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Minimalism seems to be a hot topic these days and rightly so. People like clutter-free living and getting things done. After listening to a recent podcast between minimalist Leo Babauta and problogger, Darren Rowse, I started thinking about how I could apply minimalism to my internet marketing operations.
After all, I’m sure we can all agree there is time we spend on a computer each day that isn’t spent doing relevant tasks. I personally know that I check Tweetdeck, Facebook, and my email inbox far more often than necessary. Over the last few days, I have completely overhauled the way I do business online and setup the system and principles I’m going to share with you today.
If you’re not familiar with minimalism, then you might be wondering about the benefits that it offers. If you are familiar with minimalism, you may be wondering how it can be tied to internet marketing.
Before I give specifics on a minimalist internet marketing set-up, I want to dive into what the benefits of operating like this may be. I also want to add that I recognise the irony in the fact that my guide to minimalism spans thousands of words.
To that, I say: I’m writing as much as I need to write to help you do less.
Benefits of Minimalist Internet Marketing
If you’re new to the whole idea of minimalism or don’t see what it has to do with search engines or making money online, then let me begin by highlighting some of the benefits of this new way of living:
- Get Things Done – When you sit in front of your PC or Laptop each day there should be one thing on your mind: getting things done. If that’s not the first thing on your mind, you don’t care about making a living or succeeding online. You can socialise if you want, but that comes second. The focus of minimalist internet marketing is all designed to help you cross items off that to-do-list.
- Have More Time – I love what I do, but it’s not what I want to do for every hour of every day. Instead, I hope that one day this lifestyle gives me more time to spend with family and friends in a location I love. Ridding your daily tasks of distractions and just getting things done often saves a surprising amount of time. Since adopting this minimalist way of doing things, I write articles much faster, process email quicker, and seem to have far more hours in each day.
- Focus on the Essential – I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m writing a blog post, designing a logo or doing something else that needs my full attention, I find it very easy to distracted if there’s clutter around. If there’s a big yellow Tweetdeck button in my Dock or some links shared by my friends on Facebook, I’m going to want to click around. Having a minimalist set-up helps to stop you from wasting time and instead just focus on the very essential tasks and tools. The aim is to focus on your most important tasks, and remove the clutter that stops you from doing that.
- Produce Better Results – If I put a member of my team in a room that is full of people dancing, playing snooker and socialising in the corner, how well do you think they would work? What if I gave them a nice, simple, clutter-free office in the quiet corner of the building — how well would they work then? Although the first scenario may seem a little extreme, having a cluttered free desktop, browser, and way of doing things is never going to produce great results in comparison to when you’re laser-focused on your tasks and there’s nothing else on your mind.
If you like what you see about the positives (like, you know, actually getting things done) then we can ahead and look at what the minimalist internet marketing system actually involves.
The Minimalist Internet Marketing System
The system presented here contains both the pillar-stones of minimalism you would find elsewhere but also steps presented towards internet marketing / computer use in general. This is just my personal guide after trying to simplify my operations over the last few days. If you truly find a better way of doing things that helps you more, then stick to that.
Start With a Simple Desktop
If you had seen my desktop a few days ago, you would question my authority to be giving this advice. After seeing the error of my ways, I have opted for a more minimalist desktop and I’m loving it already. Not only is a minimalist desktop fast to load and nice to look at, it also keeps you in a simple frame of mind for when you are working on other applications.
Above, you can see my desktop has 3 items. The first, is a link to my web browser: Firefox. I do as much of my work as possible online, so that is really my ‘documents’ folder as well. On the right you can see my iDrive account (Mac backup system) and a Base work folder. This is where I store all of my work documents.
I don’t need any more clutter on the desktop and keep all of my files in folders on my hard drive. This not only means I know where they are, but it stops me from clicking around and wasting time with things I shouldn’t be focusing on.
One Thing At a Time
Minimalism is all about cutting down the number of things you work on in general, and the number of things you are doing at once. One of the cornerstones to simple living is to focus on one task at a time and give each your full attention.
