Tech Productivity Issue #149 (Day Tracking for Productivity)

Issue #149 (Day Tracking for Productivity) 12/20/21

This probably isn't a very productive thing to do, but I recently came across Wikipedia's "random article" feature. In a nutshell, you can open a random Wikipedia article or resource using one of the following URL formats:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random - This is purely random with no filter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RandomInCategory/ - For this one, you can select a category to get a random article from a specific field or topic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random/Talk - Takes you to a random article's Talk page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random/File - Displays a random file (like an image or graphic) used in an article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random/TimedText - Gives you a random piece of audio that includes an accompanying transcript (like the one shown below).

You can read more about the Wikipedia's random feature in this article and there's also a Wikipedia game that uses the random feature.

And lastly: Please don't use any of the above links unless you're truly done all your work and are completely bored! 😆

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!

Tools & Apps

uBlacklist - Chrome and Firefox extension that allows you to block certain websites from appearing in search engine results.

LunaNotes - Chrome extension that makes it easy to take notes while watching YouTube videos. Includes annotation, screenshots, backups, and more.

Filestar* - Do anything to any file. Convert, merge, split, transform, compress, extract, with support for 800+ file types.

Vimcal - A fast and beautiful calendar app designed for remote workers who rely heavily on their day-to-day and hour-to-hour schedule.

Brite - An all-in-one productivity platform that lets you create a productivity system that's customized to your needs.

The New Tab Page You'll Actually Use - Replace your web browser’s new tab page with a minimal list of links, grouped and sorted how you like. A Fine Start is for fans of minimalism and nice typography. sponsored

Articles & Resources

Tame Daily Distractions With a ‘Precommitment Pact’ - Interesting intro about a few well-known writers who have learned to keep distractions at bay with some unconventional methods.

This Popular Remote Work Advice is Wrong (And You’re Probably Following It) - The author argues that having a specific, separate place for work at home could make you less productive.

Day Tracking Can Reveal the Truth About Your Productivity - Using an app to track how you spend your time may help you recognize weaknesses you didn't know were there.

Write Thin to Write Fast - Odd piece of advice, but who knows? The suggestion is to set your column width to really narrow, which makes you read faster, thus making you edit your own content more effectively.

These Are 23 Great Rules To Be a Productive Creative - Ryan Holiday's suggestions applied to writing (he's written 12 books in 10 years) but there's lots of advice here that applies to many areas of work.

Build Internal Apps Remarkably Fast with Retool - Retool is a new approach to building internal apps: we’ve unified the ease of visual programming with the power and flexibility of real code. Drag and drop a form together, and have it POST back to your API in minutes. Deploy instantly with access controls and audit logs. sponsored

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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