Kolz Blog

The trite wisdom of contemporary folklore instructs us that the arrival of the New Year is a time to reflect on the achievements of the preceding 365 days and to bear down and “resolve” to achieve more in those to come. Over time, we learn what a hydra-headed beast this is: [Read more]

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

We've already seen Dell's new Latitude XT convertible tablet first hand, but those wanting to see just how it stacks up to some of its main competition may want to head over to Nathan's Daily Grind blog, which has a batch of pics comparing it to Lenovo's similar (and cheaper) X61T tablet. [Read more]

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds I received my contributor copy of Garr Reynolds’s Presentation Zen book last week and proceeded to devour it over the weekend. A fuller review is coming to this space soon, because this is the book about presentations that’s needed to be written for years, and it’s just fantastic. Best of all it’s not another recipe book about “how to make slides” — this is about re-imagining how your entire presentation will work together as a persuasive and integrated show, from conception through delivery. Awesome. Anyhow, with my inaugural Macworld talk looming on the horizon (T-minus 16 days, thanks), I’ve been inspired by Garr’s book (and the top-notch site on which it’s based) to, among other things, try revamping the approach to how slides fit in to my overall show. As I said on the Twitter, that starts with shit-canning the PowerPoint-y Keynote templates I’ve previously torn up and pasted together for stuff like Inbox Zero (here’s the slides for that one, which Garr was kind enough to feature in his book). But, now, rather than strictly trying to reinvent the wheel, I have a quest. A quest for a crazy-simple, design-centric Keynote template that’s more about composition than gradients and 3-D bullet points. Ever heard of The Rule of Thirds? Yeah, you probably have. Like the wikipedia article says:

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. [Read more]

The way to keep a New Year’s resolution is to pick a good goal and then overhaul your life to in order to meet it. Duh. But some of you are saying, hold it, my goal isn’t big enough to require an overhaul of my life. Maybe your goal is to, say, clean out your closet [Read more]

By Greg Go I just finished reading Leo Babauta's productivity book Zen To Done. Leo is the man behind Zen Habits, a blog that helps people tackle their todo lists and live stress-free productive lives. [Read more]

A few ways to use conditional formatting on cells in your Excel worksheet. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.) [Read more]

An overview of the different options that WordArt allows you to apply to your text. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.) [Read more]

Happy new year's eve! What a wonderful day/week to think about your legacy. What mark do you want to leave on your organization, family, friends, community - [Read more]

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If keeping a cleaner household is on your list of things to do for 2008, you might want to get started by building up a must-have list of cleaning equipment. Real Simple magazine suggests 22 items that belong in your cleaning kit. You'll need an easy-to-tote caddy that can store all your wares, which should include disinfecting wipes for countertops, squeegees for shower doors and [Read more]

Excel allows you to modify virtually all aspects of its user interface. One of the things you can change is the images used for almost all toolbar buttons. This tip explains how easy it is to change button images. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.) [Read more]

Those of you tracking the data corruption issue which was reported last week will be interested to know that the Knowledge Base article outlining the issue has been updated. The update provides more details on how the issue occurs and reassures users that computer backup and restore is not affected. [Read more]

Filed under: Other hardware, Internet While the corporate IT world has long had access to remotely-controlled power for servers and data centers, it's pretty cutting-edge stuff for [Read more]

If you seem to have trouble waking up in the morning, you're not alone. The How to Wake Up Early website is dedicated to tips and tricks to prevent you from oversleeping and to get the most out of your day. [Read more]

Got a pressing headache? How about an aching sunburn? Prevention magazine asked seven experts for their home remedies to cure common health concerns. [Read more]

Conditional formatting is very powerful, but at some point you may want to make the formatting "unconditional." In other words, you might want to remove the conditions on which the formatting is based [Read more]

If you know the secret, you can use actual words as "bullets" in a bulleted list. The built-in bulleted lists in Word aren't the way to achieve what you want to do, and this tip explains why. [Read more]

There are only two more days left in 2007, and perhaps you’ve been looking forward to a fresh new year without any blemishes for a while now. Many people like the idea of having a brand new year to dream about and hope for, one to resolve to take up good habits and abandon bad habits. Some people have dreams of changing their lives completely, or just tweaking certain parts of it. But how do you get started? Marina over at Sufficient Thrust has created the Ultimate Guide to New Years Resolutions which is a must read for any of you who have trouble making resolutions that are measurable, or if you have trouble making resolutions that you can stick to. Your dear hostess on this here blog has problems in both areas so you can bet she’ll be consulting this guide carefully in the coming days so that she can hit 2008 running, with goals that she will be able to put a check mark beside in a year’s time. [Read more]

As the New Year approaches, American workers will resolve to escape the corporate confines. But often they retreat to a home office that is wedged into a corner of the living room, crammed into a closet, or spread atop the dining room table. Not only is such an arrangement poor utilization of workspace, it often [...]

