The Linkblog is changing along with mynew business I’m developing right now. Therefore links will be oriented less and less on software development, and more towards effective use of web tools. Hope you’ll be in this journey together with me.

Don’t expect heavy updates though. My market is the Netherlands, and my online activities are mainly done in that language. Feel free to have a look over at my Dutch blog on Working Smarter

I’d be happy to hear from you. We haven’t seen each other for a long time!

• The decision before the decision – Seth Godin
  ‘When you think outside the box, what you’re actually doing is questioning the decision before the decision ‘
• What’s Blocking Your Path Today? – Time Management Ninja
  ‘ While you cannot stop obstacles from appearing, you can choose how you deal with them. Sometimes, it is a matter of perspective. Other times, it is a matter of effort ‘
• 6 Tips To Free Yourself From Your Technology Leash – Time Management Ninja
  ‘ Is your technology a tool that gives you more flexibility in life?
  Or is it a leash to your work that constantly reels you in, causes stress, and never lets you go? ‘
• How to Stay Focused When Plans Keep Changing – Chrissy Scivicque
  ‘ If you find yourself in a situation where plans are fluid and you’re having a hard time keeping focused, try the following techniques ‘
• Choosing your customers – Seth Godin
  Seth on how you (when you’re a business owner / freelancer) choose your customers – instead of the other way around
• Should Email Be a Minimum Job Requirement? – Time Management Ninja
  ‘ (…) at many companies today, email takes up more time than it saves. It actually reduces company efficiency.
  Email misuse (and abuse) can quickly bring a workplace’s productivity to a stand still ‘
  I’m afraid I’ve met *all* characters described here at least once in the last couple years
• Are you addicted to perfection? – David Allen
  GTD going wrong
• 10 Keys To Be A Becoming a Better Communicator – Celestine Chua
  Especially for all you “guy in a room” types
• 7 Simple Ways To Say “No” – Celestine Chua
  On why it’s so hard to say no..and what to do about it
• 11 Creative Ways to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic – Tammy Strobel
  I would really like to read this post…but I’m lacking the time ;-(
• Goodbye to the office – Seth Godin
  ‘ I think in ten years the TV show ‘the Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique ‘
  Don’t know about the time scheme, really, but fact is in time we will see big changes in BigCorp. Don’t know about you, but in the Netherlands, my home country, this New Way of Work is really taking off.
• Choose to Spend Time on High Impact Activities – Srinivas Rao
  On being more productive by thinking about the impact of *what* you do
• You are in control when you can see it all – David Allen
  ‘ (…) “simplifying” our lives.. (…) by that we do not mean lowering our standards, but rather focusing on the ones that are most important to us ‘
• A successful executive – David Allen
  ‘ A successful executive is one that solves bigger problems than he/she creates ‘
  And let that sink in for a second..or two!
• Tips and Tricks about Google – programmerworld
  Handy tips to do a smarter Google search
• The end of busy – Leo Babauta
  ‘ Stop being busy and your job is half done ‘
• How to Really Begin Adding Value – Mark Harrison
  ‘ Einstein wrote, ‘Only a life lived for others is worth living.’ This idea can sometimes be called adding value. Why is this way of looking at things so valuable? ‘
• But what have you shipped? – Seth Godin
  A rebuttal to all the cool wannabee LOLcat programmers out there
• Losing weight with the GTD Weekly Review – David Allen
  I can’t imagine NOT doing a thorough Weekly Review on all incoming stuff, outstanding actions, and new plans. How about you?
• The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People – Leo Babauta
  If Leo says it, it *must* be true. This no. 1 habit will appeal to lots of you
• How to replace yourself with a very small shellscript – Hilary Mason
  Hilarious video with a serious overtone on how to implement an auto-responder on your email. As programmers we know that this is feasible. However, it has it’s disadvantages Check this TED-style story!
• Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything – Seth Godin
  ‘ The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down ‘
• Slow Down and Enjoy Relationships – Corey Allan
  We tend to think the world moves at a faster pace than before. This is not the case: the only thing that’s changed is our capability of following events on a much wider scale than before. Time to step back and think about what’s really important
• 100 Incredibly Useful & Free iPhone Apps – Joshua Johnson
  ‘ The best part of the iTunes App Store is that you don’t need to spend a single cent to fill your iPhone with amazing applications. There are tons of developers dishing out quality free applications daily ‘
  Maybe it’s a Dutch trait, but free iPhone apps attract me more than payed ones somehow

