Getting Started Is Everything [Procrastination]

Nothing's better than sinking your teeth into a satisfying after-hours side project—or what I guess most people may just call a hobby. But after 10 hours at work, it's not always easy to muster the energy to switch off your TV and go to work on your project. The trick I use is simple, self-evident, and it works. Getting started is everything.

Here's a scenario ripped from the headlines (of my life):

It's a Wednesday night. I'm exhausted from a bad night of sleep and a long day of work. I'm hungry, so I make some food and eat while catching up on an episode of The Walking Dead (which is relatively awful). I eat, I finish the episode, and suddenly all the momentum I'd planned to carry into working on my side project that night has seeped out of my pores, absorbed by couch cushions. Shit.

Shit.

Maybe, instead of working on my passion project, I should just keep catching up on The Walking Dead, even though I'm not actually enjoying it! I'm already convinced that continuing on my current self-destructive downward spiral is the only option I've got the energy for, so this seems like the inevitable outcome of my night.

But damn it, I should really do some work. It's not even work. It's a hobby I enjoy—far more than I enjoy watching a show about zombies that's actually a tedious soap opera that happens to occasionally have a zombie in it. And I know that tomorrow, I'll absolutely regret that I spent hours watching people argue about how to be civilized when zombies want to eat you instead of actually making something.

At this point, I make a deal with myself that makes all the difference. I've finished eating, and I've finished the episode I watched with dinner. Instead of jumping into the next episode, I convince myself to spend ten minutes on my project. Just ten minutes. Enough time to accomplish one small task. Then, after that ten minutes is up, I can go back to zombies, guilt-free, if I so choose.

The beautiful thing is, I almost never do. Getting started is everything, and once I've accomplished one small task, I'm ready (and excited) to tackle another. And another. And that's how, instead of wasting my night on TV that I'm not that into, I actually get something done.

It doesn't always work that way, but it doesn't have to. Even if all I did was ten minutes of work and then went back to zombies (which happens on occasion), I still knocked out one small task. But more often than not, finishing 10 minutes of work launches me into an enjoyable hour or two of progress. Better luck next time, zombies.

This isn't a new idea by any means, but having successfully employed it recently, I felt like talking about it. If you've got your own tried and true method for getting to work when you're not exactly excited bursting with energy or overflowing with excitement at the prospect, we'd love to hear it in the comments.

Favs Keeps Track of Everything You Like, Wherever You Like It [Mac Downloads]

OS X: If you participate in social media, chances are you like or favorite a few things as you travel the internet. When you start marking your preferences on different sites it can be hard to keep track of them all. Favs is a simple app that aggregates all your favorites across many sites so you can view them from one convenient interface.

You can think of Favs kind of like a version of Instapaper that pulls content from your social media accounts rather than asks you to push content to its own service. It offers the advantage of allowing you to save things you want to remember or look at later without really changing how you do that. You're already liking numerous articles, videos, songs, and other things, so Favs just helps you find them more easily.

To set it up you just add whatever social media accounts you want to add and it'll load your favorites in a few seconds. It supports a lot of different services, such as Delicious, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, and even Instapaper itself. You can view each account individually or see everything in a unified inbox-like view. What would be really nice is if you could create smart lists containing groups of accounts so you could view all your video favorites, article favorites, or music favorites (for example). Without that feature it's still a pretty cool app. Although a bit more expensive than we'd like to see ($5), Favs is a great way to keep track of everything you discover and like online.

Apple’s New iPad: Everything You Need to Know

 

Well, it appears that the long wait for what the next, “magical” Apple device will entail is now over. We know all the details, and rather to waste your productive time trying to figure it all out from different places, here is what Apple’s new iPad will bring you.

The new iPad features a Retina Display that is 2048×1536. That contains 3.1 million pixels on a 9.7? display.The new iPad will come in either Black or White.Support for Bluetooth 4.0.New A5X processor that delivers dual-core processing and quad-core graphics. The A5X is said to be 2 times faster than Tegra 3.The new display will bring 44% better color saturation than that of the iPad 2.The new iPad is a tad thicker (.37 compared to .34 inch) is a tad heavier (1.44 compared to 1.44 pounds). The 4G models are slightly heavier.Up to 10 hours of battery, 9 hours with 4G.AirPlay mirroring to the new Apple TV at 1080p.New iSight camera with a 5 element lense at 5MP. It includes auto-exposure and auto-focus. It’s basically the same setup as the iPhone 4's camera.The new camera has face-detection and 1080p video recording with image stabilization.The iPad will have voice dictation built in, but no word of full Siri integration. No word yet on whether you have to be connected to the Internet to do this (although you most likely do).4G LTE support is a go. LTE can get up to speeds such as 73Mbps. The new iPad will come to AT&T and Verizon in the States.The new iPad will be “world ready” with 3G, will have 4G LTE support Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&TThe prices will be the same as the iPad 2 model. $499 for the 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB WiFi models. $629, $729, and $829 for the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB WiFi + 4G models respectively.The iPad 2 will still be sold in a 16GB flavor for $399 or $529 for WiFi or 3G + WiFi respectively.The new iPad will be available on March 16th and now for pre-order (good luck accessing the Apple Store).The iWork suite has been updated and will be the $9.99 per app (or free for the upgrade).New iPhoto for iPad (Gruber called it) gives you advanced photo editing capabilities and library storage. It can also allow you to create “scrapbook” types of libraries that almost remind one of a nice photo journal with maps and notes.

It’s obviously a personal decision, but if you are holding on to your iPad 1, now may be the time to jump ship to the new iPad. Mostly because some of the new software that will be created for the new iPad probably will start to not be supported on the first generation device. This is due to the speed difference in the processor as well as graphics handling. If you are a new iPad 2 owner, it is probably harder to justify purchasing the new model, that is, if you aren’t a sad, hopeless, Apple fan.

I say that if you bought the first gen iPad now is the time to upgrade. But, since Apple is still selling the iPad 2, it will obviously be supported for some time, so you probably should hold off on upgrading your iPad 2.

CM Smith is a technologist, writer, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State. CM is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Check out his writing at devburner.net or follow him on Twitter.