

Pogue’s Productivity Secrets Revealed  - jwecker
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/technology/personaltech/18pogue-email.html?em

======
SwellJoe
_I'm just the sort of person who kind of knows what he wants to say; I can't
remember ever staring at the blank screen, trying to think of what to write._

This, I suspect, is actually an effect, not a cause. Isaac Asimov and Piers
Anthony (both famously prolific writers) have said that they don't get writers
block _because_ they never go a day without writing, not the other way around.
In other words: the more you write, the more you'll be able to write.

~~~
sjf
That's not always a good thing, the world might have been better off without
some of Piers Anthony's work.

~~~
SwellJoe
I said "prolific", not "good". Though, Asimov _is_ likely my favorite author,
and ordinarily I'd be loathe to mention Anthony and Asimov in the same breath.
Just goes to show that both good and bad writers can be more successful just
by virtue of writing a _lot_.

------
mattmaroon
"(Yeah, I know, Windows has a limited version of this, involving shortcut
icons. But I want to make up my own keyboard shortcuts, and as many as I
want.)"

Vista has this built in in the new launcher. For me to open word, I hit
Windows, W, Enter. Boom. It's smart enough to prioritize by your most common
programs.

~~~
weaksauce
Along the same line OS X has has this too with Spotlight. Though quicksilver
is more adept at the different tasks that he is looking to do.

------
muhamm
Pogue says he uses "typing expansion software" ->
[http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/typing-
expansion-s...](http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/typing-expansion-
software/)

That must take some getting used to. I use a similar feature in Netbeans for
Ruby programming but didn't know there was a feature like that for regular
English words. Pogue has said previously that he has suffered severely from
RSI so it must be related to that. He has advocated Dragon Naturally Speaking
so much that I assumed he didn't type at all.

~~~
sharpn
Open Office writer has this to a limited extent - I find it useful.

~~~
jamesbritt
I believe Word has this as well. A mixed blessing.

------
username
_Steal this document, with my compliments._