In internet marketing terms, this means turning off your Facebook, Seesmic, Tweetdeck and MSN until you actually have time scheduled for them. I personally run Tweetdeck in the background and simply let it catch updates so I can check them all at a more convenient time. If you can do the same with some of your applications, then I recommend that you do.
The internet is an industry I absolutely love working in, but it’s also a workplace that has the most distractions. Amazing links are being shared around the web everyday and it’s so easy to get lost in one thing while trying to work on another. Decided what you want to do next; get it done; and then move on to your next task.
Do The Most Important Thing First
At the start of each day, one thing I like to do is ask myself “If I only had 2 hours to work today, what would I like to get done?” I always have two hours available, so I know that if I answer the question then I can actually get started on that task and finish it. This also helps me focus on the tasks with the highest priority.
Back in middle school, a teacher told me a great story that ended with the message that no matter how you spend each day, you can’t be more productive than if you work on your most important task. And, to do just that, you should make the first thing you do the most important.
Writing a blog post or building links to new site is far more important than updating Twitter, reading the latest guide to blogging secrets or constantly monitoring your stats. Start each day with your most important task first, and you can’t go far wrong.
Automate Backups
As you may have seen on my desktop, I use iDisk which is part of Apple’s Mobile Me service. It costs $99 per year and gives you 20GB of space on the web. I have a current set-up that allows me to work with files on my desktop and access everything without an internet connection. Then, at 1pm each day, the contents of my work folder automatically get copied to a folder of the same name on my iDisk.
This means that all of my important files get backed up the cloud, daily, and instantly. If you don’t have a Mac, I recommend you use a service called iDrive. It’s free for up to 2GB of data and allows scheduled backups.
It’s not only your documents you have to worry about backing up as an internet marketer, but also your websites. Imagine how disastrous it would be if you were to lose the database and files of your most important website tomorrow. You can never be too careful when it comes to having extra copies of your information. Try to organise some sort of scheduled backup with your hosting company so that your precious information is safe.
Organise Email
Before I left the UK and moved here to Amsterdam, I had three emails accounts. Two of which, had over 2,000 unread emails. I literally spent two days organising my email and deleting all of the things that I didn’t need, because I knew that email productivity is something that could save me a lot of time.
Although I had completely cleared my inbox, I still wasn’t handling new emails efficiently. I set-up a system where new emails not only go to my inbox, but automatically get assigned a new label called ‘Identity’. This means that when I’ve read or responded to an email, I simply uncheck the ‘inbox’ label and I won’t see it again.
This means I know exactly what I have to respond to each day or what task I have to do next. I never miss anything with this kind of set-up — if there’s something in my inbox, then I need to process it.
Some of my standard recommendations for cleaning up your inbox include:
- Unsubscribing from any email lists you don’t care about
- Turning off notifications on sites like Twitter and Facebook
- Setting up filters to automatically archive certain emails
I used to be someone who would compulsively check their email 10 times per day, but now that I’m moving most of my operations into a more minimalist setup, my desire to see who wants my attention has decreased greatly.
Hide Bookmarks / Use Simple Apps
At first, I just wanted this section to be ‘hide bookmarks’ but I didn’t really have much else to say than that. If you use Firefox or any other browser that puts bookmarks on a new line, then get rid of that. It’s distracting, and you’ll click around.
As an alternative, trying using the shortcut keys (Right click on a bookmarklet >> Properties) which, when pressed after CTRL+L (CMD + L on Mac), will load a specific website. There’s also a cool app mentioned further down in this post that is an even better solution.
Besides decluttering the things you use everyday, I also recommend that you use the simplest apps possible for the things that you need to get done. Extra features that you don’t need in applications slow down the software, make it harder to find things, and give you more opportunities to waste time.
Keep it simple.
The Applications
Now that we’ve covered the benefits of being a minimalist and shared the exact steps to put a more minimal system in place, I hope you’re excited about the new levels of productivity and focus that await you.
