1. Recognize it and sit with it.
The first thing you need to do when boredom surfaces is to become aware of it. How often do your actions mindlessly drift in the direction of pointless and non-productive activity (like reading and promoting the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie article)? Instead of contributing to the problem, become part of the solution and sit in silence with your boredom. Instead of taking negligent action, take NO action. Eventually you will start acting again, but with greater consciousness…and that is a good thing!
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1. Become aware. The problem usually is that we don’t think about Resistance. We don’t understand it or even realize it’s there most of the time. We just think, “Oh, I better straighten out my desk … or get my to-do lists in order” or we get distracted by something on the web, or we feel that we have to check our email, or we’re just going to watch this one TV show, or any of a limitless amount of distractions.

Combat this by realizing that you are facing Resistance. Once you become aware of it, you can fight it, and beat it. It can be difficult to become more aware, but the key is to focus on it for a couple of days. Print out the words “Defeat Resistance” and put it somewhere visible as you work. That will help remind you to be aware of Resistance. Every time you do something that isn’t the most important thing you could be doing right now, be aware of what you’re doing.
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1. Junk. I recommend using Gmail, as it has the best spam filter possible. I get zero spam in my inbox. That’s a huge improvement over my previous accounts at Yahoo and Hotmail, where I’d have to tediously mark dozens of emails as spam.

2. Notifications. I often get notifications from the many online services I use, from Amazon to WordPress to PayPal and many more. As soon as I notice those types of notifications filling up my inbox, I create a filter (or “rule” if you use Mail.app or Outlook) that will automatically put these into a folder and mark them as read, or trash them, as appropriate. So for my PayPal notifications, I can always go and check on them in my “payments” folder if I like, but they never clutter my inbox.
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1. Lack of Sleep. Duh, right? Well how come we don’t get enough sleep? It needs to be a priority and you need to muster up the proper motivation to make it happen. Now, not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep, but some do. How do you figure out how much you need? Experiment. Some good advice from Steve Pavlina is to wake at the same time each day, but go to sleep when you’re tired. Measure how much you need by how you feel the next day. Are you dragging with droopy eyelids all day? Then that’s not enough. If you feel mostly alert, then you’ve hit on the right amount for you.

2. Sugar. Avoid it. If you must eat sweets try to combine it with fiber which slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Most fruits naturally have both the sweetness and the fiber. The next time you have a candy bar or can of soda, watch for the subsequent energy dip that occurs within 30-60 minutes. Be prepared to nap because that’s what you will feel like doing.
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1. Collect everything in one place.
Take out everything and put it in a pile. Empty the entire drawer, and pile it all on a counter or a table. Take everything out, down to the last paper clip.

2. Choose the essential.
Pick out only the few things you love and use and that are important to you. Just sort through the pile, picking out the really essential stuff. Be very selective. Put the important stuff you pick out into a separate, smaller pile. (more…)

1. Tackle tomatoes quickly
One or two tomatoes aren’t hard to handle, but working with a bunch can quickly turn frustrating. If you need to remove seeds and have a salad spinner handy, chop your tomatoes up whole and give them a few spins—most of the seeds are now separated. If you need to peel a lot of them, a drop in boiling water for 15-30 seconds makes it easy to yank skins with your hands, but if you only have a few, simply hold them over a gas or electric stove burner with tongs or a fork until the skin just blisters.
2. Get ahead with prep containers
Many recipes call for adding a number of liquids, solids or both at once, or in a few phases. If you’ve planned out a few dinners for the week, or if you have a little time before the cooking starts, pre-assembling these mixes—having what the French call mise en place can be a huge time saver. You don’t have to buy small dishes that end up getting washed—one Cook’s Illustrated reader uses leftover cough-syrup cups (after washing, of course), while others suggest a muffin tin tray, used yogurt cups, coffee filters and other containers. (more…)

Method #1: Quit While You’re Ahead

So you’ve had great flow working on a project. You sit back for a moment and think, “Hey, this is going great! I wish I always felt this engaged and sharp!”

Time to quit.

One maxim often repeated by writing teachers is to leave your last sentence unfinished at the end of the day so you have a logical place to continue next time. The same holds true for any creative work. (…) (more…)