Nur Ahmad Furlong

Tag: Productivity

  • iPod nano, my favourite new toy / tool

    I wrote about winning an iPod a little while ago, something I was ecstatic about at the time. I had no idea though just how much this little device would change my life so I feel I have to share the benefits of owning an iPod nano. I say iPod nano because I don’t have any experience with any other models of iPod.

    I’ve become somewhat of a podcast addict of late. Not having spent a single cent at the iTunes store as I’m not much of a music lover, I quickly found that there are tons of freely available podcasts available through the iTunes store. A few of my recent favourites are “Grammar Girl“(all about using the English language correctly), Design Guy(podcast about being a good designer), TED talks(inspirational talks by the best minds in the world), Freelance Radio(from freelance switch) & The Common Craft Show(simplifying web 2.0 concepts). There’s a wealth of knowledge out there waiting to be accessed. I did a quick search through iTunes and found a stack of design related podcasts ready to inform and inspire.

    iTunes-free-design-pocasts

    Once you get hooked by the podcast bug you’ll realize there are really talented, entertaining speakers all over the world sharing their ideas and experiences. Many Universities have also provided material on subjects they cover either in an official capacity or through the students recording lectures or classes.

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  • A few new tools in my belt

    Testing, testing, windows live writer blog post no.1. I’ve just connected my blog to Windows Live Writer, a desktop application which allows you to write & posts from the comfort of your PC’s desktop. I’ve experienced problems writing and editing posts at times when my Internet connection is unreliable so I hope this little app will solve some of those problems and make it easier to work on drafts and stuff like that.

    The cool thing about this little app is it plug into your blog software’s API and allows you to create posts while viewing your post styles. You can upload pictures and add them to your post. It’s got a nice spell checker for spelling baddies like myself and makes writing a post extremely quick and easy.

    livewriter

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  • Eco-friendly organisation – why kill trees to keep yourself organized?

    I’m always excited when I see new products attempting to make life easier, simpler and more eco-friendly. The more beneficial a product is to the user and to the environment the higher it ranks in my book. Having hunted around for quite a while for the perfect organisational tools, this latest find seems really promising and very nicely designed for modern living as well.

    Introducing the Jot-it Eco friendly desktop write board designed by cocoa living:

    Eco-friendly write board for note taking - by cocoa living

    Basically it’s a plastic base, with another plastic sheet on top which allows you to insert a template between the 2 layers. A note taking template, calendar (perpetual template maybe), a task organising template, or you could customize your own template. The beauty is that you can quickly jot ideas, rough ones without wasting paper and without cluttering up your desktop with scraps of paper you’ve jotted all kinds of random stuff on.

    Jot-it Write board process

    It’s not perfectly designed. You aren’t able to use multiple templates simultaneously, it seems a little clunky to carry around, though it has been designed specifically for your desk and not your pocket. According to the review on Yanko Design the plastic makes a squeaky noise when you write on it so there’s a few bugs which need to be ironed out. The basic idea though is what makes this a good find and I can see this being modified and upgraded to be an extremely useful device. I’ve started thinking about how I can modify my hipster PDA to make use of this white board style note taking, not paper wasting and easy to delete entries.

    The flexibility of of this tool is easy to spot. Using it in the classroom situation, in a design agency, in & around the office, next to the phone at home, just about anywhere where you need a quick & easy way to jot down notes.

    Jot-it write board modified for the classroom - eco-friendly education

    So head on over to www.cocoaliving.com and see if they have a product to suite your specific needs, or you could devlop your own eco-friendly write board system like I hope to do using a few low cast elements from your local stationery store. If you do please tell me about so I can give it a try.

  • Every problem can be solved by following the right process

    Having & following a process is something I keep trying to enforce when I take on projects of all types & sizes. Following a process from start to finish gives us a way of planning our specific activities at any point along the course of a project and tailoring those activities to that specific aspect of the project. A process gives us a clear idea of what the next step is, and helps us assess what percentage of the project has been completed. Some processes can be as simple as: think – decide – do, or as involved as some design thinking processes used for more detailed projects. A nice design thinking process breakdown I found on wikipedia looks like this.

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