Before we end the post though, I want to highlight some excellent apps that are helping me get things done, simply. These are things I couldn’t thank their creators enough for and I greatly appreciate the work that went into a number of these.
And finally, before the linky goodness, I want to say that you should try not to get caught up in constantly testing new applications and looking for minor speed improvements. Find a system that you enjoy and works for you, then stick to it. Doing that will be far more productive than constantly looking for a ‘faster’ system.
WriteRoom
As I’m typing this right now, all I see is small green font on a totally black screen. WriteRoom, as many of you will know, is a very simple text editor which has a full-screen mode that allows you to completely focus on your work.
There are versions for both Windows and Mac, which is always useful as…I’m a Mac. In the past I would write posts in WordPress which itself has a fairly uncluttered interface, but even then I would constantly refresh posts and play with the style, rather than focusing on the content and getting the words out.
Write Room is a great application and worth every penny in my eyes.
Quix App
Launched just a few days ago, Quix App is quickly becoming one of my favourite tools. Now that I’ve removed my bookmarks toolbar, I need a quick way to access websites that I use frequently. Quix does that by allowing me to input my own commands that take me to certain websites.
For example, now when I want to go to my blog admin I simply hit CMD + 1 and then type vca. If I want to check my viperchill email I hit CMD + 1 and then type vcm. I have lots of different commands set-up and can even do searches on Google, Wikipedia, or find out information like how old a website is and how many backlinks it has.
Using this tool is actually slightly slower than having regular bookmarks (for a couple of things) but I believe that it makes up for it by removing the distraction of me clicking on different sites all day.
David Naylor SEO Tool
I have a four year history in SEO so I am a bit of a search geek. Because of that, this tool from David Naylor is right up my street. With a quick shortcut keyboard I can easily share a page on tons of social networks, find out about its history and backlink data, and a lot of other nifty insights.
I have set this up to work with the shortcut key x (right click on the bookmarklet and go to properties) so to load it all I have to do is press CMD + L (CTRL + L in Windows) then x, and hit enter. This will load the tool for whatever page I’m on. It’s out of the way, but a great tool and doesn’t require any software to be installed.
Teux Deux
I prefer Google Docs for serious organisation and task management, but when it comes to simple to do items, Teux Deux takes some beating in the simplicity department. I first became aware of the site via a blog post by Seth Godin and have used the service ever since.
The interface is very simple and gives you all you need in a to-do list application. Teux Deux, which is obviously a play on the words ‘to do’, promises to have both iPhone and Adobe Air apps available shortly. I have just noticed my screenshot makes it look like I want an seo-ho, but I’m actually setting up SEO hosting.
Self Control
If hiding your bookmarks and decluttering your desktop is not enough to keep you focused on your work, you could literally block yourself from distractions. Self Control (Mac only) is a great tool that allows you to block websites for a certain period of time. I also love that if I block something like Twitter, then that will stop Tweetdeck from working.
What’s different about this tool is that there is no way to turn it off. Even if you quit the application and restart your Mac, your websites will still be blocked for as long as the time limit your entered. I did eventually find out how to turn it off, but I won’t ruin the best part of the service for you. I wish my fix didn’t work.
If anyone knows of a Windows alternative, please share it in the comments.
Trakkboard
Last, but not least, is Trakkboard. If you run a lot of websites and don’t mind an initially German interface, Trakkboard is the perfect solution for monitoring the stats from multiple Google Analytics accounts.
I personally don’t keep any sites on the same account because there are a number of tools out there which make it easy to find who owns what websites. I make my living online, so I have a reason to be wary.
Before I join you all in the comments, I just want to let you in on a little secret. Each time I write a long blog post, people tell me how much they admire my effort and how much work I’m putting in. It’s true that some of them take 6-8 hours and that’s even when I’m working flat out.
However, on articles like this where I open up WriteRoom, know what I’m going to talk about and just shut everything off, I can literally write a 2,900 word article in 90 minutes. With the editing and adding of images, it’s going to take a while longer to hit publish, but just think about how far you can go with that kind of productivity.
