of my head, but this one is starting to become one of my favourites!

Cheers,
Glen

By: judyofthewoods

judyofthewoods — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:28:21 +0000

“Productivity, creativity, sustainability” is actually the tag line of my website. The emphasis is probably more on creativity and sustainability these days, with practical how-to articles, when I get around to writing about the stuff I do and make. In the background I am still tweaking my productivity system, but I discovered that there is a fine line between working for the system, and making the system work for you.

By: Duff

Duff — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:42:13 +0000

Merlin is a wonderful example of being willing to stick to his principles and admit his mistakes.

On my own blog/podcast, I’m similarly moving away from productivity and even personal development in favor of deeper personal transformation tools and practices.

As far as great productivity/creativity blogs, I recommend Charlie Gilkey’s http://productiveflourishing.com and Andre Kibbe’s http://tools-for-thought.com/ , both excellent and intelligent authors.

I personally think that Lateral Action is best-in-class in this genre as well.

~Duff

By: Mike Smith

Mike Smith — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:28:21 +0000

I hope this marks the end of the GTD era we’ve all lived through. I know productivity is important, but at what cost? I need a to-do list just to remember all of the different apps I use to keep to-do lists. It’s a bit overdone I think

For creativity, I read Lateral Action

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:02:53 +0000

I’m very keen to see what Merlin’s going to do next. He’s been doing a mini-feature on the CBC Radio series Spark where he talks about blogging and it’s great for beginners with a few twists for intermediate folks.

The only thing I worry about regarding creativity and productivity is illustrated by a little snippet from one of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy novels. The Vogons, the repulsive reptilian skinned bureaucratic tough guys used to have a great system for working out aggression by forcing themselves to punch a bag of potatoes for half an hour each day. They were actually tolerable by using this method of releasing their anger.

This worked great until some productivity expert showed up and told them that it would be far more efficient to shoot the bag of potatoes instead. So they did. Efficient and possibly productive? Yes. Effective? Not one iota. Vogons continued to be nasty, as we all know.