For those of us who spend many long hours at the computer, speed and fluidity of navigation are essential. Every time you move your hands to perform some banal task like minimizing a window, precious time slips away and your flow is disrupted. Frustrating.

The bane of my existence (at a computer, at least) has been minimizing windows. Something is behind that open window, and it’s important! I don’t have time (read: patience) to shuffle around and explore my options for getting to it. I need something immediate.

So I created a tiny Windows program that turns your mouse’s scroll wheel into a minimize button. It’s fast, superlightweight, and does NOT do anything silly like write to the registry or check for updates every 10 minutes.

A debate rages as to whether autism should be considered a disability or a gift. Some autistic people exhibit intense fascination with numbers, words, and patterns. Perhaps they have a neurological distinction that makes them truly special, not just “special” in the subtly condescending sense of the word. Of course, their advantage comes at the expense of social and communicative ability, making their integration into society a difficult one.

One area of potential advantage is hyperlexia, where certain autistic children are able to recognize words at an exceptionally early age. I’d like to examine ways to simulate hyperlexia in those of us lacking the enigmatic factors of autism. While I will never look at words with the same captivation of a true hyperlexic, I hope I can mimic the effect closely. Here are my thoughts and research on the subject.

We all know the phrase “Work smarter, not harder”. The more I think about it, the more it strikes me as an empty buzz phrase. “Ooh, you mean I don’t have to work as hard if I buy your [product]? I’ll take two!”

The truth is we’re all working about as intelligently as our brains will allow. Sure someone can inform us of new, more efficient ways of doing things, but that’s only part of the equation. Think of any successful person. Anyone. Chances are they owe more of their success to their efforts than their intelligence. “10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration,” right?

I’m sold on the virtues of hard work. Hopefully you are too. Now we just need a way to work our butts off and not let it ruin our lives; we need to be quality workaholics. Here’s my take on what it takes.

“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.”

Leonardo da Vinci, if you didn’t already know, was a painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, and apparently, quite a workaholic. To read his list of accomplishments aloud requires several deep, replenishing breaths. Notable in his accomplishments was the conceptualization of flying machines – airplanes – 400 years before their manufacture.

Now, I’ve built some wicked paper airplanes, but that’s it. My accomplishments feel a little hollow in comparison. This got me thinking. Why is it that some people can accomplish so much? What experiences spur them? What circumstances enable them? In looking for the answer, I drew up a list of people I consider prolific. Then I searched for clues in biographies and online. Here are the results.

My father grew up a dirt farmer in Eastern Europe. The periods between wars were never long; soon his rural corner of the world was conquered by fascist forces. He was issued a new name, papers, and expected to speak a new language. A few years later, communist forces claimed the area. He was issued army boots and religious beliefs at the barrel of a gun.

He’d had enough.

Today I want to tear a whole page of excuses from your personal phrase book.

Do you know what a post hoc fallacy is? It is an incorrect assumption made because one thing happens after another. For example, one might think winter itself creates flowers, because flowers grow after winter. A number of things are responsible for spring flowers, but winter is the least of them.

Motivation suffers from a post hoc fallacy. Many people assume motivation is required to get things done. This is not true. Thinking like this leaves us functionally impotent.

Personal outsourcing is amidst a stint as the It-girl of productivity. Everywhere you look people are trumpeting the idea of having someone else do your work, often for pennies on the dollar. What’s not to love? Right?

Well, “you get what you pay for” is an immutable law of the Universe, and with personal outsourcing there’s no exception. Whether you pay in dollars or hours, you pay nevertheless. Thinking I had been enlightened to a loophole in the law, I tried and tried again to make a relationship with an assistant work. This article will outline some of the laughably bad experiences, identify what went wrong, and look at what actually works.

Everyone dreams of being their own boss. The problem is that bosses are supposed to be hard-driving jerks who get maximum output from their employees. When no one is breathing down your neck, you quickly find yourself prone to being a lazy ass rather than a demanding jerk. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s simply physiological; your body senses the absence of a whip-cracking overlord and starts conserving calories. However, when this natural inclination to sloth hampers the achievement of your goals, it’s time to make the transition from ass to jerk and get slave driving.

I love getting things done. And I love tracking all those things that have yet to be accomplished; it makes me feel so very productive. The problem is that feeling productive isn’t being productive. Like many, I spent years trying to fine tune David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) task management system to my exact specifications, eventually learning that feeling productive can be the best way to procrastinate. Nevertheless, a bit of tracking is important to remind you what needs to be accomplished. So here now is how I track my tasks without any needless prepping of supplies, tools, hacks, or other things that stand in the way of progress.

Interacting with a call centre is like peering through a straw, you can somewhat see what’s going on through the hole but can’t make out the entire picture. As a result the public has a very hard time dealing with call centres due to a lack of understanding. That is unless someone in the know tells you how. So here’s how to get what you want from a call centre.