Let me know what your thoughts and suggestions are in regards to minimalist internet marketing, I would love to hear them!
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This is a very interesting post and topic. Regarding a minimalism desktop setup I suggest to remove all the icons in the top right (those which are of no use). Also you can remove the firefox icon if you use spotlight or the dock.
Yep, that’s true. I can click on the Firefox icon way quicker than a keyboard shortcut though.
I don’t find the icons distracting at all (I never click them) but I will see about tidying them up.
Thanks for the comment!
Nice post Glen! I love your system of organising your emails that you did in that video a couple months back. I have applied the same system and it works like a bomb.
Haven’t tried quixapps yet but using Memokeys right now which is making a big shortcut in the amount of repeated typing!
Cheers!
Hey Diggy, thanks man!
I’m using Keyconfig in association with Quixapp and it’s awesome. Definitely recommend you check it out!
Hey , Thanks for an excellent post .Although I am not that new to minimalism, I still often wonder how to use it when it comes to arranging my desktop which is big clutter of files and data. The way and options that you have showed in this pose would definitely helpful for all those like me for sure.
I had a question with the comment by @OSCAR : what is the dock or spotlight , in regards to firefox .. I would try to Google it for sure. Thanks for him too
Hi Sudeep,
The dock is a feature of Mac computers. It’s a bit like the bar across the bottom of windows that holds all of your applications.
On my Mac, I have mind auto hide to the right hand side of the screen. So, I never see it, but it’s there if I need it.
I hope that helps, and thanks for the comment!
- Glen
Minimalism, a trending topic online indeed, one I’ve been taping in to for a while now and it keeps amazing me what people find. Take that SelfControl program you mention. It’s so good I’m almost tempted to start using a mac! Doing one thing at a time makes you far more effective at that task, no distractions.
Writeroom has a windows “version” called Q10 which I use a lot (Unless I’m on the Linux side of my pc..) A black screen with orange/green text and nothing else has something soothing about it. With no music in the background and no tv on or anything all that can be heard is the steady clicking of my keyboard (model M, it’s HARD clicking.. ) as another blogpost takes shape.
Minimalism seems to be the way to go these days. It keeps distractions to a minimum and gives you focus and calm.
Great post Glen! Some really nice ideas here
Hey Christiaan,
It’s definitely a trend that is getting a lot of attention, but i think it’s totally deserved. Operating in this minimalist way has increased my productivity massively.
Thanks for the Q10 req for other Windows users here.
Also, thanks for your comment!
Good stuff Glen. I made similar changes to my workflow a month or so back and it had enormous effects on my productivity and my ability to disconnect from my business when I was feeling burnt out.
A couple suggestions…
– Check out the LeechBlock plugin for Firefox. It’s an amazing tool for blocking yourself from distractions and doesn’t require manual activation like SelfControl.
– Instead of using WriteRoom check out OmmWriter. It’s not as barebones but the interface always manages to enhance my creativity and excitement to write.
I wrote about all this kind of stuff in a post of my own: http://www.davidturnbull.com/working-web-life-complete-guide-free-mindless-addictions-busy-work-procrastination/
Hey David,
I thought you would like this one!
Thanks for the link share, going to check that out now
Wow….good stuff! I especially love your ultra-clean desktop. Mine is a mess! Time to clean. it. up. Thanks for a great post.
BTW: Found you via Darren over at problogger.net.
Hi Michael,
It’s been a while since I wrote at Problogger so thanks for subscribing! I appreciate it.
You’re welcome, thanks for the comment!
I don’t know if I can whittle my desktop down to the state you have. I recently lost everything on my hard-drive. I was able to get some things back, but all my contacts, emails I was keeping and working on, notes I made for future posts on my notepads, bookmarks – all gone forever.
I know what you’re saying about losing things. I’m okay at backing up stuff, but was getting a bit lazy of late. This has set me back weeks in terms of work. It’s stressful and devastating too.
I’ll look up that site you mentioned. Thanks for a super post.
