April 22nd, 2008 in Productivity

How Your iPod Can Make You More Productive

The iPod is an incredible organizing device! It takes many shelves worth of CDs and condenses them into one tiny gadget, thereby reducing clutter. The iPod (and iTunes) also took away the classic dilemma highlighted in the movie High Fidelity: Should you organize your music collection alphabetically by artist? Or by genre first? Now you can organize it any way you want with a couple of clicks.

Looking at the iPod from an organizer’s point of view, there are some great ways it can help you be more productive too. Here are a few:

Drown out distractions. If you need shelter from the cacophony of the cubicle farm, many already know that headphones are a great way to escape. But even if you work alone as a telecommuter or solopreneur, your iPod can keep you from hearing the dog, the sirens outside, or even the neighbor’s television, allowing more concentration on your work.
Time yourself. A little-known feature of the iPod is the “Sleep Timer,” located in the menu under Extras>Clock>Sleep Timer. This feature sets the iPod to turn itself off after 15, 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes of play time. Obviously, going to sleep with your iPod on is one way to utilize this, but I like using this feature to create breaks and ending times for my projects.
Pace and focus yourself. Among the fantastic organizing capacities of iTunes is the ability to create Playlists… the modern day mix tape. Create and save a mix of music in exactly the order you want, from a variety of different artists if you like, and make it music that energizes you and allows your brain to focus best. For some people this is classical music, and for others this may be heavy metal. I like making up memorable names for my playlists—I have a techno mix that is for intense writing times on deadline, and I call it “TechnoFocus.”
Hands-free reading. I do the majority of my “reading” with audiobooks, listening in the car, while exercising, or while doing mundane chores around the house. Before the iPod, this was cumbersome as a typical book can take as much as 7 CDs. I often am so caught up in listening to the book that I am surprised how much I have accomplished—wow, who cleaned out the refrigerator? Oh, it was me…

The most common question we get about iPods from our clients is, “Should I still keep my CDs now that they are on my hard drive?” It’s relatively easy to sell used CDs, so we think not, but you definitely need to have an excellent backup system to safeguard your collection should your hard drive fail. Some people do have a hard time parting with their beloved liner notes and the physicality of holding their favorite album, and if you do want to keep them, a great space-saving method is to use CD wallets instead of jewel cases.

Here’s a little bonus tip: I love using the Belkin “TuneTie” accessory to take up the extra cord of your headphones. It makes the excess cord much easier to deal with in a handbag or backpack. Go forth and be productive with your new iPod ideas!

LorieMarrero

Lorie Marrero, CPO®, is the creator of The Clutter Diet®, an affordable organizing program that helps members lose "Clutter-Pounds" from their homes by providing online access to her team of Professional Organizers. Lorie writes something insanely practical every few days or so in the Clutter Diet Blog.

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Michael A. Vickers says on April 22nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
“Should I still keep my CDs now that they are on my hard drive?”
Absolutely. If you get rid of/sell your CDs after you’ve ripped/encoded them to your HD, those files on your HD are basically illegal. They are infringing on copyright.
I’m no friend of the music industry/RIAA, but you have to stay legal.
Lorie Marrero says on April 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
I stand corrected. Of course you’d want to do what is legal, thank you for pointing that out.
- Lorie
LouiseV says on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
“Should I keep my cds?” – aside from the legality issue (which has already been addressed) –
I think that keeping cds is a must! Today’s younger generation doesn’t seem to even know what a cd is and I have actually met some people who do not even own one cd – and I find that pretty amazing if not worrying.
I know I wish I had bought the full Michael Jackson lp collection and I know I’ll feel the same about my good ol’ cds.
Some traditions must remain in my opinion. Otherwise what will I do with my bookshelves and cd stands?
Louise
Tim says on April 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 am
IPods are not restricted to holding music, they can also contain other file types. Perhaps the built in operating system can be used to organise documents and other miscellania.
Ellen Hart says on April 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
I had no idea about the sleep timer! I’m often use my iPod to drift off to sleep (and then wake up hours later, still listening to the same audio book). Thanks for the tip!
Stef from belgium says on April 22nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I always thought ipod created distraction but i like this new perspective
——-
http://www.pulse-this.com
David says on April 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Im surprised they was no mention of the ipods notes or contacts features as well.rrrrrrr
Lorie Marrero says on April 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Hi everyone,
I did not mention the notes/contacts/calendar features, because it’s my opinion that many people already have another (probably more efficient) way of syncing this information with a Blackberry or Palm, etc. I wanted to write about the most common use of the iPod– listening– and how we can think about it differently.
Ah yes, the CD/wallet/jewel case controversy. This was of course going to stir up some strong opinions from audiophiles, but I really think that CD wallets are the way to go IF YOU NEED SPACE. Jewel cases take up a lot of shelf space.
Thanks for all of the Diggs, everyone!
- Lorie Marrero
G.Davis says on April 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Also useful is the “speed up” feature. You can speed up whatever you’re listening too. This is a great feature for listening to podcasts that have a lot of small talk in them. When you get to the good part you can start listening to it in normal mode again, or you can save time by listening in fast mode all the way through.
George Gray says on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:55 am
Can anyone tell me how to use the speed up feature mentioned by G.Davis to “speed up whatever you’re listening to”?
Michael A. Vickers says on April 23rd, 2008 at 7:38 am
An alternative to using CD wallets is using the Univenture ViewPak XG sleeve (http://univenture.com). They use a quarter of the space of a jewel case and can hold both the liner notes and back cover sheet. The downside (besides making the cost of each CD you purchase a little higher) is that you have to fold the back cover sheet to make it fit in the sleeve.
They also have models which hold two CDs for double CD albums.
Martijn Engler says on April 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 am
Should you keep your CDs (aside from the legal issue)? Guess it depends on the type of person you are.
I still buy CDs (yeah, I’m one of those three people that does that) and rip / sync them to iTunes / my iPod, but I love to have the originals.
I leave them in their original casings, and sometimes just look through them.. It has a special thing to it I guess.
Like LouiseV said: now-a-days we sometimes wish we had bought LPs of a certain artist (must say that I’m a lil’ too young and grew up with tapes and later CDs). I can’t count the times I’ve stared at the LP of “The Wall” (Pink Floyd) my ex-father in law has. It’s just … amazing. For me, at least.
If you’re the type of person that just likes to have some sound on the background I can imagine you don’t really need the original CD (once again: aside from the legal issue).
lewis norton says on April 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
thanks : )
GreatManagement says on April 24th, 2008 at 7:22 am
And use it to listen to some self-development!
AG says on April 27th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Do all iPods have a sleep timer feature? I have the 30GB “iPod video” and haven’t found the feature.
RYin2795 says on January 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 am
The 3rd gen iPod nano has the sleep timer option under Extras>Alarms>Sleep Time