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Leo has a post up at ZenHabits where he is promoting a new e-book on setting up your workspace. He includes a disclaimer at the beginning of the post, but that seems to have stirred up a hornet’s nest in the comments.

This is the beginning of the post:
Jump-Start Your Workspace: Small Changes That Improve Focus and Shorten Your Work Day | Zen Habits

Full disclosure: I’m part owner of Web Warrior Tools, the ebook publishing company that is selling the ebook below. However, I’m only sharing this ebook because I really like it and think you will find value in it. I don’t do advertising posts here at Zen Habits, but if you’re not interested in ebooks, you can skip this post.

I’m excited to share with you a new ebook from Glen of LifeDev that I think will be of value for anyone looking to optimize their workflow and generally make the most of their time.

While many of the Comments are positive, there are a few that are strongly negative.

Gideon Says:
August 6th, 2008, 19:25 pm

I dunno… 10 bucks for 26 pages? Also, I assume it’s in PDF?

Maybe if it was offered in something else… ePub, Mobi, etc.. something I can put on an ebook reader, I’d be interested. But 10 bucks for 26 pages is still pretty steep. Maybe I’m just used to Kindle prices where that much will buy me a 500 page book.

And

joe falcom Says:
August 6th, 2008, 22:23 pm

I am really disappointed to see such a blatant advertisement.
The disclaimer is bogus as far as I am concerned

I have written a few posts like this and never saw that kind of negativity. Do you, as a reader, appreciate this kind of review and respect my decision to participate in an affiliate program? Or do you get a negative impression?

Please let me know in the comments.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5vnfn5. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

The folks at Bubble Planner have a new tool for tracking information and Getting Things Done: The Mini-Bubble. This little “hPDA”-style notebook is just under 3″x5″, so it is very portable and with the Circa/Rollabind rings it is very handy.

The Mini-Bubble is divided into four color-coded sections, all printed on both sides. There are useful pages for:

• A simple list
• Contextual “bubbles” for planning small multi-part activities
• SMART planning
• Daily agenda, by hour
• Tracking Ben Franklin’s Virtues

Disclosure: I have to admit that I am a fan of the Bubble Planner products, and the company is a partner (of sorts, see the affiliate link in the sidebar) on this site. Be assured, however, that I do not review products that I have not used, and I give my honest opinion (see the previous review)

I have been using the Mini-Bubble for a couple of weeks, mainly for work-related lists and notes. I am going to start using the Virtues tracking next week, and compare it to the results of the previous experiment. The blog at My Bubble Life has more on these Virtues:

…[Ben Franklin] developed a behavior modification system for his conduct at the young age of 20, when he was returning from London on an 80-day ocean voyage. It is partially based on Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

His plan included 13 virtues, which in his own words, “I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively… Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year.”

Overall, I give this product a score of 4 out of 5, with high marks for usefulness, portability, and design. Please share your thoughts in the Comments.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6fgck5. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

My first PDA was the original Palm Pilot, before the company was forced to drop the “pilot” from their name.  A greyscale screen and absolutely no curb appeal, that first PDA was like a diamond in my hand.  The year was 1998.

Since then I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I’ve owned probably ten or so PDA’s.  I’ve dated HP’s, Sony’s, Handsprings and other Palm’s and it’s safe to say that I am now a connoisseur (translate: geek) of the personal digital assistant. Today, PDA’s are making a comeback and reclaiming their rightful place in the productivity landscape.  Sure, smart phones are cool and very useful, but a muscle-bound hand-held still turns heads.

Here are three new PDA’s, introduced in the past few weeks, that are sure to make a splash:

HP Ipaq 210: running Windows Mobile 6 Classic, the sweet-screen PDA has arrived with great reviews, although a hefty size and $450 price tag might scare some folks off.

Apple iPod Touch: for around $300, you can grab an iPhone without the phone.  Huh?  Apple introduced one of the very first PDA’s back in the 80’s called the Newton so they’re not totally unfamiliar with the market.  The touch is feature-rich and of course has a very sweet interface.

HP Ipaq 110 Classic: slimmer than its older brother the 210, this $300 PDA should be popular with the mainstream crowd as it allows speedy web browsing via Wi-Fi.

Resources for the Road
Palm Centro is on the way: a $100 smart-phone?
iPod Touch guided tour
Cnet: Best 5 PDA’s

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/68l89m. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Lenore Skenazy says that t-shirts are the lazy man’s scrapbook:

Humble, trite and tacky though they may be, T-shirts remain one of the longest-lived promos you could ever throw at a customer. Long after the free pen has exploded and the free Frisbee has been chewed (hopefully not by you), the T-shirt remains a garment — something we humans seem hard-wired not to throw out. And we never seem to get enough of them, either.

And so I ask you, if I came up with some snazzy designs and put them up at Cafe Press, would anyone be interested? Vote for your favorite design: (these are very rough mockups, I have no mad skillz!)

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/68dvzu. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen