5 Ways to Power Up Productivity

做下小广告：下面是我写的 blog——也算是和大家share 一点 tips

A while ago, zenhabits (a productivity and lifehack blog) listed Top 5 Online Apps That Ruin Your Productivity, as follows:

1. Twitter.
   
2. IM.
   
3. Email notification.
4. Blog reader.
   
5. Social bookmarking sites like Digg.
   

One question though, what if I use ALL of them, not only on a daily basis, but on an at-least-hourly basis?

First let me start by saying I have good reasons to keep the habits:

1. Twitter. ( the most convenient way to keep track of my+my friends' life, a substitute of a condensed diary)
   
2. IM. ( it's a code of conduct nowadays to be always reachable, as important as keeping your cell phone on)
   
3. Email notification. ( same reason as above)
4. Blog reader. ( keep informed. two days without reading recent feeds makes you a stone-age man/ woman)
   
5. Social bookmarking sites like Digg. ( a little fun at side wouldn't hurt)

I use Google Reader, and subscribe to about 20 feeds from three categories: world news/opinion (up to 13 feeds), music, technology/productivity, etc. Here's how I survive:

1. Get up earlier.

No matter where you live, your internet connection is always fastest in the early morning. How early? That really depend on your environment. In my university, the internet starts to slow down at about 7:30 AM. That's why I usually get up at 6:00 AM, just enough time for me to read every feed and check out a few YouTube post.

2. Start with the fun part.

I don't care what people say about "get the important stuff done first", the thing is, if you are gonna start your day with some heavy news, it's likely you wouldn't want to continue working at all. So I start with my music feeds, chances are that there would be some free tracks available for downloading (if you subscribe to sites like Largehearted Boy or 3 hives) so that you could start the day with new music.

3. SORT your information.

I couldn't stress this strong enough. I read news from New York Times, Washington Post, BBC International and Gotham Gazzete (don't underestimate it just because of name, trust me, you couldn't know about news and public policies in NYC anywhere else. and since NYC is where most of the interesting policies start, it's the best place to learn about American policies), and commentaries / editorials from Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, The Economists, and Guardian Unlimited. [I had to do this because as a debater, I must be fully informed about (and preferably have an insight into) almost everything in the world... -_-////] The overlapping part of the information is time-consuming, so I keep news and opinions in two folders, and make the items in news folder only show headlines (for scanning) while the opinions show in full article (by then I should know what is more important/controversial).

4. Mozart, Mozart, Mozart...

I'm sure you've heard about "Mozart makes you smarter" (it's not a myth, but science-proven by the way). If you hate classical, listen to something that can get you out of the usual morning-doze. Listening to something, anything! While you are browsing the *fun* feeds, listen to a podcast; while reading news feeds (which require more concentration), using any non-vocal music.

5. Water!

Don't forget to drink a lot of water. It pumps up your body energy much better than coffee and rehydrates your body after a long period of sleep. (Oh, with a slice of lemon for better effect, if possible ;)

Virginia Ends a Loophole in Gun Laws

Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia closed a loophole Monday in the state’s gun laws that allowed a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech student to buy the guns used in a shooting rampage that left 33 dead at the university on April 16.

The governor issued an executive order intended to prohibit the sale of guns to anyone found to be dangerous and forced to undergo involuntary mental health treatment. Under the order, their names would be included a database of people banned from buying guns.

In December 2005, a Virginia judge directed Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman in the massacre, to undergo outpatient treatment. But because Mr. Cho was treated as an outpatient, Virginia did not send his name to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Only 22 states submit any mental health records to the federal database. Federal gun laws depend on the states for enforcement, and the failure of Virginia to flag Mr. Cho has raised growing questions about the adequacy of background checks to scrutinize potential gun buyers.

The governor said the database “should include any determination that someone is mentally ill and so dangerous to himself or others as to warrant involuntary treatment.”

The governor also instructed the State Police to request orders for involuntary inpatient care and involuntary outpatient care from district courts and to include that information in the database.

“We realized that this is something we can fix right now and that we needn’t wait to fix it,” Mr. Kaine said in a news conference.

He added that he hoped his move would encourage other states to tighten their mental health restrictions on gun buyers.

“We were all very surprised to find that despite a federal prohibition on purchase of weapons by the mentally ill that dates back to the 1960s,” Mr. Kaine said, “the majority of states report no data on mental health adjudications in the national database.”