I think this is going to have to be a new 30 day chyallenge for me. My desktop is almost always in a very very bad state, maybe this will help me stay focused! Cheers for the great post!
Great article. I’m a PC! So whilst I use iDrive for backing up *everything* (music, photos, etc), I also use Dropbox for my essential work and personal files. Whilst Dropbox is essentially on online backup (2GB free), I find it has a few advantages… Easy to access and use files from any computer with the web interface. Easy to sync files between your regularly used computers. When I was travelling and relied on public computers in internet cafes, I used Google Docs for essential Word and Excel files. That worked well but now I’m home I prefer working ‘locally’ on my PC – and a combination of OpenOffice and Dropbox works a treat.
Yeah I too use dropbox and am absolutely in love with it. I still havent gone all the way over to google docs though it sounds like a good idea.
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Slightly different to WriteRoom but good nonetheless: http://writeordie.drwicked.com/
For when you’re just procrastinating and need to make things a bit more interesting.
Glen,
I love knowing what types of tools out there that bloggers find useful. I’m a new blogger and still type my posts in WP. I do find myself getting distracted with trying to find images or previewing the damn thing over and over. I’ll have to go through the list again at home to check out the apps in detail.
I’m all for minimalism–to a point
Where did you get your wallpaper?
Thanks.
Here you go (loads slowly):
http://www.artofadambetts.com/images/postgraphics/downloads/desktopbgs/LeatherHoles-Plain.png
Well, well. This is an excellent reminder for me to clean up my work space etc. On the other hand not always the simplest tool are the best ones. For instance on Twitter it takes much longer to get an overview using a simple tool than utilizing an advanced tool like the Seesmic Desktop.
Really? I leave my Twitter.com list open all day and it is handy. Set a time for Twitter and deal with replies / messages when you can. Just because it’s real-time, it doesn’t mean you have to be.
Lots of great ideas and resources. I’m being completely honest here, though – I often have the experience of reading posts on achieving minimalism and coming away with a headache that there are so many things I have to do, so many apps to learn about and choose from, so many strategies to incorporate. Why does it always seem the road to minimalism is to complex and cluttered? Isn’t that kind of defeating the purpose?
OK, I would love to be this “minimalist”, but it would take time I don’t have to make me that way
between work and kids I have no time to breathe! I have book-marked this and will slowly become just like ViperChill! 
Hi Glenn, Cool post.
A great multiplatform alternative to SelfControl is the firefox extension Leechblock, which also has other nifty features like allowing you to block certain lists during certain times of the day, or only allowing you to access certain lists for a certain amount of time (eg 30 minutes every 6 hours). Definitely work a look.
Thanks Matt, I’m sure that will be useful for the non-Mac readers here
It has been a while! I hope life is good.
Hi Glen,
Very detailed guide and some very useful apps.
I never knew about David Naylor’s tool that you have mentioned in this post. I have dragged and dropped that in my browser for niche blogging related use. Seems like a great tool.
When I write, I use Google Docs where you can press ctrl+shift+F and then F11 to completely view in full screen without any disturbance.
Thanks for the tips and especially for the David Naylor’s tool.
Hey Ram,
Thanks buddy!
I do use Google Docs, but don’t really like relying on an internet connection to auto-save my updates
- Glen
Hi Glenn, Excellent article.
I use google docs for managing my documents online, thanks for introducing teux deux, will try it for sure to become a minimalist.
Hey!
Thanks for the comment. Also a Google Docs fan here (with Google Apps, of course).
Despite the wordiness a great post, thanks.
I’m already in love with teuxdeux and have just got rid of all my desktop icons except browser and a work folder. These are real simple things to do and definitely help with focus. It’s also good to remind people of the simplicity and usefulness of auto online backups. I use the new Ubuntu One cloud service but would like what I hear about dropbox.
Thanks.
Hey Alex,
“Despite the wordiness” — that made me laugh. I like to think it is my unique selling point
.
I did try Dropbox before writing this post, but I’m happy with the setup I have in place.
Glen,
I just read about another add-on to Firefox from 4 hour work week. It’s called Leechblock. It is an amazing tool. You can block websites that you know you waste a lot of time on from a certain time period or for a set amount of time. For example, I block facebook on my computer from 7:30 am to 12:00pm and from 12:30pm to 11:30 pm. However, that was not enough for me so I also put in that when ever I can use it I can only use it for 6 minutes per hour. After that it kicks me off.
Vince
@Glen – fantastic post. I find a lot of blog content really lacking in depth and superficial on many blogs, but yours never even comes close to that point.
I just went down from checking e-mail 10-15 times a day down to once for an experiment I’m doing, and damn.. getting so much work done.
Thanks for the program list, there’s a few I haven’t heard of that look really cool!
@Vince – I use Leechblock as well. Seconded – it’s awesome, and you can set it so it’s almost impossible to get past the block.
Glen,
Nice post – Thanks. I have terrible problems organizing my busy day – and I am sure your advice will help.
One quick question though – about your e-mail management. You mentioned that you apply a new label to all incoming e-mails called “Identity” – and then you “uncheck the inbox label not to see it again”. I don’t get it how this works? Are you using 2 labels “Identity and Inbox”. Any detail on that? thanks.
Hey Hakan,
All emails automatically get sent to the inbox, but also get applied the ‘identity’ label. Basically identity is a duplicate of my inbox (I don’t like deleting things). So, when I’ve read something or replied, I’ll simply uncheck the inbox label.
That means I won’t see something in my inbox (so I know I’ve dealt with it) but it will be archived forever under another label.
Does that help?
- Glen
Quix is very cool especially the bookmarklets!
For the most searches i currently prefer http://searchy.protecus.de because of privacy topics.
(Searchy doesnt log search queries… )
Thanks for the good article!
Awesome stuff Glen! Very useful apps too, you always seem to unearth some new ones for SEO. (I’m a little too geeky in that aspect as well!)
Just another app that I wanted to add to the list is “Skitch”, very useful for taking snapshots and resizing photos with 1-click upload to a server. I use it a lot to make writing blog posts with photos a cinch.
Glen,
After I saw the section about WriteRoom I just had to have it. Sadly, I’m on a PC, and it seems like another PC user had used WriteRoom in the past and just couldn’t get over the fact that it didn’t exist for PCs.
Introducing: Dark Room – http://they.misled.us/dark-room
Seems like a direct clone of WriteRoom, for PCs. Worth a try for PC users out there, I know I’ll be looking at it more closely.
This is an awesome post. Had me just reorganize my desktop and now I have “recycle bin, firefox, WORK (folder), Network (folder)”. Much cleaner
As an alternative to write room, your readers can check out the air app – FOCUSED. black screen, text any color/size you want (defaults at 9 and light gray). Ability to see word count and character count (I don’t have that on – too distracting) and also has an option to hear a key typing sound when you type, which gets a bit annoying when you’re flooded with thoughts and the keys never stop
I also use Q10 on my PC for writting. It’s free but only works on Windows. You can check it out here: http://www.baara.com/q10/
Glen, thanks for this post. It is very timely for me as just this past weekend I was supposed clean up my desktop but never got around to doing it. This post will serve as my reminder I will go the extra distance and give it a minimalist look, only leaving the recycle bin. I’ll use some of your other tips. I like leechBlock (as I really need something like this to get more stuff done) but I now use Google Chrome a lot…firefox hangs up on me way too much. Is there any linux equivalent to Q10? Hope one of your readers can answer this. Like Michael, I found out about you on ProBlogger about a month ago and have been an avid fan since. Thanks for the great post and keep it coming!
Try this Cliff;
http://spreadingfunkyness.com/focused/
You’ll need Adobe Air but this should work on Linux.
Neal
Thanks very much, Neal. I just reviewed Fucused and it seems like the start to a very useful app. I will be downloading it.
Cliff
Hi Glen,
. Seems to me like your productivity really boosted, I saw your articles popping up everywhere today!
Great stuff! Thanks for letting us take a look in the kitchen
I am really struggling with doing one thing at a time. I feel like I’m addicted to doing a million things together. It’s hard to stop, because I’ve been doing it for so long. But so many smart people say that it works.. so will see.
Thanks for all the tips. Can’t wait until you next post!
Richard
Man, just saw your post on Copyblogger. Good job man.
I’ve got a little goal of myself too. I’m on a $30k/month plan for a few of my sites too. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Raza
I also recommend using this application called ManicTime. It tracks what you do with your computer and give you stats (on app use, web surfing..etc). You can then eliminate those things that you “waste” time on.
Hi Glenn,
I have a STARTUP folder in My Documents.
These docs have to get started every day. Having this one folder saves so much time.
Ivan
Hi Glen,
Thanks for the article. I really wish I could add some cool gizmo to your list, but to be honest, I’m just trying to dig myself out from the chaos of running my business. My inbox is a mess, my desktop is insane, I work all day and never feel like I’m on top of things. Your post has come at the exact right time for me! Thank you very much.
Julia
Julia,
You are my cool gizmo.
Thanks for the awesome comment!
Great post Glen! I always try to avoid distractions when I work, and sometimes it is just not possible. I think a great thing to keep in mind is that you should work when you feel most productive and in the environment that makes you most productive. There is always so much that can be done with internet marketing, and if you focus on the most important things first, you feel more accomplished. Love it!
Great post, I struggle with keeping a clean inbox. How does TeuxDeux compare with Netvibes To-do widget? Do you still use the Netvibes to To-Do widget? (seems redundant…) Thanks to your brand-base post, I’m trying out Netvibes to-do widget. I just make a list of weekly goals, and then make a separate actions list that must get done to accomplish those goals.
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You know, I’ve been finding that in my job as a Social Media Consultant, I’ve been very distracted by everything that we need to ‘keep an eye on’. From the moment I started reading your article, I loved it. You know… it just makes sense, but sometimes we don’t see the obvious, take the bull by the horns and do what we need to do to be productive. I’m going to be minimalizing my SM intake. Thanks!
Great Post! As I was reading this article I realized that I am guilty of every single crime. I was even clicking away from this article while i was reading it to see updates in TweetDeck lol. However I did take notes from this post and I’m going to start applying some of them right after this comment.
Also, what is link to the podcast you mentioned in your opening paragraph?
Does anyone know of windows alternative to WriteRoom?
Dark Room: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/07/03/dark-room-writeroom-for-windows/
Thx a lot for this link. I cleaned off my desktop so now im ready to start tackling some of these other points talked about.
2 days cleaning your email? It would probably take me twice as long. My son’s always asking why I have 2000 unread emails… Going to work with labels better now and definitely use the remove from inbox function you mentioned:)
Glen,
I stumbled across your site about a month or so ago and have to say that I absolutely love your content. You are one of the only two blogs I allow to hit my direct e-mail inbox on a weekly basis because your content is just so good. Thank you for putting the amount of time and effort into everything you create for your readers.
Like you I have organized my e-mail in a way where only the important stuff reaches me in my main inbox…where all the other stuff is sent to other folders…It is amazing how much more productive this has made me!
that’s a great concept, life would be much easier that way
Hi Glen;
I’m starting to recreate your approach to minimalistic working environment. I signed up for Net Vibes and downloaded Firefox. While looking at some Firefox Apps, I was drawn to Yoono. It seems to be a pretty good Desktop solution. It can be used as a browser app or a full desktop app. Multi-account capability for Twitter and Facebook. It also has Lined In features. Have you heard of it or tried it. I’d like to get your thoughts before I spend a bunch of time trying it out.
Thanks.
[...] talked about Writeroom a lot in my post about minimalist internet marketing, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Quite simply, as I’m writing this, I see [...]
