web

What Is Email Bankruptcy, Really?

During my countless hours surfing the web this week, I’ve come across a few things that have caught my eye. Two things in particular, grabbed my eye and shook the hell out of it. Both eyes, actually.

First off, the website known as Lifehacker (which makes me think about my life being hacked – possibly to death) has been presenting a Spring Cleaning Series. Now, while I prefer to do my spring-cleaning in October, the average productivityist takes this time of year to declutter and delete. But one article in this series gave me eventual pause – and then cause for concern. It was about “declaring email bankruptcy.” I read it through, expecting it to be about one thing, but then discovered it was about something else altogether. This is why I usually don’t read. It generally leads to eventual disappointment.

The term bankruptcy, as defined by me, is that you have so much debt that you need to divest yourself from it so you can move on. I think it also brings on seven years of bad luck. But this article seems to think that having too much email means you should declare bankruptcy. Eventualism shows that emails are an asset. Name me one person that declares bankruptcy because they have too many assets. No matter how long I give you….you’ll neventually come up with a single person. It is by pure definition then, that email bankruptcy really is having no email at all – and you need to earn more email to get out of it. So, if you didn’t click on the link in this paragraph, you really should. It’ll show you how to get out of the email bankruptcy I’m talking about and into the email bankruptcy that Lifehacker is talking about.

I’ll give them credit in that the suggestion is to archive those emails, so you can refer back to them later if you feel the burning desire. But if you’re “email-rich” then you should revel in it, not be averse to it. Same goes with RSS feeds. I’ve got over 2000 starred RSS feeds dating back to early 2009 and I’m still referring to them now and again. Invest in more email – don’t divest what email you have. The former is how you become a more prolific Eventualist. The latter is how you do not do the former.

The second thing that caught me was that OK Go video with the machine-thing. Glad I eventually found it.

Thanks, starred RSS feeds!

PageLime Is Not A Productive Lemon

Posted on October 28, 2009 Written by Mike Vardy Leave a Comment

I consider myself a bit of a visual artist. Not oils or watercolors – mostly markers. The smelly kind.

Yesterday i went to draw some grass (of the garden variety) and found that my green/lime-scented marker had run dry. It was bound to happen, eventually, but this was particularly bad timing. You see, I’d already drawn the family portrait with them all standing on their front lawn. Problem was, I hadn’t drawn the lawn yet. As of this writing, the Johnson Family is still floating in front of their home with plenty of legs to stand on but alas – no grass.

Panicking, I searched the Intersphere for where I could find myself a marker that would fit the bill, I came across a site that I believed that would do the trick…PageLime. I figure if I’d bought some of the limes pages then I could use them as a backdrop for the portrait and still have the same – albeit more consistently colored – effect. Little did I know that I’d be proven wrong by reading the description of what PageLime was in full.

What PageLime really does is save you time.

I know, I know. What they stand for goes entirely against what I sit down for. But….they’re giving away stuff right now (among other things) and I am all about that. I’m telling you, fellow and future Eventualists, I’m as torn as Natalie Caligula.

Here’s what PageLime says about itself:

PageLime is a remote Content Management System that allows you to update the content, images, and documents on your web site without installing any software. All you have to do is add the ‘cms-editable’ CSS class to any part of your site, and we host the application that edits your site.

I like the not having to install stuff thing. I like the chance to win free stuff more. You see, for two weeks starting yesterday, PageLime will be giving away a package that includes a $125 gift card to the NikeID store, a case of VitaminWater, a sweet DURKL Windbreaker and T-shirt, and a Free PageLime Professional Account.

But there’s a catch, so I’m going to give to you as straight as I can…which will require a great deal of focus on your part.

For a chance to win, tweet using the tag #pagelime or use the button below to re-tweet from this page. The more you tweet, the better your chances. Based on the tweets, they’ll pick a weekly winner each Friday. The winner will be announced via Twitter by PageLime, and on one of their partner blogs.

Yes, PageLime contends that they’ll save you time. I’m okay with that in this case. Oh, and the “among other things” is that they’d love to go out for drinks with yours truly if I eventually make it to DC.

That may happen sooner rather than later.