unearthed arcana for web people
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Unearthed Arcana for Web People
or How I Leveled Up in Two Weeks and So Can You
Clinton R. NixonSenior freestyle percussionistViget Labs
My Towering Qualifications
• Senior developer at Viget
• ¾ to full-time student for the last 3 years
• Avid role-player; elder on the Owlbear Council
• Two dogs, a cat, and married
• Occasional thespian and performance artist
• On my church’s stewardship council
• The laziest person I know
Two weeks a tale of yore
What I learned
• There is no such thing as a small distraction
• Resistance is both a blessing and a curse
• Accountability is key
• Searching trumps browsing
• Never do anything twice
Focus
Remove distractions
NoIconsJunk FolderUpdates
MinimizeApplicationsFilesStuff to Remember
Stop multitasking
• “You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously, but switching between them very rapidly.” - Earl Miller
• Eliminate virtual desktops
• Go full-screen
• Turn off notifications
Make a schedule
• Without a schedule, I don’t get anything done
• But I don’t get a break, either
Resistance
My Theory of Resistance
• Make work easy
• Make pleasure count
Quit letting your computer get in the way
• Use less, simpler software
• Use software that fits with your system
• Use a text editor
• Remove junk software
• Use a Mac (or maybe Linux if you’re feeling it)
• Use a laptop
More keyboard, less resistance
• Set CapsLock to be Ctrl
• Learn keyboard commands for your most used apps
• Use apps that support the keyboard
• ⌘-?
• Specific tools: JumpCut, Quicksilver
• You can email all your tasks and notes to Backpack
• You can use many apps through Quicksilver, IM, Twitter, or email
• Hiveminder
• Remember The Milk
• I Want Sandy
• Vitalist
Funnel everything into similar channels
For my command-line people
• pushd and popd
• open (on OS X)
• alias
• Automate aliases to project directories
Increase resistance to make fun count
• Speeding through RSS feeds turns you into a skimmer
• Usually a skimmer who checks feeds too often
• Subscribe to less
• Read the articles, on the original website if possible
• My pick for a RSS reader: Rososo
Accountability
Open your work day
• Post your schedule in a public place
• Keep track of your activities
• YTBs
• Specific tools: RescueTime, Slife, Backpack Journal, Logbook
Personal agility
Searching
Searching trumps browsing
• Quicksilver
• Enzo, Launchy, Colibri, Gnome Do
• Spotlight
• iTunes
• Yep
• TextMate’s Go To...
• TAGS
• grep
• ack
• web search
• Gmail
• Delicious
Automation
Automation is fun
Never do anything twice
• If you do it twice, you’ll do it again
• Practical tools:
• Automator
• Quicksilver triggers
• Editor macros and snippets
Everyone who uses a computer is a programmer
• It’s not that hard
• Your computer comes with all the tools you need
• You’re already doing it, just not well
Thanks and questions
http://delicious.com/crnixon/refresh+arcana
http://crnixon.org
http://viget.com/extend
http://pragmaticprogrammer.com