Even in states with these stricter mental health restrictions, gun buyers can sidestep background checks by obtaining firearms from a private seller or at a gun show from a “private” individual or “collector.”

Those purchases account for about half of the guns sold in the United States each year. Efforts by Virginia lawmakers to close this gun-show loophole have been repeatedly blocked by gun-rights advocates.

Administration Proposes Expanded Energy Drilling

The Bush administration proposed on Monday leasing out millions of acres along the coasts of Alaska and Virginia to oil and gas drillers, a move that would end a longstanding ban on drilling in those environmentally sensitive areas.
Both areas have been closed to new drilling for many years. The areas off Virginia are still covered by laws that prohibit new drilling in all areas along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. But Congress lifted the prohibition on Bristol Bay off Alaska in 2003, and President Bush lifted an executive order in January that had blocked drilling there through 2012.
In the case of Virginia, administration officials are hoping to capitalize on interest in drilling expressed by the state legislature, which passed a bill last year asking the federal government to allow exploration for natural gas in waters 50 miles or farther from the state coastline.
Both proposals are part of a broader five-year plan to open up 48 million acres along the outer continental shelf to oil and gas drilling. Unless Congress objects within 60 days, most of the five-year plan will go into effect, though resistance has been voiced. Starting this year, the Interior Department plans to offer leases on about 8.3 million acres in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico, which Congress specifically approved for offshore drilling late last year.
But the department hopes to open up far more than that. It would offer leases on 37 million acres off Alaska, starting as early as 2008, in vast new areas in the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea and the Cook Inlet. None of those areas have been subject to a drilling ban, but none have been tapped before.
Starting in 2011, the Interior Department would also lease out 5.6 million acres in Bristol Bay along the Alaska Peninsula, an area that Congress closed off after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. If the plan can get approval from Congress, it would offer up three million acres off the coast of Virginia, starting in 2012.
“The outer continental shelf is a vital source of domestic oil and natural gas for America, especially in light of sharply rising energy prices,” said Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior.
But Democrats in Congress criticized the plans for Alaska and Virginia, and they are likely to extend the current ban on drilling off Virginia. Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Democrat, said he supported limited drilling for exploration but has refused to endorse production.
“Whatever pressing energy issue comes before the American people, the Bush administration always responds with the same oil answer: more oil,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.
The proposal includes measures to protect against damage to coastal areas from oil spills and other accidents. It would not allow drilling within 50 miles of the Virginia shore and would wall off an additional “obstruction zone” near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
Some environmental advocates said, however, that the proposed protections would be inadequate and could jeopardize fishing areas.
“The Bush administration is zeroing in on the most environmentally sensitive areas for offshore drilling,” said Richard Charter, a lobbyist for Defenders of Wildlife and co-chairman of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition. “These areas that they are characterizing as buffer zones are woefully inadequate when you consider that the Exxon Valdez oil spill traveled hundreds of miles in a matter of weeks.”
It is not clear how much fuel lies in the areas that would be made available. Interior Department officials estimated that the entire plan could produce 10 billion barrels of additional oil and 45 trillion cubic feet of additional natural gas over the next 40 years. That would be equal to about 16 months of the United States’ current oil consumption and about two years of its current consumption of natural gas.
The oil industry’s two big trade associations, the American Petroleum Institute and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, both praised the administration plan and urged Congress to open even more areas to drilling.
Royal Dutch Shell has been particularly eager to explore and develop the areas in Alaska, and has hired a number of former state and federal officials to help build popular support in communities near the proposed drilling areas.
If the administration does lease out areas in Alaska, companies may be entitled to a special reprieve from paying royalties to the government. In passing the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress extended what is known as “royalty relief” for deepwater drillers to cover oil and gas produced in “frontier areas” that are far from transportation centers.
The administration plan could encounter heavy resistance. New Jersey’s two senators, Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, warned in a joint statement that the plan to allow drilling near Virginia was unacceptable because it “starts us down the slippery slope that could lead us to drilling off New Jersey’s coast.”
Congress has extended an annual moratorium on leasing along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts for more than 20 years. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, has been a staunch supporter of the drilling bans and has protested Mr. Bush’s decision in January to lift the prohibition for Bristol Bay.

