Lifehacking

I have a fascination with efficiency and optimization. I'm not entirely sure how or when I developed this fascination. Perhaps it's laziness - I don't want to have to do more than I need to in order to get the job done. Come to think of it, that sounds pretty close to an engineering ethic. Or maybe it's just the way I learned from my mom about how to run errands.

Either way, when given a task or several at hand, my brain usually starts processing different options and methods to get it done efficiently. When I am forced to do something less efficiently than I'd like, I get grumpy. But not angry-grumpy, generally just annoyed-grumpy. This has led to conversations that go something like this:

Me: Why are you going that way?
Lee: We're going to the Best Buy aren't we?
Me: Yes, but we have to pick up the bridesmaid dresses first, so we might as well get those and park near the Pet Food Express.
Lee: Why the pet store?
Me: Because we need kitty litter and I don't want to have to walk across the parking lot lugging it. The Best Buy stuff won't be and we can just walk across the parking lot from there. And by the time we finish with that, we'll probably be hungry and we can head across the street to In-N-Out.
Lee: You didn't tell me there was a whole plan for this.
Me: I know, but I just thought of it.


So when I found Lifehacker a few years ago, it was like finding a secret room in my house I didn't know about with really nifty stuff in it.

Lifehacker is basically a website dedicated to sharing tips on productivity. They have a heavy emphasis on corporate and computer methods on Getting Things Done. When I first found the treasure trove, I concentrated mostly on software, gadget oriented tricks to do stuff.

On Lifehacker, I found the instructions to use my Apple wireless network to play my iTunes songs on speakers in other parts of the house rather than just the office where my computer is. I also found and downloaded a software program called Quicksilver, a keyboard shortcut application launching program for Macs. I also found their post on making the computer desk look neater by corralling the nest of cables underneath. There are also non-gadget, non-computer tips on there. I like that when I have a task or need to set up a system to handle tasks in my life, there's usually other people who have already thought through a similar process and can make recommendations on how they've addressed it. Less research for me and more time to do the thing I needed to do.