October 21, 2012 § Leave a comment
The last few weeks? Busy busy busy. And it’s not the kind of busy that has me rushing from one meeting to another. It’s the kind of busy that has me shackled to my desk, with a million little blurbs of copy to write. This is no small feat, considering I work in an open-plan office that is rife with distractions.
Earphones are the office worker’s salve for the open-plan epidemic that plagues many workplaces. I would even go as far as saying it’s an absolute essential these days. I read somewhere that the brain is naturally predisposed to zero in on voices, so even when you’re reading or writing, the brain will gravitate to the voices it hears nearby. Add that to the other noise around you, and it becomes a bit of a challenge to truly focus. What the mind needs is a stimulus shelter. This is where earphones and music come in handy.
Now I don’t have to tell you that music is a great way to drown out office noise, improve mood and increase productivity. Some people have set playlists for specific tasks, but I just kind of wing it. When I’m particularly busy, I don’t want to bother with endless fiddling with my iTunes, deciding what song to play next, so I’m really glad I found 8tracks.
8tracks is a free social music app on the web or on your mobile device where you can stream playlists that users create for every mood. Type in a genre, an artist, or even a keyword and 8tracks will generate a list of playlists you can choose from. Follow people whose musical taste you love, create your own playlists, and share them on your social networks. I can just leave it on, enjoy the music, and get working on that mountain of copy. I’ve been on 8tracks for a few months now and its gotten me through a lot of stressful work days. I haven’t made any playlists yet, but you can follow me and check out some of the people I follow.
Any suggestions on who else I should follow? Drop me a line here!
September 17, 2012 § Leave a comment
I am one of those people that are forever making lists. I make the lists, cross a few things off it, then I make new lists. I write them on little scraps of paper, I write them on my notebooks, and I write them on my gazillion apps. (I kinda wish there was an app to manage all my other to-do apps.)
Why I find comfort in making lists and why making my to-do list takes up half a day will be a topic for another post. But what I wanted to write about today is an app called Clear.
Clear is a to-do app that takes full advantage of the gestures feature on the iPhone. Pull down or up to create a new item, swipe right to mark as done, swipe left to delete — all the while giving each item its own place in a spectrum of color to live in. That makes it way more pleasing to look at than a plain white list with a tick-box, which I suppose could help motivate you into at least looking at your list. There’s nothing magical about Clear. Just an app that does what it does, but boy, it sure does look pretty doing it.
Clear turns your to-do list from a cold, austere thing impatiently tapping its foot into a warm and pleasant guide, if you will, to making your day more productive.
Clear is available for $2.99 on the app store.