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Divide Your Attention – Say No To Others, Say No To Yourself:

The only way I can focus on my craft and my art is if I don’t constantly dilute it.

Lots to learn from in this excellent post from Randy Murray about the importance of saying “no”: This has been a hard lesson for me to learn (and I’m still learning). More often than not, it is the most compassionate answer one can give. Remembering this bit helps:

The key to saying no successfully is to understand that you are not saying no to everything, you are saying yes to those things you want.

So, so, good. Seriously, if you read nothing else today, read this.

I’ve been using Licorize to manage the things I want to do / check / buy / etc while I’m browsing and it’s been a fantastic tool.

Licorize allows you to send to your own bucket the webpages and other info you find via a handy bookmarklet and browser plugins, then you can, from that same bookmarklet, organize your links, information and thoughts into projects, to-do lists, notes, and other handy stuff in a very simple, intuitive way. You can add simple tags or create complex lists, it’s up to you.

You can also create a timer to work on each project, track project information, assign more people to a project, etc. However, I prefer just a simple setting with a to-do list if I need it and just a collection of links per subject.

Overall Licorize is the right choice for me and, I think, for anyone that was searching for something along the lines of Shawn Blanc’s ttttask.

I’m absolutely honored to be able to post this suggestion from Alex Payne for a minimalist iPad sleeve solution. For those that don’t know, Alex is currently the CTO of BankSimple, one of the earliest employees of Twitter, and a long time minimalist and writer on the topic.

Ever since my DODOcase failed (wooden frame cracked, elastic strap began to come loose, binding started separating from the back, corner pads came loose; general catastrophic failure) I’ve been looking for a decent iPad solution. Most of the cases out there are anything but minimal. The solution I settled on might interest your readers.

I’m now storing my iPad in a top-loading charcoal Nedrelow wool sleeve. I prop it up with a PadFoot stand. The total cost for the two products is about the same as a fancier case like the DODOcase, but as a total solution it’s far less brittle and, I’d argue, a fair bit more minimal. The modularity of the two accessories may seem like it’s more to carry, but being able to separate them is an asset.

I’ve found that I rarely need or want the iPad in a case around the house, so the sleeve mostly exists to safely transport my iPad inside another bag. The stand is light and portable, with none of the visual or mechanical complexity of something like the Compass.

Most of the focus in the iPad accessory world seems to be on cases. My local third-party Mac retailer hardly had any sleeves or stands on their shelves at all, and claimed little demand for anything other than cases. A sleeve plus a stand is an interesting alternative to a case, though. At least I think so.

– Alex Payne

Cold Day wallpaper

“They have even fought about wardrobe: When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.””

- Wired “Bad Connection” on the Apple-AT&T relationship

John Sculley On Steve Jobs, The Full Interview Transcript | Cult of Mac:

What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do – but the things that you decide not to do. He’s a minimalist.

Required reading. Worth every minute spent doing so.

Daniel To and Emma Aiston met during their study Industrial Design at the University of South Australia. After their graduation they established Daniel Emma and exhibited their first collection Shapes in London and Tokyo. After this collection two more collections followed; ‘solids’ and ‘basics’.

I would like to present you Radio from this first collection. Simplistic and featuring geometric pieces in minimal colors. The duo says humbly:

Our designs aim to be ‘just nice’.