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Daily digest and pointer on productivity, getting things done and lifehacks

Deirdre McCloskey on WritingOctober 10

One of the best books for writers in the social sciences is Deirdre McCloskey’s Economical Writing, a very short, very small book that offers a number of important principles for writing. McCloskey is an economist by training, but she has written across a wide variety of fields. Economical Writing is a must-have and a must-read for any serious writer. Here are five of her points from Economical Writing and elsewhere I have tried to incorporate into my own work (not always perfectly, certainly, as my dissertation committee could not doubt verify).

1. Always ask “so what?”

Don’t assume that your topic is important just because you think it is, and don’t assume everyone automatically recognizes its relevance. Be very clear about establishing why your topic is important and why your reader should care. Your reader’s time is very valuable, and he or she could be doing a lot of different things. They have decided, for whatever reason, to take a look at something you have written. Look to inflict interocular trauma. In other words, hit them between the eyes with why what you have done is important. Convince them immediately that they should keep reading

Politics: 7 Ways to Get Involved NowOctober 9

If you have, by some miracle, managed to avoid all manner of news lately, you might be surprised to know that there’s a U.S. presidential election in less than a month. Even if you are aware of it, you may be reluctant to get involved or just not sure where to start. I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that you vote for one candidate over the other, but I would like to make a few suggestions for getting in on some of that political action.

1. Start with your own paperwork

I’m always surprised to find out how many people aren’t registered to vote. Even if you’ve gotten the necessary paperwork in to your county board of elections, you will probably need to confirm that the paperwork went through if you really want to vote on November 4. On top of that, you’ll want to know where your polling place is and the local hours. The easiest way to find out all of this information is to get on to your county board of elections’ website: what information isn’t prominently displayed on the website is available through the phone number also displayed online.

2. Get involved in the process

I know plenty of people who have volunteered for one campaign or the other, but there is one organization that really needs

Are You Sabotaging Your Plan to Exercise More?October 9

You know exercise is good for you, right? But regular exercise is like pushing water uphill. You do it for a couple of days - and then try and forget about it, because it’s just too hard. Sounds familiar?

People who exercise regularly swear by it. They enjoy it. They can’t stop talking about it. But how did they manage to build a habit that sticks? Wouldn’t you like to know a painless and easy way of getting into the exercise habit? Read on to find out.

The reason we often fail when trying to implement a regular exercise routine is because we work against our instincts, instead of with them. What we are trying to do when we establish an exercise routine is do reverse a trend.

Imagine that you are a train driver driving at high speed. How are you going to do that? Are you going to simply crash your gear into reverse? If you did, the train would derail, passengers would get hurt or killed, and you would end up with a catastrophe.

There is a better way.

You could gently apply the brakes until the train is at a standstill, and then slowly start reversing the direction. Easy!

The example is very clear, isn’t it? And yet we do the opposite when trying to start exercising. We try and

How to Keep Your iTunes Video Library OrganizedOctober 8

Sometimes, I think I’m way too anal about some things. According to some of the comments on my previous posts, you agree. But nothing beats how much of a Nazi I am when it comes to my iTunes library.

Sure, I know the clamor is coming; iTunes sucks, use (insert alternative software here) instead. I’m on a Mac as I write this, I own an iPhone and an Apple TV and a few other Macs are planted here and there around the house. So it just makes plain sense for me to use iTunes.

But I hate the hoops you have to jump through to keep your iTunes video library in a decent state.

It used to be that I had to save my AVI movies as “pretend” MP4 files, or create separate reference files that just masqueraded as MP4s when they actually pointed to the original AVI. That was pretty bad, especially since the latter option created a bit of a mess in my folder structure and used up more space.

Then I got my iPhone, and then later on my Apple TV, and both of these only run MOVs and MP4s. You can hack the Apple TV and jailbreak the iPhone, but I’m too lazy to play with the iPhone’s innards (“What! You’re a Lifehack writer!” I hear you say) and I tried the Apple TV hacks and didn’t think the system was smooth

Marriage… and Other Stuff I’m Meant to DoOctober 8

Poor Delusional Me

Being a single bloke in his forties draws all kinds of comments, suggestions, inferences and questions from a broad cross-section of people, with responses ranging from pity to surprise, through to outright jealousy. Apparently the most interesting thing about me (for some people) is my wife-less-ness (Craigism). Clearly there’s something weird, dark and dysfunctional about me that needs to be explored and explained.

Or… I could just be a happy, single bloke.

Naaah.

Pity

Women periodically feel sorry for me (while simultaneously trying to hook me up with their sister, cousin, neighbour or girlfriend), while blokes have been known to ask if I’d be interested in trading lives with them. According to some people, I must be miserable, lonely, unfulfilled and emotionally inept. Apparently I just think I’m happy; I’m just telling myself that to make ‘me’ feel better about being tragically single. And lonely. Poor delusional Craig.

Gotta say, my delusion is quite the place. You should visit.

The Happiness Fraud

After all, we live in our head and we create our own reality don’t we? So if I think I’m happy and I feel happy then that would make me… happy. Wouldn’t it? Nope, apparentl