John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged organization · everything

Pinboard - antisocial bookmarking

Pinboard is a paid, ad-free bookmarking service designed for privacy-conscious users who want a simple, fast way to save and organize links without tracking or surveillance. The platform integrates with browsers and services like Twitter and Instapaper, and offers optional archiving that creates full-text searchable backups of saved content and monitors for broken links.

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How to Make the Most of a Small Workspace

Small workspace design requires bold choices rather than timid minimalism—pick one strong color or feature rather than playing it safe with bland whites and neutrals. Beyond aesthetics, success depends on ruthless daily purging and smart organization based on how frequently you use items, combined with strategic use of vertical wall space and good lighting to make the area feel larger and more functional. The key is treating your entire desk as a "deal with it now" zone where clutter instantly becomes visible, forcing you to maintain systems that prevent the small space from becoming overwhelmed.

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CSS DIY Organization

This article proposes a "hybrid" CSS organization system that balances the structure of frameworks with the flexibility of ad-hoc styling, arguing that internal developer usability deserves as much attention as user-facing design. The author recommends splitting CSS into separate files (reset, forms, global, style), using ID selectors only for unique spatial properties while reserving class selectors for reusable descriptive styles, and maintaining consistent indentation and comments that mirror the HTML hierarchy. The approach treats CSS as a cascading system rather than fighting against it, accepting minor performance costs for significantly improved maintainability when revisiting code months or years later.

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20 Ways to Use Gmail Filters - lifehack.org

Gmail filters can be configured to do far more than just organize incoming mail—they can serve as a productivity system for managing to-dos, follow-ups, reminders, archives, and backups by using advanced search operators, labels, and forwarding rules. The article provides twenty practical examples, including using filters to create GTD-style contexts, automatically sort media files and feeds, protect important emails from deletion, and integrate external services like Twitter, Flickr, and calendar notifications into a searchable Gmail-based workflow. While Gmail filters have limitations (such as inability to mark messages as read or create live smart folders), strategic filter setup can transform Gmail into a multi-functional tool that extends well beyond basic email management.

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