This is some typewriter hating right here.

Of course he could have always downloaded this to his computer.

I feel like Merlin Mann has some of the best thoughts on the whole hacking movement, and what it’s become. This video sums those views up pretty well. For more serious thoughts, we talk about it a lot in the film.

Saw this poster at The National World War II museum in New Orleans. Probably one of the best graphics I’ve seen that captures the spirit of life hacking.

Couldn’t find an actual graphic of the poster. Anyone have any better luck?

I have Crohn’s Disease. I’ve been hospitalized twice in two different cities that are not where I’m living, so tracking down my medical records has always been an issue.

I’m on the right medication now, and I haven’t had any issues for over a year, but the lack of warning symptoms always worries me that I could have a flare up any time, any place.

So far Haiti I made a digital dog tag. Basically it’s a USB drive with emergency information, medical records, and other important data.

Here’s what’s on it:

• Emergency Text File – This file, named !Emergency so it stays at the top, has all my personal information (full legal name, date of birth, current address), illnesses I have, medications I’m on, and a few emergency contacts with “In case of emergency, contact” in a few different languages. I also have a printed copy.
• Passport Image – A scan of my passport
• Medical Records – I asked my doctor’s office to make me a copy of everything they have. I ran it all through my Canon Pixma all-in-one (much cheaper than a ScanSnap) and saved it as one big PDF.

I like to play worst case scenarios in my mind, and of course the obvious one is what happens if I lose the drive or it gets stolen. Identity security versus medical safety.

I decided to take the risk and not password protect my records because I’d rather be a healthy victim of identity theft than something worse.

I’ve put the drive on a metal chain which I’ll wear around my neck, so it should be very secure.

Any ideas for anything else that should go on the drive?

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning. Follow me to see how things go.

Photo by bruckerrib

Handling all these departments made his work hours extremely exhausting and and caused a lot of mental stress, until he read Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek.

Here’s how Manan has hacked his life¹:

- I started using 80-20 principle in all my decisions/actions. Ex: For ad sales, I started servicing only the big clients (around 5 to 6 of them). These clients gave me more than 80% of my revenue. In fact, at the beginning of the year, I decided to focus and crack this one client which helped me surpass my entire previous years performance.

- Every morning I write down my tasks for the day, and mark a star next to the most important ones (the 20% which would give 80% of the result).

- Applied batching and started checking email only twice a day.

- Putting my phone off the hook during meetings and having a clear agenda greatly reduced interruptions.

- Delaying what people call “REALLY URGENT” which is not really that important and training them to wait.

- For low-information diet, I started reading only what was necessary for the moment. To keep up with news, I started watching television for 10 mins in the morning and 15 mins in the evening – in place of spending hours watching TV or reading magazines.

I don’t feel that stressed anymore. I feel more in control of my work and get time to spend in other areas of my life, which I didn’t have time for previously.

1. Just a quick primer, the 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Principle is the idea that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions or sources. Ex: 80% of your revenue is from 20% of the customers, or 80% of your time is spent on 20% of the websites you visit. [back]

BLANKSPACES makes awesome Coworking videos | ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon.

Super cool video from BLANKSPACES, a co-working office in Los Angeles.

This is what the ideal co-working environement could be, and is probably the biggest selling point to dish out some cash for a cool cubicle versus camping out at your usual coffee house.

Want a little motivation? How’s this. One feature I wanted to cover in the life hacking documentary is to follow someone who tries the techniques and systems found in these books to see if they work. We’d check in on you every now and then to see how things are working out.

Ideally you (or someone you know) would be slightly disorganized and want to fix that. You should also be open (and able) to trying out everything in 4-Hour Work Week, such as outsourcing your life, automating tasks, and ideally getting down to working 4 hours a week.

You should also be comfortable with a camera crew following you around.

As for location, I’m based out of Tallahassee, FL. I could travel to most major cities in the southeast, such as Jacksonville, Atlanta, Orlando, or even Miami.

So if you think you’re the perfect candidate, shoot me an email at lifehackdoc [at] gmail [dot] com.

Also, if you’re already working a 4-hour workweek or have hacked your life to the extreme, I’d love to talk to you as well, regardless of location. And if you’re not in the southeast but you think you’re the most amazing, most perfect person, let’s talk.