Why Wolfowitz Should Stay

By NUHU RIBADU

Published: May 1, 2007 New York Times

Abuja, Nigeria

FOR the past few weeks, the world has been riveted by the difficulties of Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, regarding a potential conflict of interest involving the salary of his partner, also a senior official there. With the bank’s board deliberating this week over how to handle the charges, the controversy now needlessly and regrettably threatens Mr. Wolfowitz’s presidency, which has been largely defined by his energetic support for a new Africa that is struggling to emerge.

Over the last two years, Mr. Wolfowitz has effectively directed the bank’s energies toward fighting poverty and improving human life. He is a champion of using international development institutions to deal with some of the world’s major problems. And he has been a steadfast supporter of the efforts of African organizations to rescue our people from the scourge of misrule, which leads to poverty, disease and early death.

Over the last three years, Nigeria, once the emblem of outlandish corruption, has become a leading reformer, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which I head, has been at the cutting edge of these efforts. The enormous challenges we face would have proved almost insurmountable without external help, especially from the World Bank under Mr. Wolfowitz.

When disgruntled lawmakers here tried to cut off our financing and shut down critical aspects of our operation, a World Bank grant of $5 million allowed us to bring to closure important cases of political corruption involving key members of Nigeria’s ruling elite, including members of the executive branch and Parliament.

Today our work receives accolades from all corners of the globe, and the financial and moral support of our thoughtful and courageous allies has played a crucial role in our success. In a country that never saw a single conviction for fraud or corruption before the beginning of our reform campaign, we now have 150 convictions, with 400 more cases awaiting decision in the courts. We have also recovered $5 billion in stolen property. We have brought powerful politicians and businessmen to account through the criminal justice system.

These developments are gradually improving the integrity of our national life. Two weeks ago, Nigeria had its first general election intended to pass power from one elected government to another. While the election did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves, it did reveal that for citizens, the fight against corruption was a top priority — right up there with food, health care and education. In other words, Nigerians made the same connection between runaway corruption and human suffering that Mr. Wolfowitz rightly does.

Corruption is the greatest challenge to progress across much of the developing world, and as we in Nigeria know from bitter experience, this is particularly so in Africa. As Mr. Wolfowitz remarked in a recent speech, some two million Africans die from AIDS-related illnesses each year, while nearly 3,000 African children die each day from malaria and nearly 40 million are not in school. All this, he noted, despite $300 billion in international aid to Africa over the last 20 years.

Corruption has not only produced injustice and a chronic failure to effectively manage international support, it has also led to the squandering of Africa’s considerable human and natural resources. Nigeria has made nearly half a trillion dollars from oil in less than five decades — a figure that dwarfs that of international aid to the whole of Africa. And yet, around 70 percent of Nigerians live in conditions of dispiriting poverty, on incomes of less than a dollar a day. Corruption kills far more effectively than AIDS, malaria or war.

On my recent visit to the World Bank in Washington, I was greatly impressed with the remarkable changes in policy and direction that Mr. Wolfowitz had undertaken, as well as by the diversity of talents he had convened to execute his vision of a fairer world. The bank’s secretary and two vice presidents are Africans — one was my colleague in the Nigerian cabinet. Another vice president is Salvadoran.

Mr. Wolfowitz spoke eloquently for those of us in poor countries last month when he exhorted citizens of the industrial world: “As we go back to our comfortable beds tonight, we should think about the voiceless millions who may not even have beds at all, who go to sleep hungry, sick and uncertain about their future. For many it’s literally a matter of life and death.”

And he has matched words with deeds through initiatives to promote greater international cooperation with poor countries, especially regarding the recovery of assets from pilfered resources. Effective efforts at fighting corruption cannot stop at our borders when up to 80 percent of the “grand corruption” perpetrated in Africa is dependent on international mechanisms that facilitate money laundering.

Mr. Wolfowitz has made a praiseworthy effort to halt the illicit drain of money from the coffers of poor countries. Just this simple step — denying a haven for money stolen from a poor country — addresses more than half the problem of corruption in Africa.

It would be a terrible shame to bring all these efforts to a premature halt. Mr. Wolfowitz has openly acknowledged responsibility for the mistake he made. He has apologized and expressed willingness to accept the decision of the bank’s board of directors. But the board should consider how important his error really was, especially considering that the bank’s internal documents suggest that Mr. Wolfowitz tried to follow the rules from the beginning.

The board should avoid lending credence to the widespread suspicion that Mr. Wolfowitz is really being punished for his previous role in the United States Department of Defense. And it should consider the benefit Mr. Wolfowitz has brought to countries like Nigeria.

Nuhu Ribadu is the chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.