• “You’ve Got Waves”: How to Get Google Wave Notifications – Gina Trapani
• The Most for Your Minute – Productivity501
  Turns out the order in which you do stuff matters. Sometimes a lot.
• Desktop Fun: Starship Theme Wallpapers – the How-To Geek
  these must be the coolest.star trek.wallpapers.evah.
• Who’s In Charge of Your Life? – Ali Hale
  should be you actually, but all to often you let it be someone else
• The relentless search for “tell me what to do” – Seth Godin
  ‘ When asked, resist ‘
• Think I Won’t Pay for Quality Web Content? Think Again – Louis Gray
• See Maps of Street Address Locations the Easy Way – the How-To Geek
• Workspace of the Week: A simple study – Erin Doland
  Being a workspace geek, I can’t help but link to all those beautiful workspaces that catch my eye every now and then. Enjoy and find some inspiration
  And did you know there’s a group on Flickr devoted to this subject -Unclutterer Workspaces- heading toward 3,000 members *drool*
• Get Customizable Distraction-Free Writing with CreaWriter – the How-To Geek
  I already knew about OmmWriter, the great Mac tool for distractionless writing. I helped myself with DarkRoom, a nice replacement..be it a bit too..distractionless Now the Windows platform has a perfect OmmWriter replacement, and I’m definitely gonna give it a whirl!
• Free yourself from distractions with Concentrate – Erin Doland
  ‘ If you’re a Mac user and often find yourself tempted to goof off when you should be working, I want to introduce you to Concentrate ‘
• Stop Wasting Time by Matching Your Past High Levels of Effort – Armen Shirvanian
  ‘ Once your mind reaches a certain understanding, your mind will never go back to not having that understanding. In the same way, you can always return to a production ability, or winning streak, that you once had ‘

Well, to be honest, it was not really dragging myself..I still like to make roundups of what’s new in the blogosphere, but as you’ve noticed, the daily schedule is history for some months now. A couple things have changed, let me explain:

for years I keep an eye on all kinds of software development related blogs. Adding more new blogs than removing others led to an accumulation of hundreds of feeds to follow. At a certain moment I thought “well, since I’m covering a big part of what’s essential in software development out there, maybe other people can benefit too. And that how I started to share links (originally on blogspot.com, and since May 18, 2008) here on my own domain.

While I do this with pleasure, I noticed two things

1. keeping up costs a considerable amount of time (duh!) and
2. my interests started to change: programming no longer is my deepest passion. Oops.

Already for years I’m practicing the art of working as productive as possible (as most of you probably do, too!) but more and more I saw I kept up with blogs in this domain rather that the programming realm.
Added to this came the realization that my long term goal is not staying a software developer. While it’s good to know *what* your goals are, working towards new goals means loosing interest in the old ones, in my case programming related stuff. Like errr, the blogs that were linked to in the Linkblog on a daily basis.

What does this mean? Well, I’m investing a lot of time now in getting towards my new goals. It’s not clear now how it will turn out exactly. What it certainly means is I’m heavily interested in other stuff these days: lifehacking, working smarter, new developments in web2.0 and social networks. What intrigues me is how individual professionals and businesses alike can use tools and practices to their own advantage in a smart way. Add to that the implications this stuff has on our economy and society. Believe me, things are changing. More than a lot of people and companies  realize. But enough on this. For the moment.

Man, cut to the chase and tell us what’s happening to your blog!

Fair enough, you want to know what’s happening, and you’re completely right! I’m wasting your precious time.
Well, to keep it short: my intention here is to keep on posting Linkblogs and other tidbits related to all that lifehacking stuff. While I’m doing my best, it will not be possible to keep up with daily updates, how much I would like that. Time available to me is not evenly distributed, so updates probably will be a bit irregular.

Still I think it’s an exciting world where a lot is happening that defines our future. If you’re not convinced, why don’t you let me show you, by serving you those productive links…in 2010!

Wishing you a great New Year, and be careful with those fire crackers, if lighting them is a habit where you live. It certainly is here in the Netherlands.

Hope to see you all back next year! And do let me know what you think! In a strange way it’s soothing to see I’m not the only one with a Link Blog Problem

• You Don’t Need to Regularly Reinstall Windows; Here’s Why – The How-To Geek
  Great tips to keep your Windows top notch..for ages!
• Get Things Done with The Middle Way Method – Jason Fitzpatrick
  ‘ If you’ve tried various productivity systems and found them either too focused on top-down or bottom-up management, you might want to take a peek at The Middle Way Method, a system that blends the strengths of both techniques ‘
• When Doing is Due (and the Things That Keep Us From Doing) – Glen Stansberry
• One Number Checks Unread Counts for Gmail, Wave, Reader, and Voice – The How-To Geek
• Enjoy Distraction-Free Writing with WriteMonkey – the How-To Geek
  Here’s the same idea as below, for Windows!
• Ommwriter Creates Serene, Unadorned Writing Space – Whitson Gordon
  Combination of serence music with a distraction free environment makes this look like a great tool. Mac-only though…
• Are You a Productive Geek? Here’s the Site You Must Belong To – the How-To Geek
• MailDrop Automatically Adds Email Attachments to Your Dropbox – Kevin Purdy
• What Are Your Creative Solutions to Weak Cellular Coverage? – Kevin Purdy
• 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling – Rick Mans
  Reelly, have a look
• 13 New Lessons in Customer Service from a (Good) Car Salesman – Amber Riviere
  ‘ I’m happy to report these latest lessons in customer service from a car salesman (and this time a good car salesman) ‘
  Good news from the car salesmen front for a change
• My Most-Used iPhone Apps of 2009 – Marshall Kirkpatrick
  At the end of every year it’s the same: “best of” list are found everywhere. I don’t do lists like that, but there are a couple that I as a recent iPhone owner am especially interested in
• Evernote Makes Major Updates to iPhone App – Will Kelly
  Great stuff. Evernote is a wonderful app. Be it for you iPhone, Mac or Windows machine. It synchronises to and from everywhere!
• Ten Essential Time Management Tips – Ali Hale
  Time proven time management tips