Sometimes Silent

Meet the Life Hackers - New York Times

Interesting article with about productivity and distractions with reference to Getting Things Done and a computer program which attempts to monitor when a would be a good time to interrupt you.

The central danger of interruptions, Czerwinski realized, is not really the interruption at all. It is the havoc they wreak with our short-term memory: What the heck was I just doing?

Technorati tags: productivity

Scientists Finding Out What Losing Sleep Does to a Body

But the first clues that otherwise healthy people who do not get enough sleep or who shift their sleep schedules because of work, family or lifestyle may be endangering their health emerged from large epidemiological studies that found people who slept the least appeared to be significantly more likely to die.

There isn’t anything conclusive in this article but it has some interesting tidbits including that folks with low sleep levels have trouble balancing their blood sugar level.

Even though I created a Sleep is for the Weak shirt, I am not one who can go on no sleep for a long time. Lately I’ve noticed I like to get at least 8 hours. The time I go to sleep also seems to be a factor. If I go to bed at 4 AM, even if I wake up close to noon, I don’t feel the same as if I went to bed around at midnight and woke up at 8 AM.

Technorati tags: sleep, losing sleep

Props to Boing Boing

Spam comments suck the life out of bloggers. I don’t look forward to notices that show up immediately after I’ve posted a comment. Inevitably it is a spam comment which I have to set for spam deletion rather than a legitimate comment for me to “approve”. Trackback spam is even worse.

What breathes life back into a blogger is a genuine comment or a thoughtful email. Or even someone talking about the blog or a post you made.

This also goes for podcasting. I received an email from a kind woman who wrote me a heartwarming note which she has given me permission to share:

Thank you for the podcasts. My son sent me the link to your podcast. At the beginning of the year I lost a lot of my vision; reading had become very difficult if not impossible at times. Being a bookworm I especially missed my books. My son started scouting out sites where I could listen to books. While my vision has recently improved enough that I can read some I find that I still enjoy listening to fine readers like yourself.

Thank you for a much needed service. Many of us depend on people like you to fulfill our need for literature and the sound of words and ideas and knowledge well written and well read.

Darlene

Next time I am having to delete yet another spam comment about party poker, I’m going to re-read her note and take a deep breath.

Thanks again Darlene, and here’s to the bloggers and podcasters of the world plugging away dispite spam, low traffic, no pay and/or little recognition!

Technorati tag: blogging, podcasting.