There’s a great blog I read – Lifehacker.com – which covers all kinds of interesting items from do it yourself projects to computer hacking/tweaking (windows, mac and linux) and I’m always being amazed at some of the projects I see worked on which then leads to the thought, “now why didn’t I think of that?”

The answer is quite simple, to lifehack you need to think outside of the box. You need to look at now what something is but rather what it is used for and is there a way to put a new spin or twist on it.

I had one of those “a-ha” moments this past winter and put the solution into practice a second time this spring when the power went out at the house again (luckily only a few hours not two days like it did last time).

Enter the seemingly everywhere solar powered walkway light.

An iPhone picture from Scot Newbury

For most folks these just light their walkways but in times of a power outage you can take and bring them inside to give you some wonderful light. What is really nice is that because these are essentially battery powered I can hand one to each of the kids and not worry about them carrying it around the house.

The best part? Put them back outside in the morning and they recharge for another eventing of fun (if you need them).

What have you lifehacked lately?

It’s a bit late in the day but I wanted to wish everyone here in the US a Happy 4th of July. I hope that you had an enjoyable day spend with family and friends and of course fireworks.

And yes, for those interested, I took it with my iPhone.

“So, what program do you use to manage your to-do list?”

[For those that aren't aware of GTD, or Getting Things Done, check out What is GTD?]

It’s a question I often get and quite frankly, in my humble opinion, it is the wrong question to ask, a better question would be:

“How do you manage your actionable items?”

The reason I say that is when it comes right down to it the tool or program doesn’t matter. I’ve gone nearly digital in my tools and work flow but as it has often been pointed out to me I have no loyalty to a particular tool – I use what’s best for the job at the time. The real nut to crack is changing the way you deal what is coming at you, not how you store it for later consumption.

Case in point, I just recently moved another blog I run to a new domain. After I had purchased the domain, changed the DNS server entries and saw the site come up I stepped away from the computer. Of course after leaving the computer behind I promptly thought of several action items that I still needed to attend to.

Did I rush back to the PC to get started on them?

Nope, I didn’t have the ability to do that where I was.

Did I pull out my iPhone and enter them in some to do list manager?

Nope.

I grabbed a notepad and pen I had with me and scribbled down the action items that were in my head:

• Upload new header graphic
• Install mobile theme
• Update Google Analytics code
• Update all internal links (used this plug-in for this task)
• Remove appointment from group calendar (not related to the above but it popped into my head at this particular moment in time and needed to be done at the computer as well)

The piece of paper was then ripped off and stuck in my shirt pocket. I could have taken a quick snapshot and sent it to myself (which I frequently do) but to be honest I knew that when I got back to my machine these tasks were going to be my next ones to accomplish so why bother? It was time that I didn’t need to spend as the tool at hand was sufficient for my needs and I don’t need a record of them now that they are completed.

From a GTD perspective my shirt pocket was the inbox I tossed everything into – the processing was done when I got back to the PC – each task could be accomplished relatively quickly (less that 15 minutes each) and as I had the time available completing items right off the “inbox list” just made the most sense. If I hadn’t had the time then which ever tasks were left would have gone on the @computer list.

So the next time you start to ask someone about what tool they are using stop and think for a moment, is the reason you’re asking because you’d like to find a good tool or because you really want to know what their workflow is?