Shadow Copy (or the Volume Snapshot Service (VSS)) is a feature in Windows Server 2003 (and Windows Home Server RTM) that allows automated or manual snapshots of files and folders to be taken at specific points in time. (More here). It’s an additional backup feature within Windows Server (and all modern versions of Windows), but is not required for Windows Home Server backups to work. Some users are very familiar with using VSS on a day to day basis, and if they purchase a HP MediaSmart Server, they will see that the unit ships with Shadow Copy disabled for some reason. Enabling it, however is relatively straightforward. Step 1: One a home computer, connect to your home server using Remote Desktop Connection and log-in using your Administrator user name and password. On Windows XP, Remote Desktop Connection is accessed via Start > All Programs >Accessories > Communications > Remote Desktop Connection. On Windows Vista, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection. Step 2: Your home server desktop will open. Go to Start > My Computer to open up Windows Explorer Step 3: Right click on your D: Data folder and select Properties. [Read more]

2007 was a fantastic year for the tech industry, but it did come with a number of unfortunate events and trends. Here are ten industry landmarks that left us wanting.

Say goodbye to 2007 with the ten greatest tips of the year.

That’s the way it is. The New Year means a new pile of all the good stuff: more opportunities to further career, another chance at love, and maybe even a new outlook in life. If you’ve been in the dumps, failed at your every attempt at promotion, or just plain depressed, then you better get a grip on the first day of January, because it’s time you get your life back on track. (more…)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Certain winners on Amazon's "Best of 2007" list of could've been seen coming a mile away, but in the top sales category we were just a little surprised to see the Canon PowerShot A570 IS topping the list of electronics, and Nokia's Internet Tablet topping out computers (unclear if that counts as the N800 or N810 or both). [Read more]

It’s called the Pareto Principle: in its simplest form, it means that 80% of your time is spent doing 20% of your work. It has seemingly become fashionable to apply the Pareto Principle to every conceivable activity and outcome, no matter its suitability. I’ve become convinced that it doesn't work in every situation. What if we threw out the Pareto Principle? What if we said, it’s not about the 80% or the 20%? What if we set a goal of spending 50% of our time on the truly important things in our personal and work lives? I bet some of you are thinking, “Why not a goal of 100%? I've read that our goal should be to spend all of our time at work on actual work." Well, yeah… wouldn’t it be great if we could do that? I simply don't think it's practical. If you’re like most folks, however, you currently don’t spend anywhere near 50% of your time on the really important stuff. You probably spend a lot of time “putting out fires” because you don’t make time for things before they turn from important to urgent, or you try to exercise control over things that are beyond your control. When it comes right down to time management and getting things done, your to-do list basically falls into 4 distinct categories:

1. Pressing (demanding your immediate attention) and significant (meaningful to you).
2. Significant but not pressing.
3. Pressing but not significant.
4. Not pressing and not significant.

What if we spent 50% of our time working on those things that are significant but not pressing (#2 above). That would mean working on things before there’s a deadline looming, handling things before they become crises, and identifying and focusing on what's truly important to us – those things that will provide the greatest returns in our lives. But some things are both pressing and significant, so let’s spend 30% of our time in dealing with important crises (#1 above). [Read more]

Home officers often march to the beat of a different CEO. We are our own bosses. We look at work — and life — differently than traditionally housed (or cubed?) workers. That view is part nature, part nurture. It’s part of our DNA, but it’s also a constantly evolving part of our reality. Only if we have our [...]

Here’s a video a found on youtube.com about Word 2007 Digital Signatures. Check it out.

