Posted by Grant on January 30, 2009 – 2:34 am
Every Friday I will be posting some links into this series affectionately known as “In Case You’re Bored This Weekend…”
I’m always coming across interesting articles and new websites, so I thought I would pass along some of my findings with you. I hope each week you’re able to find at least one or two of the links to be valuable to your life…Enjoy!
Websites:
- MapMyRun.com – I’ve started using this to track how far I run when I gallop through the neighborhood. Just plot your route on a Google map, and it will tell you how far you went.
- GlobalRichList.com – Ever wonder how your income compares with others? Punch in your salary and compare yourself with the rest of the entire world…you’ll be shocked at what you find.
- Swaptree.com - Almost like a digital swap meet…list books, DVDs, video games, etc that you have and that you want and find people to make trades with.
- Gyminee.com – Free website for tracking your workouts, weight loss, eating habits, etc. Clean, simple, easy to use..
- TripIt.com – Great for road warriors like myself…forward your email confirmations of flight reservations, hotels, car rentals, etc and TripIt will create one master itinerary for you. Sweetness…
- Snopes.com – Database of all kinds of urban legends with the background story and whether or not the legend is true.
Blog Posts/Articles:
Have a great weekend!
Posted by Grant on January 28, 2009 – 2:25 am
I currently follow 71 different blogs on a wide range of subjects. But there are several incredible blogs out there on the subject of time management and organization that I think you can find value from.
Here are the ones I follow that you might be interested in…
- LifeHacker.com – This is by far my favorite site that falls into this category. They have 20+ new posts each day on subjects ranging from productivity, organization, and using technology to improve your life. Their posts are short, sweet, and to the point. LifeHacker has a huge following of readers, so always read the comments where you’ll find additional helpful thoughts from other readers. Because of the amount of posts they make each day, it may take feel like mining for gold in order to find what works for you, but it’s worth it. I quickly scan the titles and if something doesn’t apply to me, I move on. Check this site out…you’ll be glad you did.
- 43 Folders – The author, Merlin Mann, is known as one of the original blog writers on this subject, but this blog has recently shifted it’s focus to how to be creative in your daily work. Still, the site has years of archived articles that you’ll find valuable. Here is a link to some of the site’s all-time most popular articles. One post series you need to read is titled “Inbox Zero,” which I fully subscribe to and utilize on a daily basis.
- LifeHack.org – As you can probably tell by the name, this site is quite similar in concept to LifeHacker.com. While these posts seem to be longer and smaller in quantity, they are certainly not lacking in quality. You’ll find a lot of lists and links in posts such as The Ultimate Student Resource List, 80 How-To Sites Worth Bookmarking, or 50 Tricks To Get Things Done Faster, Better, and More Easily.
- Scott H Young – This writer is still a college student, but has some quality writings. His posts are generally longer and more along the lines of a good article.
- Tim Ferriss – If you didn’t already know, Tim is the author of the book The 4-Hour Work Week, a book I highly recommend. Like Scott Young, his posts are longer and have the feel of an article, but there are some great ones. Tim lives an interesting life and has drawn some controversy for some of his work, but his blog will be beneficial to you.
For other top blog websites, check out the lists at alltop.com for these subjects: GTD (Getting Things Done), Lifehacks, & Project Management.
What good time management, organization, or productivity blogs do you recommend?
Posted by Grant on January 19, 2009 – 6:49 am
This week I will be starting a new blogging schedule for my writing here. I’m trying to plan my posts a little further out and have some consistency to what I’m writing. I know there is a balance of adults reading this as well as students I’ve met from events I speak at, so the writing will be aimed at both audiences.
Here is the blogging schedule I will try to follow…
- Monday – Thought for the Week
- Tuesday – Current Events
- Wednesday – Time Management/Organization
- Thursday – Money
- Friday – In Case You’re Bored This Weekend… (new books, websites, or resources you can check out)
I’m going to try and post just Monday through Friday, so that my weekends will consistently be off. Of course if other things come up, you may have some days with multiple posts. And I always like to post some thoughts and updates from some of my travels.
So thanks for checking out the blog and reading it…or skimming it. If you’ve got other subjects or topics you would like me to write about, just email me at grant@grantbaldwin.com.
Posted by Grant on November 3, 2008 – 6:20 am
Filed under Blogs, Random
Posted by Grant on May 14, 2008 – 6:35 pm
Filed under Blogs, Personal
I was talking with some friends the other day and we started discussing why people blog. A few of us in the group blog fairly regularly and a few others hadn’t ever really messed with it. So I started thinking through why I blog. Here are a couple of thoughts I came up with:
- I think blogging provides some degree of intrinsic value. It’s a daily discipline that I do to stay consistent.
- Blogging helps me to pay attention more to what is going on around me. So often because of our busy lives, we miss what is going on around us but if I want to have something of substance to blog about, I have to be aware of the world around me.
- Sometimes if I’m personally thinking something through or kicking something around, blogging is an outlet to help me process that.
- I like to think that maybe, just maybe, my writings will help/encourage/challenge/inspire others in their own lives. Hopefully I give you something to think about and chew on…
- In a sense, I’m also creating a diary, a “man journal” of my life. To think that my kids and maybe even grandkids could come back someday and read some of this is a cool thought…
- It is a good way to update family/friends on what is going on in my life. Things such as snakes that I kill or what time zone I’m in this week…
- I like the networking aspect of having a blog. I meet other people who have read my blog or come across it and don’t think it is a complete waste!
- Hopefully each time I write something, my writing is getting better. I’m working on a book right now and hope to write more books in the future and blogging is a good opportunity to hone your skills, or lack thereof.
- My mom reads it.
Part of the reason it’s important to answer this question, not just about blogging, but for anything you do, is so that you continue to evaluate why do you what you do. Isn’t it true how you may start doing something but then 6 months later, you’re not really sure why you started doing it in the first place? Or maybe you’ve been doing something the same way for years and you’re convinced you can’t change it because “you’ve always done it that.”
Think through your average day, week, month, whatever, and ask yourself if there are things you’re doing that maybe you should reevaluate the value of…
Posted by Grant on April 13, 2008 – 7:00 pm
As you may have noticed, we recently completed a facelift to my blog. Our goal was to give it a more professional and clean feel and improve the functionality of it for you the reader.
In other words, we wanted to make it “awesomer!”
Hopefully we were able to do that. But of course I could always use feedback of how we can improve things further so feel free to send me any ideas at grant@grantbaldwin.com. In the meantime, here are a couple of changes we that made you may have noticed:
- Tied Into Website – it was a generic Wordpress web address (that rhymes) but now the blog address is www.grantbaldwin.com/blog which helps people to get to it directly from the main website.
- New Functions – we finally added some functions to the blog that really every blog should have. The typical stuff such as a category list, recent posts, search and of course subscription options.
- Subscription Options – you may notice there are several icons on the right column where you can add us to your blog subscription tool to keep up with us. Or you can enter you email in the box on the right and we’ll send you updated blog entries whenever they are posted.
- Social Sharing – at the end of each blog is a place for you to “Share This” which hopefully makes it easier for you to pass around good content if you find any here (which I don’t know if you will or not!) If you like an article or a post, I hope you share the love with someone else. Anyone else. Except that one guy…you know who I’m talking about.
Thanks for reading…
