It’s easy. Take an index card, write about 3-5 different things that you want to accomplish today, and it’ll be a perpetual reminder of what you need to get done. I generally keep all my todo’s in a PDA, but once I put it away, it’s easy to forget about a task without constant checking. A simple index card in your field of vision can be a great motivator. It makes me want to get things done just so I can cross them off.
Index Card Todo List
30 April 2008
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Getting Stuff Done | Tagged: Index Cards, Todo | 
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Posted by paperdan
Sleeping
29 April 2008Everyone should have a good idea of how much sleep they need. I’ve been trying to cut coffee from my diet completely, and as a result, some days, I just can’t do any more work than what I’ve already done. Here’s a hint about what to do if your body’s tired and you can’t think straight anymore: get some rest. I know, nothing too earth shattering there. But, if your mind is exhausted, it’s silly to think that pumping yourself full of caffeine will magically get all your neurons firing like normal.
I know, I know, some days, you can’t afford to stop working. That happens to all of us, and we learn to deal. If I know I have something really important to get done, the adrenaline will sometimes be enough to keep me going through the night. On others, it’s just really tough to get through. You need to make a decision then. Are you going to push through or get some sleep? I find that a short nap can rejuvenate me enough so that even if I lost 1 hour to the nap, I more than make up for it through my increase in productivity. The worst feeling is trying to push through tiredness only to find that it took you 2 hours to accomplish what would normally take you 45 minutes with a clear head. Additionally, when you finally *do* make it to bed, you’re probably only getting a few hours, so your sleep feels lousy anyways. Make the decision when you notice a steep drop in your alertness, and you’ll be able to avoid nasty stretches of doing-nothingness.
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Memory | 
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Posted by paperdan
Standing Up
27 April 2008Before you run and grab another cup of coffee or tea to wake up, try standing up and doing your work. This tactic won’t work if you need to do a lot of writing or typing, but if you’re reading something boring that is causing you to constantly nod off, standing up makes it pretty difficult to doze off. Additionally, it’ll help with circulation. If you have a really tall table that normally uses bar stools, you can use that as a nice surface for writing too.
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Thoughts | Tagged: Studying | 
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Posted by paperdan
Business Cards
27 April 2008After a day of long interviews, I usually wind up with a stack of business cards. Since my memory isn’t photographic, after I receive the business card, I’ll usually jot a few things down on it about the interview. Of course, don’t do this in sight of the person that gave you the card - you want to seem like you magically remember moments of the conversation. Then, when you go to write thank you letters, you can just reference the business card, which will have the contact information as well as a few handy facts.
You can also do this outside of interview settings. It would be useful anytime you receive a business card: conventions, meetings, weddings, etc. Nicknames that a person prefers would also be good to note.
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Circa PDA
27 April 2008An awesome paper-based way to arrange information that you might typically find in a PDA:
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Posted by paperdan
Contradictory
27 April 2008I just thought about how contradictory the title of this site is considering that everything I write is through an electronic method. I thought about writing things on paper and then scanning them in . . . but that’s a lot of work too.
I’ll just learn to accept the contradiction.
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Posted by paperdan
Printing Paper
27 April 2008Lifehacker has a good link to a site where you can print your own paper: http://lifehacker.com/384332/print-your-own-ruled-paper
Additionally, if you want to get fancy, you can find a plethora of templates to print paper from diyplanner: http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official
Why even bother printing your own paper? For starters, notebook paper is pretty flimsy, so if you want to use something like a fountain pen or a broad rollerball, you’re probably going to get a lot of bleed-through to the other side. Copy paper is thicker, so it’ll be able to take pens with more ink without trouble. Additionally, so of us have access to large amounts of free printing. Printing these out would eliminate the need to purchase new paper.
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Posted by paperdan
Domain Search
26 April 2008It’s amazing how many domain names I tried to get under wordpress that were already taken. For example, dwrite.wordpress.com was taken, danno.wordpress.com was taken, danchoi.wordpress.com was taken. Sad. Some of the sites I tried didn’t have any content. They were just dead sites. There should be a way to release sites that have been idle for too long. Domain names expire in general, but it’s not clear if they do when the site hosting the domain is a big site like wordpress or blogger.
Additionally, I’m jealous of people who acquired their firstlastname@gmail.com gmail address. Lucky folks.
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Posted by paperdan
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