Getting Things Done

Lifehacking is a portmanteau term coined by Danny O’Brien. He linked together the words “life” and “hacks” and created a phrase that enable to describe any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing. Lifehacks are basically anything that is a solution to an everyday problem. The term is used to describe solutions to getting organized, being more creative, planning things our, time management, etc. If you're like me and find it hard to work with deadlines and get things organized, then you'll find this post to be quite helpful. With the aid of some of the links below, you can use them to plan and organize various things. Not only does it help you to be more creative, it makes you more efficient. For a more in-depth article on Lifehacking, click here.

First of all, you would want to look at sites such as
Lifehacker, To-Done, Lifehack.org, D*I*Y Planner , 43Folders for an updated collection of thoughts, writings, tips, tricks and information on personal productivity, work/life balance ultimately in the hopes of getting things done.

Websites
With the advent and spreading of Web 2.0 websites, more and more productivity websites have emerged. Some examples of such websites are
30Boxes.com – Handy online calendar
43things.com - You might find you have some important and some frivolous goals. You’ve got space for 43 Things on your list.
Remember The Milk – A free online to-do list that comes with reminders and tonnes of other features.
Backpack It - Organize to do lists, notes, images, and photos.
HipCal - Online calendar with to-do lists, alerts, address book and group calendars (join a group for your classes at school or create a group for a club, project team, or group of friends)
PocketMod - Carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish. PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card. It is hard to describe just how incredibly useful the PocketMod is. It's best that you just dive in and create one.

Other
Rest assured that you can plan and organize whatever you need/want done with these software.
Rainlendar – Fully skinnable desktop calendar that has a to-do list and an Event list.
GettingThingsDone Wiki - A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided up into neat little chunks, but it encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather than sequentially: if you like, a non-linear blog analogue that binds the individual microcontent items into a cohesive whole. It is a client side wiki, and is really handy in manging a variety of tasks and to-do notes.

Note that these are just a few of the many resources i have listed here. I will update them as I see more helpful links and websites.

The 99th Post

ZZzzzzzz.. My blog hasn't been updated in a while :( Well this is because i've been busy with a whole lot of things (this is becoming a trademark). But dont' fear, i've found some spare time to jot down some interesting finds and opinions. Althought it says my last entry was on January the 27th, this is not so true; I logged in quite a couple of times, clicked Write New Post and was too tired to strings words together to write in an entry. Well that's that.
We're in the middle of February and some exciting things have happened. I'll list them in no particular order

* Console wars : Nintendo Revolution gossip, Playstation 3 Launch Date
* Silkroad : A fun free MMoRPG
* WoW Weather Effects patch infomation
* Desktop modding & some really handy apps

Alot has been happening concerning the Nintendo Revolution. Earlier this month, we saw the leak of concept logos for the Nintendo Revolution meant for developers, followed by scanned screens of a Nintendo catalog showing the evolution of the Nintendo controller. Based on the news we've seen on the media so far, there certainly is a lot of hype about Nintendo's upcoming console. Recently, a user by the name of 'MicrosoftIsDumbI' posted a lengthy but well argued post on the Gamespot forums, his post contained a well debated opinion, based on facts and quotes from the Nintendo main men, about where the Revolution was going. In my opinion, if what was written in his post is true (we'll have to wait and see what happens at E3, where the Revolution will be exhibited) then Nintendo's new console would be the most 'fun' and revolutionary console ever made. Click here to read the thread on the Gamespot forums.

For those of you that can't be bothered reading all that; he was trying to say that the Revolution will change the way we game – he claimed that the Revolution contained a projector that would allow us to project games onto walls and other surfaces, when not plugged into the TV. Quite a 'Nintendo' move, in my opinion. This is possibly true as the console is not rectangular in shape, but slopes down when positioned vertically. Not only did the person claim that the console had a projector inside it, quotes from former a former Nintendo president showed his vision for the future (3d projected gaming), and further quotes stressed the importance of this vision. The main question is however, will the Revolution appeal to gamers? It certainly is worth it! As it is a good 150$ cheaper than the X360 and around 300$ cheaper that the rumoured cost of a PS3 (500$).

Rumours have been going around that the Playstation 3 will probably be hitting the streets on September 21st in the US, September 16th in Japan, and include a new XBox Live-alike system - HUB. The Playstation HUB is Sony's take on XBox Live, it will include identical facilities that are provided in XBox Live, such as IM, downloadable media and online gameplay.

I'm all for the XBox 360, although i had some doubts about the Xbox360 while it was being released, it proved to be an all-round awesome console. I bet all the PS3 fanboys out there are probably getting more sceptical about the whole PS3 vs X360 topic as i was just reading that it will cost 900$! Click here to read the PDF containing the approximate cost of all the components that are said to be in the PS3. That much of money would get you some decent PC upgrades such as the nVidia 7800GT (*the* best graphics card in the market, it seems) Considering what Sony's trying to get under the hood of this thing $900 sounds reasonable, but since almost all game companies always sell their consoles at a loss at launch, we shouldn't have to worry too much about coughing up about a grand for a PS3. Eh, I'd only pay about six or seven hundred at most.

The other thing I've been playing/doing/addicted to (delete appropriately) is Silkroad. Silkroad is a free MmoRPG made by Korean game developers Joymax. The aim of the game is basically to level up (at max, it would take you around 3 days to hit lvl 20) by doing quests, finding items, spec-ing your character to some of the many forces/weapons in the game and eventually becoming either a Thief, Hunter or a Trader. Thieves, as you would guess, thiev or rob (is it? :P) stuff of traders. Traders walk or run or trade (-.-) between towns and sell items to make a profit. Hunters, on the other hand, protect Traders, and so on and so forth.

The only downfall about the game is it's lack of proper English. Other than that, it is quite addictive, and could possibly be the first WoW cure (Its a cure for MmoRPG's in general, that we need)

While on the topic of MmoRPGs, World of Warcraft, or more commonly a game that has well over 5 million addicts (couldn't find a better adjective) is on its endless march towards perfecting and balancing their hugely successful game. Blizzard is putting the final touches on the upcoming 1.10 patch, due some time in the near future. The three main adjustments in the patch are changes in the design of the Priest talent tree, the option to upgrade blue dungeon armor sets and finally – weather effects. No better way than to make the game lag even more on our machines. Passing through Ironforge is already difficult , but hey, doing so while raining and/or snowing wouldn't be a problem right? Wrong. But wait, there's hope. In an interview with 1up.com, WoW Lead designer Jeff Kaplan stated that “the option will be there to turn them off if that's what you prefer. “

For those of you that happen to be reading this post and do play WoW, catch me on the Medivh server in the near future.

Finally, my desktop has gone through tonnes of changes. Click here to see it in its current state. Some stuff you would want to look at or get if you're in to desktop modding:

Luna Element 5 – Excellent theme that resembles Windows Vista

Rainlendar – Skinnable calendar tool with to-do list and events list

Lclock – Change the dull look of the default Windows clock to make it look like the Longhorn clock