Uneasy Rhetoric

That is my promise to myself.

With that in mind, Merlin Mann over at 43Folders - which, if you are a productivity pr0n addict you need to be reading - has a brilliant suggestion for streamlining your life in 2006:

Cancel something.

The important thing is to find at least one thing that’s become a noise generator, time sink, or attention sieve, and be rid of it. The hack isn’t how big a change it brings in your life — remember these are modest changes — it just matters that you mindfully elect to turn something off for a little while.

I do this on a semi-frequent basis already.  I used to be a loyal subscriber to the Economist.  I still think it is an excellent magazine and miss having it around.  The truth was, however, I never read it (except for the obituary), and it’s an expensive subscription.  Recently, I’ve purchased two issues within a few weeks and thought about resubscribing.  Guess what?  I haven’t read those two issues either.

But what to get rid of now?  For one, I can go through my “Purgatory” folder in Bloglines and delete the feeds I don’t care about - probably all of them.  For another, it may be time to say goodbye to the Sacramento Bee’s print edition.  We had some good times, but I think it may be time for me to move on.  Of course, I can talk about it to you, dear reader, but every time I see the Bee curled up all cozy on my doorstep I think “okay, just one more day.”