Although the lay-person's idea of hacking is some 35 year-old sitting in their parent's basement breaking into the military's computers, the reality is that hackers are generally just people that tinker with their computers in order to optimize them as much as possible. In order to determine the best ways that you can modify a system, you need to undergo a process of analysis to figure out how things fit together, and where you can make changes that will have the most benefit. Lifehacking is analogous to this process, but applied to our life, our bodies, and our minds, rather than to a computer.
Although some people refer to each of these pursuits individually (mindhacking, bodyhacking, and lifehacking), I lump them all together into one term, because I find it hard enough to accept that I go around using the word lifehacking, let alone two other equally awkward sounding terms.
My three week retreat since leaving my job is mostly devoted to this pursuit, in preparation for the start of school, but also simply because I would like to establish a number of new and positive habits before I am under the familiar, crushing burden of school work, at which point I will not be given an opportunity to affect new change in my life until the first term is complete.
Today I'm just going to review some of the items I have recently introduced into my daily routines and life, and how they have allowed me to become more efficient.
Biphasic Sleep
I have recently posted the first of three weeks worth of journals related to my experiment with biphasic sleep. The notion of biphasic sleep is that by sleeping in two intervals, rather than the more typical single interval, our sleep becomes more efficient, and thus we require less.
By introducing this routine into my life, I have been able to squeeze an extra two hours out of every day. It is pretty rare that you will be able to introduce a lifehack that makes you efficient enough to gain an extra two hours out of every day, no questions asked.
The counterpoint to this method of sleeping is that having an extra two hours of wakefulness may be a waste of time if you spend a lot of time sitting around bored. Personally I think boredom is the worst way to spend time imaginable, and so I diligently keep track of all my projects, ideas, and activities that I'm working on, and manage my tasks using the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology (more on this further down). Whenever I'm bored, I review my TODO list, my projects, and see what I can work on and go from there. If nothing jumps out at me, or I feel like I just need to relax and take a break, I'll read or play video games, and this is fine too.
The real key here is that if you are considering making this change in your life, be sure that you've got things with which to fill your time.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is an application that is available for Macs.
Before I go any further, I would like to preface this section by talking briefly about Macs (the computers). I firmly believe that Apple makes products with one of their goals being that the user experience should be paramount above all else. What this means is that using a Mac is almost always a pleasing experience. Not only have Apple designed their products this way, but they have built their operating system in a manner that allows and encourages third-party developers to design programs that adhere to these same principles. The end result is that you get a product that is very polished (not just superficially, but all the way up and down the user experience), and stays out of your way when you are using it.
I am not speaking as someone that has existed inside a Mac-only bubble his entire life - I grew up using Windows machines and went through my entire Computer Science undergrad using Windows machines. I lovingly purchased and cobbled together powerful PCs, managed and upgraded the machines, networked and tinkered with them, and hacked with them to make my experience with them as efficient as possible. Then I got a Mac and within a week realized that I would never again own another Windows machine unless absolutely necessary. Everything is that much easier, that much more efficient, and that much more pleasing (this last point is where most techies typically get hung up, making the assumption that is the only thing that Macs have going for them. That's fine with me, but it's inaccurate).
The Mac community is one that has developed around a shared appreciation for good design and efficiency, and as a result, Macs generally have a large amount of applications available that allow for these kinds of practices. Chief among those products is Quicksilver.
Quicksilver can be summarized as a keyboard launcher, but this understates how much it can do for you. In reality, Quicksilver allows you to do anything and everything rapidly and with just a few keystrokes. If I have a file on my desktop that I want to move to a folder on my computer called Adam/Cool_Stuff/Ninjas/Robot_Parrots_vs_Ninjas/, I can do this in two ways.
The standard way that many of us are used to doing is to click on the file on my desktop, hit cmd-x (ctrl-x for Windows users), then open a Finder or Explorer window, then click through our directory structure until we get to the appropriate folder, then hit cmd-v (ctrl-v for Windows users), pasting the file into the folder.
The Quicksilver way that I would accomplish this is to click the file on my desktop, hit cmd-escape (which brings up the Quicksilver window with my file selected), hit tab, type "move", hit tab again, and type "Robot_", and then enter. I don't need to type the whole folder name because Quicksilver narrows down the list of places I can send the file as I continue typing until I'm left with just one result. This is significantly faster, does not require using the mouse for a lot of the work (which is inefficient compared to the keyboard), and does not leave me with extra windows open that I then need to close.
This is a pretty mundane example. How about a cooler one? Let's say I'm reading an article online and I see a word I don't know. Typically you would open a new tab, head over to http://dictionary.com, type in the word, read the definition, close the tab, and resume reading. With Quicksilver, I highlight the word, type cmd-escape (which this time brings up my Quicksilver window with the highlighted word selected), tab, and then start typing "define". As soon as the results are narrowed down to "Define word", I hit enter and a small window pops open showing me the definition for my word. I can close this window quickly once finished by typing cmd-w.
For both of these examples, it is very easy to counter by saying "Yah, well, I have my own way of doing that, and it's plenty efficient, so there's no need for me to bother with Quicksilver". This is a fair counter-point, when you are looking at specific cases. However, the thing that makes Quicksilver not just handy, but essential, is that it provides an efficient way for you to do virtually everything you can possibly imagine, and always in a fairly intuitive manner. Additionally, Quicksilver provides plugins for virtually everything you can imagine. There's an iTunes plugin, so that you can change your volume, change to the next track, request a new song in iTunes DJ, and rate the current song, all with a minimal number of keystrokes and without having to leave the task you're currently working on. There's a websearch plugin so that you can use Quicksilver to instantly search whatever site you like with the search string of your choice, without having to go through the process of opening up a new tab, typing the website you want to search, finding the search box, entering the search string, and hitting enter.
Again, don't look at the specific examples and tell yourself that you can do that in a different way. The reason that Quicksilver shines is that it allows you to do almost everything this quickly and effectively. Once you start tinkering with it and adding new plugins, you'll be amazed that you were able to function without it.
Windows users - your best choice is something called Launchy (which I used at work). Launchy is better than nothing, but it doesn't have the modular design that Quicksilver does, meaning that it doesn't have anywhere near the comprehensiveness or number of plugins that Quicksilver does. Still, just adding a keyboard launcher can make you more efficient. Hitting alt-enter, and typing "excel" is generally going to be faster than using the mouse to click through a number times to get to Excel from the Start menu.
Getting Things Done (GTD)
Being organized and having effective time-management skills will both create more time for you. By having a clear head and an awareness of what tasks you have on your plate at any given time, you will be able to spend more time present in the moment, and waste less time trying to remember what that thing was that you had to do, and figure out what your next step is.
While many people will throw up their arms and claim "I'm just not good at being organized", this is a cop-out. Organization and time-management are both skills that can be practiced and cultivated. Although some people will naturally be more intuitive at applying these skills, there is no reason that you cannot learn new skills to organize yourself, and new methods for coping with everything that life demands of us.
Getting Things Done is a methodology conceived of by David Allen. This method provides a workflow and a system for dealing with every new piece of information that comes at you, tracking your projects and tasks, and completing things in a timely manner. My mentor at Refractions, Krista Stellar, had been practicing GTD for a while before I started working with her, and it was something that I learned largely through osmosis. In spite of the many excellent things she taught me, I think that the introduction to GTD was the most significant thing that I took away from my time spent working with her.
The reason for this is simply that the GTD methodology can be applied to almost everything that comes at you in life, and staying organized and on top of things will give you a relaxed sense of control. Stress robs us of our ability to think clearly, our ability to enjoy ourselves, and our ability to remain present. By eliminating stress related to poor organization, you will remove this time-sink from your life, and gain more time to focus on the things that are important.
If you are interested in reading more about GTD, you can click the appropriate tag on the cloud to the right, or check out Merlin Mann's 43Folders blog post here.
If taking on an entire new system seems like too much overhead right now, you can start by making two changes in your daily routine:
- Start maintaining a TODO list. Write down whatever you have to do, along with any information related to each item that is needed to accomplish it. When you finish an item, cross it off your TODO list. At the start of each day, create a new TODO list, and review your old TODO list. If there are items that you no longer care about, cross them off, and move over all of the remainingitems that did not get finished from the previous day's TODO list.
- Apply the two minute rule. Whenever a new piece of information or task comes at you, deal with it immediately in two minutes. If you can finish it right away in two minutes or less, get it done. If you cannot finish it in two minutes, but it is something you will do soon, add it to your TODO list. If it is something that you need to file away, do so. Whatever it is, deal with it in two minutes.
Remember the Milk (RTM)
Remember the milk is a web-application that integrates perfectly with the GTD methodology. Instead of needing to maintain a physical, or paper-based system, RTM allows you to maintain all of your tasks, projects, and todo lists online. Not only is all of this information available to you wherever you have access to the web, but it is also supported by an iPhone app and syncing software for other smartphones.
Although I won't go into detail about RTM today (that is a topic for another time), I think that this is the most significant evolution I have made to my personal system since I began blogging about it.
Multi-tasking
Everyone likes to talk about multi-tasking at work, but typically what they really mean is that they're browsing the web when they should be working on a spreadsheet. This kind of multi-tasking is inefficient, and should really be labelled "working with distractions". Although I completely appreciate the need for healthy distraction and allow myself that same luxury, this is not the type of multi-tasking that I'm referring to.
The type of multi-tasking I'm talking about doesn't even need to take place in front of a computer screen. When I'm referring to multi-tasking, I simply mean accomplishing more than one thing at once. If you take a few minutes to think about your daily routine, there are likely certain activities that you will do that include periods of time where you're not doing anything. Some excellent examples from my own life are:
- Walking to and from work
- Working out
- Biking
- Waiting for someone to meet me
- Getting ready in the morning
Working out represents a decent amount of downtime, as your mind is not really working throughout, and you also need to rest your muscles in between each set. I find that with a set of free-weights at home, I can usually complete emptying the dishwasher and folding my laundry by the time I am done my workout, simply by getting up and working on these chores in between each set.
By making sure that you have a notebook and pencil with you whenever you go out, and your iPod, you can ensure that you never have to sit around doing nothing while you wait for someone to meet you. You can work on brainstorming or planning out a project you have in mind with the notebook (and throw on music while you're doing this), or just spend the time listening to an audiobook or podcast.
You can make your morning routine more efficient by pouring yourself a bowl of cereal and bringing it with you into the bedroom while you pick out what you're going to wear for the day and do your hair. Some people have weird hang-ups about eating food anywhere but the kitchen and the dining room, but I don't think there's much validity to this (especially given that the bathroom is generally one of the cleanest places in your house. Let's not talk about your keyboard; you're not eating around that are you?). If your response to this is that you don't eat breakfast in the morning and you save time that way, then you should re-evaluate your priorities. Saving time in the morning at the expense of your health is the wrong way to go - eat your breakfast, and make time for it by multi-tasking.
Be Efficient
So those are some of the important lifehacks that I've taken on board, both recently and in the not-too-distant past. I recommend giving any of these a shot if you ever find yourself wishing that you had more time. Choose one of these that compels you, and commit yourself to trying it out for two weeks to see if it works for you. Whatever you do, make sure you keep one thing in mind: if you find yourself complaining about being bored, you are not allowed to complain about not having enough time.