Microsoft Windows Vista Tips - Securing Microsoft Office Word 2007 documents with Digital Signatures - When you receive a document that has been signed by someone you know, you are more likely to trust the contents than those of a document that has not been signed, [Read more]

If your information were calories, what would you look like? OK, I need to clear something up… Despite how orgasmic it makes Gawker feel, their ace of spades insult from my recent NY Times piece is a partial misquote: “Mr. Ferriss says he gets most of his news by asking waiters.” [Read more]

It’s been an amazing year here at Zen Habits. From starting out with only two readers (my wife and my mom) in January 2007 to today, when Zen Habits has more thank 26K subscribers and is one of the Top 100 blogs … I cannot put in words how overwhelmed I am by all of you, the readers of Zen Habits. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. As it is impossible to avoid reading “Best of” posts this time of year, I figured that there’s no sense in resisting … and so, for my new readers and as a review for older readers, I present the Best of Zen Habits, 2007 edition. January Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox Zen Mind: How to Declutter Baby Makes Eight: Raising Six Kids - Part 1 3 Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk February Top 20 Motivation Hacks How NOT to Multi-task: Work Simpler and Saner Edit Your Life, Part 1: Commitments How I Ended My Affair with the Credit Card (and Why I Use Cash) Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT) March I moved the site from Blogger to WordPress (with a new domain name) in the middle of March. The Art of Doing Nothing 10 Habits to Develop for Financial Stability and Success Cheap but great dates How to NOT do everything on your to-do list April In this month, subscribers more than doubled, from 2,374 to over 5,000. Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week Inbox Master: Get All Your Inboxes to Zero, and Have Fewer Inboxes Top 15 Diet Hacks May Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity Beginner’s Guide to Running How to Be a Great Dad 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It June 50 Ways to Be Romantic on the Cheap A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks The Getting Things Done (GTD) FAQ A Guide to Escaping Materialism and Finding Happiness July How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or, Why Writing It Down Doesn’t Actually Get It Done 5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower 18 Practical Tips for Living the Golden Rule 21 Strategies for Creating an Emergency Fund, and Why It’s Critical August A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Home How to Become a Vegetarian, the Easy Way [Read more]

As we approach the end of the year and the beginning of the next, I find myself reflecting on where I am and what I'm grateful for. One thing for which I've always been grateful is having this wonderful job as a coach at The David Allen Company. The story of how I became a workflow coach is a great example of the power of the reticular filter in action. The reticular filter is that part of our brains that filters in and out what matters most and least to us, respectively (see here for more about the reticular filter.) Over the course of my previous professional experience I had often wondered if I should become a coach, but I'd never really verbalized my thoughts or taken any actions to discover more. I didn't have the cajones to jump out of the the track I'd been in for years into the world of coaching. Then, one day, I was talking with my wife, AnneLise, about career musings and shared with her that I was interested in investigating a career in coaching. She agreed, saying, "Of course you should be a coach. You're already an amazing coach." Hearing her reflect back to me what I probably already knew deep down inside, gave me the courage to embrace that possibility and start taking actions toward becoming a coach. And suddenly my reticular started filtering away... Just a few days after that, in my search to learn more about the world of coaching, I volunteered to be coached in an all-day integral coaching course at a nearby coaching school. My coach was supportive, sensitive and objective. She took me through several exercises in which I created my vision of what my experience of my life would be working as a coach - in other words, we created not just a successful outcome statement, [Read more]

Posted in The Simple Life A successful life doesn’t happen by accident. A successful life is the result of deliberate focus of your time, energy and thoughts towards what you want to accomplish. Rather than accepting what comes along as unavoidable use these seven keys to create a successful life today.

1. Simplicity – Simplify your life. Having “too much” takes energy from productive actions. Whether it’s too many commitments, too many possessions, or too many calories, you need to trim these things back to a manageable level. The you will have more energy and time for the goals you are trying to accomplish. In order to create a successful life, you will have to make room for it first.
2. Excellence – Always give your best your best effort. Don’t settle for second best in your endeavours. You may have to evaluate how you spend your time or money. You might have to redirect the extra energy freed up by simplifying life.
3. Priorities – You can spend your days responding to the next crisis that grabs your attention or you can set priorities to using your time effectively. You need to know what is important in moving your towards your goals. Then, eliminate those things that prevent you from meeting your priorities.
4. Energy – A lack of energy will hold you back. Once you have simplified, build on that. For example, once you have eliminated any unnecessary tasks, see which of the remaining tasks can be delegated to someone else. Look from the most efficient ways to process all that must be completed. [Read more]