Lifehacking: How to Do More – of Nearly Everything – with Less

Since great swaths of the World Wide Web were developed by freelance geeks, it should come as no surprise that a robust community of writers and techies have devoted page upon page to maximizing their productivity and applying the lessons learned to their—and your—entire lives.

The productivity genre offers publishing managers numerous “hacks” that can improve productivity online or off. The king of the hill, offering more than a dozen posts daily and a good view of the rest of the field, is Lifehacker, part of Nick Denton’s Gawker blog empire. It’s heavy on free downloads for users of Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems, as well as cross-platform and Web-based solutions that improve workflow with e-mail, websurfing, blogging, and document-sharing. Its editors have created their own open source programs to add to Google’s application suite (e.g., “Better Gmail”).

Managers of far-flung freelance teams may enjoying browsing it by subject – see what its archives have to offer on “group” or “conference”. The editors even suggest that they know there’s more to life than computers; every now and then they’ll throw in potpourri like “Three Plants That Give You Better Indoor Air” or a public speaking tip.

Many in the world of lifehacking drew their first breath of inspiration from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. For a time, no greater GTD acolyte than Merlin Mann bestrode the Web; his site 43 Folders is named for Allen’s calendar folder system (31 days + 12 months).

He has recently broadened his focus and rededicated 43 Folders to “finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.” But his archives remain chock full of handy guides to creating better presentations or designing systems to, well, get things done. He’s now combined those tips with the occasional reminder that spending all day reading about productivity is not all that productive, and a newfound interest in choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Relatively few productivity “hacks” are specifically intended for publications managers, and the sites display a technology fetish that’s not for everyone. But a quick review of their offerings will often yield a trick or download that will smooth out the edges of your meeting or workday, and virtually everything is applicable to a world dominated by knowledge workers in front of screens.