Regarding WriteBox, I’m a bit surprised that there’s even a need for that. All one needs do is fire up Notepad/Gedit/TextMate and make is full-screen. Sure, you still have the taskbar there, but you can make that auto-hide (which is what I do). If one can do that (for free), what is the appeal of buying a program that gives you slightly less functionality but fills up the entire screen?
Colours + simplicity = Minimalism.
Check the title of the post
I don’t think you can change colours with Notepad (but Notepad++ should be able to do it), and I dunno about Textmate, but you can change the colours in Gedit quite easily. And as they’re all free it’s also minimalism on your wallet :p
Why on earth did I call it WriteBox? Aaarrg…
[...] blog post I always have an idea of what I’m going to write about. I don’t just open my minimalist text editor and have a new idea start leaking itself onto my screen. With this post, for instance, I knew that [...]
I have never thought much about minimalism until recently. Now, I’m following your examples although I have been using WriteRoom for a while. I have also been using Concentrate for Mac, it’s similar to SelfControl.
It’s a lot easier to get things done when I’m focusing on one thing at a time, and using software like WriteRoom.
I’ve read a ton of your articles, and this one has probably been the most useful to me as I try to manage a ton of clutter related to a couple of my websites, all my personal life information, and file backup… I’ll be using some of the tools you mention and have never seen such a clean desktop in my life! Very nice.
I am with Oscar here, and use keyboard shortcuts for that. But in my Mac I am a bad advocate: I have thousands of icons in my desktop! The point is, I never ever see my desktop. In the rare event that I restart my Mac, Firefox launches automatically (as emacs and adium do), thus hiding everything in sight. Anyway, in my To Do list I have “clean up Mac’s desktop”. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow
Now, in my netbook (where I do most of my work, running Ubuntu 10.04 TLS) I don’t have a “proper” desktop: if I were to show my desktop window level (or root layer as is known in the Fluxbox window manager, which is what I use), there would be just a terminal blinking there, ready to compile, find or show top running programs, nothing more, nothing less. When I want to run an application I either open the Fluxbox menu (Control-Alt-x is my shortcut), or have a keyboard shortcut ready (Windows key F for Firefox, WK E for emacs, and a few more for quickies like that). And shift F-11 to open a file browser… Like using F11 to show desktop in my Mac
Fluxbox is pure minimalism with respect to window managers… Wow, I feel like an advertisement of this. It is free software, you can find it in your Linux repositories 
Ruben
I’ve been trying to clean up the two computers that I use for work/play. I think this guide will help me out! Thanks, Glen.
I am glad to see such a big time blogger implement minimalism so well.
As the founder of The Minimalist Path, I have learned so much and become so much more productive just through simple, easy changes.
I hope you keep it up as it may lead to even further personal and business development.
David Damron
The Minimalist Path
minimalism and automation are great …it helps you from getting distracted and gets thing done…
If not for your writing this topic could be very covnotlued and oblique.
Hey Glen,
I must say this a very detailed post, i am new to the concept of minimalism and don’t know what it actually means even though you explained it well here, i will be back to really internalize it. Good job
To your success,
~kebabope morapedi
Thanks!
To your success
You have a minimal desktop but look at that busy menu bar! Try http://rosshill.com.au/minimal-mac-menubar/ and you’ll feel even less distracted.
Good points all but the thing about minimalism is that the individual has to decide for themselves what works best for themselves. It is a bottom up thing not a top down one.
The world is a messy place, we may be able to control a tiny corner of it but not much more. The goal should be to see the important stuff clearly even when it is surrounded by a sea of irrelevant clutter. This is especially true in business.
Read it. It’s awesome. “If I only had two hours to work on things???”
[...] software I use to write, is Writeroom. I’ve covered it recently in this post and this one, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. In one sentence, Writeroom is a text [...]
Windows alternative to Self Control is macfreedom http://macfreedom.com/ What’s in a (domain)name?
Which tool can you use to find who owns what websites (based on the GA code)? Thanks!
what a great things to do, yes organizing your work make it easier for you to produce, i should try your way of minimalisting, thank you for the post